Ed Sheeran – The A Team

Posted by Thomas Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:24:40 +0000

#songinmyheadwheniwokeupthismorning

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Weekend digest

Posted by Thomas Sun, 20 May 2012 22:48:46 +0000

Someone at work used to (and still might), post a digest of sorts of her weekend. This is mine:

This weekend I was oncall, rode 15 miles on my bike, pulled weeds in my backyard, tested out a Seagate 3TB drive, procured a hoe and rake from Home Depot, vacuumed, swept and swiffered my kitchen floor, went to Church, read more in Atlas Shrugged, and ate some barbecue.

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Books and TV

Posted by Thomas Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:30:51 +0000

I finished up season 5 of Chuck recently. I watched like all of the previous seasons at once a while ago and really loved the series. So I waited until season 5 was over to watch all of it. It didn’t seem to be quite as good as the previous seasons, but still pretty good. I wasn’t in love with the ending, though, but am glad they wrapped it up.

I also finished Steve Jobs’ bio, which was good. It’s long, but really that’s just because there’s so much to tell/know. And I read Republic, Lost by Lessig, which was pretty good, too.

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Miles Fisher – Don’t Let Go w/ Phoebe Tonkin

Posted by Thomas Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:42:10 +0000

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Indeed

Posted by Thomas Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:30:49 +0000

The blog lives. :)

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Writing on the Wall

Posted by Thomas Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:49:53 +0000

If I want something I’ve never had,
I’ll have to do something I’ve never done.

(h/t to Anna D.)

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California Weather

Posted by Thomas Sun, 17 Oct 2010 14:28:08 +0000

I still think I was sold a bill of goods on California weather. By my calculation, there are only 2 seasons. “Summer” lasts for 4.5 months, being sunny and 80 degrees every day. The other 7.5 months are 60 degrees and rainy. And the rain is too polite. No thunderstorms, no wind, no hail, no electrical storms. No snow, either. The variety leaves something to be desired…

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Routine

Posted by Thomas Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:47:12 +0000

I’ve started getting into a routine for most, but not things. A few things linger and haven’t yet become second nature. One of those things is eating on the weekend. Weekday meals are at work, so there is reduced choice when it comes the multitude of restaurants in the surrounding cities. Plus there’s usually a group and usually someone who will make a decision of which cafe to go to. In Atlanta, I got into a pretty decent weekend eating routine wherein I could keep my weight constant, while eating what I wanted and felt full. Maybe I just stumbled upon the right combination of chicken; I dunno. Anyway, it totally seems to me that I have fewer fast food places to choose from, or maybe that’s just my perception. I was pretty happy with my Chick-fil-a and my Zaxbys. :) My substitute here is Popeye’s. Man, this post is super rambly. If anyone has any suggestions for non-fattening restaurants other than the ones I plan to hit (In-n-Out, Popeye’s, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell), I’m all ears.

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Noise

Posted by Thomas Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:33:39 +0000

Having virtually complete silence in the apartment is definitely a welcome change. For almost a whole week, I didn’t have any computers on. With the rack squirreled away, the living room was completely silent. I powered up my workstation, but it was too noisy compared to the silence. So I bought some new, more silent fans to swap out, and now I can hear my hard drive chatter, which I can’t say I’ve been able to hear in longer than I can remember. :)

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Settled In

Posted by Thomas Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:53:44 +0000

I’m still getting settled in, but am mostly there. Well, all of the essentials are there. :) I’m still trying to nail down stuff like furniture layout, which blocks getting any frames hung. I set up my machines the last part of the week, and found that it looks like I’m pretty well off, but have two dead power supplies. The first casualty of the trip was my phone, which I dropped on the asphalt the night before I left. Needless to say I was pretty upset about that. I left both my two monitors and my two torchiere lamps in Atlanta. I ordered some new lcds once I got here, and I still haven’t found replacement lamps that I like. I’m half wishing I had brought them all with me… But there was no room in the trailer for either. If I gain much more stuff I’ll for sure not be able to fit in a 6′x12′ trailer next time, though I tell myself that I’ll never pull that size of a trailer across the US ever again. We’ll see if I keep the sentiment next time I move. There of course were some scratches on things, which I guess eventually I’ll get used to, though I don’t recall there being so much damage to stuff when I moved to Atlanta. Maybe it was due to less stuff, or the shorter trip, or just a poor memory. Also, the dvd player is having issues, too…

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Last Day

Posted by Thomas Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:11:36 +0000

Cribbed from a movie, but none-the-less apropos.

Today marks a profound, though
bittersweet, milestone for all of us
as we bear witness
to both an end and a beginning.

And while we must continue on,
we must also be grateful
to have been blessed
with people
who have so ably guided us
to where we are today.

When there has been so much love
and happiness for someone
it is natural to be reluctant
to close such a wonderful chapter
in our lives.

For moving forward
is rarely accomplished without
considerable grief and sadness.

And while our sorrow
may be profound
the clouds will clear
and the sun will shine on us again.

And in that warm, bright light
we will find ourselves
facing a glorious future.

A future of exciting challenges
and infinite possibility
in which the horizon
will stretch out before us
rimmed in the heavenly glow
of the sunrise of our tomorrow.

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Programmable remote controls

Posted by Thomas Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:13:19 +0000

Many things to remember while moving. Many things that have already been forgotten again. But this one for now: I ran across the programmable remote control I had in high school I used to control the in-classroom tvs and vcrs. Good times, good times…

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Lucky Bamboo

Posted by Thomas Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:52:06 +0000

Alas, with the final passing of my lucky bamboo, so too goes my residency in Georgia. I really need to get off my tookus and move to California…

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Persuasion

Posted by Thomas Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:34:12 +0000

I am convinced you cannot convince anyone of anything (not even this).

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#atlflood (day 3)

Posted by Thomas Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:29:00 +0000

Yesterday on my drive to work, it looked like the bulk of the flood was gone, but it also looked like there was still a ton of water around. Ever since the water’s been restored in Douglas County, we’ve been under a boil advisory. I bet we continue to be under one for at least a few more days. The water’s probably ok to drink, but they’re probably playing it safe. I can’t wait for it do be drinkable so I can stop using very cold Britta water to brush my teeth, as well as doing some much needed laundry.

The road I take to work was closed yesterday and continues to be closed, even tonight, despite being free from water on the road. I haven’t heard the reason, but I bet Sweetwater Creek is still pretty high, and they might not have been able to inspect the bridges yet. I-20 was/is open, though, and I bet I was one of the first few to drive on it after it did open yesterday.

Other than a longer commute and the water (from the tap) stuff, I haven’t been terribly affected. But very close by there is complete devastation to peoples’ homes. I got lucky living on some high ground, but could have easily been a victim had I stumbled into a low-lying apartment complex.

It’s still very hard to believe that what seemed like a very unassuming several days of rain (of which there are many in Atlanta) would cause so much trouble. There was a 100-year flood in Canyon in the 70s, and until now I couldn’t imagine it. I can easily picture it now.

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#atlflood

Posted by Thomas Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:55:29 +0000

Seriously. A *ton of water. They sent us home early yesterday, which was good. I got some milk and DP on my way home. No water when I got home. :( Water this morning, though. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought Sweetwater Creek would have been flooded this much. Good and bad that I was unawares[sic] of the flooding, because I got to see it firsthand, and I also went back to take some pictures (pictures forthcoming). It’s perhaps the lull before the storm, because it’s supposed to rain some more, though not as bad. My apartment complex isn’t flooded at all, and surprisingly neither was the bridge across Sweetwater Creek State Park this afternoon. I basically don’t have any way to get to work that doesn’t involve driving around the world. :)

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Fjord

Posted by Thomas Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:05:09 +0000

I totally forded something I shouldn’t have… but lived to tell about it. ;)

Rain, rain, go away. I totally forgot my wallet this morning (which makes it hard to buy things like gas, dp, and milk), had little water pressure this morning (but this time was able to take a shower — a few weeks ago I had zero water pressur), and didn’t know that there was a boil-water alert in effect until I got to work. :(

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E means E

Posted by Thomas Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:09:14 +0000

I did something dumb tonight. Never again will I roll my eyes when I see someone on the side of the road having run out of gas.

I’ve known for several++ days I needed gas. The fact that this tank took me 100 more miles than I normally go between fillings should have tipped me off. Or the fact that my car took several tries to turn over this morning, and then again when leaving work.

It was both a good and bad thing it died sitting at an intersection. At least there was a gas station at a corner. When the light turned green, and the yukon wouldn’t go, there was actually a tow truck right behind me. Then pretty soon a sheriff’s deputy showed up behind me and nudged me into the gas station. I could have done without his seeming tone of “you’re a frickin’ idiot, what have you been smoking/drinking tonight?”, but he did leave me to fill up in peace, having never gotten out of his car. I don’t know if that was a good thing or he was just being lazy, or what. I put 10 gallons in, so that if it wasn’t me just being out of gas, I wouldn’t have a full tank with nowhere to go. I turn it over and voila, it runs! I go down the road to the Quik Trip I intended to go to initially, filling up the rest of the tank. This time it’s 19.5 gallons. That makes a total of 29.5 gallons. The manual says the tank holds 30. I would have sworn it was 32, and anyway I thought there was a fudge factor.

My heart’s still racing a bit. But this illustrates my point of why I think I don’t pay nearly as much attention as I used to, because when things go bad, it’s often not nearly as difficult as you think to get out of a tough spot. Hopefully I can chalk it up to life experience, but I should know better and chalk it up to luck and someone looking out for me.

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Tired

Posted by Thomas Mon, 07 Sep 2009 01:56:28 +0000

Why do I always wake up tired, but go to bed not?

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Inbox Spam Poetry: Duck Tales all seasons

Posted by Thomas Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:52:24 +0000

Then I visited this e-store, tried blue pilules and understood, why there are so many stories around it. I just recommend you to try. Fistful of dollars will bring you desire!

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Measurable Results

Posted by Thomas Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:58:25 +0000

When watching a “Garnier Fructis” commerical, and they ask if you “want volume you can actually measure?”, does it disappoint you when they don’t explain exactly how to measure it? :)

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Enigma Variations

Posted by Thomas Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:32:24 +0000

I’ve been trying to figure out a tune since at least May 28, 2007. I managed to recognize it on the radio today and caught the name, Nimrod from Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar. There’s no telling when or where I played it, but obviously it got stuck up there somewhere. :)

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Scrubs

Posted by Thomas Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:09:55 +0000

Also last Sunday, I finally finished the last 6 episodes of the 8th season. I guess I don’t have much to comment about besides that it was decent. Nothing really mind-blowing. But apparently I consider worth nothing. :)

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Movie Marathon Epilogue

Posted by Thomas Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:38:03 +0000

The weekend was quite nice. Unfortunately Saturday it decided to get hot again, after having several days of 70s and being quite pleasant. I rode Friday evening after some marathon meetings. Getting a work out was good. :)

On Saturday, I multitasked while getting a car wash, scarfing down lunch and hoping my antenna didn’t get torn off or bent. I headed downtown, ignoring the signs that said “avoid 75/85 downtown”. They weren’t lying, and I sat in traffic for a good 30 minutes. I left rather early, so I had time to waste. I did fill this time, though, with some traffic engineering. I made it to this theater (UA Tara), mid-afternoon. It was quite old, only had like 4 screens, and didn’t even have stadium seating, which quite surprised me. It looked like it had a bunch of indie films, and strangely the vast majority of folks watching were older (i.e. retired). Not quite the demographic I’m used to seeing at the theater.

First up was The Hurt Locker. I wasn’t too impressed (aka I didn’t really get it). I’m not really one for this particular genre of war movies.

I had a bit to kill until the next movie, so I ate at The Varsity Jr.. I can now say that I’ve eaten at The Varsity (even if it wasn’t the one on 75/85 :) ). It wasn’t too bad (though I wasn’t terribly hungry to begin with — given me eating only a few hours prior, and I’m not especially one for hot dogs).

Then at the same theater, it was on to Away We Go, with its stellar cast. It’s a Focus film, so you know it’s good. :) It was probably my favorite of the three.

The film let out a little after 9pm, leaving little time to find the next theater to see (500) Days of Summer. It was close by (10 minutes), but I’d never been there before. Along the way I re-found Taco C. I thought I blogged about it being in a shady part of town (but I couldn’t find a post in a cursory search). But, having lived here longer, it still is in a possibly shady part of town, but not in a necessarily unsafe part of town. I’ll probably have to frequent there more often when the urge hits me. I finally found the shopping center containing the theater, but had issues actually finding it. Asking someone for help, I managed to find it, get my tickets, and sit down just as it was starting. The house was packed, but I found a decent seat. Yay for things working out! I will probably leave my full review for another post, but I will say that while I immensely enjoyed the dialog/comedy, thought it was a really good movie, and think people should see it, I really didn’t like it. Like I said, the full review (including spoilers) will have to wait for another rant, er I mean post. :)

After driving back to to the suburbs, I had an Oreo blast from Sonic at midnight, to top off the night. Good times.

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Endless searching

Posted by Thomas Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:55:25 +0000

I just spent 3 hours looking for a video I knew existed. :(

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travel day

Posted by Thomas Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:16:19 +0000

Ug. Flight from atl to dfw good. Have to wait to fix flight door motor from dfw to ama. 30 min late. Got to ama; no luggage :( no refund of my $15, but luggage couriered to canyon at their expense :)

1030a flight from ama to iah on tues cancelled. Weather fail at iah. No text, no call, no nothin’. They automatically rebooked on 430p; good. 2h wait in line to find out what I already knew, not so good. 430p ontime until it wasn’t, at about 345p. Delayed til 530p. Which means ill prolly miss my connection. :( They nicely rebook on 1p flight, which seemed to want to leave at 435p. But then plane requires 10m of maintenance. :( 45m later, we finally start boarding. During this time the 430p flight arrives at ama. Since our jet was empty and still needing maint, they pulled it away from the jet bridge, so we board on the tarmac. Fun. Both the 1p and 430p leave around 530p, which still makes me think I’m gonna miss my connection. Sleep most of the way and get to iah at 7p. 30m to catch connection. Sprint catty-corner thru term b to catch ghetto bus to term a. Make it to conn w/ 10m to spare. Flight to cll uneventful. At cll, no cars to rent and no luggage. Luckily while waiting on ride luggage arrives on next flight.

Not much more luck on the flight from College Station back to ATL. Make it to Houston fine, after waiting a bit on tsa to open shop and babysit us through the process. Get on plane and start taxiing to take off on-time (supposed to leave at 447p). Something like 45 minutes go by, still on tarmac. Eventually they say that there’s a ground lock in Atlanta, more info in 20 min. Eventually they say that they’ll take us back to the gate. Once at the gate, I scarf down Popeye’s because I have no idea when my next meal will be. I also stock up on bottled water, just in case. I think it was like twice that they said “we’ll have more info in one hour”. Lots of reading and lots of people watching. Eventually they set the departure time of like 1020p. We get in at like 2am. Yet again I’m like 6 hours later than I was supposed to be. At least this time I didn’t have to pay for checking my bag, and they didn’t manage to lose the bag, either.

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pbs rocks

Posted by Thomas Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:59:16 +0000

I totally watched all of “Chess in Concert” on pbs the night it originally aired on June 17. To this day I still don’t really understand why. I did somewhat enjoy it, though… Also just caught “Old Crow Medicine Show” on Austin City Limits, which was also very high quality. :)

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3 way handshake

Posted by Thomas Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:36:54 +0000

Flipping through the channels and stopping to watch Chelsea Lately, plus reading “3 way handshake episode 15” in my rss feeds, makes me think that a “3 way handshake” has to be a euphemism for something… :)

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Newspapers’ Doom

Posted by Thomas Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:53:47 +0000

It’s sad that some benevolent benefactor doesn’t swoop in and save journalism. I wonder if it would even make it easier/better for the journalists, if they don’t have to be concerned with their parent company’s advertising interests. It sort of begs the question about how the major wire services make money and how few people are required to write about one story such that it is sufficiently covered. I wonder how long $1b would last if you took a bunch of journalists and paid them and put their stuff on the web for free…

Hmm, well that was a lackluster post, wasn’t it?

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WOTD: vigesimal

Posted by Thomas Sat, 13 Jun 2009 22:03:40 +0000

vigesimal: base-20 numeral system

This one actually came up at work (around the microkitchen if you believe it).

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WOTD: somnambulant

Posted by Thomas Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:57:21 +0000

somnambulant: walking or having the habit of walking while asleep

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My new catchphrase

Posted by Thomas Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:07:39 +0000

“You’re doing it wrong.”

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Serious case of the Mondays

Posted by Thomas Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:15:44 +0000

I don’t know why, but I’ve got a serious case of the Mondays. I woke up super tired, probably because I don’t think I slept very well. I seem to recall half waking up a couple of times, which would probably account for it. I didn’t go to bed particularly late last night, but then again I don’t recall exactly when I went to bed.

I spent most of the weekend fighting with trying to parse METAR data. It’s amazing how difficult it is to parse correctly and thoroughly, worse that the couple of python implementations left me a bit wanting, and quite sad that the best implementation I’ve seen is written in javascript.

In other news, what movies have I seen of late? I’ve seen “Singing in the Rain”, “Slumdog Millionaire”, “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”, and “Adventureland”, all of which were quite good. I also saw “Wall-E” and “Jumper”, both of which I found lacking. I’ve got “Ben Hur” on Netflix right now, and I really need to sit down and watch it… I’m probably missing others, as I just remember that I didn’t ever post about “Adventureland”, which I happened to see in the theater some time ago.

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Seriously

Posted by Thomas Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:15:56 +0000

Maybe I take myself too seriously?

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An advertising first

Posted by Thomas Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:06:44 +0000

This has to be the first time in my life where I wanted to see some advertising staring me in the face but didn’t. I have been watching more late night tv of late. A few nights ago, Stewart had some dude on. The dude sounded smart and was schlepping a book. I go to comedy central’s website to find said book. Unfortunately no love for a “hey you! find this book on amazon!” button. I had to like watch the video for 2 seconds and type the title into papa goog to find it. What a waste of my time. :) But more importantly a possible revenue sharing opportunity lost for ye olde comedy central (even though amazon is shying away from their affiliate program nowadays). Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

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What happened

Posted by Thomas Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:53:06 +0000

Oh for the love, what ever happened to:

  • late night tv where guests stayed the whole time
  • news that covered more than one story per day
  • sitcoms with undercurrents of political/societal commentary (can anyone name one that’s not Stewart or Colbert?)

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Truth

Posted by Thomas Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:17:12 +0000

For all you philosophizers out there. Describe truth in the context of history in 30 words or less. How much of what we think is true, really isn’t? Discuss.

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Word of the day: recrudescence

Posted by Thomas Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:35:51 +0000

Reiter notes that each of the possible causes of the “rapid recrudescence” of mosquito-borne diseases—including population growth, “irrigation and other agricultural activities, ecologic change, movement of people, urbanization, deterioration of public health services, resistance to insecticides and anti-malarial drugs, deterioration of vector control operations, and disruptions from war, civil strife, and natural disasters.”

Hmm, I should have picked a shorter sentence…

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Word of the day: paucity

Posted by Thomas Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:29:18 +0000

“The paucity of information” in the IPCC reports “was hardly surprising: not one of the lead authors had ever written a research paper on the subject!”

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Word of the day: codicil

Posted by Thomas Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:35:26 +0000

We protest, but are rarely quoted, and if so, usually as a codicil to the scary stuff.

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Love Story

Posted by Thomas Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:12:42 +0000

I meant to note this shortly after it happened, but I kept forgetting. Like maybe a month and a half to two months ago, I swear I had Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” in my head for five days straight.

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I’m back

Posted by Thomas Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:15:47 +0000

Probably most of you didn’t know that I was out in California, but alas I’m back. Good to sleep in my own bed and drive my own car. The two weeks were stressful, due to projects at work, so it is really good to be back, though the stress won’t likely go away any time soon. The weather there was nice, but a little chilly at times. And I’ll complain that the water pressure in the corp apartments was quite lacking. I didn’t eat at as many cafe’s as I should have, but then again, I’ve eaten at most of them before. All in all a good trip, especially since I did a better job of networking this time, introducing myself to people I’ve only see on video conference or in email.

I have jury duty starting Monday, so that will be interesting. Here’s hoping I don’t oversleep. :)

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Yet another haircut

Posted by Thomas Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:11:08 +0000

I cannot tell people how to cut my hair to save my life. They get close/decent, but rarely do they do a really great cut. I swear the hair on the top of my head is like twice as long as it should be. It makes me want to fly home just so I can get a decent haircut. Or maybe it’s my hair changing, and it has to be cut differently than before. Man, I was super spoiled by my original barber, who cut my hair for 15 years…

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Cheerios

Posted by Thomas Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:11:46 +0000

Man, it’s been a long day. Had to get up at 5am to do work stuff. It’s a little after 4pm now. I still haven’t taken a shower yet today and lunch consisted of some dry Cheerios at just before 4. Probably a few more hours to go yet…

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On the bike again

Posted by Thomas Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:54:11 +0000

The weather finally warmed up this weekend, enough for me to go riding. Since I sort of poorly planned my Saturday, I only had time for a very short ride, I think about 20 minutes, before I needed to be back and get ready for a wedding I was going to. So, the first ride of the year’s a short one, but given how long it’s been, probably not the worst of ideas. I convinced myself to go out again today, which resulted in a 6 mile ride. Lunch on both days was pretty late, so by the time I was getting out, it was starting to cool off pretty well.

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Cotton Eyed Joe

Posted by Thomas Sat, 07 Feb 2009 23:14:39 +0000

I hereby declare, that Georgia is no longer a Southern state, due to its citizens not knowing that there’s a dance to go along with the song, and thus of course the steps to said dance, effective this day, Saturday, February 7, 2009.

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Nine months

Posted by Thomas Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:08:32 +0000

It only took nine months (and me calling them to again ask nicely for my money), but paypal finally refunded me the full amount they owed me. Woohoo!

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New Year’s Theme

Posted by Thomas Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:20:45 +0000

My late lunch left me wanting a late dinner. Why didn’t anyone warn me that most of the eateries would be closed? Shoney’s and Waffle House were open, but none of the fast food joints. :(

I won’t offer up a resolution this New Year’s Eve, as I think they are dumb, ’cause it’s just bad form to make a promise you know you won’t keep. Instead I offer a theme. Ever since Chicago, I’ve thought a lot about whether or not I’m happy about the choices I’ve made thus far as a grown-up. I’m blindingly single, don’t have any world changing accomplishment to speak of, and am probably past my prime. My hair’s thinning, my teeth are getting sensitive, and my body aches a little more than it used to. And two out of the previous three things are directly due to choices I made. I could be using Rogaine to stem the tide of hair loss, and if I was more active, I probably wouldn’t sit still as much, so when I did, I wouldn’t be as stiff.

I distinctly remember reading the book that Greg mentioned, “How to get a date worth keeping, Be dating in six months or your money back”, and thinking to myself how I was utterly unwilling to do the really quite reasonable things the book told you to do. I forget now, but my takeaway from it was basically, meet women, lots and lots of women. That it’s an odds game, and the more you meet, the more likely you’ll become to roll that 0.000000X% chance per person up into a whole person.

Sitting in the Amarillo and DFW airports for Christmas, I was not only being conscious of the beautiful women around me, but also of the men they’re with. What would it take to become par with the sort of men those women are with? As Max would attest, it’s been a long road in changing my appearance. I’m sure he’d mention the hat and the glasses and the t-shirts and the shorts. I rarely wear my hat, the glasses are different, I normally wear jeans nowadays, but I still wear lots of t-shirts. And those things are not earth shattering in and of themselves by any means. I’ve watched “What Not to Wear” a little more than I should and have seen people transform their emotional well being along with their wardrobe, if only for a little while. And seeing all too many beautiful women with their husbands (you should search Youtube for awesome first dances at wedding receptions), I can’t help but wonder if I am honestly at a point where I’d be willing to transform myself into something the women that I want, want. And whether or not I could be genuinely and sufficiently comfortable with and sell whatever form that change might take, and whether they’d be receptive to something that doesn’t come by me naturally.

And so all of these things, and even some others, lead me to my point and theme, which is unscrupulously taken from Gandhi. The quote was on the tip of my mind, but I was unable to actually remember it and the internets doth provide:

We must become the change we want to see in the world.

But in my case, it is not the change I desire to see in the world, rather the change I desire to see in myself. I’m not sure how a selection from this quote speaks more to me, but somehow “becoming the change I want to see” seems more poignant than just “change” or “do”. Somehow it evokes to me a sense of empowerment. Somehow something more than just concentration on a of series of obstacles to overcome. But in the same way we do not look at our feet to walk, rather we afix our eyes on our goal, our destination, and the rest comes naturally.

So that is my theme: “become the change you wish to see”. Change not for its own sake, but for a purpose. Though no thing worth doing is ever easy, my sincere hope is that change comes easily when you genuinely desire it. Change that comes as reflexively as breathing or catching a ball. Not fleeting change you believe in, hope for, or desire, but rather change we know we must achieve if we are to achieve anything else.

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Wanted: travel companion

Posted by Thomas Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:04:05 +0000

Must have the ability, the means, and the desire to see the world.
Must be up for eating some really good food.
Must have a sincere desire to better appreciate the significance of a different people, country, and culture.
Preferably female and single (and easy on the eyes).
Must be willing to do the tourist thing and have a desire to do as the townies do (when in Rome…).
I will indulge cultural things (like opera and theater), if you’ll indulge my photography habit.
Ideally an early riser, as I’m not the best at rising early (though I do think I have awesome jet lag avoidance skills).

For some time now I’ve had this travel itch. Going on the cruise was enlightening. Did you know you don’t just have to go to the Caribbean or Alaska on a cruise? They go to Hawaii, to Europe, around Europe, probably around to Asia, through the Panama Canal, and plumb around the world.

Specifically, I’ve wanted to do some touring of Europe. I’ve got a few contacts in Europe now, and honestly I’d think I could either crash on their couch or at least get the dl on where to stay and what to do. The Spain – On The Road Again series hasn’t done much to curb my cravings, nor did watching Walking the Bible. And now with Chad moving to France, and Rob soon to leave Japan, my mind continues to wonder to places other than here.

But, this becomes logistically difficult. Between what I’m sure would be my parents’ concerns of traveling alone, and much more the lack of desire to see the world alone (I have these visions of going and then proceeding to sleep the entire time), I am stuck.

And even if you could find someone who could get off work and then pay $$$, it’s not the simplest thing to find someone who is willing to just go and do. I realize now that whomever you’re traveling with needs to be of a like mind. Daylight can be awastin’, and if you’re not on the same page, then poor planning (or a lack of adventure) can eat several hours of possible sightseeing.

I have the ability, the desire, and the means right now, and I know that the older I get the harder it’ll be, and that if I don’t go, that I’ll regret it.

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On the record

Posted by Thomas Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:04:20 +0000

I just want to go on the record on a couple of things. I’ve been meaning to mention these for a while, but I kept forgetting.

1) Global warming. I call bs on this one. I’m in the camp that the temperature is more dependent on the solar cycle than minor fluctuations we impose. I predict that it will get way colder over the next 5 years, and that the debate will not have moved one iota, as the environmentalists will continue to tow their line and will not be swayed, no matter how far the temperature average drops. It’s sad we can’t have a civil discourse about this.
2) Ethanol. Ethanol is dumb and just poor policy. No real alternative energy source should cause food prices to rise. Nor should it have to be super subsidized (unfortunately it will have be subsidized some, but the true alternative most likely will be the first one that’s lucrative).
3) Alternative energy. I say this isn’t the panacea that many people tote it to be. Aside from the obvious lack of base load, the lack of correlation between source locations and population centers, and the inability for any commercial entity thus far to have been able to sufficiently monetize it, I don’t think we should pour lots of money into it, as it’s honestly just not a good, cheap, long term solution.

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What time is my flight

Posted by Thomas Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:23:14 +0000

Who was the idiot who booked my flight at 610a? Oh, wait, that’d be me…

I made some notes when I booked these tickets around October 27/28:

monday, checked yahoo, aa: 483 atl to ama, thurs thru mon
tuesday, checked yahoo, aa: 425 atl to ama, thurs thru mon
booked ticket tuesday night, yahoo, aa: 390 atl to ama, thurs thru mon

Honestly, what sense does that make? The only thing I can figure is that demand rises around the 30 day mark, because everyone thinks there’s a cutoff and that the prices will precipitously increase. So everyone books 30 days out, increasing demand and thus price, and then it drops off. At least for once my cheap side actually paid off, as normally it doesn’t.

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What am I forgetting

Posted by Thomas Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:44:22 +0000

I can’t seem to shake this feeling that I’ve forgotten something. I don’t even have an inkling for what it might be. :(

In other news, I’ve had that stupid catchy iPhone song in my head (The Submarines’ song “You, Me, & the Bourgeoisie”).

Hmm, it’s sort of sad it’s been almost a month since I’ve written last. I’ll be heading to Canyon on Thursday morning, flying back sometime Monday (I forget when exactly). Then on Thursday, I’m heading out to Chicago to see Chad for the “weekend”. I’ll be there until Sunday.

I’ve also been thinking about going on Choir Tour, which would be a pretty cheap, week’s worth of vacation…

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Mr. Diamond

Posted by Thomas Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:40:01 +0000

I had this Neil Diamond song in my head for a couple of days. Twas the oddest thing.

I’ve been watching some C-SPAN of late, catching PM’s questions, Alan Greenspan’s testimony, the testimony of the credit rating agencies, etc. It’s funny how these hearings seem really pointless, not unlike many regular meetings. All too often it’s people talking, and not a lot of getting things done. Also, it seemed like in the more high profile ones, that Congressmen were all too often trying to push an agenda, seeming to me like they weren’t really wanting to hear whatever those testifying had to say. Perhaps they’ve become cynical that those testifying have their own agenda, so they will ask directing questions, and not really let people speak? It’s a sad state of affairs. Some of the lesser committees seem like they are more interested in getting to the truth. But I have to wonder how quickly even the staunchest idealist would soon be pulled down into the dregs of everyday congressional life; if every day brings you closer to just becoming a cog in the government wheel and further away from your ability to inject change and remember what it was looking from the outside in.

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Honk your horn

Posted by Thomas Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:51:29 +0000

If anyone reading this ever writes a sitcom, write a plot around this:

Twice in the past 6 months, there has been a car directly outside my apartment that spontaneously started honking its horn. Not in the expected and obnoxious car alarm way, but in a constant, monotonic, piercing way. I never knew a horn could sustain like this for so long. I really wonder how much it drains the battery. The first time was quite late at night, making it all the more dreadful when you’re trying to go to sleep (or wake up to it), but this time, it’s in the early evening, so not quite as bad. Either way entirely annoying, and after listening to it for any period of time, I think it quite difficult for anyone to not want to pummel whomever’s car it is.

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Insightful Prime Minister’s Answers

Posted by Thomas Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:59:40 +0000

As I was channel surfing tonight, I came across the Prime Minster’s questions on CSPAN. When asked about the financial crisis, he (the PM) gave the most measured commentary, of which I had not heard elsewhere, also of which I would not imagine you would hear any pundit say in the US:

I was talking about irresponsibility in the financial markets. Now everyone agrees about irresponsibility in the financial markets, but let me say, because I think it should be clear to the people of this country, that the dividing line here is not between business and being anti-business, or between market and being anti-market. The dividing line that we have is between rewarding hard work, effort and responsibility—rewarding enterprise—and rewarding excessive risk-taking or irresponsible risk-taking. [Interruption.] The all-party consensus seems to have dissipated a little.

I personally think that the whole country will agree that that is the right thing. Let us reward work, let us reward effort, let us reward enterprise, let us reward responsible risk-taking; but let us deal with the problem—and sort it out once and for all—of excessive and irresponsible risk-taking.1

In addition the right and honorable Mr. David Cameron said this:

…we are trying to save the banking system not as an end in itself, but to save the wider economy…2

Hear, hear!

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On the road again

Posted by Thomas Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:56:27 +0000

Home again. It’s been since April, I think, that I’ve been home. I made it out for the family reunion in DFW, which I think was the last time I saw everyone. I’m flying out in the morning and will be in Canyon through the weekend, flying back Monday evening. I’ll probably have to work at least a day while I’m there, but shouldn’t be too bad, and I know my parents won’t mind too much.

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15+ miles

Posted by Thomas Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:59:32 +0000

I rode 15.25 miles yesterday, and it almost killed me. Well, really only mile 8. I woke up feeling pretty good, so since I hadn’t ridden in quite a while, I felt like going out. And, to my undoing, I thought I’d stretch my normal ride from 8 miles to 15. Not the best decision in hindsight. In mile 8 I was just dieing so I stopped and proceeded to puke up all of the undigested Dr Pepper I’d had that morning. I do not recall the last time I puked. It must be like college or maybe even high school. A long time. Anyway, after I cooled off for some number of minutes, I got back on and rode home. Interestingly enough the rest of the ride, while I took extremely slow, was pretty uneventful. When I made it home, I really wasn’t nearly as tired as I could have been given the circumstances. I felt it the rest of the day, though. My sternum still feels a little sore, and since the ride was twice as long (over an hour), my butt and arms weren’t feeling so hot. But, I did it, and it didn’t kill me, so that’s not nothing.

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The motion of the ocean

Posted by Thomas Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:01:56 +0000

For a good part of Monday, sitting for any length of time would induce a feeling of still being on the boat and rocking. I’d say for at least half of the day it was like that, and even still today I’m feeling it some.

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Pop-up News

Posted by Thomas Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:36:38 +0000

I want pop-up video for news and speeches so badly…

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Alaska

Posted by Thomas Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:14:12 +0000

Did I forget to mention that I’ll be going on an Alaskan Cruise? Oops. :) Anyway, I’m back.

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Flying by

Posted by Thomas Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:44:43 +0000

The past three or so weeks have really flown by. I’m not even really sure why. I guess lots to do at work makes the days go quickly, and long days lead to short evenings.

One week down in Mountain View, and one week to go (unless I extend my stay an extra few days). I didn’t do anything this weekend, just lounged around, keeping tabs on the storms and trying some to catch up on the politics.

I did manage to see several flicks this weekend that I’ve never seen before. I’ve had African Queen on my to-see list for quite some time, and finally saw it on AMC. It was a surprise to me that it was in color, but overall it was good; the quality you’d expect from Bogey and Hepburn. Just before I left I watched Transformers, which was really good. I never was particularly interested in watching it, but I think Drew’s comment on Facebook made me revisit it. My next to last batch of Netflix included 21, which was really good, Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show, which was also good, and the first disc from Carrier, which is pretty interesting. I currently have out Semi Pro, which wasn’t as funny as I would have liked, but still enjoyable, Fool’s Gold, which was passable, and A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash, which was ok, and semi-educational. Tonight I also saw for the first time Dirty Harry, which is a classic I’ll likely have to watch again, and this afternoon I saw License to Wed, which was better than I was expecting. I guess having John Krasinski (and some very large majority of the cast of The Office) really did it for me. Had they all had not been in it, I dunno how I would have felt.

I finally managed to do some laundry tonight, which is good, because I would have been out of clothes after today. :) I also managed to trim my nails, which I tend to put off all too much. Much like the haircut I am really in need of (even though it’s only been like a month and a half since I got one at Sallie’s wedding). I had to spend several days in a hotel before the corp apartment was available, so that was a little different that usual, and as always it’s nice to get into the apartment, where it’s a little more like home (even equipped with an empty refrigerator :) ). It’s been good to see the people here face to face, but I am half already looking forward to getting back to Atlanta and even more ready to take some time off. The time off kind of sucks, though, because it’s hard enough to keep up with work in real time, let alone keeping up with everything that’s going on after being out of the loop for 5 business days (and even more calendar days).

I guess that counts as a real update, but basically things are chugging along and the days are passing at an unbelievable (and I do mean unbelievable) clip.

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Gustav

Posted by Thomas Mon, 01 Sep 2008 02:17:28 +0000

As the major news media is want to do, they have been constantly repeating themselves. They really should have a channel that’s just a loop of a 5 minute segment that changes only every 30 minutes (I think Headline News does this somewhat, but it’s more for airports and the like, where people aren’t watching it for extended periods). That way everyone who’s just tuning in would likely get an update and people aren’t under any uncertain expectation that what they are doing is breaking “news” and not just repeating themselves with slight variations. “Well the eye has moved about 1584 feet since we last updated you” isn’t really much of an update (as I can just do the math thank you very much). “The estimate is still that there are about 10k people left in New Orleans.”

As I happened to watch Fox News after watching a bunch of Discovery about squids, I happened upon 2 bits of new and actual information, relating to levies and to the evacuation. I only caught a bit about the first, but it was in relation to something about the design of the levies changing. Actually, I don’t know what they changed or how it is better, but I’d personally like to hear more. Also, another reporter said something about Amtrak trains and barcoded bracelets being used in the evacuations. News to me. So, instead of just repeating the same of when it’s supposed to hit landfall, that everyone’s evacuated, that the French Quarter is vacant, that everyone’s playing nice, etc, it might be nice to step away from the fact it’s basically in the same place it was 5 minutes ago and delve into some of the more technical things. What has the Army Corps done over the past 3 years to improve things? What legislation was passed (or not) to help with the storm? What were the evacuation plans? Why has it gone so much better? How are these barcodes being used? Where are the people going? What do the FEMA towns look like 3 years later? Why are they still around? Does boarding up your house really help? What are the major preparations people have to make? What sorts of things do people have to clean up and fix after the storm? Do most people have insurance that covers these incidents?

Why haven’t we heard about how much better it’s being handled with regard to the Bush administration. They’ve been saying over and over how much better everyone’s prepared, but I hear this deafening silence of any attribution of the preparation to Bush. Maybe I’ve just missed it, but it seems to me that at this stage of the game that he was solely responsible for Katrina, but now no one seems to give him any credit for the success up until this point.

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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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New stuff

Posted by Thomas Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:57:21 +0000

I finally tonight bought a new computer. I’ve been putting it off for like over 6 months. The price has logically dropped in that timeframe, and only time will tell if the savings were worth the not-enough-ram-for-everthing-I’d-like-to-keep-open-all-the-time and only using one of my 2 really old 19″ crts…

Informal poll: Who thinks I should buy L glass to replace my broken kit lens (specifically the 24-70mm f/2.8L USM)? I’m really starting to jones for it. And if all of my major purchases in the past month weren’t enough, the jonesing for a very large tv is rearing its ugly head again.

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How I Met Your Mother

Posted by Thomas Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:25:55 +0000

During some late night flight back from somewhere to Atlanta, I watched “How I Met Your Mother” on the plane. I must have caught a couple of episodes on a couple of flights. Anyway, it struck me as a decent show, so I finally started watching it. I got through the first season (yesterday?) and through most of the second today. I’m sort of stuck on an episode at the moment (18 to be exact). Which is bad because I was starting to think I might have been able to finish it today (the second season). But it’s getting late, so really I should go to bed. Anyway I’ve like it pretty well and will catch up to current filming (they finished season three). The first season was really good, but about a third of the way through the second season, a lot of the tension was resolved and it seemed to move to more episodic stories. Before there were some longer arcs and long unresolved issues, which I really liked. And of course you can drag those out for too long *cough*lost*cough*. So I understand the need to move on from those story devices, but having episode after episode of everybody getting along and nothing terrible really happening can get a little boring and mundane pretty quickly. Don’t get me wrong, I still like it and plan on finishing it. But it seems like something changed from the first season. Maybe it was that I finally felt like I understood the characters, so little is surprising now about how they act and react and what I expect. I guess I should try and check out the commentaries and see if they’re interesting…

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The price of milk

Posted by Thomas Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:41:15 +0000

So besides sweltering in my own apartment due to an air conditioner that I think is working much less optimally than it should, for dinner tonight, I decided that since I didn’t really want fast food, that I would just eat some cereal. Having just returned from two weeks traveling, I of course didn’t have any milk to speak of (well you might assume that I still had rotting milk in the fridge, and you might be correct, but I did have the foresight to throw the milk out before I left). Standing in line to check out with my one item of half a gallon of vitamin d, whole milk, the lady behind me asks me, “how much is the milk?”. Which is a perfectly valid question. You know like, maybe it was on sale, or maybe she’s wondering if the price of milk has gone up with all the transportation price hikes due to gas prices. I had no idea how much the milk was. I felt really bad for not knowing. There was this episode of West Wing, where the press secretary was making a point about how the other side was out of touch because they didn’t even know the price of milk, only to realize that they themselves didn’t know the price of a gallon of milk. The price couldn’t have made a bit of difference to me. I only care in so much that it would have been cheaper than buying a combo meal at <insert your favorite fast food place here>.

Sort of like the price of gas. I have to pay it, and there’s no real way for me to game the system to get cheaper gas, so I just buy it. I buy it at the place where I know it’s usually the cheapest (Kroger). But I did a few days ago look at my gas spending, and while I thought that it was a bit low, it looked like I’m spending $100 a month on it (over the last 6 months). Which seems odd because when I figured it before it was like $125, but that have been over a longer period when I had some additional commuting. Now I don’t have that, but it still doesn’t seem like that would account for the doubling of the price of gas and my cost per month dropping. If it is true, then it’s really a good sign that I don’t really need a new car for the gas. So, if that number is correct, and if the new car doubled the in-town mpg (which would be asking a lot I’m guessing), then the car payment would have to be like $50. Which I don’t think I’d want any car that came with a $50 monthly payment. :)

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Physics is to math as sex is to…

Posted by Thomas Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:07:08 +0000

Classic. Definitely a new fave to add to the collection. Sort of reminds me of Chad’s story about “mathsturbatory”, though I only recall the word and not the story. :)

I did buy drives at Frys (3 1TB drives), so I’m looking forward to taking them on the plane and getting them into service in the array. I also called BoA this week and they were super helpful with the whole fraud thing. They should be sending me an affidavit and hopefully after some not short length of time, I’ll get the $$ back.

~One more day left in Cali (um, did I mention I’ve been in California for almost 2 weeks now?) and I’m looking forward to being back, though from what I hear it’s pretty warm there. :)

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Writing Regret

Posted by Thomas Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:18:19 +0000

Don’t you hate writing something you know you’re going to regret later, writing it anyway, and then regretting it later? I sure do.

Times like these should remind me that the grass really isn’t greener over there in talk-more land, and I should just keep to what I know best, being quiet. :)

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PayPal Sucks

Posted by Thomas Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:11:10 +0000

I am super not happy. Over a month ago, I bought some hard drives on eBay with buy it now. I never saw the drives, and I’m wondering if I’ll ever see the rest of my money. I got back $200 from PayPal with their modest buyer protection, but after calling their customer service (who was a nice English-as-a-first-language lady who answered my questions as best she could) I have little faith that my $450 will ever be recovered by them. I paid straight through my bank account, so there isn’t any protection via my credit card company, but I might call BoA anyway and see if they can do anything for me. It’s been a while now, and I’m sure the longer I wait the harder it will be to recover the funds. :( I guess I’ll be sticking to the retail versions of things for a while, while I lick my wounds from a hard learned (and costly) lesson in seller feedback percentages and ways to protect myself better against possible fraud.

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Volleyball

Posted by Thomas Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:49:42 +0000

So there was some song in my head this morning that I was like “I should post that before I forget”. And then I forgot, and I couldn’t get random Coldplay and Third Day’s “I’ve Always Loved You” out of my head long enough for the other to come back.

I was totally a slacker today and played volleyball on campus for 30 or 45 minutes with some peeps from my team. Good times.

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Things Forgotten

Posted by Thomas Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:32:13 +0000

Things I forgot on Monday:

I forgot a Dr Pepper in the friend’s car I rode in to the airport. I hate to leave trash in someone else’s car.
I forgot my WSJ paper in the back of the seat in front of me on the plane. Again with the leaving trash for someone to pick up after me.
I forgot to bring a jacket to cool Mountain View. I realized I had done this about the time I was scheduled to be picked up and taken to the airport. I though I could have made it back home again to grab one, but I was already cutting it close and didn’t want to miss getting my checked luggage checked.

Nothing Earth shattering, but definitely a thorn in my brain.

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Travel

Posted by Thomas Thu, 29 May 2008 00:16:47 +0000

More than once this weekend, I thought, I need to sit down and blog about X before I forget. And yet this is still not a real post. Had a good weekend, but still recovering. Odd how I get up way earlier on vacation than for work. Makes for a sleepy Thomas and taking an extra day off makes for a good amount of work to catch up on. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be a little more up for a more substantive post.

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2am

Posted by Thomas Fri, 23 May 2008 00:52:11 +0000

Why is it impossible for me to go to bed before 2am?

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Lurn

Posted by Thomas Wed, 07 May 2008 13:36:09 +0000

When will I learn that flights get more expensive the longer you wait…

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Back to Texas

Posted by Thomas Sat, 03 May 2008 05:10:37 +0000

Why was I dreaming about a hedgehog? 6am and I’m soon catching a flight home for the weekend for Miyah’s baptism. American called me at like 10 to 4 due to my old flight being delayed. Only marginally coherent, they offered an earlier (and delayed as well) flight leaving around the same time, so I took it. Anyway, back Monday night. Got to shower and pack.

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Projects

Posted by Thomas Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:35:09 +0000

I finally got ipv6 working at home (and firewalled off even). It’s taken several tries and several months to finally (magically) start working. Projects for today include riding, laundry, and finally finishing my stupid coffee table.

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eBay and Jag

Posted by Thomas Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:23:21 +0000

I finally finished watching Jag all the way through. 10 seasons. That’s 6.62 days worth of TV altogether. Season 10 was a little tedious to get through…

Over the weekend I tried to procure a Cobalt Qube2 and a new lens on eBay. I think I enjoy bidding other people up more than actually buying stuff. :)

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More Photos

Posted by Thomas Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:18:41 +0000

I’ve finally gotten around to posting more England pics in the photoblog than just Sallie (as you might have noticed with Liz yesterday). I still had some shots from Christmas left over, so for a while, it’s a Christmas photo first, then several hours later an England shot. Then, after I’m out of Christmas pictures, it’s 2-a-day Englands.

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TheLucid WP Theme Release

Posted by Thomas Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:34:32 +0000

So this is my first post (likely the first of many) about the release of my port of TheLucid Typo theme to WordPress. Please note that this is the what I recall being the original release of TheLucid theme from the SonicIQ guys, and not their 1.1 release of the theme. There were a couple of comments in my original post requesting it. I have no excuses for not posting this sooner, and I really, really, really, really feel badly that it’s taken me this long to get around to it. Half of me was hoping to update it to the newer upstream version, but that never happened. And I was hoping to maybe add gravatar support, and that never happened. And I couldn’t really remember exactly what you’d need to get it installed, and so weeks and months went by. :(

Anyway, so I think all that you need to do is untar lucid into your themes directory, untar my patched version of addicted to live search into your plugins directory, for non-2.5 WP installs, install the Gravatar plugin, and then enable them all. In addition, (as was pointed out in the comments) you’ll have to edit “javascript/lucid.js” to point it to the right location. I’ve tried to add some versioning into the names, as inevitably there will be bugs that need to be addressed. And, as a disclaimer, this is only for WordPress 2.2, so I make no guarantees about it working with later WordPress versions (or even working at all :) ).

Please let me know if you guys have any issues with it.

Update: I edited this post some, updating the link to the current version, mentioning the Gravatar plugin, and that you’ll have to edit lucid.js to get search to work properly for you.

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Ticket Fraud

Posted by Thomas Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:28:44 +0000

I bought plane tickets this morning to fly home for Miyah’s baptism the weekend of May 3. They were a little more expensive than a few days ago (~$50), but I chalked it up to passing the month ahead of time threshold. I also didn’t see my preferred flight time, that leaves AMA around 7p and gets into ATL around 12:30a. I look again tonight. The fair dropped back down $50 and the better flight time is there. I swear that that later flight wasn’t available when I looked earlier. So, now if I wanted to change to the later flight, it’ll cost me an additional $60 (since the drop of $50 actually will be put towards my original $100 cost to change). So, I’m out $100 ($60 change fee plus the $50 drop in price difference) to get on the flight I could now purchase for less than I paid this morning. Total racket. :/

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The Office

Posted by Thomas Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:01:15 +0000

is f’ing awesome!

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First Pass

Posted by Thomas Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:51:53 +0000

So I’ve finally gone through my pictures from England, well a first pass at least. I figure I have about 135 (out of 632) that are worth anything. But, during all this, I realized that I’m missing a bunch of pictures that I took while in Coventry. And I can’t figure out what happened to them; all of my pictures from the middle of the day while in the Cathedral and for a little bit afterwards seem to just be gone. :(

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Raw

Posted by Thomas Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:29:46 +0000

So me shooting completely in raw while in England has really cramped my style, even a little more than usual. Sure I still really haven’t gone through my pictures from Christmas, but at least they’re all in jpg. Now, my whole workflow is broken and I can’t even open them in the program I usually use. The past several days have been fighting with software and operating systems to get to a point where I can even start to look at my pictures properly. :( I’m still not even close…

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Gah!

Posted by Thomas Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:10 +0000

I can’t fit my tripod in my luggage. :(

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I have pants!

Posted by Thomas Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:26:26 +0000

(I bought new jeans.)

No, I will not model them for you.

I should be packing or something…

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The 14 greatest engineering challenges for the 21st century?

Posted by Thomas Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:54:30 +0000

This looks like an exceptionally bad list of things to explicitly set out to accomplish, even if my ultimate boss was on the list of contributors:

* Make solar energy affordable
* Provide energy from fusion
* Develop carbon sequestration methods
* Manage the nitrogen cycle
* Provide access to clean water
* Restore and improve urban infrastructure
* Advance health informatics
* Engineer better medicines
* Reverse-engineer the brain
* Prevent nuclear terror
* Secure cyberspace
* Enhance virtual reality
* Advance personalized learning
* Engineer the tools for scientific discovery

Any list of far reaching predictions is usually way off, but for something so broad as things to engineer in the next 100 years, would be things like:

* Get everyone to get along through broad cultural education
* Increase global quality of education by 2 orders of magnitude
* Make more good food and make it ridiculously cheap (including water)
* Make eating better and exercise absolutely foolproof, including reducing people’s dependence on drugs (the legal kind)
* Find a transportation fuel to replace oil
* Get the US over its aversion to fission

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Wild Hare

Posted by Thomas Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:28:30 +0000

I don’t that I know the proper spelling of hare for that colloquialism. I tried to find it online, but failed. :(

I had a cool three day weekend, spent in San Diego with Chad and Karen. Hence the title. Only on Friday did I decide to see about flying down, emailing them and making flight arrangements. So I flew down Saturday morning. They met me at the airport and we did the touristy stuff, walking down the coast, getting to see a lot of marine mammals, and on Sunday we went to the San Diego zoo, which was exceptional.

But today was another story. I was in the foulest of moods starting somewhere in the San Diego airport. As I was standing near the gate, waiting on my C group to be called to lineup, a young woman was standing next to me. As she moved to stand closer to where the line was about to form for her group, I got a little better look at her. To which I must say that she was absolutely gorgeous. I tried to see where she was sitting as I tried to find my own seat, but to no luck. I told myself that if I saw her at the baggage claim that I would tell her as much. And again I didn’t see her. That put me in a foul mood by itself. Then, after riding the shuttle to the long term parking and finally finding my car, hardly remembering what it looked like, I go to pop open the trunk to put my luggage in. The automatic trunk lock doesn’t seem to work. That’s odd, I think to myself. Perhaps the battery’s dead. No, surely not. I open the trunk with the key and put my stuff in. I then move to the driver’s side door and try the automatic locks. Again nothing. I curse to myself. I open the door with the key, get in, and turn it over. Nothing. No clicking, not a peep. So, I call the 800 number on my key chain. They say that it’ll be 1 hr. Wonderful. To make matters worse, both of my cell phones are beeping at me saying low battery. I rifle through my things to find the car charger, wondering if it was such a good idea putting off charging them. I plug it in to start charging my phone. The phone doesn’t even recognize that it’s plugged in. Doubly wonderful. So, as I’m waiting for the Roadside Assistance to take their sweet time, I decide to hedge my bet. I walk over to the exit pavilions and ask the teller if the staff can jump start my car. She says that it’ll be at least 15 minutes. 15 is way better than 60. I never kept track of exactly how long all of these things took. But when the airport people finally came, they came almost at the exact same moment that the tow truck arrived. I’m sure I couldn’t have pulled that off if I had tried. The airport guy puts the fancy jump start kit onto my battery. I waited a few seconds and it immediately turns over. Oh, and as he’s hooking the device up to the terminals he mentions, “tips are greatly appreciated”. Sure, I bet they are. I have a 1, a 10 and a 20. I begrudgingly give him the 10 and don’t ask for change. I then go over to talk to the very nice tow truck driver. I felt kind of bad making them come out all that way for nothing. I ask him if I owe him anything, as he’s already seen what’s going on. No, I don’t owe him anything. He starts to drive off, but then remembers that it might be a good thing to take down the particulars. He does and proceeds to really leave. I get in myself, payout, and leave. So my day, while starting perfectly with getting to sleep in, somehow managed to go downhill pretty quickly. My foul mood was only moderately lived so has mostly warn off, but I still feel a bit of a twinge from the ordeal. :/

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Super Tuesday

Posted by Thomas Sat, 09 Feb 2008 03:39:20 +0000

It was sort of funny flying on Super Tuesday. I woke up at like 6:30a so I could be at the polls by 7a, so I could catch my cab at 8a, so I could catch my plane at 10:30a. I left to vote a little late (at 7:15a) and as luck would have it, there was an uber-long line. I finally reached the head of the line around 8a, and quickly voted. In fact, I voted on a Diebold electronic voting machine. I give it a 50/50 chance that my vote was actually cast for the person I was voting for. I voted for Ron Paul, btw… A little late for the cab, but made it to the airport/California fine. The flight was pretty packed, and I had to sit between two older ladies. Other than the soreness from sleeping sitting up and practically not moving for 5 hours, I made it ok. I did watch CNBC the entire time (well, between napping). I probably learned more about the candidates in those few hours than I knew leading up to then.

I’ve already had In-N-Out a couple of times. :)

I also totally biffed it on one of the bicycles they have for us to ride between buildings. Late last night I was returning a bike to the building next to where I parked. I attempted to pop the bike onto a curb, but failed. :( Between the height of the curb and the fact that these have old school brakes where you pedal backwards to brake, I stopped abruptly and catapulted myself over the handle bars. Good thing nobody was watching (although I bet it would have been humorous to have seen — after I was confirmed ok, of course). I only came away with a few scrapes on my hands and a little soreness from catchin my whole weight + momentum on my hands on some concrete. Oh well, I’ll know to think twice before attempting that curb again. And, luckily today, no further bicycle accidents. :)

I totally forgot my Netflix at home. What a waste. :( But I did watch Seduced and Abandoned, which was ok, but I had a bit of trouble following why certain things were going on. Probably would need to watch it again…

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Haircut!

Posted by Thomas Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:33:06 +0000

I’m not sure what’s up with these short posts as of late. I did get a haircut today. It looks pretty good, I think; nice and short. And although it’s not a precision haircut, it will definitely work. I also got today a 1u Gruber from the sisters. It is awesome, already installed, and managing my cable very nicely. :) In other news, I’ll be in California starting next week, from February 5 through 23.

Since I’ve been lusting after a long lens for the England trip, I noticed at Lens Rentals that they were selling one of their XTi bodies for $420, then $400. Over the weekend I told myself that someone else was bound to snatch it up, and that I would be kicking myself for not getting it before they did. Looks like someone finally did sometime today. I guess I cost myself $120 on the deal. But, I’m not kicking myself as much as I thought I would.

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Take the trailer and put it on the bus

Posted by Thomas Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:51:48 +0000

Hmm, I seem to recall a specific instance of putting the trailer on in the rain in Galveston… :)

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My Mind

Posted by Thomas Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:08:44 +0000

… is doomed.

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Georgia Snow

Posted by Thomas Sat, 19 Jan 2008 18:56:47 +0000

It snowed here. Twice. Once during the day on Wednesday, then sometime this morning. It’s a nice feeling to walk outside, and, magic, snow! The roads weren’t bad when I was out, but I would imagine early Thursday morning was bad, because not too long after it started snowing on Wednesday afternoon, it started raining/sleeting. I’m not sure how cold the ground was that morning, but I bet there was a decent amount of ice.

In other news, I’m considering finally getting some new computer innards. I’m tired of running out of memory and not having dual monitors. :( I’m on the fence between just upgrading the minimum, or getting a decent upgrade. Also, when I stepped outside to take some pictures of the snow, my camera acted up like it did over Christmas. I still have no idea what’s wrong with it, but now I’m leaning towards just getting a 400d for the trip to England. The last thing I want to happen is constantly fight with my camera for the duration.

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Rain, rain

Posted by Thomas Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:26:18 +0000

The past two nights I have opened the door to my patio and been entranced by the sound of rain and thunder. Somehow I am drawn to just sit and listen.

I took the plunge on Sunday to go with Wesley to England. The past couple of days I’ve had buyer’s remorse (as usual), but only a twinge now remains. I’m looking forward to some real time off, and perhaps I will rent some nice glass. A $1500 70-200mm f/2.8 IS for ~$150 for 2 weeks anyone? We could go halves. You know you want to…

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Photoblog Update

Posted by Thomas Fri, 21 Dec 2007 02:45:20 +0000

After a four month hiatus, the photoblog’s been updated. A new pic is up now, and it’s on autopilot through 1/7. Enjoy. Apologies to the Markhams for not posting pictures of the baby sooner… :)

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Leaving on a jet plane

Posted by Thomas Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:57:33 +0000

Leaving for Canyon in the morning (bright and early at 7:30 am). Should be there around 11am. I still haven’t packed or know if I still have laundry to do. Could be a short night. I’m going to try to procrastinate doing laundry as much as possible by organizing and posting photos. :)

I was trying to remember all the movies I’ve watching that I haven’t posted about. I thought there were more, but I can’t remember any more. I have a couple of oldies sitting by the tv I really need to watch, but spend most of my free tv time trying to get through JAG.

  • Disturbia. Not like Rear Window (which was good). Decent movie though, good commentary. The chick was uber-hot (and apparently single at the time of the taping of the commentary…).
  • The Best Years of Our Lives. Cool movie that’s still relevant today.
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. This one’s a keeper, pilgrim.
  • The Birds. I thought it not as good as is generally accepted. I “watched” it before in my music in movies appreciation class, but slept through most of it. :)
  • Jaws. I have no recollection of watching this in its entirely before, but just did. A classic.

Man, I have too many movies to watch still…

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December

Posted by Thomas Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:11:22 +0000

I’m totally posting this to make sure I have a post in December. :)

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Song in my head waking up this morning

Posted by Thomas Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:26:55 +0000

Dashboard Confessional’s Don’t Wait.

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Cleaned

Posted by Thomas Mon, 15 Oct 2007 01:53:44 +0000

I couldn’t stand it anymore last weekend. I took most of the day on Sunday the 7th to clean the apartment. It was time. I managed to clean the floors, the toilet, and the tub, but no counters or sinks. I actually cleaned the Formica in the kitchen and bathroom on my hands and knees since I don’t have a mop, and fastidiously vacuumed the carpet (although I don’t know how much it helped). Towards the end I was wishing that I some of that pre-vacuum powdery stuff to freshen up the place. Maybe I should get some candles to smell up the place, too…

I will be in Canyon over this coming weekend, flying in Saturday and flying out Sunday so I can see the new niece. I’m not staying long this trip, but I’ll be back once a month for three months straight, so I can’t see much complaining.

I’ve spent most of this weekend and last week trying to get a few more systems up and working at home. I got hadoop working on a couple of Xen nodes, so that was cool. I got their demos to work, but then I couldn’t really think of anything to do with the new found programming platform, so it’s gone unused. I’ve also been trying to get SSL working for ldap. I think I’m finally starting to understand the whole certificate authority and SSL at a macro level, but there’s always still more to learn. I was maybe hoping to get ldap over SSL working pretty well and maybe even kerberized nfs working, and I’ve made some progress, but not as much as I’d like.

I also managed to actually watch a movie. I don’t know how long I’ve had the Maltese Falcon from Netflix, but by now it’s probably been months. I saw “CashBack”, which was ok. A decent independent film, which had its moments, but not too much to write home about. I also finally tried to play “This Film Is Not Yet Rated” but it had a deformity in the disc, so it was unplayable. I’ve been slowly going through JAG, and am currently in season 3. I guess on the surface it’s a pretty cheesy show (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), but it has some long running allusions and story lines that are slowly unraveling, which is why I’m watching in the first place. I guess that I could read online what happens in the end, but where’s the fun in that? Anyway, it’s nice to have this very episodic show carry on these threads and morsels they pay off every once in a while. What was quite odd, though, was the very last episode of season 1. I watched this episode, not knowing anything about it. It was a cliffhanger at the end of the season. To be expected, correct? Well, I start watching the next season, and it doesn’t pick up where it left off. I check online, and it was never aired and the conclusion never written. I was miffed to say that least. Well, they didn’t totally forget about it and actually reused it, re-wrote the story and made a whole new episode out of. Not too bad if you ask me, as there were definitely some tricky and very fine lines to walk to pull it off, which I think they did.

Anyway, it’s 3am. Why am I still awake?

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This Just In

Posted by Thomas Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:39:09 +0000

I have a niece.
That is all.

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The Fall Lineup

Posted by Thomas Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:45:34 +0000

Scrubs starts Oct 25, Battlestar Galactica returns Nov 24, but wtf?! Lost returns Feb 2008. Why must Lost continue to do this to us?

In other news, you band nerds out there might have run across a teaching book called Fussell Exercises for Ensemble Drill. Lately I’ve been longing for the good olde days when I played everday and was in practice. I think it’s directly correlated to all of the JAG I’ve been watching, with a march in every episode. So, in the string of books I wished I hadn’t sold back to the bookstore (even though I never owned this one — I should have stolen it :) ), I went ahead and bought it online. I chose a retailer on brand recognition (JW Pepper). I pick ground shipping because I don’t need it right away. A couple of days pass, and it arrives at my doorstep. I think in passing, wow, that was fast. I open up the envelope, and it has a return label (because they’re efficient), and I notice that it says Lithia Springs as the city. I think to myself, hmm that’s odd; they printed the wrong city and accidentally printed my city. Then, I look at some of the other documentation and realize that my music was in fact shipped from what can be no greater than 2 miles from my house. I spent $5 on ground shipping, which represented more than half of what the book actually cost. Had I known, I could have just drove by there, as I pass by them like everyday. What’s even more curious is the fact that they are a stones throw away from a FedEx depot. I guess they have their reasons, but if it was me, from a logistics perspective, I’d have gone with FedEx instead of UPS. :)

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Bros before hos

Posted by Thomas Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:48:50 +0000

It’s been quite a dry spell, here at the ol’ blog. What juicy bits can I dig up to tell…

I was in California for 2 weeks, from August 27 through September 9. Looking back, it was a perfectly fine trip. But I felt pretty odd about it just before and during. I really just didn’t want to go in the first place. I never really understood why, but I put off packing as late as humanly possible (I started packing at like 1am the night before I left). My heart just wasn’t in it. Then I had this string of a couple of bad days. And then I guess for whatever reason I started feeling better, and at the end of the 2 weeks, I didn’t want to leave. Which seems altogether odd to me, but perhaps it’s the change that I shy away from and not really the actual trip or the destination.

Upon my arrival back to Atlanta, my car promptly didn’t start. No lights, no nothing. The guy who picked me up from the airport was finally able to jump start me. I let it sit for a bit and eventually headed towards home. I drove around for a bit, picked up dinner, and searched for an open auto parts store, only to find none. Once I got home I let it sit and charge for a bit. I then turned it off so I could test to see if I would be stranded again in the morning. It immediately returned to a no lights, no nothing state. The next morning I managed to get someone to jump me off again and headed to the Napa store. They checked the battery, found it dead, so we replaced it. I guess while it was pretty straightforward, it was still a pain.

My car still needs new tires. I continue to put it off. I have no real idea how many tires I really need and I will eventually have to get new tires before I head up to the East Coast Wesleyite thing. I definitely don’t trust them enough now to go all the way there and back.

My video card started being very flaky on me. X would freeze, and start using 100% cpu. You could still move the mouse, but not click on anything, and the keyboard wouldn’t work. You could still ssh into it and restart. What was worse is that eventually it got so bad that it would do this 5 minutes after boot. A 5 minute usable window isn’t that usable. I got another video card from a friend, but it’s not dual headed, so it’s not too much fun.

Also, I thought it would be nifty to run a self-test on my ups. Not a good idea. Now it says I need to get the battery replaced (Emergency! Batteries have failed on UPS argento. Change them NOW). Not a good sign. I guess it’s had a good run, but I’d rather not spend money on stuff like that. I’ve been needing a second one anyway, so if I got one, I’d really need to get two.

And, since I was having all these issues with argento, I’m thinking that now might be a good time to buy new guts for it.

Well, I did manage to read Freakonomics while I was gone (actually I read a bunch of it on the way back on the plane).

I will be signing a 3 month lease, so my rent is going up to the “market rate” of $730. I continue to have this looming question of how soon I should go to California. This decision has been especially hard for me. I really don’t know what to do about it.

I don’t think I ever mentioned it here, but I got a new manager way back when at the first of July. It means I’m officially doing different stuff than I was before and working for a group based out of Mountain View. All in all a very good thing.

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Assorted Goods

Posted by Thomas Sat, 25 Aug 2007 22:23:00 +0000

I managed to go biking this late afternoon/early evening. I think I got started a little after 7 and rode for the usual 30 minutes. Since I’ve been back, I only recall going riding once, which was the Monday or Tuesday that I returned. I managed a little longer trip that time, but then on Saturday I had the staples pulled out, so I figured it best not to aggravate it with the help. Which means that it’s been almost 2 weeks since I’ve ridden, which isn’t the best of things.

I will be heading back to Mountain View for two weeks starting Monday. I picked up a bike shipping box for my bike, so I have the possibility of taking it with me, which could be interesting. I’d love to bike around campus on my own bike or even ride it the couple of miles to work.

I won’t say that I’m second guessing the glasses, but half wondering why I picked form over function. I’m slowly getting used to having the frame within my eyesight, having to refocus outside of the lens if I want to watch my food go all the way from the plate into my mouth, and having the frame smack dab in the middle of the keyboard. It’s very odd, too, that I now have two pairs of perfectly good glasses. I don’t think this has ever happened before, as new glasses were always the result of a significant degradation in vision or due to breakage. Now I have a choice of glasses. I probably should put the old ones away and lock away the key so I’m not tempted to wear them.

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Browned Meat

Posted by Thomas Thu, 23 Aug 2007 23:47:46 +0000

For [what seems like] the first time since I moved in to my apartment in Atlanta, I browned some ground hamburger a couple of days ago. Normally I don’t cook because I think food is dumb and not worth fussing over nor cleaning up after. But I was pretty hungry when I was picking up some Zest, so things sort of got out of hand. Anyway, about halfway through the browning I realized that I didn’t have a colander to drain the meat. I could have sworn that I owned one at some time in the past. Maybe it was too far gone, or maybe I left it to Chris. Who knows these things? I got it drained ok, only to realize that I also needed a pan lid for my iron skillet to finish cooking my Hamburger HelperTM Beef Stroganoff. I managed to slip by using a plate as a cover, but you can imagine how hot the plate got. Speaking of hot, I think my leftovers burned my tongue more in the 3 days I had them than in the past 2 years (or maybe it just feels like it…). I also think I would have preferred to use a wooden spoon to stir, but the turner did the job, albeit a little too bachelor-y for my tastes.

While I was in Canyon, I managed to hit up several doctors including a dermatologist, a barber, and an optometrist. Ok, a barber’s not really a doctor, but I had to duck out of my dentist appointment to see the dermatologist. I’ve been needing a new pair of glasses for longer than I’d like to admit, as they had become pretty scratched up and the coating had become worn a bunch. And so I was going to the optometrist without expecting my eyes to have changed, nor to actually buy any new glasses. Honestly I wondered more than once why I had gotten my Mother to make the appointment at all. But, after the runaround the several eye care centers had given her while trying to make my appointment, I figured the least I could do would be to show up. So, I had my eye exam at like noon (which was like after “the doctor’s last appointment of the day” — seriously how much more could he have been slacking?). So I guess I effectively made him push back his lunch, and if I messed up his lunch plans for that day, he definitely didn’t mention it and was in fact exceedingly nice. The result of the exam was that my eyesight actually got better, not worse, if you can imagine that. I gained some astigmatism, though. So, he advised that since I did sit in front of a computer all day that it would behoove me to keep my spectacles up to date.

My old pair of glasses has to be, I’d say 4–5 years old. I got them in College Station when an old pair broke one day. My current/old pair had a pretty good run, and I was just waiting for them to get sat on or break in two or some other random happenstance which would force my hand. So it was nice that I now have a really decent backup pair that fits me well and is a very close prescription. So, he said I should get some new ones, which obviously had been on my mind, but that day I wasn’t too terribly in the mood to shop for new glasses. Plus I didn’t have a vision insurance card thingy, so I wasn’t quite sure how much it would cost me out of pocket. Which wound up being moot as I made a phone call and got the info and it saved me a bunch of money and hassle. So, I’m looking at frames, thinking about all of the times that Max counseled me to get contacts or new glasses. I sort of gravitate toward the smaller frames and start trying on frames. I do this for a little while before one of the frame-fitter-ladies comes around to help me, so by this time I have a couple already picked out and in mind of what I would prefer. She starts to help me pick something out and I try on those that she thinks might look good. I shoot down the really trendy/throwback ones. I’m trying my best to cling to a not completely tiny frame. Like I said, I wasn’t particularly in a shopping mood, so I somehow manage to whittle it down to two pairs. The one that I like best, which are definitely smaller than my old pair and have some round at the corners. And the other pair that I think my mother and the young lady helping us prefer better, which are even smaller being more square in the corners. I honestly couldn’t tell you the frame colors of either. I think neither was black. They had this nifty little camera booth thing where you could take pictures of yourself so you could directly compare. I was pretty firm that I personally like my choice better, but wasn’t sure which one I should go with. The girl working with us mentioned that she could probably get one of the other young ladies working to get a second opinion. So, just then there happened to be a gaggle of the female techs walking by. So, she asked them for their opinion, starting with the pair I liked best, then to the other pair. The response was immediate and unanimous. Immediately when I put on the second pair, they all in chorus said “yes, definitely that one”. I was definitely taken aback by their response, being so quick and definitive. I figured that all these women knew better than I how best I looked, so I caved. I’m sure the fact that the young lady tech who did the first part of my eye exam was rather cute and happened to be in this group made no difference whatsoever. :)

Since it was through my insurance, it’s taken a couple of weeks for the insurance provider to make them, ship them to Amarillo, get them inspected, then finally shipped out to me, which I got today when I got home. I think the frames will take more getting used to than the actual prescription (which I can hardly tell a difference). [Warning run on sentence ahead!] But the frames are small enough that without moving my head too much, the frame is just where my hands are on the keyboard when I need to readjust or double check hand position, so that will definitely take some getting used to to have to move my head down a little further when I want to look in that particular direction or just get used to the line and blurriness. Only time will tell whether I like them or not. And somehow I doubt that they will somehow magically conjure up a wife for me. :(

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Short little vacation

Posted by Thomas Tue, 14 Aug 2007 23:29:18 +0000

Blogging about talking about blogging about fulfilling Josh’s prophesy of blogging about talking about blogging Josh’s prophesy. :)

All of the trips/visits/weddings/receptions all went off pretty much without a hitch. I realized after the fact that I didn’t actually get a chance to congratulate Ben and LouLou personally and properly at their reception…

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Minor Vacation

Posted by Thomas Sat, 04 Aug 2007 01:46:54 +0000

FYI, I’ll be in Canyon starting tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon and in College Station starting Wednesday morning.

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CRAVING LAYNES!

Posted by Thomas Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:48:49 +0000

I had the strongest craving for Laynes tonight. Already craving Canyon/Amarillo/CS/Texas food. :)

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Photoblog Update

Posted by Thomas Sun, 15 Jul 2007 14:33:40 +0000

Has anyone noticed? The first pic added July 3, with daily postings through 8/5.

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New Telco Rack Smell

Posted by Thomas Wed, 04 Jul 2007 23:30:41 +0000

I am now the proud owner of a full height telco rack. I have been keeping my eyes peeled for ones on Craigslist as of late. One came available, and I availed myself of it. So, that was yesterday; I picked it up. Today, after spending some 4th of July time at a friend’s house, I went to Home Depot to procure myself some casters. Now, I know that I have some pretty good friends in the caster business, but I wasn’t really in the mood to wait, so I bought me some overpriced casters (~$28 worth). It is worth noting the wood, nuts/bolts, screws, and casters cost me more than the cost of the actual rack ($53 as opposed to $50). I made 2 critical missteps in the building of my rolling telco rack. First, I thought I had everything worked out beforehand, and I was close, but added 7 inches when I shouldn’t have. So, the boards are a little longer than I would have liked. And second, the holes for the casters are spaced on center roughly 3 1/2″ apart. Now, for those of you following along at home, this would be the width of a 2×4. So, I wound up basically toe-nailing these very large lag screws in. Which I guess worked out in the end, because looking at it now, the weight would have been poorly set, and might have caused trouble down the line. So, it ain’t pretty, and it’s rather tall, but it is more steady than I thought it would be. Well, that last part didn’t make much sense, and neither did the original design, but the actual implementation works, so there you go.

Like most things, since I bought the rack, I’ve spent another $50 on extra parts, and now I’m pondering rack mounted power, nice rack mounted switches, chair mats for my casters, cable management, rack screws, and the list goes on… Once I get everything racked, I’ll see about posting some pictures.

I figured I would share with the world, knowing how all the ladies love a man who has his own telco rack… in his living room…

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Good Weekend

Posted by Thomas Mon, 02 Jul 2007 00:03:02 +0000

Yet another weekend has gone by without me going through my backlog of photos and lining them up for the photoblog. I guess I’m a little overwhelmed by the sheer number.

The rest of my weekend was quite good. Went to a lan party Friday night, riding Saturday afternoon, an early 4th of July party afterwards, and rested today, watching some Studio 60, Sabrina, and The Unforgiven. Sabrina was good, and The Unforgiven was ok, but I think I mean to get Unforgiven, not The Unforgiven. Silly me. I thought that the episode of Studio 60 I watched might have been the last, and looking it up now, it was in fact the series finale. Sad that it didn’t work out for Aaron and Tommy, but I suppose that they’ve had other good runs.

If you ever have the opportunity to lounge around in the pool for half of the day and into the wee hours of the morning, I highly recommend it. I don’t recall ever doing that before, but it really was posh. I suppose it’s like being at the lake, but this was somehow different. I dunno. Anyway, highly recommended; esp with some good and very chill friends.

The regular lake party was also this weekend, and even though I couldn’t be there, I did manage to help Drew and Nancy find their way. I don’t know what the odds are that when you call me I’m not sitting in front of a computer, but Nancy managed to, and caught me driving to this party. I was, though, able to help them get to the party, with my trusty stash of maps to basically everywhere I’ve driven in the past many years. I’m pretty sure I would have no problem finding Max’s lakehouse or even getting to that particular barn for barn dance. At one time, I could have driven out to Max’s blindfolded, but I would imagine now I would have a little trouble remembering the exact roads to take. Although, I bet I could find my way, if only by my gut. So, I was driving up I-75, while looking at hand drawn maps and nice maps of Texas. An odd experience to be driving, giving people directions in another state. Chalk up another good story.

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Engagements and Babies, Current or Very Likely

Posted by Thomas Thu, 28 Jun 2007 09:14:28 +0000

Jessica and Mike
Sarah and Jarrodd
Chad and Elisabeth
Drew and Kellie
Colby and Elysia
Dan and Paige
Brittany and Nate

Babies:
Laurie
Laci
Summer
Becky
Mindy

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Weddings I’m (mostly) missing this Summer

Posted by Thomas Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:41:31 +0000

(a half-update as blatantly stolen from Robert’s facebook)

Ed and Kristen – May 19
Michael and Erin – June 8
Josh and Jaimie – June 16
Josh and Katie – July 7
Sam and ??? – July 7
Pat and Jennifer – August 4
Ben and Lou Lou – August 11

Posted in General | 2 Comments

ah mercury, sweetest of the transition metals

Posted by Thomas Sun, 17 Jun 2007 22:03:29 +0000

Smosh, just found your new blog. Will be keeping tabs. I know you’re on your honeymoon and all, so when you get back and check this, please leave a comment with some gift registry info, so I can send you guys something.

Update: Nevermind Josh, I figured it out.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Jaimie and Josh

Posted by Thomas Sat, 16 Jun 2007 18:35:54 +0000

Congrats! Sorry I couldn’t be there to throw stuff at you. :) I know you guys have a wonderful life together ahead of you.

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By the skin of my teeth

Posted by Thomas Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:01:37 +0000

NO!!!!! Goodbye, Mr. Wizard. You will be missed.

I really hate it when I can’t shake that sinking feeling in my stomach. I helped tow a co-worker just after work. Nothing happened, but it was definitely a little hairy at the onset (while going down what turned out to be a much larger hill than I thought — at about 30–35 mph). I took some turns a little wide, since we were moving so fast (so we got honked at a little) and at the end of another hill’s climb, we had a good number of cars stacked up behind us. We finally got to our destination (with a U-turn even), at which time I was informed that towing a car like that is illegal in Georgia. So, no harm done and no tickets, but it was a little loose and fast for my hindsight and definitely harrowing at the time. It seems like the older I get and the more experience I accrue, the more I can play things much more by ear and worry less about being absolutely perfect and seem to get away with it. :)

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Wednesday Early Morning

Posted by Thomas Wed, 13 Jun 2007 01:11:08 +0000

I continue to be incapable of going to bed before 2am. And apparently I cannot get myself to tidy up my apartment. I half tried over the weekend, but never really got around to it.

I am also less pissed at OpenSolaris, but have narrowed down my filer issues to primarily nfsd crapping out under heavy usage, causing zfs to freak out and not do destroy or snapshot operations in any timely manner, pretty much requiring a reboot. Time to learn about tuning nfs under Solaris (and why isn’t it tweaked to begin with?).

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uUpdate

Posted by Thomas Thu, 07 Jun 2007 22:46:00 +0000

Apparently my website was hacked more than I thought. I’m blaming WordPress/galleries.

I biked Sunday, yesterday and today.

I’m still hating on OpenSolaris.

I RMA’ed a drive today.

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Ridiculous

Posted by Thomas Wed, 06 Jun 2007 10:13:11 +0000

This is getting positively ridiculous. I absolutely must stop going to bed after 3+ am.

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The Elusive California Post

Posted by Thomas Wed, 06 Jun 2007 00:49:58 +0000

Yes, well, I still have valiantly managed somehow to not post about California and stuff I have more than once thought about and even blogged about blogging. I suppose now I have blogged about not blogging.

Otherwise, the apartment was still here. First things first, I got my network back in order. Pesky network. I’ve been fighting a lot with Solaris over the past couple of days. Honestly I have no idea why everyone sings its praises, because I think it sucks. Sane logging is nowhere to be found. Oh, it’ll tell you that a service is trying to be started/stopped/started/stopped, but it won’t tell you why. Wouldn’t you think that important? And, it doesn’t always like to completely reboot. It just hangs for no good reason. I have to manually reset with a dumb paperclip a time or two. SSH is wack sometimes and will ask for my private key password multiple times, even after I’ve entered it and ssh-agent is running. Samba is crazy slow. Practically unusable under Windows 2000, my testbed. I added a re-shared the directories on argento (via an nfs mount) and it was lightning fast. I don’t know why Solaris hates me. Also, the snapshot directories don’t show up with normal names under Windows. I don’t know what that is either. Also, I keep forgetting that you can’t take snapshots during a resilvering, which is terribly annoying. </rant>

California on the whole was quite amazing/terrific/awesome/spectacular/exceptional/wonderful. Definitely a lot of people networking, learning, and getting to do cool new things (and with it bookoos(sp) more things to do and manage and keep track of). Like I’ve said before, I am still amazed by the California landscape. I’m pretty sure my first trip, I didn’t ever think/realize that there were mountains. There are. Little ones and big ones and pretty ones. Lots of trees, really nice weather, and generally a very temperate climate. Even so, for all its proximity to the Pacific along with its vast coastline, it was much more dry and brown than I would have thought. Like West Texas BrownTM. For as much farm, cattle, and tree grove land that I saw while driving through the valley, I would have expected there to be more rain and greener pasture grass. Even up near Yosemite, it was quite dry, I thought. I passed over many a water canal, which I pretty much think to be preposterous. The whole concept is so foreign to me. Why don’t they cover the canals?

Driving through all that land also made me think about how big California is and how rural the majority of the landmass must be. It’s like the 5th biggest economy in the world or something, so I’m sure that agriculture plays quite a large role. But when I think of California, I think LA/SF/Hollywood. I don’t think small to medium farmers trying to make a living, driving very large and very expensive farm implements and driving diesel guzzling trucks. I wonder how all the farmers feel about the exorbitant gas prices in Cali. I do think, though, that it was cheaper in the rural parts than in the city.

The people I met were quite normal and temperate people. Of course, I just interacted with people from Google, but they weren’t all crazy, liberal people. I’m sure there were a hand full, but that’s to be expected everywhere. Which, I would imagine that the liberalness is prevalent in any major city. And even while more so in California, and less so in Texas, bigger cities I would think would breed a liberal slant to things.

I am happy to be back (in my own bed and the like), but was definitely sad to leave. I did get kindof sick, but I also got kindof better kindof quickly, so all is kindof well.

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Something I forgot I didn’t miss

Posted by Thomas Thu, 31 May 2007 14:06:32 +0000

Drama surrounding females.

In other news, I’m getting sick, I think. Right before I head home. Awesome. Scratchy throat, sinus pressure, my nose is starting to drip, and sinus drainage, which makes me feel sick to my stomach. :(

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Me too.

Posted by Thomas Wed, 30 May 2007 02:57:21 +0000

Me too. How did I wind up here?

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TheLucid WordPress Theme

Posted by Thomas Tue, 29 May 2007 03:01:30 +0000

Yeah, so I basically spent the entire day porting TheLucid Typo theme to WordPress. If anybody has an opinion one way or the other on how they like it, be sure to leave a comment. I like the theme a lot, and it wasn’t too hard to port. I wonder if searching is a little hampered with the whole “live search” functionality, but that’s probably up to you guys, not so much me. Also, you can always just search with Goog…

Posted in General | 5 Comments

Crazy Hot

Posted by Thomas Fri, 25 May 2007 23:52:34 +0000

All of the ladies reading this will just have to deal with this post. I usually try not to be too sexist, but damn. There was a young woman at In-n-Out who was drop dead gorgeous. I mean hot. I mean crazy-stupid-hot. CRAZY-STUPID-HOT. In hindsight, I wished I would have told her as much, but I thought about it only as I was leaving. I mean, how long can you sit by yourself with no food left on your plate at a fast food restaurant and not look conspicuous?

Anyway, I got a haircut, too.

(Did I mention she was hot?)

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Broken holster

Posted by Thomas Wed, 23 May 2007 23:39:20 +0000

I managed to break my holster for my phone last night getting out of my car. I’m not really sure how I did it, but I managed to break it good. I am in mourning. My phone is rather tall, so it doesn’t fit in my pocket well. So tonight, I went by Fry’s, a Cingular Store, and Best Buy, all to no avail. So, I bought one on EBay and it’ll be shipped to Atlanta. I didn’t think that it would be prudent to get it shipped somewhere here, only to miss it, and have to go through the rigmarole (wow, I didn’t realize that was an actual word) of getting it shipped back across the country. So, I’ll be out of a holster for a week and a half. The trusty old thing will be missed. :( In the same vein, I have considered buying an exact duplicate of my current phone, in case I ever destroy it (like I did the last one on the Batman ride at Six Flags over Georgia — good times, good times).

Also, there are ants on my car. Why are there ants on my rental car?

My actual route through Yosemite.

I still haven’t blogged about my general thoughts on California. Must try to do that.

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Maker Faire Post-Mortem

Posted by Thomas Sun, 20 May 2007 16:36:33 +0000

So Maker Faire was pretty neat. But, I think it’s not quite as interesting in person as it appears from pictures and accounts online. Most things presented have a very hacked together feel, and while well designed, most lacked a general sense of elegance. I guess the older I get, the more I feel compelled to engineer things that are exceptionally elegant and serve a larger, long-term purpose, while still using things not quite in the way they were intended to be used. I took some pictures, but as always, I fee like I didn’t take enough. Looking at some of the other pictures that have been posted online, I’ve come to realize that I should have literally shot everything. I had pondered going back today and taking at least 2 pictures of every exhibit. I would have imagined it would have taken me hours to accomplish, but at the end, I think I would have had a good number of good pictures. And would have been quite a good photography exercise. But, I don’t think I’ll head back up there. It’s already mid-afternoon, and it closes at 5pm, so I would imagine that a lot of people will be starting to pack up soon. I was pretty good about taking more than one picture of just about everything, and I tried to mix each up some, trying something different after a couple of shots. I was pretty acutely aware of the amount of ambient light (or lack thereof), as most of the exhibits were indoors. Hopefully next time when I’m in an exhibition setting like this, I’ll be a little more diligent about making my own pictures, instead of just snapping pics of the obviously interesting stuff.

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Maker Faire

Posted by Thomas Sat, 19 May 2007 15:15:28 +0000

Maker Faire is this weekend! Nobody told me! And I’m in SF! Must… try… to… swing… by…

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Back from Yosemite

Posted by Thomas Tue, 15 May 2007 01:29:27 +0000

So, despite all of the Yosemite nonsense, I did make it back to Mountain View. I played around with Google Maps today to see if I could map out my actual path. It was absurd (my actual route, not Google Maps). I half wish I would have had a GPS with me so I could really easily plot my course. In addition, if my camera would also have been GPS aware, it would make it really easy to make waypoints and make an awesome KML file to share the location data of all of my pictures data with everyone. I’ll try and work on that (sort of). I at the very least need to post the pictures eventually.

Chad called me this weekend while I was driving back. Made me think some. I need to post about it soon, before I forget it all.

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Yosemite

Posted by Thomas Sun, 13 May 2007 02:39:24 +0000

Holy shnikees. Yay I didn’t die in the wilderness! Ok, let me back up. I had to check out of my current digs at a posh hotel at noon today. I had been playing around with the idea of driving up to Yosemite some weekend, because, well, I should, and who knows if or when I’ll ever be out here like this again. On Friday over lunch, someone from work suggested I go see Lake Tahoe or Monterey. This fit somewhat into my previous leanings. I printed out my plan, to drive up through Yosemite, then up to Tahoe, then back down through Sacramento (my plan). A sort of long journey, over 600 miles, but doable in a weekend, right?

Ok, so the first leg went well. I managed my first U-y and thought it a good sign (as no trip is complete without one). But the directions got a little hairy. By this time I hadn’t gotten a map of California, so I stopped at a convenience store, bought some dp, a full map of California, and one of those cool easy fold maps of Northern California. These would prove invaluable by the end of the day. So just after I stopped to buy the maps and got back on the road, I had a better idea of where to head, I exited and mostly followed the signs. After a lot of forested and windy driving, I arrived at Yosemite. I paid my $20 entry fee, saw some Sequoias, drove around the park, saw the major sites, took a bunch of pictures, and bought a t-shirt. By the time I had done all this, it was getting dark. I had in my mind that I was going to drive all the way across it, and then stumble upon a place to crash. This is where the flaw in my plans started to show. I drove, by myself, under a moonless night, seeing very few cars. Man it was pitch black. And super windy. It would have been better if I would have had a car to follow or lead, but no real luck. Mile after mile I saw no one. I would see parked cars every once in a while, which was unnerving. I would hope they were camping for the night. So that was pretty hairy in and of itself. I dunno why, but my mind was really racing, and I kept having these irrational fears about having an accident or running into a bear or something, I dunno. I finally made it through the park. Every bit more of civilization I saw I relished. The first town I ran into (Lee Vining) was totally booked up. Plenty of No Vacancy signs in the windows at the several lodges in town. Laurie helped me out a bunch and called around to see if there were any free rooms. I started to head south, not really knowing what I would find. The cities seem to be few and small and far between. And they don’t put up too much signage on how far the next town is. They’ll say that Los Angeles is 350 miles away, but not what the next town is. :( Anyway, Laurie had found out that Mammoth would be a likely target. I saw a sign for Mammoth and took it. Every time ventured out, I felt like I was taking my life in my own hands, veering off the beaten path so it were. By this time I still had a quarter of a tank of gas, which would net me maybe 100 miles, but who knew how far I would have to go to find a place to stay, and if I’d have to drive really far, only to have to turn around. Needless to say, I was freaking out. But, my hunch paid off, and I finally saw a city limit sign for Mammoth Lakes. I took a few good turns, and finally found the hotels Laurie had been picking out online. I figured I wouldn’t cut any corners after my harrowing experience of the night, so I stayed with the known, and am writing this from my hotel room at a Holiday Inn. So, I didn’t die. I didn’t run out of gas. I still haven’t had any more supper than my snickers from the Yosemite general store. :( Plus, now I’ve driven through the park, but I didn’t see it! I’m thinking I should just fore go Lake Tahoe and just retrace my steps. Much more the safe way to go. Plus, I’m tired of driving. I’ve gone over 300 miles today. I just want to be home. I’ve been feeling more and more home-sick for Atlanta. Between the added stress of new and more job responsibility, living out of a hotel, having a rental car, I guess it’s finally getting to me. It’s been nice to have an entire room and bathroom to myself at the hotel, but there’s also something nice about having nice cable and having someone around that makes me feel like I shouldn’t get up at 1pm and should try and see the city and stuff. Anyway, I’m rambling and I need to get some sleep, ’cause I have an 11am checkout time. Yay for not dieing in the wilderness!

Posted in General | 4 Comments

Cinco de Mayo

Posted by Thomas Sun, 06 May 2007 14:20:12 +0000

I’m probably way overdue for an update. If you couldn’t tell from my last post, I will be staying through June 2. Overall this is a good thing for me. As I was getting to the end of my original 3 weeks, I wasn’t really looking forward to leaving and going back to Atlanta. The opportunity to stay was confirmed and then finalized. At which point I almost had second thoughts — mainly between bills and having to make arrangements (which wound up being a pain in the ass cause I didn’t plan far enough in advance) and the newness of the new job wearing off and the eminent repetition starts to set in. Oh well, them’s the breaks. But now I’m over it and glad I’m still here.

I don’t have any real plans for this weekend. The only things I really had to get done were one to do laundry (man I was scraping the bottom of the barrel) and two, to return/rerent my rental car. Budget has some nonsense about not being able to rent a car for more than a month. So, I had to drive back up to SFO, return the car, then rent another. I suppose all is not lost, though. In the trade, I used my Fastbreak status to quickly get a car without a reservation, so that was cool. And, since I had recently signed up for said Fastbreak-yness, I had a cool double upgrade coupon. So, I’m paying less than I was, and I got upgraded from my stupid PT Cruiser to a new Mustang. How cool is that? Anyway, the Mustang will take some getting used to, but having never driven a sports car (if you can call a new Mustang a sports car), it should be an enlightening several weeks.

In these several new cars, I have already come to some enlightenment regarding car design. One of the first things I noticed different about the PT Cruiser was the automatic locking doors once you got past X mph. That’s cool and all that the manufacturer feels like increasing my safety by locking my doors, but what they should do in addition to this is unlock the damn doors when you the thing in park or whatever. I don’t like having to unlock the doors again when I get out. The other thing is about surfing radio stations. I guess I’m pretty spoiled when it comes to the Yukon. The PT Cruiser didn’t have anything for my hand to rest on while pushing the seek button. My hand rests rather comfortably on my shifter in the Yukon… And then, when I started driving around the Mustang, I realized how it’s a travesty when the designer places the seek button and the volume knob so far apart that you have to move your hand. It should not be this way. In the Yukon, my hand can stay in one place, seek forward and backward, and has easy access to the volume knob for all of those annoyingly loud commercials or stations. Anyway, things to look out for in your next car purchase.

I did watch Hot Fuzz the other weekend and Spiderman 3 on this past Friday. Hot Fuzz was awesome. Highly recommended. Spiderman 3 was decent.

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Stupid Procrastination! Stupid Sexy Flanders!

Posted by Thomas Sat, 28 Apr 2007 02:48:09 +0000

Why the hell do I always seem to cut it so close? I managed to get some laundry done tonight, but I missed the important things this week like actually changing my flight. I did manage to get approval to stay, I just didn’t get around to actually finalizing all of my plans. So now I am between a rock and a hard place. Had I managed to call the travel agency during their normal business hours sometime this week, I probably could have just paid the base change flight fee of $50. But now I can either pay an extra $80 to Delta for the privilege or I can pay an “emergency” fee to connect to the travel agent after hours and maybe or maybe not pay the $80 difference in flight price. I’m confused, though, because it’s so far out, I can’t imagine why the flight would cost so much more. Now I’m still procrastinating, because I don’t know exactly what to do… So now, not only have I forgotten to rebook the flight, I’m trying to remember if I’ve missed anything else. I think I’ve paid all of my bills back home, but I’m not 100% sure. I probably should pay off my credit cards, too, and start my expense report. I also really need to get someone to check my apartment. I’ve got to figure out how to kill some time between when I have to check out tomorrow and when I can check in. I need to figure out how to check out. I have to be out of here by noon. I need to extend my car rental. I need to get someone to fix my network at my apartment. Man, I am super scatter-brained.

Update: Wait! There’s hope! Press 5!
Update: No! No hope! Wait forever then get charged out the arse! But Wait! There’s hope! Delta’s much cheaper! Only $130!
Update: No! It won’t go through online! Must call support!
Update: No! Some dude whose first language isn’t English! Who has a hard time understanding me, and me him! And yet! I changed my fight! Huzzah!

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Yay for horoscopes from The Onion

Posted by Thomas Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:18:58 +0000

A much-needed change of scenery is in store for you this week when wildfires sweep through your area, charring everything visible from your cell’s tiny window.

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Cali!

Posted by Thomas Thu, 19 Apr 2007 01:22:42 +0000

So I’ve been meaning to post an update since at least Sunday night, if not Saturday or Friday. For this, I apologize. As usual, I was apprehensive in the beginning about the trip, fitting in and all that. Plus some worry about missing the plane or only thinking I had plane reservations or a rental car waiting for me upon my arrival, when in fact I didn’t. Luckily none of my fears were realized. I booked a sane flight time at 11am, which meant be at the airport at 9. I dropped off the Yukon at the dealer beforehand, so several things could be looked into. I called in a favor from a guy from whom I’ve taken to the airport many a time to take me. I ate some healthy Burger King for breakfast, and all in all didn’t have to wait too terribly long. The flight left on-time. I wound up sitting in the middle of a row of three, which wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world. The guys on either side of me weren’t small, either. Somehow my camera bag that normally fits nicely under the seat in front of me didn’t, so I didn’t really feel like I had the best place to put my feet. I slept some in the beginning, but after a while, I couldn’t nap anymore. They had some nifty displays in the headrest in the seat in front of you, but both my airplane and my regular earphones were in my bag, in the overhead compartment. I didn’t really feel like making the guy on the end move, and I didn’t care too terribly much if I could hear CNBC, so I let it be. It was pretty nifty though, that there were so many channels to choose from. I have a hard time believing it was being broadcast in real-time, but I also have a hard time believing they would run yesterday’s news. The times were in sync, so I dunno what to think. All in all the plane trip wasn’t unbearable, but I like never once got up or moved from my seat, and the flight got pretty long after a couple of hours.

Upon arrival, the baggage claiming went quickly, and I returned the call from the dealership. I greenlighted all of the stuff (which wound up being less than I was expecting — yay for being surprisingly less) for the Yukon. I had a Fastbreak rental from Budget, so I pretty much just walked out to the car and left the airport. A pretty straight forward drive down to Mountain View and found the building pretty easily. The problem I ran into, though, was that I didn’t have a cube number, nor had I looked very much at the building layout to see where he sat. I eventually figured it out and got settled. The week has been good and I have been learning a lot of how things work and what to do. All of the people in the group have been really nice and all that, so it’s been good.

There were several guys out from Atlanta doing some other stuff for the first week I was there, so I met up with them some. We went to a steakhouse the first night, which was quite excellent. I’ve been eating mostly on-campus at the cafes, which as advertised is rather posh. I have, though, managed to eat at In-and-Out several times. I can see why I’ve heard such good things about it and why it seems like such a staple out here. I went out to San Fransisco with three other guys Saturday afternoon. We hit a coffee shop, book store, Ethiopian restaurant, and then headed to the Golden Gate. We were trying to hit it just at sunset, but were late. We wound up walking all the way across and back, which is quite a trek. It was nice, though to see the city lit up at night, as well as see the bridge night lit, too. It was rather cold, though, and made me wish I had a little more than the my normal fleece.

The weather has been pretty nice thus far, with a few scattered showers. Just like last time I was here, it can get a little cold, but not too bad during the day, and has been generally nice and sunny.

I thought that I might be able to drop down and see Karen and Chad one of these weekends. Alas, though, California is a rather long state. I pretty much had to rule out the 8hr one-way trip, the 4hr meet-you-half-way trip, and flying down. It is rather unfortunate. I am pondering perhaps a day trip out to some redwood forests that are supposed to be around here. I have taken some pictures, but I doubt that I’ll get them posted any time soon. I did have access to my home network for some time while I was here, but it has since gone away. I’m not really sure what happened and may have to send someone over to investigate. I guess the power went out or something, and things didn’t come up nicely. :(

Oh, and I should mention an oddity with my housing situation. I am in some corporate housing, which means that you stay in one bedroom of a two bedroom apt, sharing with some other person. My person a guy from a European office, who basically brought along his fiancé. This is a little awkward. They’ve been super nice, but still, it is quite odd. For the first several days of my trip, I either didn’t have a roommate, or they would come in after I had gone to bed and leave before me, which worked out great for me. Now, I definitely hesitate some and put off coming back to the apartment.

I did one load of laundry last night, but I should have done two. I also didn’t bring any movies with me, except my Netflix, all of which I managed to watch beforehand. I guess I should change my address and get the next batch to watch. I actually watched a bunch of second rate movies for most of the day on Sunday (including such greats as Under Siege 2), which I haven’t done in forever. I don’t remember the last time I sat around and channel surfed. Probably Christmas at my parents.

I guess that’s enough catch-up for now. I’ve been trying to get to work by 9, which means getting up by 8:15, and leaving by 8:45, since I’m fairly close. Getting up so early though, means I’ve been trying to be in bed by 11pm. Both times are rather abnormal for me, but I think I’m slowly getting acclimated to the subtle shift in sleep/wake schedule.

If you’ve made it reading thus far, you are a trooper! :)

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Snow what?

Posted by Thomas Sat, 07 Apr 2007 02:23:02 +0000

Yeah, so I think this is going to be an odd conglomeration of random thoughts.

1. It snowed tonight in Atlanta. I saw it. Big flakes, too. I said that I didn’t believe it, even though I saw it, because we all know it doesn’t really snow in Georgia.

2. I’m heading to Mountain View for 3 weeks starting Monday. I’ve done like zero planning, so I’m really feeling the pressure of getting all my ducks in a row and being ready to leave for an extended period of time. I’ve got real laundry and a laundry list of things I need to get done, errands I need to run, most of which probably should get done Saturday, since things like the post office and the bank may or may not be open for business for some portion of the day.

3. It is a sad day, because one of the three bamboo shoots from the lucky bamboo Cole and Rachel gave me when I left College Station has more or less died. Much of it is partially black and feeling on it now, it has no strength or substance to it. Hopefully the other two shoots will survive, except I put it outside to maybe perk up its spirits, but then there was a cold spell (see #1) and might have affected the remaining two. I pulled it in, so hopefully no harm done.

4. I didn’t really think that leaving for three weeks would be that big of a deal. In the big scheme of things, it’s not really that long, and it’ll be done before you know it. In true Thomas fashion, I didn’t really spread it around work that I was going, so most people didn’t know, as I just told the people I mostly work with, so they were aware of it. So there was a small group of guys who were all nice enough to say that they were going to miss me. I really wasn’t expecting it. I guess I mean more to them than I thought. And, having them express to me the fact that I would be missed make me start to consider maybe that I would miss them, too. I don’t really like goodbyes. I’m more of an “au revoir/’til we meet again” sort of person. So, now I’m in a mood of not wanting to leave and have this lingering feeling of trying to postpone the inevitable as long as possible. But, I think it has made me realize that I have made better friendships than I thought, which is both a blessing and a curse. I thought that it wouldn’t be a struggle to leave Atlanta to go back to Texas or wherever comes next, but now I’m not so sure. Perhaps I’ve made more roots here than I thought, and I don’t look forward to any time when I would have to say goodbye to these guys for real. As most people reading this should know, loving the people at Wesley for so many years makes it extra especially hard to leave, and I have no desire to repeat that heart breaking experience.

5. Wedding dresses. Ok, now I have no earthly idea why I’m revisiting this. I blame this picture (and to a lesser extent Roman Holiday). I still hold that I don’t like strapless dresses that much. I think it has to do with the combination of a whole lot of skin, up-hairdoos, and little around the neck. I’ve half come to the conclusion that I simply don’t like that combination. I have no idea why. Nor do I understand why I even have what I would consider to be such a well formed opinion on the subject… I do however, seem to like the off the shoulder dresses with large and tight necklaces and up-hairdoos. Again, I don’t quite understand me on this, so it probably doesn’t reason much to ask me why.

6. Since I started announcing to people that I would be gone, I have found out that there will be other people filtering out during my stay, so it will feel a little more like home than I was expecting, which is definitely a good thing.

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The Aftermath

Posted by Thomas Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:56:38 +0000

Pwned! Yes, Marc, I came up with the idea quite some time ago that I should pull this April Fool’s joke, and I came very close to just posting an entry saying that I was going to do it, instead of actually doing it (Unfinished Post #355). But, I thought, what the hey, maybe I’ll fish around for some gullible people. Well, looks like it worked! Yay!

So, in other real news besides the haircut and my fake engagement (still single ladies), my parents were here for a week between the 21st and the 28th. About the only thing that we did was go to see the CNN Center and go on the tour. International TV studios are cool. :) We walked around Centennial Park. I’ll probably post the one pic I took eventually.

In the world of movies, I’ve seen 300, Wild Hogs, North By Northwest, 21 Grams, Reign Over Me, and last night, Blades of Glory. 300 was good, but not as good as all the hype said. Wild Hogs was much better than expected. North By Northwest was eh. 21 Grams was exactly like Crash and that other movie that I went to see after Children of Men that I liked so much better but can’t remember the name of right now. I guess since I’ve seen more than two of those type of films, that they aren’t really that enjoyable now. I could see why nobody else like that third movie if they’d already seen the other two. To quote Drewby, “I liked it better the first time when it was called Fight Club”. Reign Over Me was good. And Blades of Glory… um, I think it could have been better. Maybe it was because I watched it in a practically empty theater. Maybe more people laughing would have helped it.

On Wednesday (the 28th), I finally received the final packages for my new file server. I got it put together and up and running that night. I had a total of 5 400 GB drives, but one of them was currently in use and completely full, I needed to make a backup before I pulled it out of its current home and put it into its permanent home. I dusted off the ol’ fibre channel and used it. Now I realize how abysmally slow it is (read/writes in the 5 MB/s range while transferring 400GB takes a while). I managed to get my data off, physically transfer the drive, and get the new array up and running. I started to transfer everything back, which took an equally excrutiatingly long time. We were having a lan party at work, so I wanted it to be ready in time enough to show it off. I didn’t get everything transfered that I would have liked, but enough that I packed it up and took it to the lan. I don’t think anybody got any content off it, so that was pretty disappointing. When a couple of guys tried, it kept crashing explorer. I don’t know if it was just Solaris running Samba, or if it was just my Samba config. As I didn’t really tweak much in the Samba config, I would lean towards a misconfiguration issue and incompatibility playing nicely with XP. If I had a copy of XP, I would test for sure. I might try a VM copy, if I can get it to work… After all that was done, I’ve spent the rest of the weekend playing with it more. I’d make some poor choices of naming things, so there were those mistakes to correct. Then I transfered all of my home directory over to it. I had pretty much run out of space there as well. Once that was done, I transfered argento over to ldap/kerberos/autofs and cut argento over. It’s been pretty smooth sailing so far, I must say, working off of nfs. I’m starting to jones for a gig switch and a telco rack. I setup snapshotting as well on it all, which was one of the primary motivating factors of going with a Solaris/ZFS solution. And, I added some new entries to ldap to get some further automount entries besides home. Automounting stuff from LDAP is awesome. While playing with the array, I had been noticing a slightly ominous, yet faint clicking sound emanating from one of the drives. I installed SMART tools, and finally got the syntax right only to see this on one of the drives: HARDWARE IMPENDING FAILURE GENERAL HARD DRIVE FAILURE [asc=5d, ascq=10]. Doh! Looks like I’ll have to RMA one all too quickly. At least I still have the nice box and packaging Seagate sent the last drive in, so it shouldn’t be hard at all to package it up properly.

And finally, I’ve frozen my a/c again. :( With the fibre channel and all of my machines going over those several days, the apartment got pretty hot (cite my away message “i don’t think my apt can adequately cool the current level of heat i am generating… :(“). So, I figured it was just all of the drives spun up, working hard, and generating too much heat. But, Friday night, it was cool enough that I turned off the a/c and opened some windows for a while. That’s when I heard it, the ominous dripping coming from the HVAC closet. I took off the grate with my trusty cordless drill (thanks Clay and KB), and confirmed what was going on. I called the office Saturday morning and put in a work order. Later when I dropped off rent, the lady at the office said that she would have maintenance call me to confirm that it was a trivial condensation leak. They never called. Chalk up one more for “The Runaround”. Maintenance finally knocked on my door at 8:15 this morning. He confirmed that it was frozen, turned it off, and is letting it thaw right now. Hopefully all it needs is a little freon top-off. But it is worrisome that they topped it off not too long ago. Either I’m doing something that I’m not supposed to do, or there’s a leak…

Anyway, so I was up early and started writing to catch everyone up. I made sure to take a shower before the dude got back and tried to finish this post up before work. And now I’m done, and I still have gobs of time before work… bah!

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Engaged

Posted by Thomas Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:39:56 +0000

I’m engaged! Details to follow…

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Shit I don’t have any more hair, except on the top of my head where it was untouched, and The Runaround

Posted by Thomas Sat, 31 Mar 2007 19:30:51 +0000

So I finally decided to get a haircut today. I left the apartment a little after 5pm and went to a place I’d been to before, and had a decent experience. I arrived around 5:10, walked in and spoke with the lady behind the register that I wanted a haircut. She said that it would be at least 45 minutes. I asked if I could leave and come back. She said that would be fine. She asked me my name and said that she would put me in the computer. I leave. Fast forward 45 minutes. I come back. The ladies there now don’t know anything about me coming in 45 minutes ago. She checks the computer, I’m not in there. They say that it’s first come, first served. I get the feeling they think I’m lying. They say it will be at least 20 minutes. I say I’ll wait. I sit down and start napping. 1 hour later I finally sit down in a chair. By this time it’s 6:45. They close at 7. I take off my glasses, I explain what I want. Layered haircut, off the ears, blocked in the back. I explain, yes, it’s been a really long time since I’ve had a haircut. It’s parted on the left right now, but please part it in the middle for the cut. She said that she would use shears, then scissors, and shampoo. Only later will I realize exactly what she’s talking about. At this stage in the game, I don’t give a flying fck, so I agree to whatever she says. I should have specified that I wanted scissors, but it’s really late, I’ve been here a really long time, and I don’t want to piss her off. I sit in the chair patiently as she dilly-dallies around. I close my eyes and don’t look once at the mirror. I’m not too familiar with the number system associated with shears. I know 0 is the closest, but I haven’t had shear haircuts enough to know exactly how short it cuts. She doesn’t ask me what number I want, she just goes to town. I’m pretty sure I pretty much have a 0 all the way around my head. The sides, the back, 0. Maybe a 1. Either way it’s way too short. And as for the top, I don’t think she cut any of the hair off. As I type, I can see this one lone hair that hangs down past my nose. What was the point of getting it cut if it’s not short enough to stop doing its stupid curl? So, she’s finally done at 7:30. It took her 45 minutes to give me what I am (at the moment) calling my worst haircut ever. The standard cost is $13. For reasons passing understanding, I tip her $2 for my worst haircut. Well, I didn’t realize exactly how bad off I was until I got home and tried to part it. When I tried to part it, and I couldn’t tell that the top was any shorter, I could have killed someone.

I will have to get it cut again. Fuck.
/me not a happy camper

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More spam poetry

Posted by Thomas Fri, 02 Mar 2007 11:25:31 +0000

When she expressed a doubtful hope that Tinker Bell would be glad to reclined on the earth, but was separated from the road by a thick antipathy of her brother; the similarity of their dispositions made and she heard it muttering to itself The Duchess. The Duchess.

There was even more than this, but I’ll leave you wanting.

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Horoscope and Battlestar Galactica

Posted by Thomas Thu, 01 Mar 2007 01:40:32 +0000

I have not had a good fortune in quite some time, but my Onion horoscope doesn’t disappoint today:

You’ll find solace this week in the arms of an old friend — arms you’ll pin down using a combination of brute force and the unflinching desperation that comes from a lifetime of loneliness.

I just got done watching the 3 hour Battlestar Galactica pilot. All I can say is wow. I think I’ve found a new television series to obsess over. I think the greater question here is why have I waited this long. I’ve done that with several series now, including but probably not limited to “Lost”, “Firefly”, and “Scrubs” (Scrubs to a somewhat less extent). I would hope that it’s because there really is a lot of bad tv out there that people will watch for a while and will recommend to their friends (and that my tv show taste is better than everyone else’s :) ).

Alas, I probably should be tagging my posts and create a tv category for posts…

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I really don’t know what to title this one

Posted by Thomas Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:08:53 +0000

The weather has been nice enough the past two days that I’ve gone riding in the afternoon. Yesterday, some dude in a car as it was passing yelled out to me, “Hey, Lance, get off the road!”. Odd.

I have been worrying somewhat about the root partition of the new server I’ve been working on for Wesley. It started out as ~250MB, which is fine, but if you have a couple of kernels installed, /lib/modules start eats up the space quickly. So today, I set out to alleviate the space problem. All of the partitions, except for boot, are on LVM. So it was simply a matter of resizing. The partitions are all ext3 for penultimate safety reasons. Since I tried once to shrink /home and failed, I just removed the logical volume, increased the root partition and resized the filesystem. It was easier than I ever imagined. Like three commands and it was done. I could simply remove /home because there as almost no data on it, so I just backed it up and restored it. The hardest part of the whole process was waiting on the ext3 format of a 218GB drive (it’s rather slow and the format itself uses up 188MB, but that’s for another post/rant). Chalk one up for a good decision to endure the extra overhead of LVM.

In other technological news, I installed Sun’s java instead of the crappy gcj on the box that runs my Azureus now. It had been flaky as of late, going for a while and then dying. I didn’t even realize it was using the gnu java, so I installed and hopefully it’ll be happier now.

I was going to rant about OpenID and how I don’t get it and how it’s the latest meme and the fashionable fad. And I was going to cite this’s guys post. But then he reneged on his stance and wrote this. There remains something that I don’t like about it, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

I also finally watched “The Da Vinci Code” this afternoon. I had put it off forever, but after I heard a roundabout endorsement as a good movie, I decided to watch it. As a whole, I’d say that it was better than I expected. Even given the risque content, I can’t deny that the story really was decent.

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New Bathmat

Posted by Thomas Sat, 24 Feb 2007 23:15:34 +0000

I went to Wal-Mart this afternoon to buy one thing, a bathmat. I got it. I hate it. It’s too dark for the floor. It calls too much attention to itself…

You should already know that I saw “Children of Men”. I didn’t get it. I didn’t like it. Why have people called it the best movie since sliced bread? Someone please illuminate me!

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Credit Card Applications

Posted by Thomas Fri, 23 Feb 2007 20:44:08 +0000

Today’s mail consisted of bills and credit card applications. Both are quite ordinary, save one credit card application that was forwarded to me from Texas. Yes, my Mother took the time to put the “Validation required within 7 days”, Bank of America, unopened credit card application into a new envelope and forward it via snail mail to me in Georgia. And no, I’ve never held a BoA account at that address. From the looks of it upon opening, they got my info from the Association…

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Logistics

Posted by Thomas Wed, 21 Feb 2007 01:37:32 +0000

I don’t know how your brain works, but I’m often curious about mine. I have been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do when I grow up. And it bothers me some that I haven’t figured it out yet, and it bothers me even more that I don’t feel like I’ve really crossed anything out either. I don’t think that I want to be a manager, and I don’t think that I want to be a project manager, but how can I know for sure without going down a long road of actually being or half being one of those things for some period of time to know for sure? I dunno. But, back to brains. I consider myself to be a pretty logical person. I like logic, and logic likes me. But there is this general field call logicstics. And, I’m pretty sure that I don’t like logistics and logistics doesn’t like me. But why would that be. If I’m logical and it’s logical, shouldn’t we get along? I assume that there’s just something about it that my brain doesn’t naturally gravitate toward. Perhaps any psyche majors reading can chime in… I recall even during middle school, having issues with these sorts of problems. I was in GT (Gifted and Talented — yes I’m a dork) during middle school. And I distinctly remember the teacher (Mrs. Pelfrey(sp)), giving us these certain tests. They went something like, five people live in a five story apartment complex. No two people live on the same floor. Each tenant owns a pet. Et cetera, et cetera. (example). I never “got” those puzzles, even today, I despise them. Which I assume the same disdain I have towards those puzzles is the same disdain I have for the “if I move X, that frees up space S1. If I need to free up S2 to accommodate constraint C, Y must be moved before X, blah, blah, blah”. I just don’t care about those types of problems. To me, there’s no fun in them. My brain just doesn’t gravitate towards them. Maybe I just see them as mundane, without adventure, and a lackluster creative problem solving outlet.

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Valentine’s Day: Bad Gift Ideas

Posted by Thomas Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:02:58 +0000

A better list there never was.

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Ski Trip Postmortem

Posted by Thomas Fri, 09 Feb 2007 23:31:08 +0000

While the ski trip overall was very good, i.e. the skiing was good and the partying was good, I seemed to have caught some sort of illness. I woke up this morning feeling a little nauseous, but didn’t think too much about it. Later I realized the my throat was getting more and more sore, and that I was getting progressively more and more nauseous. So, I finally realized I was in the process of getting sick. My throat is sore and feels all scratchy. I have a small, dry cough mostly, with the occasional real cough. I’ve been loosening mucus in my throat all day when I clear my throat, which is the cause of me feeling pretty much horrible the entire day. I’ve napped a bunch during the day’s travel, so that I think has helped some, as after the flight, I didn’t feel quite as bad as when I began the flight (I pretty much slept all the way from Boston to Atlanta). So, I will definitely be sleeping a bunch over the weekend, taking copious drugs, and drinking lots of water (I’m nursing a Nalgene at the moment). We’ll see how it goes…

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Weekend Update

Posted by Thomas Sun, 04 Feb 2007 19:53:54 +0000

I placed an order for 2 of these just now. With shipping my total was ~$40. Did I pay too much? I know it’s eclectic and all, and since it’s from the UK, I doubt I’ll run into someone else who has them, but paying for shipping them across the pond is a little much. I effectively used some b-day money, so it’s not like it was simple out of pocket money, but money given with the expressed purpose of being used to buy something I normally wouldn’t, which this easily falls into the category of. I guess that between this and my Fry’s run yesterday, I don’t want to lull myself into a buying spree.

The Fry’s buying spree was a new server for Wesley. They’ve been having some problems with it as of late, and have an itch to replace and consolidate, so I’m scratching it for them. I think I might have overbought: 1 gb corsair ddr2, athlon 64 x2 3800+, black antec case w/ 450w ps, dual 250gb maxtors, ecs gforce6 mobo with gig nic, pci-e, and onboard video, pioneer dvd burner. As Cole said, “yeah, it might get kind of bored just routing packets”. Dual core, yeah, I think so. I’m pretty sure that it will be the most powerful computer at Wesley, but will be doing the least amount of real work. I bought some more dual port intel nics on ebay, so after the ski trip, I should have those. I’ll put them in, take a few days to install and configure, and then ship it off to them to physically install.

That’s right, a ski trip. Going with the company. Taking a few days off will be nice. :)

I’ve had two very strong memories surface over the past couple of days. During some internal monologue ramblings, I was taken back to the first few days of our family owning Baxter, and how each one of us kids took a night soothing the beast, as he was crying at night. The other was one night, Dr. Moore brought over to our house some copies of scales for the Tuba. I remembered this because I was watching Wordplay, and remembering romantically how I wished I still played regularly and was good, how practicing the fundamentals sucks, and that scales are part of those fundamentals, hence the memory. I was still pretty young and didn’t know him all that well, so it was a little nerve racking to have him do me a favor. I don’t even remember how it came to be that he was going to bring them over to us. Maybe it was right after I switched to Tuba or something. I honestly don’t recall.

Today I got a bunch of errands run. I paid rent, finally deposited some checks, paid a bill, went to Kroger to pick up a few things (crap, they’re still in the car…), and have caught up on laundry. Yay for checking things off a list! Unfortunately all of the Bank of America ATM’s were out of whack. Bummer. I still need to sign my lease renewal and fill out the rebate forms from the computer parts… I probably should do that now…

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It has begun

Posted by Thomas Mon, 22 Jan 2007 02:12:00 +0000

I’ve felt of late that over the weekend I tend to post several short, disjointed posts, so I figured I’d save up and just post once this time.

Hilary and Barack and who knows who else have formed presidential exploratory committees.

“You pick the smartest, most capable, most honorable individual you can think of…”
— Leo McGarry

I think that sentiment will be driving my decision. A person who is honorable, trustworthy, dare I say patriotic, who would adhere to a more strict interpretation of the Constitution. Actually, I don’t think I can use patriot as a criteria. It has been twisted. I don’t mean it in its current connotation, but that connotation from the Colonial era. A statesman, a patriot, a federalist, a contitutionalist.

I finally just put 2 and 2 together. For the past day or so, I’ve noticed a severe slowness in the responsiveness of one of my shells in a screen session. I had also noticed in a “ps axf” that there was an ssh session open to wesley. Neither of these things were adding up. I just realized that most likely I had ssh’ed to wesley, then back again to argento. The reason for the slowness wasn’t due to high load or low memory, but simply network lag and overhead of going to Texas and back again. Oops…

I have spent a good deal of this weekend again working on the home network. I installed a new Xen image for my database machine, figured out that Samba can’t do straight Kerberos authentication (only with real AD :(), packaged Resin for Debian for real this time (yay! finally!), watched a bunch of Scrubs, watched a bunch of movies over again, got Azureus working headless on my new shell server (compute0), did some laundry, stayed up too late, got up too late, found out my internet connection can push 15Mbps+, setup cricket for snmp monitoring of all of my new machines, hmmm, that’s all I can think of right now…

I haven’t fixed the car door and it’s been too cold to ride or finish the table.

I’m out of photos now. Must take more.

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all work and no awesome tv makes thomas something something

Posted by Thomas Tue, 16 Jan 2007 02:53:32 +0000

I don’t remember if I’ve blogged about this before, and I’m too lazy to do a search, so I’m just going to post (possibly) again. It sucks that I’m caught up with all of my shows. No more West Wing or Sports Night and I’m caught up on Lost, Studio 60, and Scrubs. Having to wait a week is a chore, and then if you watch them on real TV, there are commercials. What’s up with that? Commercials and waiting for next week’s show is for the birds…

There were three major things I should have gotten done this weekend. 1) Get my car door handle fixed. 2) Ride. 3) Finish my coffee table. I did none of them. Well, I did ride on Sunday, but I should have ridden on Saturday and Monday too…

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Worth mentioning too

Posted by Thomas Sun, 14 Jan 2007 14:54:53 +0000

The other thing I forgot to mention was that a dear friend, Dr. Dudley Moore, died January 13, 2007. Most of my readers wouldn’t know him, but I know there should be at least one or two that did. His health had been declining for some time, having pneumonia and confusion/dimentia. He had been in the hospital for a while and wasn’t getting any better. On January 11, they transfered him to hospice and died two days later. I distanced myself from his worsening health and told myself that he had led a full life. It didn’t really hit me until he was gone that I would miss him. We stopped by to see him the Thanksgiving before last at the Clarks’ house, a couple of streets over from my parents. That will be my last memory of him, in decent health, and I am sort of glad I never saw him in poor health. I am sorry I won’t be able to attend the funeral; my father is one of the honorary pallbearers. I know Dr. Moore impacted many people in his life, and it really will be a shame to miss the funeral, as I know it’ll be big and I know it’ll be a party, just like he’d want it to be.

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Worth mentioning

Posted by Thomas Sun, 14 Jan 2007 02:55:30 +0000

There were several things that I wanted to mention… what were they…

There was something about venting, about how it’s just a bandaid for your feelings and the problem. When you’ve blown everything out of proportion, I suppose it can help you get a reality check. And if you’re having some issues figuring out how to solve some set of problems, then maybe it’s good for getting a second opinion. But for me, most of my problems don’t involve not knowing the course of action, but rather a lack of motivation to put that course of action into motion. But, I think I’m over it for the moment…

I spent a lot of time remote diagnosing/troubleshooting the Wesley network with Ben tonight. During that time, I could hear people in the background carrying on. Wow, I miss those times a lot… :( Thinking about it now, I realize how much I miss just sitting around for hours on end spending time with your closest friends, day after glorious day. Something that I did for I don’t know how many years straight, I almost never do nowadays. I guess I took it for granted then, and only today did I realize that I missed it. Oh to sit on a germ infested Wesley couch for 8 hours straight, with very little to care about except whether to eat Jin’s or Freebirds.

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Up too late

Posted by Thomas Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:53:47 +0000

I am very tired, so I don’t know why I’m posting this.

My living room is an obstacle course/minefield from my new coffee table, old coffee table (aka my microwave box), and a plethora of boxes of stuff I’ve gotten in the mail in the recent past.

This kernel package I made’s name is entirely too long: linux-image-2.6.18.011207-l7_2.6.18.011207-l7-10.00.Custom_i386.deb

I don’t think that sentence makes sense.

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New Coffee Table

Posted by Thomas Wed, 10 Jan 2007 00:02:44 +0000

I am now the new, proud owner of my very own, real coffee table. It was finally dropped off today and I put it together when I got home. I think I’ve already got a little grease/vegetable oil on it, so I can’t eat on it again until it’s finished. :(

Steve Jobs had his keynote today at MacWorld. I’m have two questions about AppleTV. One, why doesn’t it have a firewire port so it can stream TV from a cable box, and two, does it support UPNP? They also announced the iPhone. It looks cool, but I’m not one much for that kind of stuff. I still have really old, plain cell phones, and I still don’t have much need for an iPod…

I wore my Greece shirt to work today. Only one guy noticed and mentioned something to me about it. That tells you something about the guys I work with. Or maybe they’re all afraid of me. Or maybe they noticed and didn’t say anything.

Posted in General, Technology | 1 Comment

Monday Update

Posted by Thomas Tue, 09 Jan 2007 01:31:54 +0000

I’ve finally gone through my photos from the past several months and the photoblog will be on autopilot for the next (almost) 2 weeks, just as Marc’s is at the moment. Hopefully I’ll get around to posting the raw pics into original soon.

I heard a song on Scrubs during my binge that caught my attention from Kutless. I downloaded some songs and they seem like a cool band.

I bought 4 2-port 10/100 e100s on ebay (a buy it now) for $30. I probably would have spent $20 on one single port from best buy or fry’s. I need them for a router, so I can finish building the home network (I need real dns before I can setup kerberos…). Also on the tech front, I realized that even though my webhost symlinks uptime to /bin/true, I can still read /proc/loadavg (and top will show it as well). But the bad part about this is that I’ve seen the load be 30. Now I understand why it’s unbearably sluggish sometimes. :( This is almost unacceptable and I’m half inclined to setup a cron job to monitor it to see what it’s like over time…

I’ve also solved a problem with my Nexenta system that’s been driving me up the wall. I had gotten Nexenta to work with OpenLDAP, but it wasn’t seeing the groups. I finally posted to sparks-discuss and they solved it for me pretty quickly. It was a known bug, but they had a decent work around, so I was pretty happy with the result.

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The plans I have for you

Posted by Thomas Sun, 07 Jan 2007 23:59:45 +0000

Maybe it’s been the up-teen hours of Scrubs that I’ve watched over the past several weeks, but tonight I am feeling mysteriously better about my life. I just finished catching up, having watched all of the Scrubs episodes through the current season and episode. Like most television shows, at the end of their 30 minutes, whatever mystery or problem plaguing the characters seems to find resolution. And you might not think that life is really like that…

There are many days that I feel completely overwhelmed in my life. And there aren’t too many people in this world that I talk to about stuff like that, and it seems like that pool grows smaller and smaller every day. I get tired of talking about the mundane details of my life, and I’ve never been one much for small talk, so that does not lend itself very well to me keeping up with some of my best friends.

But somehow at the end of every episode, things are all right. And, you know what kind of show it is, so there isn’t truly much doubt that things will turn out okay, even when things look their most bleak. And somehow it’s the same way with my life. There hasn’t been a day gone by in years when I honestly didn’t know in my heart of hearts that my future is secure. But there are too many days when I can’t for the life of me see my next step, and too many days where I can’t imagine a wife and a family, and too many days when I feel like I don’t know who I am or what I’m doing. And knowing that my life is going according to plan does not always grant me solace.

But there are times, when I briefly glimpse clarity, and know that we really are going to be alright.

I just wish someone could tell me what I’m supposed to be doing here. And I wish I had someone to go through life with me and help me get through all of those little things that I need nudges to do. And I wish I had someone to vent to and someone I can listen to. Someone whose life I have a vested interest in.

It’s just so hard for me to know that in the end everything will be alright when I can’t see my next step.

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Good Day

Posted by Thomas Sun, 07 Jan 2007 14:15:03 +0000

Note: I should have posted this yesteday (Saturday), but I didn’t. :(

Today has been monumental. I rode again today. Here are the stats from the ride near my apartment: 6.1 miles, 27 minutes, 13.6 mph average, and a top speed of 34.87 mph. Yah! And I didn’t really feel that bad afterwards. I think I’ve finally realized that I need to pace my riding. I didn’t try to sustain 20 mph, and just tried to keep it between 10 and 15 mph, which seems to work out much better for me and should be a better work out for me. Longer time at an elevated heart-rate and all that. I also vacuumed the living room. Go me!

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Venting on Venting

Posted by Thomas Fri, 05 Jan 2007 01:59:04 +0000

Venting is extremely foreign to me. You feel upset and overwhelmed. You angrily spout out a bunch of stuff that may or may not be relevant, meaningful. or pertinent to anything. And generally at the end you feel better or maybe after a little while, you feel better. Even though nothing has fundamentally changed with anything that’s going on in your life or whatever’s been bothering you. And it’s even worse when you feel bad for no good reason, then vent for no good reason, then feel better for no good reason. The problems still exist, remain unresolved, and no solutions created, yet you just feel differently about them now. That just doesn’t compute. Which is why it seems such a foreign concept to me. Perhaps because I view it more as a problem solving strategy, when in fact it is not. And the reason I view it as a problem solving strategy is because everyone and their dog wants you to talk stuff out whenever you feel like this, like it will solve all of those problems that have led to this. It solves the problem of how you feel, but little else. But is that really a solution at all? Can feelings really be solved? Of course not! They are “just feelings”. But it’s not like they can be ignored (well, I bet I do a more than fair job at that…). They must be dealt with somehow. But why? I guess it’s a little too much like cleaning to me. Yeah, I could clean this stuff, but in a day or a week, it will be dirty again. And, in all honesty, I’d rather just leave it dirty for a long time than have to clean it up once a week. There is no satisfaction cleaning it up once a week. (Well, there is little satisfaction in cleaning at all for me.) But, it gets the monkey off my back. So, it’s like, if you feel bad for no good reason, then why deal with it, because eventually you’ll feel better for no good reason. Shouldn’t it just balance itself out? Seriously, what’s up with feeling bad for no good reason? Why does that happen? Anyway, doesn’t that make sense? If you feel bad for no good reason, and you wait long enough, shouldn’t you feel better for no good reason? Why am I trying to justify this to myself? I dunno, but I need to go to bed.

So, instead of trying to “solve” your “feelings”, wouldn’t it be more advantageous to actually fix the problem instead of fixing the feelings associated with the problem? Where by fixing the problem, ergo, vis à vie, ipso facto, e pluribus unum, you fix the feeling.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Non-depressing update

Posted by Thomas Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:39:56 +0000

I awoke this morning to knocking at my door. In my i’m-still-asleep stupor, I was excited, as I thought that it might be my new coffee table (oh yeah, I finally got the coffee table). I put on my robe (j/k I don’t own a robe) and answered the door. It was the police. Luckily I had [insert something here that would have been fortuitous in light of a cop showing up on my doorstep] the night before. He asked if I owned the Yukon (which I do of course). Someone had tried to break into it. They managed to crack the handle, but didn’t get into the car. They might have gotten spooked or something (who knows). Anyway, the car’s ok. I’ll need to get some estimates of getting it fixed, and most likely I won’t claim it on the insurance, so it’ll probably be out of pocket (yay!). I took some pictures of the damage this morning, so I’ll probably eventually post them.

In other news, I caught up on Lost on Friday night. I had finished season two some months ago and hadn’t been keeping up with season three. They were in a lull, so I picked up the first 6 episodes (that’s how many they’ve made thus far), and I’ll poke my head back under the sand for a few more months. I really do like watching them in groups (like I’ve done with West Wing and Scrubs), as it’s just so nice. I think that I’ve made some peace with Lost’s slow timeline. I’ve also decided if I were any of them, I would have snapped, and not trusted anybody, and just started killing anyone who messed with me. I really don’t understand what the others are afraid of from these people who crash landed. If they’re so sure of their purpose and their success, then they shouldn’t care about them. If their purpose is so pure, they should have no problems letting new people in and have those new people help them. It just seems like a cult or something. They have to hide and ethically justify what they’re doing for the greater good. It just doesn’t make much sense. But, if the story is supposed to last for 5 seasons, then it should be getting close to half way, which is somewhat of a comfort… like it’s only downhill from here or something.

I also’ve watched “You, Me, and Dupree” which was better than expected. Also, I finally watched “Funny Face”. I didn’t realize it was so much of a musical. Oh well, it was still decent. Having Fred Astaire in it should have tipped me off.

Posted in General, Movies | 1 Comment

New Year

Posted by Thomas Mon, 01 Jan 2007 15:19:25 +0000

Do you know the best part of my first ride on the first day of the new year was, beside the 55 degree cold, the wind, driving 10 miles for a 5.6 mile ride, and accidentally riding past where I parked, adding an additional mile to the ride? The mid-ride dry heaves. Thanks, 2007. It’s going to be a good year.

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2 Years in April

Posted by Thomas Mon, 01 Jan 2007 02:29:30 +0000

When people ask me how long I’ve been here or how long I’ve been in Atlanta, I’ve started telling them that it will be two years in April. I guess that it’s been roughly 20 months now, but I like the other turn of phrase more so and 20 months doesn’t really mean much to me in terms of time. But every time I say that now and think about really how long it’s been, I cannot help but feel like it’s been two years of my life where I’ve accomplished nothing. I will be two years older. I was a young 24 when I started, and I am about to turn 26. That makes me feel old. I’m almost 26. No wife, no kids, no real sense of where I’m going, nor any sense of self accomplishment. Life’s not supposed to feel like this.

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Classes they should have offered in college

Posted by Thomas Mon, 01 Jan 2007 02:29:20 +0000

Clawing your way up the corporate ladder 101.
How to tell when your boss is an ass 102.
Ass kissing 201.
Selling yourself (and taking credit for other’s work) 202.
How to create a project for the sake of creating a project and sustain it for 6 months 301.
How to tell when to leave your job 401.
Looking for another job while still employed 402.

Unfortunately all of those sound like every self-help book ever written. I doubt they would actually teach you anything worthwhile, sustainable, or applicable to people’s real lives.

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Post backlog

Posted by Thomas Thu, 28 Dec 2006 00:37:18 +0000

I guess that I have a post backlog. I have all of these disjointed thoughts that I feel warrant separate posts, but they’re all grouped together time-wise at the end of the Christmas holiday. So, if you’re reading this, be sure that you didn’t miss any new posts. :)

Oh, and I’ve been pondering going on the January Work Project. It looks like it starts Jan 6. It would be cool to take off for a week and jetset out, but thinking now, it’s a little short notice…

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New Gallery Software

Posted by Thomas Thu, 28 Dec 2006 00:36:50 +0000

You can find for the time being all of my photos at http://chobas.com/original/. Hopefully it doesn’t become a crutch and result in lest posting on the photoblog…

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Tech Support

Posted by Thomas Thu, 28 Dec 2006 00:36:27 +0000

I have more than a few artsy friends in the graphics/photography/video/animation field. Several have been in the real world for a few years, while others are just starting. It really makes me wish that we could all start a little consulting business. There are at the very least Amy, Tycen, Adan, Marc, and Nancy. They could all do the artsy thing, and I could do all the tech support/IT for them…

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Google Christmas Party

Posted by Thomas Fri, 15 Dec 2006 02:16:12 +0000

Wow, I’ve not had that much fun in months. I really wasn’t looking forward to it at all. I was in fact dreading it and had been for several days. I’ve been in the doldrums as of late, so I wasn’t in the mood to be social, but damn I had a good time. I’m not sure I’ve ever had so much fun at the expense of drunk people, and boy are they funny. At the beginning I was pretty stiff, still not really wanting to be there, but after a little while I started to loosen up, for whatever reason. It probably had to do with the fact that everybody was drunk and wasn’t going to remember this, ever. I also started not caring whether people cared if I was taking pictures of them, so I started to take a whole bunch of pictures. I ran down my battery, let it charge some, ran it down again, let it charge some, and then ran it down again. I’m beginning to think I need a pistol grip battery along with some new glass. Looking at the pictures now, it seems like my primary issues were focus, lighting, and framing. I became more and more aware of being too close to the people in the picture, so I would back away and let the flash travel a bit (if I had the space to take a step back). The place was pretty dark, so I was using a flash, and wasn’t really in the mood to try any manual aperture mode. I figured that the reason why the camera was intent on pre-flashing alot was due to the low light and not being able to autofocus, which I also imagine didn’t help the battery situation much. Since I was blinding a bunch of people and didn’t have much battery to spare, I didn’t really feel like making them sit through several takes. And finally since it was also dark, I had some trouble seeing what I was photographing through the viewfinder. So, to recap, I need to pay more attention to framing (I was just being lazy mostly when this happened), bring a better battery, take at least 2+ of everything (to aid in better odds of a good autofocus), while simultaneously getting better at paying attention to the focus before taking the picture and being more diligent about checking the proof. I guess that part of it was that sometimes it just didn’t want to take, so I would hold down the button so that it eventually would take (which could have been a bunch of them). By then I didn’t have too much control over what exactly was in focus and didn’t want people to have to pose any longer.

In other news, I am in serious want of a wife…

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Spam Poetry

Posted by Thomas Thu, 14 Dec 2006 12:53:24 +0000

I am a seeker in search of miracles.
For ceiling’s and wall’s.
The conditionally perceived illusionary surroundings require examination and overcoming.
His exaggerated approach to sci-fi and surrealist subjects are fresh and twisted, with commentaries, accomplishments, and future goals as well.

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Scrubs

Posted by Thomas Tue, 12 Dec 2006 00:12:01 +0000

I have only until recently gained a significant appreciation for Scrubs. I essentially watched the first two seasons this past weekend, and I now understand why Adan, et. al. liked it so much, and I now like it, too. :) I really need to procure and watch the rest, which I imagine I’ll get on it right quick-like.

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Verizon can’t do math :(

Posted by Thomas Sat, 09 Dec 2006 12:02:51 +0000

For everyone who understand the difference between a dollar and a penny and can do dimensional analysis, you MUST WATCH THIS ROTF LMAO LOLOLO!!1!!!1. If the math is too much for you to follow, just use Google Calculator.

Update: For those of you who would like to keep up with the saga, check in over at the blog this guy set up for this.

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Being Ignored

Posted by Thomas Tue, 05 Dec 2006 00:50:42 +0000

I really hate being ignored. The frequency with which I feel this is quite small, but potent when it does occur (hence this post). And indeed more often than not, I am quite content to be ignored. But there are those times, when someone asks something of you and asks that it be done in an expeditious manner and then promptly ignores you, like it’s not really all that important (of course I never do that myself…). Those are the times that irk me the most. I’d like to believe that I’m a pretty low maintenance guy and that my friends don’t have to dote over me nor pay me much attention. Hopefully they acknowledge my existence, which usually of itself is enough. So, please, if you ask something of me, and I follow up with some sort of quandary in response to your request, be quick to respond, lest I think you don’t care that much for what you asked. Man, I just hate it when I ask a simple and reasonable question and get no love… I really hope I don’t do that.

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Amarillo International Airport

Posted by Thomas Sun, 26 Nov 2006 20:14:40 +0000

I am waiting for a few more minutes here in the Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport with free wifi and figured that I might share some thoughts while still fresh. I was glad to be home and out of Atlanta, but I am also now glad to be heading back to Atlanta. I can only take so much of the “what do you want to eat”, “where do you want to eat”, “did you get enough to eat”, “do you have everything (luggage, camera, tickets)”, etc. I feel pretty hen pecked when they take my temperature on virtually everything. I know that they’re just trying to make my trip as wonderful as possible by making sure that they’re doing what I want to be doing, but in reality I don’t really care that much and am pretty low maintenance (or at least I like to think so) and so I would almost just rather prefer that someone else picked and I will be content with whatever decision is made. I think that my Dad is getting sappy in his old age. I would guess that my Mother is the same way, but knows to hide it a little more from me and to try and not be so Motherly (which I assume that she learned from the empty nest phase during the first few years of me being in college and some talks that we had). I guess they will always be parental, but for theirs and my sakes I wish they’d worry a lot less. It’s surprising that neither one of them has gotten ulcers… Somehow we managed to not see any movies nor did we talk about Baxter. I suppose that I was party to both counts, it seemed a little odd, especially that Baxter never came up. He’s buried in the back yard, so I went to see him twice and took some pictures. I thought that I would feel differently seeing the grave, but I guess that it’s been long enough that it didn’t really evoke much, which in itself made me a little sad.

I got to see Role and Jackson for most of the day on Friday, which was really good. TJ even stopped by a bit, being in Amarillo. Also, while my sisters and Mother shopped in Hobby Lobby, I wandered around the store and caught up with both Max and Ann Murphey (well she used to be Ann Murphey), both of whom I hadn’t talked to in quite some time, so it was good to catch up. All in all a really good weekend, getting to see the fam and getting to see and catch up with friends.

Apparently I have bad luck when it comes to air travel, as everyone seemed to mention it. My parents and even the neighbor mentioned my trouble. Anyway, it wasn’t something that I had even really thought about until several people brought it to my attention. In my mind, I really didn’t think that I have had too many issues… Odd how perceptions are different. I guess it’s just not one of those things that I think about or linger on. I figure that I’ve got bigger fish to fry.

I better sign off as I imagine that we’ll be boarding soon. Hope everybody had a Happy Thanksgiving!

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Thanksgiving Travel

Posted by Thomas Fri, 24 Nov 2006 02:56:02 +0000

I flew American Airlines this trip, which I am not sure if I will do again. For the leg from DFW to AMA, they would not issue me a seat assignment until I arrived in DFW. Upon my arrival (and with the skylink broken) I walked to my gate and received a seat assignment and a boarding pass. They announced around the boarding time that they were overweight and needed 4 volunteers to bump. None did and they basically recalled/confiscated my boarding pass. At this point, I’m wondering if I am going to get to Amarillo that night, as the flight that they mentioned during the bumping announcment was at 6am the next morning. But, they must have loosed some weight somewhere, as I think that all of the 4 of us that might have been involuntarily bumped weren’t, so I made it home as planned. A little disappointing, as I was almost in the mood for a tirade about their policy towards their customers. I even had a decent analogy to how it appears to me how baseball game tickets are also a racket, as you are not given re-entry rights. It’s like you aren’t buying/renting out a seat so much as buying a one time ticket through the door.

I read “The Bear and the Dragon” (which is actually Chad’s book) during the flight. I figured that I need the mental exercise in reading instead of sleeping. I got like 130 pages into it, I think.

On the flight from ATL to DFW, I did sit next to a very attractive young lady. I eventually built up enough courage to chit chat with her. I stammered something about whether or not she was flying home for the holiday. To which she replied that she had a wedding to go to this weekend and hence the trip. I tried to continue the conversation, which lasted for a couple of minutes. I figured that I would be polite and only carry it on if she did, which she didn’t, so that was that.

This is not a new sentiment, and I don’t know if I have ever mentioned it here, but some attractive woman is going to have to club me over the head. I can probably read women about as well as they can read me so I really just give up trying. So, like I said, this is not a new revelation, but perhaps worth repeating.

In other news, both my parents made mention of the possibility that I’ve gained some weight. Thinking about it now as I write, I am curious why they didn’t mention it before when they were in Atlanta… But, my Dad got the scale out and it weighed me at just under 200 pounds. It’s a nice feeling when you think that you’re gaining weight and then it is more or less confirmed. I think that I’ve floated around 185 for several years. I’ve had that sinking feeling about my metabolism slowing since I’ve moved to Atlanta, plus the fact that quite often I eat pretty late at night. Two factors that are not contributing to my skinniness. Like all good parents, I think that they were spining it and back pedalling, and I doubt that I could get a straight answer now about what they really thought, even if I asked them point blank. Maybe the bike was a good purchase after all.

Well, it’s rather late, even my my standards and I’m getting up “early” in the morning to head out to Palo Duro Canyon for a little photo shoot with Cole and Rachel. Should be fun.

Posted in General, Women | 1 Comment

Shorter hair

Posted by Thomas Sun, 19 Nov 2006 21:55:52 +0000

It seems that it has been quite some time since my last post, a week to be exact, for which I apologize to my noble and illustrious readers. I must be on quite the Jimmy Stewart kick, as I have watched “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, “Rear Window”, and “The Philadelphia Story” (which I am currently in the middle of). Both “Rear Window” and “Accepted” were really good, and “The Philadelphia Story” is looking pretty good at this point, too. You should watch the director’s commentary of “Accepted”, as it has virtually nothing to do with the movie that these guys are watching, and more to do with the making fun of each other and generally goofing off. It was a really good time. I watched some Airwolf, MacGuyver, MXC, Get Smart, and MythBusters this weekend. I’m really digging the variety. I continue on to try and catch up on my old movie backlog, which I’m sure will take me quite some time. This little endeavor has, though, gained me quite a whole new appreciation for actresses before my time, such as Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Shirley MacLaine, and Audrey Hepburn.

My apartment complex recently had need to shut off the water to the entire complex several times over several days, during business hours. I’d say that this happened roughly 3 to 4 times over a week or so. It definitely took me at least two tries to get through a shower without them cutting off the water half way through. Once or twice I misjudged the time, and once the notice fell off my door, so I was caught completely unaware.

The new cable has been pretty worthless. I watched it for a day or two, and remembered why I didn’t miss it (especially since I don’t get channels like 3-6 on my tv, as it is somewhat decrepit, and counts me out of some of the probably better broadcast programming). Comcast was quite efficient in their billing, as it has already come, which reminds me that I need to expense it.

I somehow managed to get my external into an odd state, where it now has XFS on it, instead of the normal FAT32. I didn’t have enough to rectify this, so I had to break out the good ol’ fibre channel for a bit to get the external back to a state where just about any o/s can read it. I can fill in the mundane details later, for those of you who care. I’ve played with LVM before, but always more in a playful way than in a production way. And I knew that it wasn’t the most intuitive thing in the world, so I had to mess with it some to get it to bow to my will.

Oh, I got a haircut this weekend, as I was going to a wedding on Saturday. The haircut went ok. The sides are a lot shorter than I prefer, and there is some long hair in the front (like everyone seems to leave long with the part not in the middle), but other than that, I can’t complain. The wedding was small, but good. It was the first that it wasn’t a Wesleyite and hence wasn’t a wedding where I felt like I’d known them forever and knew lots of other Wesleyites in attendance as well.

It’s been pretty cold at night here, so I haven’t been riding at all in the mornings. I caught up on some laundry over the weekend. I had a fun adventure both dropping off and picking up my suit from the cleaners. During the drop-off, the Indian lady was trying to ask me a question, which I couldn’t understand at all, and asked her to repeat mabye half a dozen times. I still didn’t understand and finally another employee (that was on the phone at the time) stepped in and said the word “Thursay”, which is what she had been trying to convey to me, that the suit would be ready to pick up on Thursday. Which was fine, of course, but it was definitely a tough time getting through the thick accent communication barrier. Then, when I went to pick it up Friday after paintball (yes, I know get over it), I had an almost even harder time getting it back, as they apparently couldn’t read my hand writing, tought that the G was an E and finally a C to figure out where they had my suit stashed among the racks and racks of clothes. I finally got it back, but question if I would go back there again. They also left some odd oily (or what seem to be oil) marks on my white shirt. I dunno what to think about that, but I’ll have some time before I need more stuff dry cleaned.

This past week I’ve meant to blog about the stuff like the dry cleaners and the water being cut off, but let it slip and they both might have gone by the wayside, but I happened to remember them tonight while I was writing, so you all can partake in my life a little more. I should try to do a little better about shooting off little bloglets when I think of funny things that happen.

Anyway, I am looking forward to getting out of Dodge. I’m getting pretty stir crazy around here…

Posted in General, Movies | Comments Off

I liked it better when it was called Fight Club

Posted by Thomas Mon, 13 Nov 2006 02:04:13 +0000

My hair is too long.
I have new shoes (for a little while now).
I’m getting cable tomorrow.
I want to go snow skiing.
I am one click away from buying a new $300 coffee table that I’ve been lusting after since I don’t know when, but $300 is a lot. That’s like half of a new computer (a really decent one) or 3 400 GB drives (on sale). All things that I really could do with. Why oh why doesn’t money grow on trees?

Posted in General | 4 Comments

Soapy-box

Posted by Thomas Sun, 12 Nov 2006 01:14:27 +0000

Why would you condone text-speak abbreviations in official high school exams? It’s lame. And why don’t they just put an extremely heavy weight on spelling? Wouldn’t that be an semi-unbiased way to make sure that the kids know that they should use the appropriate spelling, while simultaneously not punishing the content for the poor spelling?

I was today forwarded to me an email of some propoganda of the American Family Association, stating that Best Buy has banned the use of Merry Christmas in their advertising. Apparently this is an abomination, although it is beyond me as to why. Can anyone tell me why they have a problem with this? Best Buy is an international corportation (albeit a small one, with only US and Canadian stores). Corporations don’t care about you, they only care about their bottom lines and their stock holders (well, supposedly their stock holders). They only pseudo-care about you if they loose you as a customer, so I would imagine that they thought long and hard and chose the decision that would piss off the fewest of their likely customers. Also, I’m not quite sure what exactly their expectations are from this campaign. They want everyone to email Best Buy, but there is no mention of boycott or anything else. Are they just bitching and whining about this? Seriously, what did you expect from a corporation? It’s the American way, the realization of American dream, and capitalism all at work. It would appear that the major reason why this is even brought up is due to several other corporations changing their stance from previous years. Also, it appears that they have a problem with Borat. Are they aware that it was fictional? That jokes make fun of things? That we don’t have to be offended by every little thing? That the “Running of the Jews” really is a funny premise? That it is really funny in the context of the movie while simultaneously really sad that there really are real people in the world that honestly and completely hate certain people-groups. It is honestly sad. But in a make-pretend movie, it’s ok to laugh, honest. :)

Ok, off my soapbox now.

I watched “Stranger than Fiction”, which was really good. I’ve also watched “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” today, which I accidentally napped through parts of. I went to see Borat a little while ago, which I loved. And I watched “Roman Holiday”, which I seemed to recall loving as well. My Netflix queue is filled with old movies at the moment, including “Mr. Smith…”. I seem to be on a kick to try to whittle down my list of movies I need to watch from the IMDB Top 250. Well, that and I’m still really low on modern movies that I want to watch.

Does anyone else ever feel like no matter how hard they try, that there are a great many things that they cannot will into happening?

Posted in General, Movies | Comments Off

The Weekend

Posted by Thomas Sun, 05 Nov 2006 14:30:37 +0000

REL was in town. I thought about going, and maybe should have, but didn’t.

I whole-heartedly and completely agree that this is gibberish to me as well.

Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘I can’t configure Debian’.

I watched “The Break-Up” (which was still good), “Thank You for Smoking” (which was ok), and I’ll be watching “Roman Holiday” sometime today most likely.

I knew it. I didn’t think that I had much of an accent. Now irrefutable internet proof!

What American accent do you have?

Your Result: The Midland

“You have a Midland accent” is just another way of saying “you don’t have an accent.” You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.

The West

The South

Boston

North Central

The Inland North

Philadelphia

The Northeast


What American accent do you have?


Take More Quizzes

Posted in General, Movies | 4 Comments

Rent-buhwhaa?

Posted by Thomas Thu, 02 Nov 2006 01:12:41 +0000

Is today the 1st? Is rent due today? I have no idea what day it is. At least this week I know what day of the week it is. It’s been a stressful week and I can feel it in my upper back. Hopefully only one more stressful day (Thursday) this week. :)

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Movie Catch-Up

Posted by Thomas Mon, 30 Oct 2006 01:48:03 +0000

That researcher guy got questioned and then his house searched and stuff confiscated, which is unfortunate, because he really did break the law. He should have known better, but the problem has existed for quite a while. I despise it when a company or organization or department feigns something like that. You give the illusion of security or fore-thought or whatever, but in reality you can’t or won’t accept the truth.

This should make a bunch of people very happy.

To catch up on movies as of late, I’ve seen “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, which I thought was pretty much “The Apartment”, “The Lake House” which was better than I was expecting from Keanu and Sandra, “Blade Runner”, which I still don’t really get, “Match Point”, which was excellent, especially from Woody Allen, “Nacho Libre”, which I should have watched in the theater, because it was really good and would have been better with an audience, “Lost in Translation” which was ok, but seemed more or less like “Code 46”, and “Memoirs of a Geisha”, which was wonderful.

Posted in General, Movies | Comments Off

Studio 60 and some odd geek dating advice

Posted by Thomas Wed, 25 Oct 2006 23:29:01 +0000

I finally got around to watching the latest episode of Studio 60 last night (episode 6). It was AWESOME! I really feel like the cast and the writers were really gelling, because the dialogue and the acting was spectacular. Multiple mini story lines, character and plot development. Good stuff. Maybe it was each becoming comforable with the other, maybe it was the cast getting used to the tempo and gait of the writing, maybe just the cast getting to know each other better, maybe it was the story progressing to the point where you were no longer having to remind the audience who was whom and could actually move the narrative forward. Whatever it was, it was good, and I’m glad that it looks and feels much more like what I grew accustomed to in Sports Night and the West Wing. I’m much relieved, as I was up until this point not yet convinced as to the quality. If this keeps up, then I’m not worried. :)

I guess that I saw this on Digg, which then linked to this and this. All I considered to be lackluster.

Posted in General, Women | Comments Off

¡Yo soy toro!

Posted by Thomas Mon, 23 Oct 2006 01:45:08 +0000

By Handsome Rob’s personal request, I posted a picture of the new bike.

Even though you may not be in CS anymore, you didn’t have to miss this year’s Bonding Sunday!

I have been quite remis in posting both here and in the photoblog. I just went back through what I’ve taken over what seems like the past 6 months and posted them into the photoblog (starting with this one of kb). They’ll show up one a day for quite some time (until the 12th of November). Enjoy!

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Good Day

Posted by Thomas Sat, 07 Oct 2006 22:43:39 +0000

I’ve had a good day. I got up this morning around eleven, after several sleep/wake cycles. I had set my alarm for eleven, but I guess my body was anxious about not oversleeping, as I woke up several times before then, rolled over, and went back to sleep. I normally would have slept in even more, but there was a group of people from work that wanted to go bike riding on the Silver Comet Trail. I stopped off at work on my way, grabbing a bagel, a banana, and some Gatorade (it’s tough to believe, I know, that I ate a bagel and banana for breakfast). We met up around 12:30 and we finally headed out around 1, I think. The trip was supposed to be fifteen miles, which we surpassed. My computer said that I averaged about 13.9 mph, and our travel time was roughly an hour fifteen. There were some legs where we sustained about 20 mph, and I and another guy drafted off of each other and traded off leading. Afterwards, most of us went to eat lunch at a little sandwich shop. I was and am really surprised at how little sore I am and good I felt at the end. When I’ve ridden this past week, I’ve always felt dead at the end of a 2 or 3 mile jaunt, which hasn’t given me much desire to ride again. I came back home and showered and haven’t done much since.

I’m in the middle of Two Towers, having already watched The Fellowship recently. I should have had my Netflix in today, but they were not in my mailbox when I checked upon my arrival back after lunch, which was disheartening. So, that put somewhat of a damper on the rest of my weekend, as I would have had some new movies to watch. I can’t imagine why they are late, and I don’t know if I should blame Netflix or the post office.

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The Norm

Posted by Thomas Thu, 05 Oct 2006 01:28:41 +0000

How is it that I just spent $800 on a road bike, yet I don’t want to go riding in the morning? This is why I don’t buy stuff. This is why I don’t talk. This is why I eat the same food. Because when I deviate from the norm I get screwed, and I only wish that I hadn’t.

Long live the status quo.

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Road Bike

Posted by Thomas Mon, 02 Oct 2006 00:10:26 +0000

So, I got a road bike this past Saturday. I ordered it the Saturday before, which in turn meant that they had to order it and put it together, so I picked it up yesterday. I rode yesterday and today, and remembered how much out of shape I am (I also remembered that I am still in mourning over having my Gary Fisher Marlin stolen many, many moons ago). It’s a Trek 1000, and I took some pictures of it, so maybe I’ll post them to the photoblog. I watched “Taxi Driver” and thought that it was ok, and I watched “Puddle Cruiser”, which was ok as well. “Puddle Cruizer” is Broken Lizard’s first feature lenght film on 35mm. I guess that they just released it on DVD, as it was filmed in the mid-90s. The commentary was done pretty recently, as they made several references to “Dukes of Hazzard” in the commentaries. And, btw, they are planning a Super Troopers 2. Here’s to hoping it’s as funny as the first. I am leaning more and more towards augmenting my internet situation. Maybe I’ll make a decision soon… My parents are flying out on October 13, so that should be fun/interesting, which means I need to clean the apartment thoroughly beforehand. I went out with a few guys from work on Friday after work. Went to a bar until around 11. It wasn’t too drunken, so it was enjoyable.

I feel like I’ve really been out of it lately, and I have no idea why. I sort of miss being around people who will correct your smallest grammar mistake or mispoken word. It keeps your mind and tongue on their toes.

This week or last, I also had a guy from work ask me if I was going to church. We were discussing work and how I was down about it, and he asked me sort of out of the blue. This is a guy who I pretty much thought was a pagan, so it really took me aback.

I also finally got to watch the second episode of Studio 60. It was on par with the first. It’s still too early to tell, but I imagine that I will be a watcher…

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Fucking Lost

Posted by Thomas Sat, 23 Sep 2006 04:39:33 +0000

F-u-c-k u Lost!1!

Posted in General | Comments Off

Paint

Posted by Thomas Wed, 20 Sep 2006 00:52:18 +0000

My mark on Wesley is gone… :(

Is anyone reading this?

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Crack Food

Posted by Thomas Tue, 19 Sep 2006 11:28:24 +0000

Popeyes has the crack biscuits.
Texas Roadhouse has the crack rolls.
Koppe Bridge has the crack french fries.
What else am I missing?

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Aggressivity

Posted by Thomas Mon, 18 Sep 2006 01:35:53 +0000

Handsome Rob asked me a good question tonight, “what areas are you aggressive in your life?”. And I really didn’t have a good answer for him, because I’m not really sure that there are any. He did say driving, and I will give him that. I think that I tend to avoid conflict, I try to do what people expect of me, I try to please people, and be generally as agreeable as possible, becuase I figure that’s what most people like best, someone who will go along with you. I’m, of course, speaking in generalities here, but when am I agressive?

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Two years and screwball comedies

Posted by Thomas Thu, 14 Sep 2006 23:55:05 +0000

It’s been two years since my first blog entry. Not nearly as long as many on the web. It seems like a fairly long time, until I think that I’ve been here for 17 months, which only makes about 6 months worth of blogging while in CS, which doesn’t sound like very long at all. Odd how often time seems both short and long simultaneously…

For your enjoyment, a listing of thoroughly enjoyable, truly screwball comedies (feel free to add others in comments). Hollywood needs to make more of these.
Top Secret!
The Naked Gun
Hot Shots!
Airplane!
Animal House
Young Frankenstein
Loaded Weapon
Robin Hood: Men in Tights

And, a random quote, which seems plausible:

Ugly programs are like ugly suspension bridges: they’re much more liable to collapse than pretty ones, because the way humans (especially engineer-humans) perceive beauty is intimately related to our ability to process and understand complexity.

Posted in General, Movies | 5 Comments

On the lighter side of things…

Posted by Thomas Mon, 11 Sep 2006 02:29:55 +0000

I procurred a PA-RISC system on Friday. For free! Yeah, baby. Since Debian is awesome and has a port, I’ve been working on it for a good part of the weekend (see documentation here, here, here, and here). It had an old Debian install on it, testing even, but I was not privy to any of the passwords. And, since udev and 2.6 and all, I figured that it would be a good idea to have a nice clean install, instead of a dist-upgraded one. So, instead of doing a simple dist-upgrade on Friday, I’ve been working most of the weekend to get Debian reinstalled on the thing. I wasn’t able to get XFS on it, due to some odd kernel module bug. I posted to the mailing list, but the buggers haven’t answered back. I’m not sure if I would reinstall now, anyway, since it was a pain, and is really slow, and my internet sucks. BTW, it’s a smoking 100MHz RISC chip, an HP 712/100, with 64MB of RAM, a 2G HD, and 10 whole Megabits of network. It’s an HPPA and my first non-x86 architecture, so I’m pretty happy. I don’t know what I’m even going to do with it, but it’s sitting under my feet at the moment… Maybe it’s time to plop down some $$$ for that O2 I’ve always been lusting for…

Posted in General, Technology | 2 Comments

Gaming Friends

Posted by Thomas Sun, 10 Sep 2006 00:03:14 +0000

The closest friends I have made during my time in Atlanta are almost 100% non-Christian and gamers. If you know me very well, you would know that I do not consider myself a gamer (neither in video, nor most real world sports). I have never been very proficient at games, which I am sure helped to contribute to my general disdain for them. And perhaps even more prolific in forming my opinion is the lack of value that I see in them. Not too unlike many of the procrastination tools of the average college student *cough*facebook*couch, gaming doesn’t add much value to my life. Especially when done alone. Seeing if you can beat the undead by using your hero and a whole lot of I don’t know what is an utter waste of time in my opinion. It can be argued that team gaming is a bonding experience, which it is, but gamers game much more than the not-to-oft game night at a friend’s house. I would much rather browse the web, or watch movies, or, gasp, watch tv. At least in TV or the web, I have the opportunity to be able to learn something or keep up with current events. Sure, you could say that there is value in succeeding at gaming, learning how to solve problems, create strategies, and defeat enemies, but as you may recall I suck at games, so it’s a lot of time spent getting my ass handed to me, not getting any better, and feeling really bad about it.

Which semi-brings me to the point of this post. For the most part, I try not to do stuff that I’m no good at. I can be very competitive at times, and it’s not usually something that I like about myself, because it’s not a very loving stance to take to be better than someone, even if you are. So, the way that I think that I’ve developed over my life to deal with this is to not care about a whole lot of stuff like this. Because if I don’t care about it, then I won’t be competitive and when I suck I won’t get down in then mouth about it. It’s a defense mechanism. An odd side effect of this is that I tend to either care immensely about something, or hardly at all. All the things I care about, I care about immensely, and everthing else I can’t care less about. Odd extremes, I know…

So, when all of my friends are gamers, what do they want to do? Game and talk about gaming. Which bores me to no end, but I can listen to them talk, because I’m their friend and I value their friendship, and I want (at some level) to care about what they care about, and show them at the very least the respect to listen to their conversation. But, I tend to draw the line if you “think that I’ll really enjoy this game”, or expect me to want to play games, even after I have repeatedly said that I’m not much of a gamer, and that I don’t play games. I might humor you, but do not confuse humor for genuine interest.

Man, I’m still not to my point yet… So, I have been playing games a lot recently, and am, what I would consider, honest-to-goodness good at one of them, namely Smash Bros. Now, my training was elite in the Man Cave, under the tutilage of Drew, Chad, Rob, et al. They all consitently kicked my ass at Smash Bros. I seem to recall them being able to dominate with their second or third characters. (Or that’s my perception of of how all that played out.) So, in accordance with how I deal with this stuff, I’ll try my best to not care about it, but when your friends care a lot about it, sometimes it’s really hard for you not to care about it. And sometimes impossible.

So, I was sucky then, but for some reason, I can play this one game way better than the guys that I play on a regular basis with. I don’t enjoy playing the for any length because it’s just no fun when it’s a slaughter. It’s not really a game at that point. So this is a boost to the confidence. But, there are other gamers out there who are better than me, and I’ve met a couple here, and I don’t like that very much, so I stop trying to play hard, because I know that I won’t be able to win consistently.

And there are times when an old game gets pulled out, and inevitably, there is a plethora of guys who have spent countless hours playing it. And so, since I’ve basically never played any games ever, and even if I have I don’t really remember any, I get slaughtered. Which definitely isn’t fun for me, and which I assume isn’t fun for them if they continually score on me. So, if I get irate and want everybody to stop checking me into the wall and want you to teach me some and let me learn, is that too much to ask in the middle of a game? And then only to be chastized for wanting to when I show no mercy in Smash Bros…

Am I being unreasonable here? Would I have stopped and taught them? I’d like to think so, and I even did. We were playing Mario Tennis, and I was acing this guy who is an excellent gamer, but hadn’t played Tennis before. Finally, I stopped and gave him some tips of where to stand when recieving the serve. I wasn’t a total saint, because I continued to not give him enough time to get into position, but I needed to win, because winning is all that matters to these guys. I needed to beat his partner, and his partner is so good, that I can only do it by picking on him.

They all portray it such that I am not even allowed to be good at one game, even when I suck royally at the rest. It’s like there’s no mercy or grace or love in these circumstances. In my experience there is this n-th degree of competition that rears its head that isn’t healthy for the relationships. Maybe I’ve been traumatized too much in my life for all of these things to just roll of my back and not be bothered by them and simply enjoy the ass kicking that they enjoy all too much.

And this is why I stopped playing Smash Bros with the gang at Wesley. I felt that it became detrimental to the relationships within the group. I can clearly remember arguments about who was unfairly picking on whom, and who was always getting punted off the map more, and there was always a perception difference that they were the one being picked on, and the other person thought the same. So, between that and thinking about the damned game what Max said was compulsively, I stopped and really haven’t looked back since.

I guess that I see similar trends happening here.

I really don’t appreciate being told to dodge and fire, or whatever obvious objective is going on. Do you really take me for such an idiot that I don’t know what I am supposed to do, and recognize that knowing what to do and being able to do it are two different things and the general objective of tasks like that, to figure out how to rub your belly and pat your head, except with a joystick, a, b, x, y, l, and r buttons? Don’t patronize me and don’t state the obvious because I won’t take it well. Being the butt of conversations like “man I hit you a lot”, “I’ve never seen anyone get hit that much”, “damn, I can’t believe you got hit like 6 times!”, “I’ve never hit anybody that much”. Man, that pisses me off, and did, and I basically said ‘night at that point and jetted. Because what I hear is “you suck, you suck, you suck”.

I really don’t appreciate it, either, when you say “I’m no good at this” and then beat me. I really don’t appreciate it when I get compemented as being a contender in one breath, and then get this trash talk 2 seconds later after you beat me. I just love that you can turn on me on a dime. I really find that trait attractive in my friends.

I have for a while been feeling a really wierd vibe coming from these guys. And maybe last night was when it finally clicked for me that maybe it is a lot about how much love and compassion and mercy that they have for each other and for me. It’s a very disturbing thing to me to think that people would have friends solely for the perks. That the major reason that you would make a conscious decision to talk to me and be my “friend” (which there apparently is a definition for), is for the stuff that I’ll give you for free, or the questions that I can answer for you about building your house, or the answers I can give you about how to wire up your new arcade cabinet, or the cat5 I can pull for you in your new house, or the soldering that I can do for you.

It’s beyond me how you could only have friends for the things that they can give you and not for their intrinsic value as a friend. And it may not quite be to that exteme, but man, I think that it’s close, and that’s disturbing to me. Love at Wesley was palpable, and even when there was disagreement or competition (especially when there was disagreement or competition) you knew exactly where you stood with that person. You knew that they didn’t hate you, you knew that they loved you, you knew that they would do anything for you, and you knew that they respected you. Maybe that wasn’t your experience, but it definitely was for me. If ever I recieved criticism, I knew that it was out of love, and it becomes hard to argue when you know the other person is guinuely looking out for you best interests out of love. Maybe that’s what’s remarkably missing from all of this, genuine love.

So, for anyone still reading this, I appluad you. I did a word count, and it’s 1900+. Not terribly big by my standards, but I think it might be the biggest on the blog. The length would also imply that this has been really festering in me, and that I needed to vent. A bunch. Not sure exactly what this yet means for me and my so-called-friends. I would doubt that much will change in the short-term, but as a general rule, me being more concious of my concerns causes them to grow, and so they are probably on a collision course now. To all the single women who’ve made it thus far, there should be some decent material up there for how my mind works. But, if you asked me to try to explain it more, you probably wouldn’t get very far, and you would probably just make me mad. (Which is something that I wish weren’t true (me getting upset/mad at you), but that’s what I think would happen.) Here’s to hoping that there’s at least one girl out there who can trick me into talking about it without making me mad in the process…

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Vblogs and pranks

Posted by Thomas Thu, 07 Sep 2006 23:40:51 +0000

I never really figured out what video blogs where until I ran across some on youtube. Basically video instead of text. Got it. Not much more interesting, but a little since it’s video and not text. Probably the same thing that is appealing about “podcasts” which are really just rss feeds of audio. Anyway, this is the one that I ran across. Don’t know why it’s intriguing, but it is… Probably has something to do with the editing, which seems oddly really good. Oh, I almost forgot that on her Myspace, she notes that Richard Feynman is her hero…

Ok, so since I originally discovered this video blogger, I’ve since come to the conclusion that it’s a fake. This makes it still entertaining, but much less so, and much more about trying to figure out where they’re going with it and what’ll come next. If you search for the username, you can see people’s theories about it. Now that I think about it, maybe it’s somebody’s exercise to get girls interested in science…

Since I now have a whole boat load of friends who are teachers, did anybody prank their classes the first week? Like speaking in a really thick Russian accent or the like?

Posted in General | 2 Comments

3 more things

Posted by Thomas Thu, 07 Sep 2006 01:21:45 +0000

I claim the intersection.
The major Man Clan offensives (at the girl’s house and at the girl’s movie night).
The fun van to Florida.
Doughnuts in the parking lot with the van.
Getting a phone message from some irate lady about my driving in LA.
Coed-naked showering.
Accidentally and unknowingly smuggling a little burro through customs.
Getting my ring and watch almost stolen in Mexico.
Crashing the “Fifth Element” party at the Dumplex.
The Funplex, aka the Dumbplex.
Summer sand volleyball with the Trinkas, et al.
Many a shack-a-thon build, especially in the Fellowship Hall.
Scaring Rachel out of her mind on work project.
Crunchtime all-nighters.
Meat-men all-nighters (I’m burning my eyes out! and Brizkit).
Elaine slicing her hand open on game day.
Lots of dish washing.
Yellow meal.
The Julia Lang (Johnson) Memorial Drink Dispenser.
Where’s my shoe?!?

Ok, a few more than three.

Posted in General | 6 Comments

Post #265

Posted by Thomas Wed, 06 Sep 2006 00:32:41 +0000

I should not have stayed up until 4:30 last night. I was playing around with WordPress, trying to finish what I had started. One thing let to another, and it was after 4 in the morning. It was just one of those times when you get into a groove, and you don’t want to sleep or eat until you’re done…

Apparently I thought these links where worthy of being put into a blog post, but at the moment I don’t recall why, and I’m too lazy to click on them to remember, so here they are:
http://progressive.org/mag_mc071906
http://www.theagitator.com/archives/026951.php#026951

I also trashed my D-Link. I couldn’t take it anymore. I fashioned my 2U into a temporary router, but I really should get a WRT54GL, so I don’t have a pretty large machine sitting on top of my dryer. :)

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Global Warming

Posted by Thomas Tue, 29 Aug 2006 01:20:31 +0000

What a night!

I think that I firmly hate my D-Link broadband router. D-Link, if you’re reading this, consider me a lost customer. I must have been locking up every 5 minutes, with very little traffic running through it. I’ve already not been very happy because it locks up at the drop of a hat and at the slightest power dip. Linksys will be my new best friend. It’s a shame, too, because I was pretty happy with them, esp with the wap at Wesley, but it died sometime back, and apparently was pretty hard to diagnose that it was bad, but I digress. And, on top of all of that, when I bought it, it came with a rebate, but I never filled it out! Doh! So my piece of sh#t router cost me something like $80.

That made the evening pretty interesting on its own, but wait, there’s more. I’d been hearing this dripping sound coming from my ac/furnace/water heater closet for some time now. I don’t have access, but what I lack in key, I more than make up for in arm length. Did you know that I have long arms? Anyway, there is a large intake vent in this tiny little closet that I “don’t have access to”. For those of you following along at home, this is where the long arms come in. For you see that my arms are long enough, after I take the vent cover off, to reach the lock and unlock the door from the inside. Brilliant! Since the a/c was working, and the water dripping was dripping onto the water heater and down its drain, I was in no hurry to put in a work order and be woken up at like 8am when they want to come fix it. So, I let it go. Big mistake apparently. Did you know that you can completely freeze up an a/c unit? I didn’t. I knew about having to defrost freezers and the like, but never an air conditioning unit. What is this the 50s? Anyhoo, there wasn’t any air coming from the vents, and I figured that I was just going to have to bite the bullet and call them in the morning. But, it was really hot in the apartment. I noticed that it wasn’t getting very cool in the apartment over the weekend, but just chalked it up to it being really hot outside. But, since there wasn’t any air coming from the vents, I figured that I should investigate before I try to go to bed and can’t even get to sleep naked. Hey, stop picturing me naked! Also, the vent is protected by some very long screws. You know, the kind of screws that taunt you because they make your forearms hurt. These screws are incidently one of many arguments for me buying a drill, but again, I digress. So, after getting these four really long screws out, I threw the breakers to be extra safe. Upon inspection of the unit, I decided to take out the filter that sits at the bottom of the unit. Huh, I said unit… But, it wouldn’t budge. Even closer inspection revealed this white stuff know by scientists as Dihydrogen Monoxide. This was in its solid form, which explained several things. One, why when the a/c cut off that there was a dripping sound, and two, why there was no air coming out of the vents, even though the fan was spinning. So, since I was really hot, and I wanted to be cold, I figured that I would let the dern thing defrost. This is where things started to get interesting. For you see that when Dihydrogen Monoxide changes state from a solid to a liquid, it often will make a large mess, depending on the quantity. Now, I am on at least the second floor. I doubt very much that my downstairs neighbors would like to have this substance enter their home and cause much havoc. I don’t blame them. I equally do not wish for my carpet or other wood in the house to be ruint or otherwise need attention. So, when the global warming started to happen (I can now firmly put to rest that global warming is in fact occuring, as I saw it with my own two eyes), I did the obvious thing. I started to take pictures. So, I have some, they’ll get posted to the photoblog soon enough, but I’m in the middle of telling a cool story to my cool readers, and I don’t want to stop. Back to the story. So, after some pictures, I used my leet water divining skills, learned as a young padawan at my home in Canyon, and used every trick in the book to divert water where it needed to go and where it would cause the least amount of damage (and just go down the drain). With the crisis averted and the water safely down the drain, I told the story to my faithful readers, oh, wait, that’s you.

[Watching "Spaceballs: The Movie". They reach "now" in the movie.]
Dark Helmet: What the hell am I looking at? When does this happen in the movie?
Colonel Sandurz: Now. You’re looking at now, sir. Everything that happens now is happening now.
Dark Helmet: What hapened to then?
Colonel Sandurz: We passed then.
Dark Helmet: When?
Colonel Sandurz: Just now. We’re at now now.
Dark Helmet: Go back to then.
Colonel Sandurz: When?
Dark Helmet: Now!
Colonel Sandurz: Now?
Dark Helmet: Now!
Colonel Sandurz: I can’t.
Dark Helmet: Why?
Colonel Sandurz: We missed it.
Dark Helmet: When?
Colonel Sandurz: Just now.
Dark Helmet: When will then be now?
Colonel Sandurz: Soon.

So, we’ve now reached now, and I’m getting a little tired of this now, as I can imagine are you. Hopefully I will not sweat too much in my sleep, that I can sleep, and that since I’ve turned the a/c on, that it will cool off the apt and not freeze up for Quite Some TimeTM.

I’ve been really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really bored lately. Some might say that it’s my own fault, and they’re right, but it’s my blog and I can cry if I want to. So, I packaged Wizd for Debian (files available permanently here and for as long as I feel like it here), and I’ve been wiki gardening over at the pluto home wiki.

Ok, more than enough for tonight. Bedtime for Bonzo.

LizGil08 read my blog!

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Marcus and Chauncey

Posted by Thomas Fri, 25 Aug 2006 01:19:27 +0000

I can’t believe I read all of this.

Matilda: Oh yeah? Then what type of guys do I like?
Marcus: …The ones that talk to you.
Matild: Dang, you’re good.

Oh, that’s what I’ve been doing wrong…

Posted in General, Women | 1 Comment

Drewby, Movies, and Doodles

Posted by Thomas Mon, 21 Aug 2006 21:47:24 +0000

Everyone must pressure Drew to post! http://drewiscool.com/

This past weekend I got back into the Netflix swing of things, watching “The Apartment” from 1960 with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. I wasn’t expecting it to be black and white, which wasn’t bad, just a little shocking. It was easily worth its 8.3 rating on IMDB. Highly recommended. I also watched the original “Ocean’s Eleven’‘. This one was disappointing. Not too much like the remake, and I personally didn’t like it too much. Slow pace, but supposedly good writing. I also saw “Lord of War” with Nick Cage and Bridget Moynahan. This was basically an indie film and was excellent.

Saw “Snakes on a Plane” today. We had a company outing this afternoon to see the movie. Got to love our perks. To steal from some dude’s comments on IMDB, this movie was “ridiculously enjoyable”. To me it was akin to a modern day “Airplane”. Not nearly as over-the-top, but hillarious and enjoyable all the way through. Be sure to watch it with your friends, preferably with snakes, rubber or otherwise. I might even go see it again. It’s currently getting a 8.2 at IMDB, and they aren’t too often wrong. :P

As I’m sure that you’ve noticed, I just added a “Movies” category. I should have done this a long time ago, and I will have to go back and put all of my movie posts into it…

I was sitting here coding with my music on random and heard “The Purple People Eater”, by Sheb Wooley. This conjured a very strong memory of a restaraunt in Amarillo called Doodles. It was just off Western on Olsen, right near Michaels. They served hamburgers with diy toppings, in a very classic setting, with neon signs, old tin signs, an old style gas pump, booths, the whole nine yards. They also had a juke box, that you could, for free as I recall, play a song or two. Which is why this song reminded me of the restuarant, because I always wanted to play that song on the juke box. Anyway, I went there quite often with my Mother, and it’s just not something that I had thought about in quite some time, so a little trip down memory lane.

Posted in General, Movies | 2 Comments

Rest In Peace Baxter Garner

Posted by Thomas Tue, 15 Aug 2006 21:57:36 +0000



June 19, 1990–August 15, 2006

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Bigger and badder

Posted by Thomas Tue, 15 Aug 2006 20:40:48 +0000

The new Ares rocket will be bigger and more powerful than the Saturn V.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/14/D8JGGM9G1.html

I really love that they are going back to the original designs, both conceptually and physically. The Saturn V was rock solid and I don’t think that anyone (US, Russia, China, ESA, etc) has since then come up with a better, safer, more cost effective platform. But, bigger and more powerful? I didn’t think that was possible… Here’s to hoping that the new rocket fits inside the VAB. :)

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Songs I can, for whatever reason, listen to almost endlessly

Posted by Thomas Fri, 11 Aug 2006 10:29:37 +0000

Pat Green – Crazy
Colin Hay – I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You (pretty much the entire Garden State Soundtrack)
Extreme – More than Words
Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World
Kevin Fowler – Not Lovin’ Anymore
Hoobastank – The Reason
Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
Coldplay
Kelly Clarkson

I dunno if I want to admit that last one, but oh well… Nor do I really know why I am posting this, but since there hasn’t been too much posting as of late, here you go.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

In a Napoleon Dynamite voice…

Posted by Thomas Sat, 05 Aug 2006 22:19:19 +0000

Lucky.

As far as wedding pictures go, this one’s a keeper. If only my wedding is as fun as that picture seems…

Another drawing from http://xkcd.com/ that I would have entitled “Challenges in Frequency Domain Analysis” is really funny but I would I would also consider extremely risqué for some folks out there. Click at your own peril!

I would call them marketing geniuses, but they really aren’t, and I’m sure that I’ll have to buy the HD version of Firefly.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Substitute

Posted by Thomas Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:57:56 +0000

Chad, if ever given the opportunity, you must give a test like this. Come to think of it, Amy, you should give a test like that, too, for your 142…

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Hawt KML Action!

Posted by Thomas Thu, 20 Jul 2006 23:55:39 +0000

This is hawt. Esp for those of you who’ve ever spent a week or more at Ceta Canyon. And a little more for those who’ve played with Google Earth and/or kml and Google Maps.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=http://chobas.com/ceta_canyon.kml&ie=UTF8&om=1&t=k

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Rogue Waves

Posted by Thomas Tue, 18 Jul 2006 01:41:45 +0000

I was wrong about rogue waves. Apparently they do exist.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

My watchband is tight

Posted by Thomas Thu, 13 Jul 2006 11:01:37 +0000

Either it’s summer, or I’m getting fat.

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Lost Razors

Posted by Thomas Fri, 07 Jul 2006 00:52:14 +0000

Ah, yes, well now I have left my shampoo, conditioner, and razor at Role’s casa twice in two trips. I wasn’t at all worried about leaving some stuff, until I realized that I no longer have a razor. I bought a new one last time, very similar to the old one, which made me happy, because the replacemnent blades are “cheap”. Which I put in air quotes because they aren’t really that cheap, only cheaper than the newer style razors with 20 cutting edges. And I wasn’t worried at all about my conditioner, because I used it up while I was there, and I’ve lived without the soap and soap dish for a while. But, again, I’m missing the razor. I don’t miss the refill blades, just the handle, as the blades are all mostly dull (amazingly enough I managed to do this both times, have the blades all be used up). So, needing tp and kleenex, I went to Kroger at close to midnight to fill my need to resolve my need to not have these things on my list of things to do. But, I was again thwarted, as they didn’t have the cheap and old style of Gillette Sensor Excel razor handles. The situation becomes exagerated when you realize that I haven’t shaven since Monday morning, and my face is getting pimply as we speak and itchy. Poor me. Serves me right for dashing out of the house and forgetting stuff. :(

Amy, I can empathize, if not sympathize with your frustration. I seem to recall lashing out at Elaine one time at Wesley, when she bemoaned not having a date in some small number of months (or maybe years, I don’t perfectly recall).

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Perfume and Earings

Posted by Thomas Wed, 05 Jul 2006 23:25:35 +0000

I would have to say that this past weekend over the 4th, on the whole was a pretty darned good long weekend. Flying in on Friday morning was torturous but bearable. I got to see a good many friends who were still in CS, and unfortunately probably missed a few, too. I didn’t plan out my time as well as I probably should have, so I’ll have to try and work on that next time. I hung out at Wesley most of the day Friday, and Friday night I got to eat at Cole and Rachel’s with Ben and LouLou. Saturday was the wedding, which went very well (and the reception dj’ing went well, too :). A bunch of us afterwards went to Ben’s where we watched “The Bourne Identity” and then “Wedding Crashers”, as Ben and Callum somehow hadn’t seen it (“Wedding Crashers”) yet. The bad part about that was the hour, as we stayed up until 4:30am. I ate lunch Sunday with some of Rache’s family at Abuelos. I didn’t even know that there was one in CS, but there is now! I spent a bunch of more time at Wesley Sunday and went to worship. They played some Phase 10 (not i) and most called it an early night. Monday, Cole, Rachel, and I ate Wings for lunch and had pork chops for dinner. In between I went in search of a replacement for the wap at Wesley, and we got a linksys. I couldn’t get it to work on Monday, but before I went to the lake on Tuesday, I went back, having thought about it, and fixed it without having to take it back to Best Buy and trade it in. Also went to Liz’s “going away party” Monday night. Somewhere in there Role and I spent a late night reminiscing over past choir tours and mission trips, which I might have to post about before I forget. Tuesday I went out to the lake with the Mertzs’ and the Klinkenburgs(sp). We floated some in the lake, and they shot off a bunch of fireworks. Headed back to CS, crashed, and then got up early for my 6:45am flight. Got to work around noon and finished the day.

Like I said, all in all, a really good trip. Since I was out at the lake until late, I didn’t have quite the closure that I would have liked with a majority of the people. I didn’t get to say goodbye to Cole and Rachel, nor Ben and LouLou in person, which I regret. I need to plan stuff out a little better, so that maybe I can have a better grasp of my what’s and when’s and be able to know if I’ll get to see those people again before I leave. So, to me it really felt like I had a bunch of time at the beginning of the trip, and then once Monday hit, was bouncing around, trying to juggle everything that was being thrown at me to attend. I did get Layne’s and Wings, the unanticipated Abuelos, but no Freebirds.

I’m not sure when I’ll get back, but I wish that it were soon. I don’t have any good reasons like dj’ing someone’s wedding, or babies on the way, so I guess that I’ll just have to make up a reason. Or maybe somebody can suggest a good one. :) I also have many mosquito bites… Tries not to scratch my bites…

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Sleep

Posted by Thomas Fri, 30 Jun 2006 01:29:10 +0000

Poo on two hours of sleep tonight, er, this morning… :(

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Family Reunion

Posted by Thomas Tue, 27 Jun 2006 00:51:20 +0000

I took all of Friday off to head down to DFW to see the fam. I didn’t have any trouble getting up this time, especially since my flight was at 1pm… The flight was uneventful, as usual. My parents picked me up and we headed to see some family that wouldn’t be able to make it to the real reunion. We stayed for a bit and headed to Abuelos (which I had been craving for quite some time). We then went to see some friends of my parents for the balance of the night. Saturday we headed to Duncanville mid-afternoon, when the reunion offically started. It ran until brunch on Sunday, when my parents and my sister took me back to the airport. Both getting to see my immediate family and the extended family was good. Got to see lots of people who I hadn’t seen in a long time, plus some family who I’d never met before. There was a bigger turnout than I was expecting, so that was good. Plus, there were a lot who would have normally come but didn’t due to a family emergency. So perhaps next year will be really big. I think that’d be cool. The weekend seemed to sort of end abruptly, but I’m not sure why. Just not much closure, I guess.

But, since I wanted to have a flight out late, as to not have my parents take me to the airport before they were ready to leave, I booked a flight at 6pm. My parents wanted to get out of dodge by 2pm, I’m guessing to make it home before dark. So, I got to the airport around 1:30pm and had a good 4+ hours to kill. I didn’t want to shell out the $10 for internet, so I watched some CNN, ate some chicken at TGI Fridays, and then dozed in and out while watching 1:15 hours of “Garden State”. Very relaxing. Flights without movies are boring to me now. Maybe I should just start watching them on my laptop, but it’s a hassle. I’d prefer to sleep, but I’m not usually tired enough. I bet Friday I will be though, with my early, early flight.

I’ll be in College Station starting Friday morning, through early, early Wednesday morning. I’m definitely craving some Wings ‘n’ More, Layne’s, and Freebirds, so I might treat you to dinner, if you’re nice. :)

I would speak some more to the car, but I really just want to drop it, so…

I’m still pondering the coffee table. I might make it my fee for DJ’ing the reception…

Posted in General | 3 Comments

What do you mean my car isn’t ready yet?!? — Part Deux

Posted by Thomas Wed, 21 Jun 2006 01:00:43 +0000

And, of course it was the latter. My car was ready on Saturday. Hrumph. $908 later I have my car back. Also, of course, it still has pulsating while breaking (~$300), a broken driver’s side door lock (~$250), a broken catch on the right rear cargo door (~$150), and my third brake light above the cargo doors is out (~$160). So that totals another almost $900 at their exagerated prices. :( Why does it cost so much to make things right?

Honestly, why can’t I go a day without feeling like I’m getting screwed with my pants on? Has the American dream so warped our society that we cannot do business without trying to take our customers to the cleaners? How is it that the market cannot seem to produce a sustainable business model where I receive a quality good or service at a reasonable price? I would even pay more for such a luxury. Yes, I would pay a premium for a mechanic who I know has my best interests in mind, making reasonable repair decisions and using quality parts. I would gladly do this for a home as well. I have heard horror stories of builders who will gouge you, esp if they learn that you work for Google. These are sad times indeed. :( </rant>

Posted in General | 2 Comments

California highlights

Posted by Thomas Mon, 19 Jun 2006 22:28:45 +0000

I also wanted to go ahead and post about the highights of my trip. The plane rides weren’t as bad as I was expecting. They even played a double feature on the way back, showing both “Firewall” and “Failure to Launch”. Both were mediocre, but I thought that the writing of “Failure to Launch” was really good. The story was lackluster, but there were these asides of dialogue that were absolutely hilarious, e.g. “I’ll give you a Canadian goose”. The food at corp was gourmet and free, so that was good. Thursday night we drove to Santa Cruz. We had some Thai (I got the spicy lamb), I got a Santa Cruz t-shirt to add to my collection, and we headed out to try and find a beach. We drove along the coast and finally found some state park beach. It was closed, but we headed down to the shoreline. I have felt the Pacific ocean now. I wasn’t paying attention and the surf lapped at my shoes, so they got wet, though. :( Well, I should have known and I should have put on sandles, but hey, you live, you learn. Since our flight back was at 2pm, we headed back to San Fransisco early to see if we could get to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Which we did. Driving up 101 and through downtown, getting lost a couple of times, we finally drove across it. Well, I drove across it. We pulled a u-y and drove back, at which time we incurred the $5 toll. Unfortunately as I was driving, I wasn’t in a good place to take any pictures. Next time I’ll plan better. Also, why didn’t tell me that California was mountainous and dry? I always pictured California as hilly. Hilly like College Station, or the Hill Country, or Atlanta, but not mountains visible in the distance. Also, since California is near the ocean and the temperature is, I’m told, is very nice (perhaps I’m thinking of San Diego), I would have expected a bunch of rain and not a whole lot of heat. The combination of these things would, in my mind, produce ample green vegetation. Anyhoo, those were my highlights.

Why don’t they pour liquid nitrogen into the fountains instead of soap?

Posted in General | 1 Comment

What do you mean my car isn’t ready yet?!?

Posted by Thomas Sun, 18 Jun 2006 13:33:14 +0000

I finally got around to walking to the dealership Saturday afternoon around 12:30. I walked mostly, but jogged for a bit, so it took me a little under 45 minutes.

The lady behind the service counter: How can I help you?
me: My name is Thomas Garner and I’m here to pick up my car.
(Since I am now indoors, I begin sweating pretty good as it was likely in the upper 80s to 90s outside…)
The lady: I’m sorry, Mr. Garner, but your car isn’t ready yet.
me: WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY CAR ISN’T READY YET?!?
(Well, I didn’t scream at her, but I wanted to.)
She looked at the computer screen and rattled off the work that wasn’t completed yet, and even included some work that we had agreed we wouldn’t do. I took the car in Monday morning early, like 7am. Since I was three timezones away, I wasn’t perfectly on the ball for calling them and keeping tabs on what was going on. But, on Monday, they looked at the tires and brakes. On Tuesday they looked at everything for the 100,000 mile checkup. I don’t know exactly when I talked to the dealer. But what I do know is that on Wednesday I had my auto tech teacher Uncle call them and tell them what should and shouldn’t be done. So, by the latest on Wednesday, they should have known what they needed to do. I even called back on Thursday to confirm that there wasn’t anything on my end that they were waiting for, any go-ahead needed by me. They said that they were good to go. During this call, I mentioned to him that I would be flying in late on Friday and wouldn’t be able to pick up the car then and would pick it up on Saturday morning. That means they had at least two full days to fix whatever it is that needed to be fixed. Three if you now count Saturday. Monday will mark 7 damn days at the shop. He said OK and that he wouldn’t be there on Saturday, leading me to believe that the work would be completed by then. I said that was fine and that was that. It never crossed my mind that I should confirm that my car was actually ready before I made the trek down to the dealership. It was very convenient that neither the technician working on the car wasn’t there, the service point guy who I had been talking to wasn’t there, and neither one of them apparently talk to the lady who was there on Saturday, because she had no real idea about the current status of my vehicle. Joy. So, I walked back to my apartment, taking another 45 minutes of my life. I wasn’t livid, but I was pissed. She said to call Mike first thing Monday morning. Well, great, that just means that I won’t have a car for the weekend — my sole form of transportation. And that’s not a problem because I have 2 months worth of food at my apartment.

It better not really be ready for me to pickup on Monday, them having simply a communication error and Mike being a dumbass to not put into the computer the work that has already been done.

So, until next time…

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I’m Back!

Posted by Thomas Sat, 17 Jun 2006 01:31:12 +0000

Cali was good, but it’s very good to be back home (or as close to home as home gets nowadays). Plane flew in late tonight. The time difference really gets you on the way back. Since I am car-less and mostly food-less, I am scrounging around. I walked to get my mail and stopped by the office to get a cold beverage, as I have no DP at the house. They had no DP, I went with Coke. I’m sure that everybody wanted to know that. I guess that I’ll just walk the ways to the dealership in the morning to plunk down more than I was probably planning on spending. I don’t think that I’ve gotten the final cost yet. :( I left the air conditioning off while I was gone, and the apt was sweltering when I got in. Didn’t see much to take pictures of, so I don’t think that I have any. We did drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, and the guy that I was with snapped some, but I haven’t looked at them.

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Poseidon

Posted by Thomas Sun, 11 Jun 2006 20:42:30 +0000

So I did see the new Poseidon this afternoon. It was not as bad as I once thought. But, it did cement for me this: I swear that the art of story telling in Hollywood is dead. Honestly, how hard can it be to remake this movie? It was pretty frickin’ good as it was. You just have to update it a bit, work some perhaps on the dialog to punch up and clarify some things that I consider confusing, and use all of the new technology available developed in the 34 years since the original. The cgi in the new one was very good. It helped tell the story and wasn’t over the top, a quality often remiss in modern action / adventure / drama / thriller movies. Most, if not all, of the qualities that I liked about the original were lost in the remake. The preacher was now a firefighter. This killed an entire understory. There was virtually no character development or exposition at the beginning of the movie. I got lost a couple of times in regard to where they were going/doing. There was very little expository dialog. This would have helped immensely to keep the audience abridged of what was going on. If the American cinema go-er no longer has the ability to cope with a movie ending that isn’t happy, then why can’t they treat the audience like the little kids they are and stopped to have some expository dialog? The pacing can wait. The story can wait two seconds for someone to say “ok, everyone’s going to go one-by-one across this big piece of steel; the kid goes first”. There was no real team building at the beginning. There were no hot pants. I didn’t really care that Alena died. The little kid didn’t steal the show and know more than the adults. The captain wasn’t Leslie Neilsen. I didn’t really realize that the captain was the captain (until much later). Where were the romantic overtones of the original? Why was it 20 minutes shorter than the original? Honestly I felt that the original went very quickly. And what was up with the sound? Maybe I was in a bad spot in theater (in the very middle, high up — exactly where I wanted to sit), but it sounded awful to me. Maybe the theater’s audio wasn’t setup properly… I should have been right there with them as stuff was exploding and creaking, but I wasn’t. So, I got over the “rogue wave” and my expectations were pretty low, so it pretty much met those low expectations. So there you go.

What does this mean for me?

I am looking at probably plopping down $500–600 on my car next week at the dealer. I’m confident that I can keep myself from being screwed by them, but we will see. If after I see how much the real cost of the Yukon will be, and when I get back, I will look into getting myself a new $275 coffee table. KB wants me to get it, so I will put more serious thought into it.

I will be in California Monday through Friday, fyi.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

The Poseidon Adventure

Posted by Thomas Sun, 11 Jun 2006 01:00:13 +0000

Due to popular demand, I put “The Poseidon Adventure” in my Netflix queue. I just got done watching it all the way through, and then again with commentary from Pamela Sue Martin, Stella Stevens, and Carol Lynley. I found it to be a pretty decent movie. For whatever reason it really reminded me of the Indiana Jones movies, although I’m not sure why. And now that I’ve seen this one, I am curious to see what they changed in the new one. I doubt that the new one would ruin the old one for me, so it could be a nice little exercise of my piqued interest to see how the story changed, how they thought that they could make it better, to see if anyone different dies, etc. It was a pretty good movie, but not a great and epic one. Did you notice that the music was done by John Williams? To me it leaves something to be desired. It was just one of those movies that I felt had an enormous amount of potential, but in particular the writing and soundtrack seemed like they could have used a little more polish. Enough of my commentary for now. Like mitcheaven, I would recommend that people see the original.

Also, since I’m sure that everyone is wondering, I did go and see the Shane and Shane concert last night. It was pretty good. I fell into some old habits. I arrived about 15 ’til 8, when the concert was supposed to begin. The doors opened at 7:15, so the best seating was already taken and I was left to fend for myself. Now, this santuary had a balcony and immediately I chastized the folks sitting under it (but with a good view of the front of the band) that they had chosen poorly, as balconies are very badTM for sound. The balcony didn’t wrap all the way around, so I chose my seat in the wings, with no overhead balcony, and where I figured I could still see the main guys pretty well. By the end of the concert, I was happy with my seating choice.

Although I will say this, that power diversity is key. The band who opened for them got a minute or so into their first song and they must have flipped some breakers. Tsk, tsk. Got to watch out for putting stuff all on the same circuits… especially the subs, they draw a lot. And, I was also pretty critical of the sound of the opening act as well, so there inlies the old habit. But, it really did make me wish that I could just drop everything and be a roadie/sound guy and tour all the time with some awesome band…

I am very sleepy, but I do not want to go to bed. Why is that?

Posted in General, Movies | 1 Comment

The tip of your brain

Posted by Thomas Tue, 06 Jun 2006 01:04:45 +0000

Don’t you hate it when you have something on the tip of your brain, but you can’t quite make it materialize? Like something you were supposed to remember, like something that you were supposed to do. Most likely something that I was supposed to remember to do.

I need to remember to get a tech talk going at work, try to remember a friend’s birthday, try to remember to call a friend or two, try to remember that I’m travelling three times in the next month, try to remember when I’m travelling, try to remember to get up on time on those early days, try to remember that it would be a good idea to put my car in the shop while I’m gone, and try to remember to pay my sister, trying to remember that if I don’t get 4 AA batteries, my calculator will die, try to remember that I also need batteries for my alarm clock and my atomic clock (batteries which I’ve needed for literally weeks).

I know, I know. I should make a list. But not making a list and writing about it on your blog is so much more fun.

Well, I think that’s everything. I’ve just had to re-write this post from memory, which really made me mad. Why doesn’t have WordPress have auto-save? They were so proud of their new ajax-y interface, but really, it’s no more usable, and I would say less usable than it was before… :(

Posted in General | 4 Comments

Slashdot and Weddings

Posted by Thomas Mon, 05 Jun 2006 00:56:18 +0000

Slashdot finally cut over to the winner of their redesign contest. I like the design a lot, but I do have a suggestion or two for them. Right below the title of the article is the submitter, date, and department. I noticed in the runner up that they de-emphasised these little bits of information by either keeping the background color of the title, or making the text color very similar to the background color. For me, these combinations push my eye below them, where I can immediately begin reading the meat and skip over the fluff. By keeping the text black, having the background change color, and having the new background color be close to the article snippet’s background, my eye tends to think that it is important, and I want read it. Also, the left sidebar is nice on the eye but seems like it’s a feature without a need. I’m all for nifty looking javascript, but when it comes down to it, the javascript needs to serve a purpose. I would be very curious to see if being able to collapse sections is really of any use to anyone. And it looks like there’s a bug with the “Section” section. It has a link, but doesn’t do anything for me in Firefox on Linux. If I open the link in a new tab, it goes to my preferences, but it doesn’t work otherwise. Also, having the links change on hover is cute, but honestly worthless. I would imagine that Jakob Nielsen wouldn’t approve. Also, in the collapsable part, my cursor doesn’t change. I would probably expect it to change to a hand to show users that clicking will do something.

So, I’ve been trying to remember who all is getting married this summer (or has already gotten married), but I am having some issues coming up with a complete list. So far I can remember:
Sommer, May 20
Claire, July 1
Eran, June 24

Wow, that’s all that I can recall at the moment. There are a bunch of upcoming wedding people that come to mind, but none that I’m sure will be tying the knot in the next couple of months. Please feel free to fill in the blanks in my memory via your comments.

Update: I added dates for my own future reference.

Posted in General | 4 Comments

Pool and Travel

Posted by Thomas Thu, 01 Jun 2006 01:21:56 +0000

I jumped in my apartment complex’s pool for the first time tonight. I’ve lived here for like 14 months and not once did I partake. I never really have been one much for using the ammenities of an apt complex. We also have a tennis court and sand volleyball that I’ve never set foot on. Anyway, I went out pretty late, around 9.30 and pruned up for maybe 25 or 30 minutes. It was pretty relaxing.

Well, I’ll be travelling a bunch starting the middle of June. I’ll be in the Metroplex for a family reunion the weekend of June 23. I took a day off and I’ll fly in Friday afternoon and fly out Sunday afternoon. Then the next weekend I’ll fly back to Texas for Claire’s wedding and stay in CS for the 4th of July holiday. So, if you plan on being in either the Metroplex or CS when I am, and want to see me, then be sure to give me a call and we’ll see if we can hook up. I am definitely looking forward to a little time off and will be really glad to see the fam and plenty of old friends.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

movies i’m looking forward to seeing

Posted by Thomas Sat, 27 May 2006 21:13:45 +0000

the break-up
nacho libre
superman returns
pirates of he caribbean: dead man’s chest
snakes on a plane
beerfest
employee of the month

I also went to see X3 last night. It was pretty good.

I’ve posted a bunch to my much neglected photoblog, seven to be exact. They should show up one a day until they’re done.

I’ve pretty much maxed out my 300GB external drive and I’m not yet sure how I’m going to remedy the lack of space. I need more, but the options I’ve checked into just don’t quite suite me. Honestly I’d like to design my own personal raid enclosure. But we’ve been down this road before with designing a fibre channel backplane and that never materialized and I broke down to buy a commercial one. Which I would honestly like to sell on Ebay to get a bunch of money back for to put into a bunch of 400GB drives and a regular sata raid nas.

Which also leads me to mention computing needs for the eventual house. A guy at work who I’ve been hanging out with is planning on building his own house, and incorportating a whole lot of technology into. Which in turn gets me to thinking about how I would do it, to have a large amount of storage (a nas), plus media distribution, home automation, security, in addition to the already present needs of a beefy broadboand router with all the latest bells and whistles. Should I put all of those things into one box with like 12 disks, a ton of nics and a ton of video capture cards? Do I want to put all my eggs in one basket? How much should I distribute so that I have a bunch of processors with which to transcode copious amounts of video on the fly? How to balance a bunch of machines running 24/7? Many questions. And most, if not all, go against my current needs. Which means whatever I invest in now will not really work all that well as a platform down the road, and I’ll have to buy more stuff then. Such is life. :(

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Lost websites

Posted by Thomas Tue, 23 May 2006 10:31:50 +0000

I don’t know if you’ve ever lost a website, but it is becoming more and more common for me. I ran across some person’s cool web log analysis that explained anamalies in traffic patterns and went so far as to even spell out possible sources of the aberant behavior. And so I lost it, but tonight I finally found it again. I’ve never been one much for bookmarks, but I might have to break down and start using bookmarks or del.icio.us or the like. I have a co-worker who swears by del.icio.us. I’m just not so sure that I’m ready to throw in the towel and stop relying on my recollection/memory.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Bow tie

Posted by Thomas Mon, 22 May 2006 01:42:13 +0000

While killing some time before the 5:05 showing of “Scary Movie 4″ (which was the best that I could find to watch, bad I know, right?), I went on a search for a self-tie bow-tie at the mall. I stopped by one rental place first, which didn’t have any of them in stock, but did recommend that I stop by another rental place in the mall. So, somewhat discouraged that this process was going to consist of a little more effort than originally planned, I went in search of the second tux rental place. Upon finding a directory and then realizing that I had already passed the place, I stepped inside with my drink (I was very concious of the fact that they most likely didn’t want me in a store with a cup in my hand, but it didn’t stop me). At first I wasn’t sure who were customers and who were salespeople, but I inquired if they had any “real” bow-ties. The young lady said that they did and managed to find a couple quickly. Anyhoo, long story shorter, I am now the proud owner of a black, silk self-tie bow-tie. I finally figured out how to tie it and managed to tie it twice. Look for it next time I’m in a tux.

My friends’ blogosphere is rather bleak. Anyone else out there posting for the summer, or have the lives of everyone become lackluster and boring with the onset of summer?

Speaking of summer, today I have been craving a couple of things: 1) is beach volleyball with the Trinkas, et. al. several summers ago and late night romps to Sonic for drinks and 2) is a hammock. I keep telling myself that I want one and that I’ll run to Wal-Mart to buy a cheap one. But I am plagued with exactly where I would put it, as I don’t want to drill into my balcony (come to think of it, I don’t even have a drill), nor do I want a free-standing one that could theoretically be stole. Granted I am on the second floor, I wouldn’t put it past people.

I think that I’ve missed my first wedding of this summer, yesterday, with Sommer’s. At least I think that it was yesterday. I know that I missed several last summer, and I’ll miss many this summer, and most likely I’ll devote a post to that end sometime soon.

Now I should go to bed, but I don’t want to and I’m not that tired, so I’ll go toss and turn for a while…

Make me happy and post to your blog about your summer plans. :)

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10 Things I Hate About Commandments

Posted by Thomas Sat, 20 May 2006 13:38:29 +0000

Best. Parody in the form of a film trailer. Evar.

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Thursday

Posted by Thomas Thu, 18 May 2006 10:30:55 +0000

I saw 5 separate Texas license plates on the way home from work yesterday.
I hit the $75 limit while pumping gas for the Yukon. Ouch.
What is -7^2 equal to? Please decide what you think the answer is before going on. I’ll wait.

Still waiting…

Still waiting…

Ok. Respond in the comments and don’t look down until you decide what the answer is.
The question here is the order of operations.

Posted in General | 7 Comments

My own oddities

Posted by Thomas Mon, 15 May 2006 02:04:42 +0000

I am pretty sure that I will never be able to watch Poseidon because I’m pretty sure that you can’t have very large [read tsunami, and unlikely to be tidal] breaking waves in the middle of the ocean. I’m sure that Chad would back me up on this one, that this fact would pretty much ruin the entire movie for me.

Posted in General, Movies | 1 Comment

E-mail and Primer

Posted by Thomas Sat, 06 May 2006 18:02:49 +0000

More and more these days I find myself regarding email as a less effective form of communcation. I used to reply to emails religously, but now find it difficult to do, if at all, and I’m not really sure as to the cause. Now, I get a ton of email at work, and so everything gets immediately prioritized and filtered. If it’s something that needs immediate attention or something that can wait a day or two, then it will get its own attention in its own time. But, if it’s extraneous or passing information, it gets immediately archived, with most never being looked at again. Of course there is the occation when I search to find some random email that I briefly perused and now need again, but that probably isn’t too much of the population of my email. Perhaps email for me has become an almost purely informational and one-way form of communication, not unlike blogs. That I post and people read, and comments happen, but it’s all pretty much driven by me, and there aren’t very many expectations to deal with. Perhaps it’s because I’ve come to realize what an absolutely horrible form of communication it really is. I’ve seen email threads go on and on for days, when a simple phone call would have fixed the issue in minutes. This is why I have a pretty well formed disdain for email. So consider this a warning, that unless you are asking me a pretty pointed and important question, you might not get a response. So I guess don’t consider it an extra-ordinary brush off, but more like a common-run-of-the-mill type. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s just that, well, actually I’m not entirely sure why…

And why is it that when I see a picture of a mother holding her newborn child in the hospital, it always looks like it was taken in the 80s? Perhaps the majority of the pics that I have seen up to this point like that were of my parents, having kids in the late 70s/very early 80s. Do I project that timeframe in my mind to those new pictures?

Anyhoo, I just finished watching Primer. Well, technically, I just got done watching it trice (two commentaries). But, the main reason that I am telling you this is because it was written/directed by Shane Carruth. During his director’s commentary, he mentioned his brother Caleb was a recording artist and had done some music for the film. When I heard this, I knew that the director’s last name was Carruth, and it immendiately clicked that his brother was Caleb Carruth. I don’t know if the name is familiar to you, but it is very familiar to me. Before “Shane and Shane” was “Shane and Shane”, it was “Shane and Caleb”. So, I have randomly stumbled upon a movie (I think that Netflix recommended it to me) that was written/directed by the brother of one of the guys in one of my favorite bands, if you can calle them that. Small world. It’s definitely an indie film, and was shown at Sundance, so you know off the bat that it’s not too bad. This was the first film for almost all of these guys and they did pretty well. The story is pretty original and I would recommend watching it. I won’t say it was stellar (and it’s really too bad that they had pretty much zero budget, which really constrained the explaining and telling of the story), but it was pretty darn good for these guys’ first production. So, I would say that it’s definitely worth a Netflix rental, especially if your queue is as empty as mine is.

Posted in General, Movies | 3 Comments

Wednesday

Posted by Thomas Wed, 03 May 2006 23:09:45 +0000

No more dreams as of late, well none that I recall… I’m at somewhat of a loss for what to blog about. I think that there are only a couple of West Wing episodes left. Um, don’t watch “Derailed” as it is uterly predictable. I am currently the highest bidder for these doohickies. I’m not sure if that link is going to work or not… Oh, and I can’t believe that it is already May. I have no idea where this year has gone to. And yes, I just ended my sentence with a preposition. Ok, I’m done, and I bet everybody lost some IQ points for getting this far into my paragraph.

Update: Oohh, ooh, I just remembered. On the way back from picking up my delicious Papa Johns pepporoni pizza and cinamon sweet treat, I MURDERED an orange highway barrel… going like 70 MPH. I mean murdered, like “Thomas, on the highway, with the Yukon”. It shocked me, but I checked my tire when I got to the next red light, and everything seemed a-ok. I guess the Yukon can take a licking and keep on ticking. I had seen the barrel on my way and avoided it at the time, but on the way back, it crossed the very small median, and I nailed it good. Maybe this was a decent post after all.

Posted in General, Movies | 3 Comments

Reciprocal

Posted by Thomas Sun, 30 Apr 2006 14:20:14 +0000

That’s the word. Ok, I’ll try to refrain from posting any more this weekend.

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Three plus posts in as many days

Posted by Thomas Sun, 30 Apr 2006 00:04:53 +0000

Watched “History of Violence” without commentary, with commentary, and a very long making-of type thing on Saturday. This movie was absolutely beautiful. Music, photography/cinematography, direction, actors, production design, you name it, it was good. The plot was original, and not cookie cutter; the performances were great. While watching the making-of, I noticed Chris Bender, who I recognized from somewhere else. I finally remembered that it was from “Just Friends”, where he was a producer, and was on the commentary for that one, too. Interesting to see these connections and hopefully to find perhaps other good movies from the same people.

In tribute to Chad, words of the day (taken from the director’s commentary of “History of Violence”): suffused and obstreperous.

Why aren’t there comments feeds for Xanga, Blogger, etc? This is a travesty, and I am lazy… Why is there no autosave in WordPress? And there is no spell check either. People are really dropping the ball.

Ohh, and I hope that everyone has noticed that my blogroll is now constantly up-to-date, as it pulls from my Bloglines subscriptions. It should cover everyone, and I would hope that it’s pretty much a complete and authoritative source.

Oh, and I don’t think that I ever gave appropriate <insert word I can’t recall here> “quote/unqoute” “props” to www.fatrobert.com and Robato’s Xanga after he was so gracious in his blog. What is the word? Not circumspect, not retrospect, retribution, retroaction, counteraction, counterproductive, circumvention, revolution, revalation, appropriate response, proportionate response… Is there a single word to describe “to give back equally in accordance to”? Perhaps I’m smoking crack and this will give you all something to ponder for this week. Man, this is going to bother me, now…

Wow, are you still reading this? If so, then you are awesome! (And probably bored/slacking/procrastinating, if you are still in school.)

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I claim the intersection

Posted by Thomas Sat, 29 Apr 2006 16:10:52 +0000

Why doesn’t JuliaGulia(sp) have a blog? Someone should poke her about that…

I have really got to both tidy and clean up both my car and apartment… Must… try… to… do… housework… And pay bills. Must pay bills.

Anyone ever search for wf on flickr, sorted by interestingness? Props to hometownzero for having some right up there. I wonder if I could convince Liz to post there probabably thousands of pics to flickr… She’d need a big quota.

Shane and Shane is/are going to be in Marietta, GA in June. I should definitely try and make a concerted effort to go.

And what is happening to our privacy? I don’t understand it. I would gladly accept additional national security risk in exchange for the civil liberties granted me by the constitution and bill of rights… :(

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Friziday Night

Posted by Thomas Sat, 29 Apr 2006 01:41:25 +0000

The past couple of nights, I’ve had a few dreams whose memory lingered into waking. I seem to recall a dream about meeting some girl who was wearing an A&M Consol t-shirt, who went to TAMU, and had moved to GA. We talked and she gave me her number, date suggestions, and date and time suggestions for a date… Interesting, I know… The other two involved me being in a “Dawn of the Dead”-type zombie senario, and the other involved me being in an action/constant car chase senario. I’m trying to remember when exactly these dreams occurred, but I’m having some issues remembering exactly how long I’ve been trying to remember to write this post. I think that it’s only been either a day or two. Which is somewhat bothersome, but eh… But I think that I did have a pretty good night’s sleep last night, probably due to lots of work at work and crashing hard; which the heavy sleep made me not really want to get up this morning.

I, too, seem to recall some fond memories of “Crazy”… I’m not sure why, but I really like that song. I can listen to it on a loop for quite some time, for reasons I do not comprehend. One might consider it to be one of my favorite songs, but generally I don’t have too many “favorite” things. Perhaps it’s due to some instinct not to label things so firmly, as most stuff in life is in a constant state of flux.

For example, I would consider most people that I have more than a casual acquantance with to be friends, such as almost everyone at work, but as has been pointed out to me recently, some people have a very distinct line between those people who you simply interact with on a certain level at work, and those who you interact with on another, beyond work level. Which I personally think is odd, to label all of these people so firmly, but maybe that’s just me. I guess that I figured that I know that I’m supposed to love everybody and that anybody who’s name that I knew would pretty much automatically be called a friend. Don’t really have any enemies. Hate to just put a label of “co-worker” onto someone just because, and treat them like some second class citizen… But, I really don’t want any comments on this, because I think that the whole premise is stupid, and I’ve wasted enough of everyone’s time on it already.

Posted in General, Women | 3 Comments

Monday

Posted by Thomas Tue, 25 Apr 2006 09:24:15 +0000

It seems like it’s been a while since a substantive post, so here’s to this one being one.

I watched “Inside Man” a weekend or two ago. Imdb gave it a 7.4, which is why I paid to see it in the first place; I was quite disappointed. The character development just wasn’t there, and I really didn’t have much sympathy for the good guys and not enough disgust for the bad guys. Maybe I’m over-critical at this point in my film watching, but eh…

I got some new fibre channel stuff from a co-worker. But, like most things that you buy, they require other things that you need to buy. So, I really need to buy some copper gbics, some other fiber fibre cards, sc/sc fiber and a pci-riser card. Even when you get stuff for free, there’s always a catch. :(

I thought that there was more to say, but perhaps not.

Posted in General, Movies | 1 Comment

Sex cues ruin men’s decisiveness

Posted by Thomas Thu, 20 Apr 2006 23:35:27 +0000

News at eleven.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4921690.stm

What does this say about me?

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Easter

Posted by Thomas Sun, 16 Apr 2006 17:54:51 +0000

I noticed a few days ago that bloglines hadn’t been updating feeds from Xanga, and a whole bunch of posts showed up today. I searched around to see if there was any explanation for this, but came up with none as to the delay. :(

I got a haircut. The barbershop that I walked into was a new experience for me. But, it’s a good haircut, so I cannot complain.

The weather here has been absolutely georgous as of late. It brings me back to the good ol’ days of laying in our ultra cheap hammocks outside Wesley…

I’m curious what Chad thinks of this.

And I can’t believe that nobody has commented on my comments on Lost…

Maybe people one day will get it.

Posted in General | 6 Comments

New Blog-rollies

Posted by Thomas Thu, 13 Apr 2006 23:54:14 +0000

I know that the blog roll over yonder -> is not up to date. It is in fact horribly out of date. But the only way for me to update it is a clumsy interface in WordPress, with no real robust bulk importing of opml files, so I am left doing it all by hand. And I am lazy, so it just doesn’t get done. BUT, since I am meticulous about my bloglines, my bloglines blogroll is very complete. And even moreso today. Why? Because I stumbled upon TJ’s Xanga in her away message. I proceeded to check out her blogroll, and added… TJ, sommer’s other 2 blogs, nanco, clark, and mel. Seeing these people’s blogs spurred me a bit to post more, and the direct result was this post. So, yay for that.

In other news, Lost still sucks. They’re going nowhere fast. They’re stringing us along. Every episode is the same. I hope their ratings drop and the show gets cancelled during the middle of sweeps. Yet, I continue to watch. I predict that they are milking us for all we’re worth, and aren’t going to go out on top. They had such a great story, and they are killing it. At a glacial pace. And where is the conspiracy? That’s like a whole other thing that they could be screwing us with, yet it remains largely untapped. The writers should be strung up by their toenails and beaten with a wet carp.

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I like this game

Posted by Thomas Tue, 11 Apr 2006 23:05:01 +0000

Chobas-y trips to A-town for Six Flags.
Girls expanding to fill the void.
Chad hiney writing.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Lost

Posted by Thomas Sun, 09 Apr 2006 23:48:32 +0000

I hate Lost. It sucks, bigtime, and for numberous reasons.

I am currently caught up. I’ve watched all of Season 1 and what’s been aired so far of Season 2, between this weekend and last. I am caught up in it. It has great sound design, soundtrack, lighting, and production design. The plot is pretty good, has a great many twists and turns, and yet can feel so predictable. But right now, the writers are dragging their feet so much, that the plot isn’t moving forward at all. I dare say that we will never know more than half of what we’d like to know. They write in a carrot or two, but they’ll never fill in the details, and the network will string us along for as long as the advertising holds up.

It’s just not really going anywhere fast, and I don’t like it. To me, it really had the makings of a movie. The plot really reminds me of something that would have worked well as a movie. And maybe it’s just because I’m not watching it every week, and I’d really like to just be done with it that I’m riding the fence on it. Can you imagine a 2 hour movie with this premise? It would have been great, in my opinon. Yet, they’ll drag out the story for a couple of more seasons, and then when it’s finally cancelled, they’ll throw us one last bone and make us feel a modicum better, but really we’ll still feel like they left us high and dry, like we just got long conned, because that’s what they just did.

Or maybe it’s just good writing. But I feel like the story would be much better served by being resolved, instead of the continuous rising and falling action, over and over and over again.

I wonder how this compares to Firefly. How similarly are the stories constructed and told. Both have extremely complex back histories that are slowly being unfolded. So why do I dislike Lost so much and loved Firefly?

Posted in General | 2 Comments

3 Things

Posted by Thomas Sun, 26 Mar 2006 01:02:44 +0000

Amoeba of Fun
Smash Bros
Getting lost twice while driving in Houston on the 2 wedding Saturday. Once while going from the first wedding to the next and again going home.

Good times… Good times…

Well, to the best of my recollection, that’s when we got lost. I’m a little blurry on the details and on who was with me. And can anyone remind me of when I was reverse amoeba’ed? Was it at the last Java (’05)? Somehow a reverse amoeba doesn’t have quite the effect of a regular one. ;)

Posted in General | 6 Comments

Oregon

Posted by Thomas Sun, 19 Mar 2006 22:00:28 +0000

Consider this an e-postcard/shoutout from Portland. I’ve got some time to kill in the airport, and PDX has free wifi, which is very cool. So I’m a little bored and thought to post on the ol’ blog. Nice airport. Has a semi-modern feel. Lots of glass and steel, but I suppose that’s standard fare nowadays. Although the baggage claim totally reminds me of the ones in Amarillo. Feels a lot like it was built in the 70s/80s. But this one has a wine/sushi bar, so we’re not quite in Kansas anymore. The flight was 4.5 hours of flight time. It was a 757, they showed a movie (The Family Stone), and had radio in the armrest. More than I was expecting in a domestic flight. I’m curious if this is one of the longest flights in the continental US…

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Portland

Posted by Thomas Sat, 18 Mar 2006 22:05:04 +0000

I’m off to Portland for a few days. Oregon that is. Work related. I’ll try my best to take some pics of Oregon. Being gone would have been a great time to put the Yukon in the shop, as it could use a good going over. If only I would have thought a little ahead, I might have been able to pull that off.

I’ve watched a whole lot of season 6 of West Wing today. I was just now going to watch The City of God, because it was directed by the same guy who directed The Constant Gardener. But, upon close inspection of the disc, it is broken. :( And I don’t have any other movies in my queue, which also is bad, because I’m paying for something I’m not using. There just don’t seem to be any movies left for me to stand to watch. Maybe there are, and I’m just missing them.

I’ve been craving Layne’s and/or that other place that sells awesome chicken strips… whose name escapes me at the moment… Ah, Wing ‘n’ More. I knew it started with a W, but I had West Wing on the brain. Did I mention that last Sunday was a new episode? It was good. I guess that since they know that this season will be the last, they have a lot of license to tie up several loose romantic ends, on top of all of the other ends that need to be tied up. Usually there are 22ish episodes in their regular season, but I have no idea how many they will wind up with for this season (season 7). They’re at 13 as of last Sunday, and 14 is tomorrow. I might to see an episode on tv for once.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Not much

Posted by Thomas Sun, 12 Mar 2006 01:08:25 +0000

Watched “The Constant Gardener”. Good, but sad. Cool pic. And check out worksongs. He’s had some good stuff as of late. Also I bought a receiver on-line tonight. Should get here in 6-10 days.

Posted in General, Movies | 3 Comments

Ode to Adan

Posted by Thomas Sun, 05 Mar 2006 02:59:53 +0000

Yes, Adan, I think that you find out all to late that life isn’t as fair and easy as you thought it might be when you were young. It seems like life just gets harder and harder. Which it seems to me is odd, because experience should make things easier. I suppose that the world continues to make things difficult just as quickly as you learn to cope with new circumstances. Where am I going with this… I think I can identify Adan, that the pressure of keeping up the status quo of what your friends expect of you on the outside can literally crush you to death, when things on the inside change. Expectations are a bitch.

Why are we so frail, so insecure? Are we not loved by our friends and family? The need to feel securely accepted and not judged for being who we are and not not judged for thinking how we think and not judged for feeling how we feel and not poked and prodded to change. Oh, we accept you just as you are, but you need to change this one little thing; and we do this for your own good, out of love. Yeah, sure.

Or maybe that’s just me.

Feel better, bro.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Wednesday

Posted by Thomas Thu, 02 Mar 2006 00:16:57 +0000

Onion Horoscope for Aquarius:
Aquarius (January 20 – February 18): A poorly translated Chinese proverb about respect and honor will elicit howls of laughter from you and your friends.

All too true. Best t-shirt ever.

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Qube and O2

Posted by Thomas Mon, 27 Feb 2006 00:14:52 +0000

I want one of these and one of these. Very badly. Oh, and while you’re buying, I’d like one of these as well.

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Sets

Posted by Thomas Thu, 23 Feb 2006 00:32:13 +0000

Had sets trouble lately? Need help with your sets? Call me for all your sets tutoring needs. 112.358.1321

Posted in General | 5 Comments

Cordless Drill

Posted by Thomas Sat, 18 Feb 2006 19:48:26 +0000

Which would be better, DeWalt or Makita for a cordless drill? As I recall, the Makita circular saw at Wesley was the only one that stood up to the abuse we put it through. But, we didn’t have any cordless drills. I’ve had some dealings with DeWalt cordless drills, and they’ll get the job done, but I don’t know how they fare in the long run. Oh, and for the tool lovers out there, Amazon is having a tool sale for Presidents’ Day. Which works out great for me, because I’m in need of some tools.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

T-shirts

Posted by Thomas Mon, 13 Feb 2006 23:58:56 +0000

Why do all of the cool t-shirts on the web cost like $17? Where are the $7 tees?

Posted in General | Comments Off

Sunday

Posted by Thomas Mon, 13 Feb 2006 02:02:50 +0000

My first impression of looking at this picture was that it was mediocre at best. Go ahead and look at it now. I’ll wait.

Back now? Looking at it now later, I notice the girl in orange, which totally changes my opinion.

Anyway, not much going on here. Cold and stuff. My car could really use a tune up/tire brake rotation/checkup. I also need a haircut, but for whatever [stupid] reason I continue to push it off. I did laundry, which made me feel better than it should have. I also felt like I worked all weekend. And how is it that a person would have no qualms about marrying someone they hardly know? What sense does that make? What sense does this sentance make? None. It’s 2am and bedtime for bonzo.

Spam poetry for your enjoyment:

suddenly the sandwich taught miserable,
suddenly immediate wife mentioned out yours.

my side steps across love explain,
hard anybody fire wrong respect goes,
young is anybody you different?

bought here find.

bought out disappoint mischievous already,
somewhere drew evening again yours.

reply letters the commit find end.
how purpose being.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Wednesday

Posted by Thomas Thu, 09 Feb 2006 00:03:43 +0000

Watched Dukes of Hazzard and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room over the weekend. I thought both of them were excellent. Why didn’t anyone tell me that Jay Chandrasekhar directed it? He had a cameo with Rabbit. Farva was in it, along with Kenny from Garden State, Jessica Simpson, and Willie smoking an apple as a bong. Good times.

Aquarius January 20 – February 18

The stars understand that faith is difficult in the modern world, but trust them when they tell you that the derivative of a constant is always zero.

This Dilbert is hilarious and all too true.
http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2006020523365.jpg

Posted in General, Movies | 2 Comments

More Cheese

Posted by Thomas Wed, 01 Feb 2006 23:17:45 +0000

I need more cheese. I think I’m on my last two slices, which I am about to eat for supper. And I just was at Kroger like two days ago, but I didn’t realize… :( Yes, yes, I know. I have a rough life.

I just bough sheets on Amazon, from Macys. Quite odd.

Time to eat and finish Episode IV.

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Overdue update

Posted by Thomas Sun, 29 Jan 2006 16:19:51 +0000

I’ve been slacking on updating this thing again. I just can’t seem to scrape up much to talk about.

Just got back from skiing in VT. The skiing was much better than I was expecting, so that was good. I am still working on getting the tiredness and soreness to go away.

I think that Wendy’s is sometimes ripping me off… :( But I can’t seem to stop going.

I read some more on Jim Cramer’s book on the plane rides, and finally finished it. Hopefully soon I’ll be doing my research/homework into stocks and start playing in the stock market.

I also just yesterday hooked Marc up with a blog and photoblog. You should check them out.

Enough update for now, I just woke up from a nap and I really need to eat something…

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Nothing

Posted by Thomas Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:29:12 +0000

Well, folks, you heard it here first. Peeps are trying to raise funds to get Firefly back on the air. They’ve got $387 (as of this writing), so throw in some change; I might even, too

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mintchaos/86325832/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/effpunkt/85392401/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cybele_malinowski/85425383/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timothymorgan/86895027/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackdiddley/86146628/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anxiousdog/86123766/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aphrodite/84987452/
http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/archives/photos_architecture/060112_1428.shtml

The last one was the best that I had seen in quite some time. Now that I’ve subscribed to the interestingness feed from flickr, I get to see a lot more raw numbers of pictures, which increases the number of really good pics that I get to come across.

Posted in General, Photo Links | 6 Comments

Third Wheel

Posted by Thomas Sat, 07 Jan 2006 19:39:27 +0000

RUN, do not walk, and find the movie “The Third Wheel”. I have no idea how I’ve missed this awesome movie since it came out in ’02. Go now. Don’t wait. What are you waiting for? Why are you still reading this? Seriously, go rent it. Download it. Do whatever you need to do to watch this movie. Seriously. Do it. Do it. Do it.

Posted in General, Movies | 1 Comment

Christmas Travel

Posted by Thomas Sat, 24 Dec 2005 01:50:16 +0000

Well, travelling today was pretty much uneventful, yet stressful. Something about getting out of the routine and getting everything done that needs to get done, and remembering to take everything that needs to be taken. Flight left Atlanta at 9:30am, which meant that I got up at 6am. Having gone to bed around 1am made for a short night (I was watching Wedding Crashers…). Leaving at about 6:45, the temperature outside was about 23 degrees F. There was ice on my windows. So, I searched for my ice scraper for a bit, but wound up busting out the de-ice spray to expedite my work. I tried to check in with Continental (since they were who I actually bought the ticket from), but they sent me to Delta, who the flight was actually with. Don’t ask me how that works that I buy a Continental ticket & get a Delta flight. I don’t care if you put me on a Delta flight, but you should at least let me check in with the people from whom I bought the ticket. I digress… I’m not sure if it was the early morning stupor (ala 9.30) or if I dreamed this or what, but I would have sworn that I heard Jaimie Hicks a couple of rows back from me. Out of the whole plane, I think that there was only one conversation going on, so I listened in. Hey, what else was I going to do while I was trying to fall asleep before takeoff? Anyway, some young woman who sounded like and laughed just like Jaimie was part of this conversation. Isn’t it odd how you will think that you see a friend or hear a friend, even though they are 100s of miles away? From my perspective we left a little late, putting us late into IAH. I got off the plane in Terminal A and had to change to Terminal B to catch my connection. I never knew until today that going from A to B at IAH would require me to go out of security and immediately back in. That sucked. Especially when I had roughtly 15 minutes until the plane started boarding (45 until takeoff). I was a little stressed terminal hopping, but made it. I only had time for a pit stop, which meant that by the time that I got to AMA at 1ish Central, I hadn’t had anything all day besides a DP at 6am Eastern. Connection in IAH on the way back is less time, so I’m glad that it’s Continental all the way. Hopefully no terminal changes next time. I guess that I should also buy tickets with a little more layover time. While I was in ATL I did manage to take some time lapse pics in the aiport, so, if after I look at them and they aren’t crap, then I might post them.

Cheers and Merry Christmas for now!

Posted in General | 4 Comments

Update

Posted by Thomas Tue, 20 Dec 2005 00:07:23 +0000

Well, I watched a whole lot this weekend. I must have watched maybe 4 episodes of both Mash & West Wing. Also watched my Netflix, of Stealth, Elecktra, and Daredevil. Somewhere in there I also watched Casablanca.

Casablanca, Elecktra, and even Stealth were all pretty good. I thought that DD was a little weak. Casablanca of course is a classic, and now I finally understand why. I liked the Eastern-ness of Elecktra a bunch. Not so much your regular comic feel, but more like a ninja movie. Ninja movies are cool. When I picked them, I didn’t even realize that DD and E were connected…

I’ve really felt like a slacker lately. Maybe it’s because my apt’s a little messier than it should me. I don’t know why, but I wish the feeling would go away. That, or that I could get some motivation to get my life in order, but that task is never completed. Tasks without end are not fun.

Posted in General, Movies | Comments Off

Arm

Posted by Thomas Tue, 13 Dec 2005 00:07:12 +0000

I guess that my right arm is just tired/sore. The possible causes that I’m leaning towards are stress build up in the arm and an un-ergonomic workstation. I’m not really sure if it’s even possible to hold stress in your arm, but I know that I probably do hold stress in my back, so the arm is just another muscle and not too much of a stretch in my mind, anyway. Here’s looking for better ergonomics. Laters.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

146

Posted by Thomas Mon, 12 Dec 2005 00:33:37 +0000

I guess that you guys are in for a treat! Two posts in one day. Perhaps I’m trying to compensate for how ever many days it has been since I last posted (not counting today). Most of you I would guess are procrastinating from finals, so I’m glad to be of service.

I had Papa Johns for lunch and dinner today. What can I say? A large is two meals. Especially when it costs $13.

The deal with the car: I heard something funny when I locked the doors using the remote. Didn’t think too much about it at the time. But when I came back and the power lock on the driver’s side door wasn’t working, I figured that some rod had popped out. No big deal, right? I figured that when I had some time and some daylight, I’d look into it. Which was the next Saturday. I began to take off the inside part of the door, only to find out that my 7mm socket wasn’t quite going to do it for me. I decided that I would just get what I needed at Wal-Mart and headed out. In the parking lot I ran into two co-workers. These guys happened to be working on one of their cars, and so I asked them if they could help me out in the tool area. Which of course they did. I followed them back and finished taking apart the door. To my dismay, it wasn’t so much that a rod had popped out of a guide, as the power lock actuator had come detached from the door and was just hanging inside it. After some pondering I figured that if I had some sort of hacking device, I could probably take out the rivets and just reattach the actuator using some machine screws and nuts. But, by this time I was cold and wasn’t really in any mood to fiddle with it any more. I had neither a hack saw, nor any machine screws, and I just wasn’t in the mood to track everything down. Since it was precariously perched, I wasn’t about to slam the door shut to break anything further. I just closed it enough so that it would be locked, but not shut all the way. That weekend it rained a bunch. Since my door wasn’t shut all the way, the seal wasn’t tight, letting rain water in. My seat was pretty damp when I got in on Monday, but didn’t really realize what had happened until after my but was wet. I just stuck it out driving to work and had a soggy bottom for a while. Nobody seemed to notice, so asll was good. Anyway, I just left it pretty much as it was for several days. The inside of the door just sort of hanging on by a thread. Late this past week I was finally fed up with my door not quite being whole, so I pulled the actuator out of the inside of the door so that the window would work properly, and put it all back together. Which is where it still is. I am currently thinking that I would love to pay a bunch of money to the dealer to fix it. We’ll see. I did though get an oil change and a car wash yesterday. It needed both. I also got some overpriced wiper blades and an air filter at the quick oil change place. Yes, I know. I let them do it to me so I wouldn’t have to figure anything out. I knowingly paid the premium for my own convienence.

What else, I guess that I haven’t told you guys about the AVEL Linkplayer2 that I got. It was an early Christmas present from the ‘rents. Which pretty much all of my presents have been, well all of the big ones at least. Since I’m more than 500 miles from home, it would be an ordeal to try and get presents back with me on the plane. Not impossible, just a hassle that I’d rather live without. So, they ordered stuff and had everything shipped out to me, which is totally cool with me. But it does make me wonder what this year will be like at home when everyone else will be opening presents. I know that they’ll have some stuff for me too, then, but things just won’t be the same. I guess that’s what I can expect for a while so long as it is cheaper and better for me to fly rather than drive.

Well, what else? I did see Saw II today. It was good, but to me it was exactly like Saw I. Definitely not worth the $6.50. Walked around the mall cruising for chicks. Didn’t find any. :( Bought a broadband router at Circuit City. Note to self: Send in the rebates.

Work is good. Changed gears a bunch. Change is good, until it becomes the norm, then more change is needed. Rinse & repeat. Been taking pictures. I took a few tonight, but I haven’t seen them, yet. I looked at Circuit City for a X-in-1 card reader, but they wanted $40. I’m willing to pay $10 for one, so no dice. I have to import them from the camera, so it’s more steps than I’d like, leading to me putting off downloading them in a timely manner. I would have taken more, but it was cold and I had neither the desire to get shot, nor the desire to get arrested. I might have tresspassed on a high school… At least some old farmer dude didn’t let out the air in my tires.

Posted in General, Movies | Comments Off

Crappy

Posted by Thomas Sun, 11 Dec 2005 14:15:12 +0000

Damn it. Don’t you hate it when you type a whole bunch of crap into your blog, only to have it quickly erased? Yeah, me too.

Well, I had written this whole long story about how much my driver’s side door actuator has the rivets busted on its bracket, how I tried to fix it and failed, and how my butt got wet in the process. But I guess that you’ll never know the story, because of my slip of the key.

Well, I’m sorry that it’s been so long since my last post, and writing all of that only to have it gone has really put me into a not good mood. I watched Saw (once regular and then once with the director’s commentary), the first episode of Firefly (once regular & once with the director’s commentary) and then the second episode of Firefly with director’s commentary. I’ve still got the Alamo to watch, but I sort of want to see Saw II in the theater, so I might go do that today.

My right forearm has been acting up lately. Maybe it’s due to my longer stints of sitting in front of a computer nowadays. It feels like I’ve worked it harder than I should have and like it’s a little weak. A feeling like when you run until your legs feel like jelly. Cole, any adverse effects from coding at work?

I was reading Guy’s blog, and he mentioned Rich Jones. I’m pretty sure that I know this person. Small world.

And I posted a bunch to the photoblog. Check it out.

Posted in General, Movies | Comments Off

Monday

Posted by Thomas Mon, 28 Nov 2005 23:13:07 +0000

Yes, Ben, I should have done something. Anything would have been better than nothing. Another perhaps missed opportunity. This pit in my stomach will go away and soon enough be replaced by some other, yet to be known girl. But, honestly, who could have expected any other outcome? There inlies my greatest disappointment, that this is the expected behavoir.

Cole, I added a link to the photoblog over there —>. Hope you enjoy it. I will take any other suggestions on further tweaking of the link, if you have any.

Well, Thanksgiving went well. No missed flights going. Woke up on time and all that. Good to see the fam, and I was pleasantly surprised to have KB and Clay meet me at the airport along with the expected parents. Being in Canyon was altogether uneventful and restful, as it should be.

Getting back, however, involved snow in Canyon and Amarillo, leading to an hour delay in leaving and missing my connection by probably about 20 minutes. Which of course led to my fun with standby and the pretty girl whom I’ll never see again. (Boo hoo me. Insert world’s tiniest violin, playing blah blah blah).

I would upload a pic, but my reader isn’t being recognized by my computer, has locked it up once already (due to what I am assuming is dust in the usb ports), and to make matters worse, when I restarted, I had to reboot again to go to runlevel 1 to deal with my misconfigured resin server and manually load modules in the correct order to get my ethX devices in the proper order. I suck, I know. I will take suggestions on long term solutions to either of the aforementioned problems. So, if I get it figured out (I guess I can get the laptop out, although I doubt that I will have much more success), then you might get to see a pic, else it will happen some other time. USB SUCKS! Firewire rules.

That is all.

Posted in General | 5 Comments

Mauri

Posted by Thomas Fri, 25 Nov 2005 22:58:02 +0000

NOBODY TOLD ME MAURI HAD A BLOG!

Check out her new blog at Xanga.

Posted in General | Comments Off

Lights

Posted by Thomas Tue, 22 Nov 2005 00:17:37 +0000

Everyone must download this now! It is glorious! Whoever did this has way too much time and money on their hands…

Posted in General | Comments Off

Poll

Posted by Thomas Mon, 21 Nov 2005 20:56:57 +0000

I’m sure that none of you would ever expect me to pose this question, but why are strapless wedding dresses in now?

Posted in General | 5 Comments

Punch Drunk Love

Posted by Thomas Thu, 17 Nov 2005 23:21:10 +0000

What the hell was that about? Seriously… I’m so confused, but I liked it.

Oh, BTW, guess who just got offered an upgrade from contractor, bitches? :D

Posted in General | 1 Comment

WC

Posted by Thomas Wed, 16 Nov 2005 00:05:47 +0000

Funniest bathroom sign, ever.
http://www.csd.net/~seawall/sunday.jpg

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Firefly

Posted by Thomas Mon, 07 Nov 2005 23:17:33 +0000

Firefly deserved 6 more seasons and to have gone out on top.

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Pulp Fiction

Posted by Thomas Sun, 06 Nov 2005 01:04:17 +0000

I watched it again for the first time tonight. I tried to watch it some time ago (during high school, I think), but for whatever reason, I couldn’t watch it all the way through. I guess since then my tastes have changed a lot, and I have a greater appreciation for these kinds of movies and Mr. Tarantino as well. Anyway, I liked it a lot. Good movie.

Posted in General, Movies | Comments Off

I want to know…

Posted by Thomas Sat, 05 Nov 2005 13:25:37 +0000

the whats that lie ahead.
the whys of the path that has brought me here thus far.
the whos of my future.

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Picture Request

Posted by Thomas Wed, 02 Nov 2005 01:03:44 +0000

And can somebody mention to Jodi and/or Susan that I would like to see copies of those pictures?

Posted in General | Comments Off

New pics

Posted by Thomas Wed, 02 Nov 2005 00:38:07 +0000

I just posted 2 pics from the Washington trip, a pic from campus, and 2 from Java. I should have posted them a day at a time or something, but at this point I really don’t care. If anybody wants to see what I took at Java, then I can point in the right direction, especially the 06ers, except I don’t think that the pics turned out as well as I would have liked… :(

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DO NOT WAKE UP AT 905 FOR YOUR 905 FLIGHT!

Posted by Thomas Sat, 29 Oct 2005 09:40:18 +0000

DO NOT WAKE UP AT 905 FOR YOUR 905 FLIGHT!

Posted in General | Comments Off

Yay! I’m stmart1

Posted by Thomas Fri, 28 Oct 2005 23:21:37 +0000

More Scientific

You have:
77% SCIENTIFIC INTUITION and
62% EMOTIONAL INTUITION
The graph on the right represents your place in Intuition 2-Space. As you can see, you scored above average on emotional intuition and well above average on scientific intuition.Your scientific intuition is stronger than your emotional intuition.
Your Emotional Intuition
score is a measure of how well you understand people, especially their
unspoken needs and sympathies. A high score score usually indicates
social grace and persuasiveness. A low score usually means you’re good
at Quake.

Your Scientific Intuition
score tells you how in tune you are with the world around you; how well
you understand your physical and intellectual environment. People with
high scores here are apt to succeed in business and, of course, the
sciences.



Try my other test!
The 3 Variable Funny Test
It rules.


My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
free online dating free online dating
You scored higher than 79% on Scientific
free online dating free online dating
You scored higher than 36% on Interpersonal

Link: The 2-Variable Intuition Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Pick Up

Posted by Thomas Tue, 18 Oct 2005 23:19:48 +0000

Anybody going to be around at about 2pm on 29 October to pick me up in good ol’ CS?

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Traffic

Posted by Thomas Tue, 18 Oct 2005 22:33:19 +0000

Whoever said that driving in traffic wasn’t fun? Surely wasn’t me, because I think that I’m still enjoying it a little too much.

Finally caught up tonight on the West Wing from Sunday night (episdode 4 for those keeping track at home). I was worried that this season wasn’t going to be up to snuff. If this past episode is any indication of the direction and writing of the rest of the season, then this season will be great, and I wish that I didn’t have to wait a week between episodes. :) Amy, if you’re behind, then you need to catch up! This episode reminded me of some of the greats of the past, and even had me yelling at the end of the episode because I didn’t want it to leave me hanging.

Posted in General | Comments Off

Bonding Sunday

Posted by Thomas Sun, 16 Oct 2005 18:35:55 +0000

If Adan’s away message is correct, then today, I think, is the first Bonding Sunday that I will have missed in the past 6 years. :(

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Monday

Posted by Thomas Mon, 10 Oct 2005 23:41:02 +0000

I took the weekend mostly to do nothing, and it was nice. I guess that I did a little for work yesterday, but didn’t do too much. I’ve posted some to the photoblog over the past couple of days. I’m going to try and be sure to post the good stuff from the trip, and I’ve been contemplating throwing together a gallery, so that everybody can see all of the pictures, but I’m not convinced that’s the smartest thing in the world to do.

Also, my external drive isn’t broken at all. I’m sure that everyone was worried about that one…

The answer to all of the DP in the fridge was that they were empty boxes. Or maybe just mostly empty. Now I have quite a collection of boxes.

Since I just dl’ed the West Wing, I’m going to feed my addition.

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Tuesday

Posted by Thomas Tue, 04 Oct 2005 23:09:58 +0000

Here is the good ol’ Onion horoscope of the month. Plus check out the photoblog, as I posted a new pic.

Aquarius (January 20 – February 18): Your future seems to contain a great amount of fluorescent lighting, a lot of spreadsheets, and a great many people trying to avoid meaningful contact with you; basically, everything you went to college for.

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Monday

Posted by Thomas Mon, 03 Oct 2005 21:57:01 +0000

Why do I feel like I got hit by a Mac truck today? Or maybe it was more like I ran into a brick wall.

Note to self: when going on long trips, don’t forget your passport, fingernail clippers, and enough razor blades.

Now, I have to go do my laundry because I’m a tool…

Posted in General | Comments Off

Sunday

Posted by Thomas Sun, 02 Oct 2005 21:26:47 +0000

Yesterday I got up about 10, I think, and headed to the mall around noon. I walked around taking some pics for several hours. I had phoned James Glueck the night before to see if he wanted to get together since he works in DC. So, we got together around 5, I think, went to a little bar in Georgetown and then walked around G-town for several hours. The Georgetown area really seems to be pretty nice, or at least what I saw of it last night. It has the university, and what seems to me to be pretty much an outside mall. What I mean is that there are all the stores that are just in regular old buildings. Stores that I normally see in an actual mall. Lots of people walking around the streets. Plenty of really expensive townhouses/row houses. But it was nice to catch up with James.

I watched the 2nd episode of WW. Since I didn’t see the first, I think that I missed a couple of things. And after watching it, I realize how much watching episodes one week at a time, with a bunch of comercials in the middle is for the birds.

I didn’t do much today besides chilling in the hotel room. I really need to get the laundry done, and I’m trying to decide between doing it myself tonight, or having it done tommorow… I may try and see the national archives on Tuesday after work. They weren’t open today and won’t be open when I could go by there on Monday. Tuesdays they are open late. While I’m in DC then I might try and do some night shooting. Unfortunately I haven’t bitten the bullet for a tripod, so no real night photography with any length of exposure time. So, I might try and take some pics of well lit stuff. We’ll see.

Posted in General | 1 Comment

1st week in DC

Posted by Thomas Sat, 01 Oct 2005 00:29:52 +0000

Sorry guys that I haven’t written for the past several days. Between starting the night late after work and going out on the town pretty much every night, it’s been pretty jam packed. I’m pretty sure that I’ve eaten some authentic Szechuan, Vietnamese, and Thai food. I may have reached my Asian food quota. But we did eat at a steakhouse, and I got some decent prime rib (although I think that I ordered it a little too overcooked), as well as some blueberry/strawberry shortcake dessert. The dessert was the best that I’ve had in quite a while. Most of you would know that I really don’t care about food that much, nor about desserts, but this was excellent. I’ve even considered going back just to get it. It was so good. Now that my co-worker flew back to Atlanta, I’ll have a little more time to chill, as well as doing whatever I want. He had lived here before, so he wanted to see certain people and do some specific things. Most of which involved his favorite restaurants. Hence the wide variety of Asian foods. It was a good experience to get to venture out a little bit. The Szechuan food was pretty hot, but not too bad. I probably did sweat some, but it didn’t ruin the rest of the meal.

I would have thought that I might have been able to get up pretty early like I did in England, but that hasn’t been the case. I’ve been sleeping late as I can, which really hasn’t been the best. But I guess that I have been going to bed pretty late, so sleeping is a good thing, and will be keeping me well.

I’m going to try and get up at a reasonable time in the morning and head out to the mall. I’d really like to hit up the sites again and try and take some pictures. I’ve been here before, with my parents, so it’s not too big of a deal. I called up James Glueck and we’ll probably get together sometime. I’m happy about that. He said that the local Aggie club watches the games at a local pub, so we might do that.

But, the thing that pisses me off the most for this particular post and time is the fact that I brought my external drive up here so that I would have some stuff to watch besides crappy TV (I had forgotten how bad TV is, in terms of good programming). I put the drive in my checked luggage, because I didn’t have room in my carry on. Now the drive is acting funny. Hopefully I haven’t destroyed yet another drive and enclosure. This would be quite another blow, since this drive is 300G. Let’s hope that it’s either just crappy USB 2.0, or that my laptop doesn’t really want to play nicely with it today, and that the firewire will work flawlessly when I get back home. I guess that it’s time to put that fibre channel array to use.

Yep, Amy, I’m quite a fan of West Wing. I have the 4th season on DVD and every episode through last seaon on the ol’ computer. I’ll try and catch the second episode of the season on Sunday, but having not seen the first one, I may just actually skip it. I would try and download it at the hotel, but I don’t think that they would approve. It may just have to wait until I get back to ATL.

I’ve also tried to take some pictures while here so far. Like I said I’m going to try and take some pictures on the mall tomorrow or Sunday. Hopefully I won’t get arrested or anything for taking a picture of something that I’m not supposed to. I’ll try and post some, or I may just wait ’til I get back, I dunno.

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Sunday

Posted by Thomas Sun, 25 Sep 2005 22:29:07 +0000

I caved in an bought a 1GB Compact Flash card at Wal-Mart. I wasn’t traumatized too much in the process, but it did cost me $95. Yikes. I feel pretty bad that I really just want to use it for 2 weeks and then return it. Something about that just feels very wrong, so we’ll see if I do it. I also feel pretty bad for paying so much. I’ve seen 1GB CF cards online for $50, so it would be quite a savings to return this one and buy another online.

There was supposed to be the first West Wing episode of Season 7 tonight. I’ve looked in the normal places for torrents, but have as of yet to be able to find it. I guess that it’s going to take a couple of days for it to show up online.

We’ll see how much I post while I’m away… like I think that I said before, email and phone are your friend if you need/want to contact me… the exact same methods as if I wasn’t going anywhere…

Oh, and Marc, very nice pics from the vball & soccer games. Very professional.

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New lamps

Posted by Thomas Sun, 25 Sep 2005 00:43:25 +0000

I guess that I will make this one and the same post with the photoblog.

I meant to go to Wal-Mart to find some cheap 1GB compact flash cards, so that I could have one before I leave on Monday. But the ones that they had were around $80, which was more that I was planning on spending, so I roamed around a little. I guess that they put the electronics in the back of the store for the same reason that grocers put the milk and eggs in the back of the grocery store. So, I had to walk by the lamp section. Which I had walked by before but had resisted the impluse to buy better lighting for my apartment. So, weak willed as I am, I bought two. Up until today, neither the living room nor my bedroom had lighting. The dining room and kitchen have some, so that has sufficed for the other rooms at night. Well, that and the closet light. So, I bought some light bulbs only to realize when I came home that the lamps were the three-way kind, and I had only bought regular 60w ones. Oh well, better luck next time. I did splurge on an extension cord, as I didn’t yet know where I was going to put them. I think that I overspent when I paid 77 cents for one. :) So, now I’ve got a little better lighting for myself and I have use for the lightswitches that only go to plugs on the wall. And, unfortunately, it looks like Fry’s doesn’t have much better of a price than Wally World, so I’ll probably just have to go back and deal with the incompetance that is customer service in the United States to try and get them to sell me my compact flash, instead of spending the time and gas to actually find and get to the Fry’s that I don’t even know where it is in Atlanta, only to save myself like $10.

Looks like I need to clean up the apt a bit.

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Random funny stuff from today

Posted by Thomas Sat, 24 Sep 2005 00:25:20 +0000

This is hilarious. As is this.

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Thursday

Posted by Thomas Thu, 22 Sep 2005 23:24:03 +0000

Thanks Ames for checking out the photoblog and commenting. I really appreciate it. :) At least I know that somebody’s listening. Also a new shoutout to my newest commenter, Ethan. What’s up, bro? Thanks for stopping by.

Well, I paid off my washer and dryer a couple of days ago. My how quickly Sears can cash a check. I’m looking to have a bigger buffer in my checking, so I think that I’ll be working as much overtime as I can stand from here on out. It won’t be a whole lot of extra money, but every little bit helps, you know?

Also, I’ll be traveling on business starting next Monday. I’ll still be reachable through every mean that I am currently, save probably AIM. And even that I might be on and off. Email and phone will be your best bets.

Watched Sin City and Bad Boys. Both were ok, I guess. Sin City was good in its own way, but not much to write home about. I’ve probably seen Bad Boys before, but couldn’t really remember, so I got it. It was pretty average, I’d say for a Will Smith action movie.

Traveling might give me some opportunity to take some pics, but we’ll see. If I am going to do that, then really I’ll need a bag, a memory card, and a tripod. Things that I’d rather not spend money on right now.

My sisters both got back from their vacations with their husbands. I am told that they had good times. Laurie and Edward on their honeymoon to Hawaii, and KB and Clay on a cruise. Yay for them.

Enough for now, and I’ll try and post another photo to the blog.

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New Toy

Posted by Thomas Mon, 19 Sep 2005 22:12:05 +0000

I finally today got in my new money pit… er toy, a Canon 300D Digital Rebel. I bought it from a guy in the Company, in Cali. It’s not the absolute best price in the word, but it’s cheaper than I can get it online, so that’s something. I’m getting a little worried that I can’t seem to hold on to my money… I guess it’s just that I figure that I want all of this stuff, and there’s not a whole lot standing in my way of getting it. Especially when plane tickets are anywhere from $300–600 a pop, money goes fast. That may be where a bunch of money has been going, trips back to Texas. Now, don’t get me wrong, because I did buy the fibre channel array, a couple of books, plus this new camera. Maybe I’m just trying to justify these purchases to myself… I dunno. I try to tell myself that this camera will help me get out of the house maybe a little bit. I already have some pictures in mind, but like any good money pit, I already “need” to buy an accessory for it, in the form of a 1GB Compact Flash card. Maybe that’s why overtime seems more and more appealing. Either way, check out http://chobas.com/photoblog/ in the coming days and weeks for cool pics from Atlanta.

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Abandon the morals you live in!

Posted by Thomas Sun, 18 Sep 2005 22:32:52 +0000

Nice title to a piece of spam email that I got. I tried to get a bunch of sleep this weekend as I woke up on Friday with a little dryness/raspyness going on in my throat. Seemed very similar to something I caught a couple of weeks ago. So, I slept in a lot, and took some naps whenever I could. Taking some Advil Allergy/Sinus stuff. Works ok. Cleaned up the apt a bit today, including the toilet, which really needed it. Finally got around to doing some overtime today. Wishing that I had more money so that I could spend it on stuff that I don’t need… Also wish that I was more of a machine and could work OT without blinking…

Apparently I’ve kept a broken DVD for 2 weeks now. I didn’t realize that it was broken until today. Yay for Netflix time/dvds wasted!

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Guy’s take on “ supreme court hearings”

Posted by Thomas Sat, 17 Sep 2005 13:58:25 +0000

A good read…

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Super Size Me

Posted by Thomas Sun, 11 Sep 2005 23:16:32 +0000

Why are companies being demonized for giving us ultimately what we want? We love Wal-Mart for their low prices, yet we loathe them for the practices they use to obtain those same low prices. We love McDonald’s for their cheap, crappy food, yet we sue them for making us fat. When are we going to stop blaming other people for our own lack of self control and our desire for instant gratification? We have decided to a cheap price now. A cheap price that overrides the ultimately much higher cost of the long term price. You want cheap goods and you want a fare wage? Well, then those goods aren’t going to come from the work of your hands. Cheap goods don’t grow on trees.

</soapbox>

I hope that everybody saw the comic that Marc sent. Essentially the classic line from “When Harry Met Sally”. It is especially pointant today as I have recently been thinking about how I am sure that it is going to be a while before I wind up with a girlfriend. For you see that I have been convinced that I simply want it too badly. And, as such, “me” doesn’t communicate at all to any girl that I’m interested in. Added to that their ability to smell how I am ultimately not ready…

As I think that I have mentioned here before, this cycle or game of trying to exude the fact that you’re ready because you’re not interested in dating. So, I say that I understand that things aren’t going to work out because I understand that I need to be much more comfortable in certain situations. So I become disinterested in dating because I know that I’m not ready, only to realize that my disinterest leads to dating, which leads me to realize that I’m not ready, which leads me to realize that I am, etc.

If that nonsense made sense to anyone, then you get a cookie. If you are one of these lucky/unlucky people, then please see your nearest fish for your cookie, courtesy of Bernies and their parents.

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Global warming

Posted by Thomas Sat, 10 Sep 2005 18:04:22 +0000

While looking through pictures from the actual hurricane, as well as its aftermath, I can only think about how life is too short. Such power and devistation. I also makes me think that there is little that we really can do with this big hunk of rock that we call home. I can only imagine that the environmentalists will proclaim that these hurricanes are getting worse and worse because of the 1 degree increase in average temperature that we as humans have caused, or some such propoganda. Last time I checked, I don’t think that we had anything to do with the last ice age that we had, nor the enormous asteroid that killed the dinosaurs so long ago. I think that the more that we screw it up, the more that it’s just going to push back. Shit happens. The earth can do more to us that I bet we can do to it. It was around long before we were here, and it will be here long after. There’s a reason that we have big brains and I think that we’re supposed to use them to use this earth’s resources. I guess that we can all agree that we don’t need to kill the planet, and at the same time we need to use its resources. Contention arises when what exactly defines reasonable use and the extent of conservation. But you can’t really avoid the inevitability of the sun engulfing us in X million years and all of this becoming moot. Put that in your pipe and some it, you tree hugging hippies.

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My blog

Posted by Thomas Sat, 10 Sep 2005 01:31:37 +0000

I want my blog to be a cool and random as this chica’s blog. I wonder if I can pull it off?

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iPod nano

Posted by Thomas Thu, 08 Sep 2005 01:00:45 +0000

Did anybody else find it offensive that they skipped from mini to nano. I guess that I’m confusing my prefixes a bit, ’cause I was mixing up mini and milli, but that’s neither here nor there. If they go to nano, why not pico or femto? Or is that just too high brow? Can any engineers out there back me up on this? I totally think that micro gets the shaft. I leave it as an excercise to the reader to figure out what femto means, and the other metric prefixes.

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Long time no see

Posted by Thomas Thu, 08 Sep 2005 00:26:12 +0000

Well, I’ve had no internet for something like the past week. Several people noticed that I wasn’t online, and a couple of them called. I didn’t fall off the face of the earth, just off of the internet. The dullards that host our internet here finally fixed it today, after much gnashing of teeth. I considered posting stuff separately, but I think that I’ll just make one post that spans the entire time.

I dunno about you guys in Texas and what help you have seen going towards LA. I thought that seeing convoys of cherry pickers going towards the aftermath of a hurricane or two that we or surrouding states has had so far was surreal, but seeing a convoy of moving equipment that I can only guess was going towards LA sort of blew my mind. Then later I saw the remnants of a military convoy as well. It was definitely a surreal thing in my mind. I don’t have cable I’ve been a little out of the loop in all of this, so I don’t see it on the news 24/7. Probably good and bad.

Gas prices aren’t too bad. I’ve paid like 2.89 or 2.84. Governor axed taxes on gas for the month, so it should be ~15 cents cheaper.

Unfortunately, that may be it. Since I didn’t have internet I was a little more bored than usual, but not too bad. I did a little reading, but mostly watched what I’ve got downloaded. Chad had me get a TV show called Arrested Development. Watched about 6 episodes of the first season and think that it’s pretty good. Definitely watch some more. Also watched Full Metal Jacket, which is why I answered the phone the way that I did when you called me, Ben. And btw, Mindy this is Ben, Ben this is Mindy. I don’t know if you guys have met or not, but he’s an 06er.

Anyhoo, enough for now.

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Sunday Sunday

Posted by Thomas Sun, 28 Aug 2005 19:58:29 +0000

Ever looked at yourself in the mirror and asked yourself the question, “Like a gantt chart?”?

Haven’t done much today. Too much ebay. Read a bunch while trying to figure out if I can do shared fibre channel disks under raid 5 under lvm under gfs. If anybody besides Cole understands that, then you get a cookie. Rearranged the corner of my living room that is my “office”. Moved one table to the other side of the other table. Now I feel weird, ’cause my workstation moved like 3 feet. The move was so that I could increase the density of stuff, but as I’ve recently learned, more density does not always equal betterness. I need some nerdy/geeky bookends for my workstation. The floor is now open to suggestions. That is all.

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Older than me wesleyites

Posted by Thomas Sat, 27 Aug 2005 01:05:51 +0000

I stumbled across a veritable mother load of old wesleyite blogs. I have known for a while that there existed several blogs linked to from Mindy’s site, but only now have I fully delved into them to find such people as tmac, phat allen, goat, mel, etc. Good to know. I’ll try and track them for a while and if they’re any good, I’ll keep on reading. :) But I must say that the topics that they all just posted about are quite disturbing. They are all having kids. Guy & Abi just had one. As well as Matt Hammer. Looks like the Bakers have one on the way as well. Personally I had no idea. Crazy that the people just a bit older than me are all going to be or already are parents. I would guess that a bunch of those people already kept in touch, but hopefully they can stay a bit more in touch through blogs. It’s a new and interesting medium with which to communicate, but it definitely takes some effort to keep up writing on a regular basis. I haven’t checked the old wesley yahoo group in a while, but there didn’t seem to be much there the last time that I looked. Maybe this will replace it some.

Apocalypse Now === F*cked up movie; good, but f’ed up

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Engineers

Posted by Thomas Thu, 25 Aug 2005 22:12:20 +0000

Have I ever mentioned how much I miss being around engineers?

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Credit card applications

Posted by Thomas Tue, 23 Aug 2005 21:12:35 +0000

Whomever made me think that it was going to be hard for me to get a credit card after college was dead wrong. I get one like everyday. Don’t you get it people?!? I don’t need anymore credit cards, nor do I need to make any balance transfers from my overloaded credit cards (as I have none). So, to all the creditors reading this, check my credit history, get a clue, and stop sending me spam!

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Butcher’s Block

Posted by Thomas Tue, 23 Aug 2005 00:34:32 +0000

You think that $79.99 is too much? I think I might get one of these. I need some semi-nice knives anyway…

http://www.csbcommodities.com/

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Now I remember

Posted by Thomas Sun, 21 Aug 2005 12:28:00 +0000

Now I remember… Now I remember probably why I don’t talk so much. And I remember why I don’t like books so much (Because I seem to have a propensity to not read them all the way through. Then I feel like I’m not being fiscally responsible.).

Song in my head all day Friday: Dave Matthews Band – Typical Situation

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Not much

Posted by Thomas Sun, 21 Aug 2005 00:22:02 +0000

Watched a bunch of West Wing today. Haven’t done too much stuff. These made me laugh out loud. Drew, definitely need to check them out. Marc, you should give this a try.

I dunno if J-Rod reads this, so if you do, then send me a cd or something of Kellie Shehan(sp), else, someone smack him in the back of the head and tell him that I still want it.

tackerm is a jerkstor for camping on a bunch of auctions. I really, really want to jack up all of the prices on all of the auctions that he’s bid on to just below what it looks like his max bid is. muahahha! (I’m in the market because my QLA2100 just isn’t going to cut it :/).

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Nose

Posted by Thomas Fri, 19 Aug 2005 21:47:57 +0000

It all started a couple of days ago. A couple of innocent sneezes during the day. Now, I don’t normally sneeze that much, and if I do, I don’t usually put in any thought about it. Although I do have a photic sneeze reflex. Look it up… Anyhoo, woke up yesterday or the day before with some nasal blockage preventing some breathing through a nostril, along with a scratch throat. I figured that it was allergies. Now I’ve got a little runny nose and a little drainage. I don’t seem to be getting as much sleep as of late as I probably should be. Which seems hard for me to alleviate, because I haven’t been getting that tired at night. Then it’s like 2am and I figure that I should go to bed. I wake up more tired than when I went to sleep (which is rather messed up). I guess that I’ll try and catch up this weekend and nurse my allergies or sickness, but I make no guarantees. Yes, yes. Drink plenty of fluids, get plenty of rest, take medicine. Gotcha. At least it is the weekend so if I get worse I won’t have to take any time off.

Crap, while reading about the photic sneeze reflex, I learned that not only can I not be a combat pilot because I don’t have 20/20 vision (I already knew that), I also would be pwned because I sneeze. Bummer.

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Step Uncle

Posted by Thomas Thu, 11 Aug 2005 01:37:20 +0000

I just realized that I’m going to be a step-uncle-type-person on Saturday… how weird is that?

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White Board UP!

Posted by Thomas Thu, 11 Aug 2005 00:59:27 +0000

I got the white board hung tonight, with the help of a couple of nails, some speaker wire, two pci slot covers, and some bubble wrap. Last night I had the idea from some home makeover show to nail into the top cap of the wall to hang up my whiteboard. Looked at it this morning and realized/remembered that I have quite a large pseudo crown molding. Since this “crown molding” has a small strip of molding about 6–8″ below the ceiling, I figured that putting nails in at the very top of it would work great because they won’t be able to see the hole from standing on the ground. So, great, no holes to have to fill later. Has some small guage speaker wire, since I didn’t have any string. Ripped it apart to form 2 strands. Then bent the pci slot covers into a J to hold the white board. Fastened the wire to the pci slot covers. Then tied the wire to the nails and voila, a hanging white board. Then I had to make it so that the top would stay against the wall. Used some other semi-stiff wire that I had to make the board “stick” to the wire. Was worried about getting metal stuff on the wall (which wound up happening some before I fixed it, but hopefully not too bad), so I used a bubble wrapped envelope to keep the pci covers from contacting the wall. Not too bad for an engineer. :)

Too bad I don’t have a camera, else I’d just show you. :( I guess I’ll have to work on that… after I pay off the washer and dryer.

On a more serious note, I’ll try and respond to the comments given graciously by you guys about “The Pickup”. Hopefully I will get that out tomorrow, but since I’m heading out on Friday, if I don’t get it done, then it may be Sunday night or Monday night. Let’s hope that it’s tomorrow. :)

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Papa Johns, Home Depot and a White Board

Posted by Thomas Wed, 10 Aug 2005 00:09:53 +0000

So, as luck would have it the two things that I wanted to do tonight happened be right next to each other. How convienent that Home Depot is right next to a Papa Johns? So, in my lust for a 4×8′ sheet of white board, I went off to Home Depot. Before I left, I measured the Yukon. Over 4′ of cargo space in the width direction. Not quite enough space in the height direction… more on that later. So, I finally tracked down their sheets of this stuff. A 2×4′ sheet would have cost something like $7. The 4×8′ sheet costs something like $11. So, I went with the big sheet. Pondered having them cut it then and there, but figured that I would regret it later. About this time I figured that I would call ahead to PJ, so that I could pay out at HD, pick up my pizza at PJ, and then go home to eat it. Well, they don’t like it if you don’t have a local phone number. The wankers. So, I paid out at HD, drove to PJ, made my order and waited. Read some of the USA Today that was in the store. Oil doesn’t look to good in the near future. Well, bad for me, good for people who own lots of oil. Anyway… oh, and there was this crazy lady that came in, screaming about how the guy was rude on the phone and how she wanted to talk to his manager and all of this. Makes me think that you get more with honey than vinegar… I digress more. So, after 12 minutes, I got my pizza and took it home. Good $13 (or however much pizza). Then End. Oh, I almost forgot. Laid the back seats down, but essentially had to duck the entire drive home. I guess they didn’t figure many people carrying 4×8′ sheets of stuff when they designed it. Ah, fond memories of many a mission trip to Mexico… ::Single tear::

P.S. I’m taking bids (suggestions really) for how best to hang this on the wall without making ginormous holes in the wall. Also remember that I am lacking in the power tool dept… I could buy power tools, but I’d rather buy techie tools…

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Gross!

Posted by Thomas Mon, 08 Aug 2005 20:54:02 +0000

I just poured most of a half a gallon of milk down the drain that had a “Best if sold by” date of Jul 09! That may be a record for me, as I’m usually pretty good about these things…

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Apple Pie

Posted by Thomas Sun, 07 Aug 2005 22:27:45 +0000

MickeyD’s Apple Pies… four of them. Brings back many fond memories of many late night trips to McDonald’s with good friends…

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Cookie’s Fortune

Posted by Thomas Sun, 07 Aug 2005 14:43:56 +0000

A financial investment will yield returns beyond your hopes.

Hmmm… does that say what I think that it says?

‘Bout to go to work. Since I’m flying out on Friday, I figure that I don’t particularly want to loose those three or so hours of pay, so I’ll pick it up today all at once instead of sometime spread out this week. Watched “The Ladykillers” last night. I saw the original in my music in film class, so I knew pretty much what was going to happen. Odd that Tom Hanks was in it… Disappointed that there wasn’t a director’s commentary. Watched “Blazing Saddles” as well yesterday. Good flick. Thanks for the thought, Ben. I’ve also got “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” as well as “The Life of Brian”. We’ll see about watching one of them tonight. Well that actually depends if one of my network cards hasn’t bittent the dust… Also got through some of my book yesterday. It seems pretty good, but is really too early to tell. Picked up some Chinese for lunch today at a little place near by, hence the cookie’s fortune. I seemed to have bought too much food (my traditional meal of sweet and sour chicken). We’ll see how well the chicken and rice keep. Maybe I can stretch a couple of meals out of my $7.75.

laters

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Mosquito bites

Posted by Thomas Sat, 06 Aug 2005 21:37:12 +0000

Got my first two Georgian mosquito bites last night. Got them while standing around outside before a live concert. For you see that several guys from work were going to go see this band, O.A.R.. Well, actually I’m not exactly sure about how they spell their name, whether I have the correct capitalization and punctuation, but that is neither here nor there. I don’t know this because I had never heard of them before, and now I’ve heard them live. They are pretty good. A really relaxed type of music, not mad or anything. So, these guys from work asked me and just said yes, without any real hesitation (which is somewhat odd, but eh…). So, while the opening acts were on, we were standing around outside the venue, and I got bit a couple of times. Anyhoo, it was a good concert and I got to go out with a couple of friends. Good times…

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Fried

Posted by Thomas Fri, 05 Aug 2005 00:40:06 +0000

So apparently a while back I came a little closer to being fired than I would like to have been. Unbeknownst to me, I had a review at the end of my 3 month contract. Emails went around to the appropriate people, seeking reviews. Between what essentially boils down to clerical errors and some miscommunication, I was almost let go. But it was pretty quickly found out, and settled, all without my knowning. Good to know that they do in fact like me and want to keep me around a little while longer. :)

Watched “Cast Away” last night and the commentary tonight. I really liked it, but I bet there will be an ensuing flame war about how people didn’t like it.

Essentially impulse bought a book this morning from Amazon, Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations. It would be nice if I could plow through it this weekend. We’ll see.

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Le Jazz

Posted by Thomas Wed, 03 Aug 2005 00:37:36 +0000

I am definitely digging the John Coltrane and the Miles Davis.

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Mix CD

Posted by Thomas Mon, 01 Aug 2005 23:20:42 +0000

I have been meaning to get some input for a “makes thomas smile” mix cd. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

Jamiroquai – Canned Heat
NERD – LAPDANCE
O-Zone – Dragostea din tei
Usher Featuring Ludacris & Lil Jon – Yeah

The criteria is that it has to make me crack a smile. :)

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2 Things

Posted by Thomas Sun, 31 Jul 2005 01:30:44 +0000

In the vein of me only doing like 2 things, work and movies, I just saw “The Island” and work will come soon enough, but let’s not talk about that. Since I depleted my reserve of Netflix, I checked movies online and thought that I was going to have to watch “Fantastic Four” which I’m sure is ok, but wasn’t too looking forward to watching. So, I happened upon “The Island”. I picked up the trailer online, and with that and an IMDB rating of 6.9 I figured that it couldn’t be too bad. And it wasn’t. I’d say that it was excellent, excellent. I highly recommend it. Double-plus-good. It must have reminded me in different ways of over half a dozen movies. Music or people or themes or production design or plot.

Just before I saw the movie, I needed to grab some grub, as it was almost 10pm and I hadn’t eaten in quite a while. I happened upon a Moe’s grill-thingy. It’s like a southwest place. Semi-Mexican food. Got a burrito. But why I’m telling you this is because I noticed this girl, who seemed a little young to be working fast food. Now, this place just opened and was like still in grand opening phase. The lady who was running the register was probably early-mid forties. There were two other ladies, on very grandmotherly and the other about the same age as the lady running the register. So, I came pretty quickly to the conclusion that these were two daughters and a mother who were running this place. And I also decided that this young girl who was working was the register lady’s daughter. Not 5 seconds after I decided this, it was confirmed, as the daughter walked by, hitting the mother in a loving way. This prompted the lady, as I was signing my receipt, to explain that this was in fact her daughter.

The reason I tell you this is because it was just plain weird. I assumed this fact of relation, and then almost instantly it was confirmed. Weird.

Posted in General, Movies | 3 Comments

Insert creative, descriptive title here

Posted by Thomas Sat, 30 Jul 2005 13:14:32 +0000

Appreciation goes out to Ben for making me feel good making my blogs one of the first ones that he catches up on after a dry spell. Also to Miss Collins. I didn’t know that you read this, so that’s super cool. It took me a bit to realize who Amy was with the email that you gave. But after a quick search of my employer came up with one result and your last name. Which was good, because I would have not posted the comment had I not realized who you were… This also made me think that you’re a google whack, but I just looked up the rules and tamutrixie03 wouldn’t count. Anyway, Amy, in my book, you’ll always be a Google Whack. :)

So, last night I watched the “Punisher”. I thought about posting here how if it wasn’t a good movie that I was going to have to… um… something… I dunno. I guess I was just going to be disappointed and angry that I had wasted a perfectly good Netflix spot in my weekend for a crappy movie. But this was not the case. It totally wasn’t really what I was expecting (which is usually a good thing when it comes to stuff like this), so I enjoyed it. I watched “The Whole Ten Yards” the night before. It was ok, but not as good as “The Whole Nine Yards”. Very scatterbrained, I thought. Not a complete waste of time. I will watch “Analyze This” sometime today. Again, I hope that it’s a good movie. It would seem of late that I am having some difficulty finding movies that I really want to watch. There is a mountain of movies that I feel obligated to watch, like “Platoon” or “Monty Python’s Life of Brian”. Stuff that I should watch, but really just have no desire to sit through. Sounds like a personal problem, doesn’t it? :)

I thought about just leaving the comments about “The Prince and Me” just go, but as I type apparently I’m not going to let it go. So, as far as the comments go, you can either make fun of me for it, or I will just censor more of what I write and you can just never hear about stuff like that again. Which would you rather have?

Time for lunch and a movie.

Song in my head when I woke up this morning: Dave Matthews – When the World Ends

Posted in General, Movies | 2 Comments

Drenched

Posted by Thomas Fri, 29 Jul 2005 20:29:39 +0000

I come to you now from being the most drenched that I’ve been in I don’t know how long. OOOHHH! I remember when I was last this drenched! It was on the Galveston Choir Tour. Or should I say infamous the Galveston Choir Tour. I seem to recall some semi-embarrasing things that came out of that trip. Anyhoo, a guy/co-worker/friend needed a jumpstart for his car and was asking who had jumper cables. Which of course I always have. So, I offered to jump him off. As we started to the parking lot, he mentioned something about needing a raincoat as it was raining. Now I don’t really follow the weather as well as I probably should, but I didn’t know anything about the possibility of rain, and since I had neither an umbrella, a poncho, slicker, etc. it didn’t really matter. There were some big drops coming down by this point, but not too many of them. And then the torrent started. You know that point when you just decide that getting absolutely drenched is absolutely a non-issue? Don’t you love that feeling? When you just let go and say, as long as nothing gets ruined, it’s just water, right? I take a shower everyday and that hasn’t killed me yet… So, I left my cell phone inside work for safe keeping, took out my wallet, and took off my shoes in the car. Long story shorter, we got him on his way and I was soaking wet. I came back inside for a bit to grab my stuff and then head home, which is where I sit now. As all of you I’m sure are wondering, I did not in fact take my shirt off. Well, at least not until I got home. Sorry to disappoint. ;) Good times.

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Spending habits

Posted by Thomas Wed, 27 Jul 2005 21:47:33 +0000

Since I am pen-ultimately bored out of my mind: for your viewing pleasure, a breakdown of the money that I have spent thus far. It is only an approximation (because real life is never as simple as the spreadsheet makes it out to be), but some ballpark figures none-the-less. Sorry that I couldn’t put it into a table for easier viewing, but I tried, it didn’t work, and I have no desire to screw with it until it does. There are no taxes in there, so this is simply percentages of money flowing out of checking/credit. If anyone so desires, I could whip that figure up as well, but it would take more time than I am currently willing to spend. So, enjoy!

Lodging 28.06%
Tithe 10.02%
Savings 10.02%
Non-Categorized Credit Card Transactions 9.30%
Gas 6.66%
Airlines 6.42%
Utilities 4.40%
ATM Withdrawals 4.34%
Restaurants 4.31%
Groceries 3.41%
Checks Written 3.19%
Auto Rental 2.60%
Retail/Department Stores 1.95%
Entertainment 1.48%
Household/Services 1.11%
Automotive 1.01%
Insurance 0.64%
Cell Phone 0.61%
Electronic Payments from Checking 0.38%
Non-Categorized Check Card Transactions 0.08%

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Comments, et. al.

Posted by Thomas Wed, 27 Jul 2005 19:50:19 +0000

Let it be known that I now am going to moderate comments. I got a spam comment, and I don’t really care to have any more, so there will be some delay from when you submit a comment until when you see it be posted as a comment. Thanks for your cooperation, The Mgmt.

Song in my head all day: Switchfoot – Concrete Girl

Posted in General | 4 Comments

Sunday

Posted by Thomas Mon, 25 Jul 2005 00:13:11 +0000

I don’t know how many times that I’ve titled a post “Sunday”, but I bet that it’s a bunch. Well, I didn’t really do anything this weekend. I had my Netflix in, so I watched “The Transporter”, which was awful, “The Prince and Me”, which was better than your average chick flick, and “The Whole Nine Yards”, which somehow I managed to watch 3 times in one day. I watched once regular, once with commentary, and then once again regular. Well, that last one I was doing other stuff, but I’ll count it anyway. Watched a bunch of “The West Wing” today.

My major accomplishment was my new toy, a fibre channel array. I’ll not bore the majority of you with the nitty-gritty details, but let’s just say that I now have a 606GB RAID 50 1Gbps fibre channel array, spread over 7*3 disks, with 3 hot swap spares. Since I was about to pull my hair our for most of the week, I am glad that I seemed to have figured out what was causing me so many problems. I might have to kill someone, but that’ll be a later post. :)

Oh, and BTW, I went to Subway for dinner tonight just before 10pm. I had decided whilest I was driving what I was going to get: a wheat footlong meatball, with American cheese and Parmesan, and 3 chocolate chip cookies. The young woman asked me what I wanted, and I told her. She didn’t have wheat bread. Nor did she have any meatballs. Nor did she have any chocolate chip cookies. Damn Subway. Anyhoo, I had a footlong, turkey, white sub, with no cookies. It was tasty, but not what I was looking for… I did notice while I was there that there is a little wing shop and a little Chinese place right next door to the Subway. I thought about dropping in with my Subway in hand to get a take-out menu, but decided against it. Maybe next weekend I’ll try one of them…

fin

Posted in General, Movies | 6 Comments

So is that what’s going on…

Posted by Thomas Mon, 18 Jul 2005 23:48:21 +0000

…learning to obey Him.

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Sunday

Posted by Thomas Sun, 17 Jul 2005 21:50:04 +0000

Saw both “Willy Wonka” and “Wedding Crashers” in packed houses down the road. Both were good. I think that I liked “Wedding Crashers” better than “Willy Wonka”; more along my humor, I think. I probably liked “Willy Wonka” about as much as I expected to, which wasn’t that much. A little weird for my tastes, but I figured that I would regret it if I didn’t see it in the theater, so I went.

Bought some Switchfoot albums at Circuit City, too. Got The Early Years: 1997-2000: The Legend Of Chin/New Way To Be Human/Learning To Breathe [Box] and The Beautiful Letdown [DUALDISC].

Also just got done watching “Last of the Mohicans”. And I watched “Mr. Deeds”, because I don’t think that I ever really watched it in its entirety.

Oh, and never live on a street called “Columns”. People never hear me say it correctly.

Robert Mitchell notified me of where I could procure some more of my hats, which arrived late last week. They make me happy. Although the $50 the hat that I lost cost me does not.

Posted in General, Movies | 2 Comments

Late night call

Posted by Thomas Tue, 12 Jul 2005 20:30:31 +0000

Who called me on 7/9 at 2:00am EST? I don’t have the phone number in my phone (which isn’t the biggest surprise in the world…) but it is a 469 number. If I don’t figure it out, then I might just call them back. “Hello, yes, did you call me a couple of nights ago at 1am?”

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Case of the Mondays

Posted by Thomas Mon, 11 Jul 2005 22:32:24 +0000

Somehow it has just not been a good day. Apparently there are some low places around here, and so there was a street that was completely being washed over this morning as I was going to work. There was a Volvo that had gone into it, and I’d guess that it had a foot or two of water all around it, as there was a new river running over the road from Dennis. I wish that I had gotten a picture of it, but I don’t have a camera. And I shouldn’t spend the money on one, but I really want to. The drive to work meant a bunch of traffic and rain. Blech. I did manage to pickup my daily McDonalds, but at the cost of not dropping off my Netflix. So, they’re still in my car and when I was going home, I found out that one of them is probably still in my DVD player, so it didn’t really matter that I was trying to get all three of them turned around quickly. Now I can only imagine that it’s going to be like DAYS before I’ll get it done, ’cause I’m retarded. Then we had meeting which seemed to eat up a bunch of the day/morning. And then I did what I was supposed to do work-wise and it took me the entire day. Which I don’t really think that it should have, so even though I did work and I did what I was supposed to do, I really don’t feel like I did anything productive. I thought that I could sleep through anything, but last night the rain beating down on my window woke me up at about 5:15am. I checked the weather online and then went back to bed. Also last night I was looking for some supper, and went to Kroger to get some cash from the ATM. I had my umbrella out and the wind caught it and flipped it inside out. I didn’t think that this would have been a big deal, but looking at the damage now, I think that it’s pretty much ruined. Or at least so wounded that I will probably just have to get another one. I haven’t had this one for very long. Something on the order of months, so there’s more money down the drain. I seemed to misplaced a screwdriver and needle-nosed pliars. This really pisses me off. I did happen to find some new hats, and they should be here sometime this week, as I had them shipped via 3-day select. I guess that’s good, but it’s still crappy that I lost the old one.

And now I’m probably going to spend $14 on a stupid Papa Johns pizza… well, it looks like I got a break and only have to pay $10 to go pickup my own pizza.

Ok. Like 30 minutes later I get back with my not-so-hot pizza. Had to take a stupid detour through Powder Springs to get to Papa Johns… crappy. Due to only what I can assume to be a lake that wasn’t there yesterday.

When did life get so hard? And when was it last simple?

I thought by now my life would be on cruise-control, yet all I seem to do is fight everything tooth and nail.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Being happy doesn’t mean

Posted by Thomas Thu, 07 Jul 2005 00:06:56 +0000

Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. Being happy means _______.

And don’t give me the cookie-cutter answer. I will mock you if you do.

Posted in General | 7 Comments

Update: Sinking feeling

Posted by Thomas Tue, 05 Jul 2005 21:25:53 +0000

I would appear that the roach crawled into the kitchen and decided to die right next to my garbage bag that I have sitting out (it’s sitting out because the trash can that I have does not allow for optimum capacity of the bag…). It would have been nicer of him had he actually climbed into the bag…

Also, who knew that with shoes on I’m actually 6’4″? Not I.

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Sinking feeling

Posted by Thomas Tue, 05 Jul 2005 00:06:37 +0000

Don’t you hate that sinking feeling when you realize that, “Hey, didn’t I smash the crap out of a roach in my bathroom this morning with a shoe?”? Wait, but that roach isn’t there anymore, and one of his legs still is…

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Sunday

Posted by Thomas Sun, 03 Jul 2005 16:18:24 +0000

I watched “Bad Company” the other night from Netflix. Like halfway through I realized that I probably had seen the dern thing before. Which is pretty bad that I thought that I hadn’t seen it, nor that I had any recollection of what it was beforehand. I guess that I really didn’t think that it was that good the first time around. Watched some Chris Rock standup, too, from the Apollo. So, a night with Chris Rock. Also got the 4th disc of Band of Brothers. It’s a pretty good series.

I’ve been trying to code some in Python as of late. I forgot how hard it can be to learn a new programming language.

I’ve also been trying to combine clustermatic and knoppix. I’ve made some pretty decent progress (I think), but I’m running into some issues that I’m not sure exactly how to resolve… :(

Posted in General, Movies | 3 Comments

Saturday

Posted by Thomas Sun, 03 Jul 2005 01:28:10 +0000

I’m sorry guys that I haven’t posted too much as of late. I guess that it just seems like life’s slowing down and I’m getting settled in and used to things. Just saw War of the Worlds. It was pretty good. Even if the story was a little weak (it doesn’t help that it’s a remake of a movie that most of us have already seen), the story-telling was excellent, as was the CGI, cinematography, and the production design. Just top notch. And the music was awesome. John Williams of course does it again.

Lately I’ve really been missing being involved with Breakaway. And that’s sort of weird because of the odd relationship that I offically had with them, or really that lack of official relationship… Anyway, I really miss doing sound with really great equipment with professionals. I dunno if it’s just my ego or what, but I just loved doing sound and having an influence in all of these people’s worship experience. Plus, you can make it exactly sound how you want it to. Want less cymbal? more electric? more toms? All at your fingertips. I remember them fondly, but as I sit here and type I recall the mixed feelings that were actually there… If anybody sees Marcus Toussaint, smack him up side the head for me and ask him if he can find out if there is a Breakway-ish thing here. I know that they have similar things around Texas, but for the life of me I could not find any info on any of them on the web. So, maybe the Breakaway office knows.

Don’t have any plans for the Fourth. Well, if I want to get paid, then I have to work… so I will be doing that.

Peace.

Posted in General, Movies | 1 Comment

Photoblog

Posted by Thomas Sun, 26 Jun 2005 14:24:56 +0000

Did somebody ask me a while ago if they could use my photoblog to post their pics, or did I just imagine that?

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Cap

Posted by Thomas Sat, 25 Jun 2005 18:41:20 +0000

Well, I lost my baseball cap at Six Flags yesterday. A hefty bounty to the first person to call me and tell me that they know where I can procure several exact replacements. FYI, I’ve already checked a bunch of the bookstores online, as well as Inspirations, with no luck.

Good luck, and happy hunting!

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Is this all there is to life?

Posted by Thomas Sat, 18 Jun 2005 23:01:31 +0000

As I’m sure that most of you have noticed, I have gone to Church a total of once in the time that I’ve been here (just a tad over two months). And I would imagine that a majority of the people who have noticed this face don’t have any idea why. Why I would go from doing everything related to Church to doing nothing related to Church. From doing multiple Church activities during the week to none.

Well, to me at least, it pretty much boils down to me acting like a little kid towards God. Throwing something like a trantrum, or maybe more like holding your breath to try and get your own way. But not quite. Because I don’t think that I’m trying to force God’s hand to give me what I want. No, I gave up on that long ago.

The past week or so I have been thinking a lot about God’s justice and mercy. Somehow I convinced myself that being an heir entitled you to certain privileges. To me that’s been sort of like getting what you want. Getting those things that you think will make you happy. And for whatever reason, while pondering this my mind rested upon the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Mt. 20:1-16). There was this guy who owned a vineyard. He hired some other guys at the first of the day to work in the fields, promising to pay them a denarius, to which they agreed. The vineyard owner then went out several more times during the day to the market to find more laborers. Even at the eleventh hour, he hired more workers. Then he told his guy to pay them all. And they all received the same amount; the amount that had been promised to the workers who had worked all day. So, the workers who had worked all day thought that they deserved more than the guys who had worked very little. Now, there is a big part of me that when I read this, sides with the guys who thought that they deserved more than the other guys. But really, they didn’t because they had an agreement with the owner for their pay, and that agreement was fair.

It’s an odd thing to expect both justice and mercy at the same time. How is it that I do what I think God wants me to do and then expect Him to be just and give me what I want because I know that I am better for doing what He wants me to do than other people who aren’t doing what He wants them to be doing. Did that make sense to you? Like if you do God’s will, then He will reward you by giving you what you want. And if you don’t do God’s will, then He won’t. Yeah, that’s a better explanation… When in fact He really doesn’t have to do that. He doesn’t owe us another day. He doesn’t owe us another breath. And for me that has been a hard pill to swallow.

As I sit here, so far away from anywhere that I’ve called home, I wonder, “Is this all there is to life?”. Do we just go to work so that we can live in our apartments and watch our movies and eat our meals and save our money? It’s like we work to live and live to work. I don’t see the point. I work so that I can save so that I can buy things so I can try and relax from work.

I am slowly realizing how long I am going to have to stay here. It’s sinking in, but not really. It’s going to be years before I can put anything on my resume of any significance to “try and get a job that I’d rather have”. Even though I have no idea of what that in fact might be.

So, is this what I’m doing? Taking my ball and going home? Saying that if I can’t be happy with God and His rules, then I’ll just be unhappy without God and His rules? Because that’s much easier and has much less guilt involved.

I used to think that I was an oak. A guy who never questioned God and yelled up at the ceiling “Why?”. It’s hard for me to remember a day now when I don’t do that or at least want to. Actually, I take that back. I don’t do that too often because it has never worked.

So, is the sole reward of heaven at the end of your life enough reward to motivate you to do God’s will on Earth, if there were no other Earthly reward?

So when I say that I’m going to be here for a few years at this job to try and get where I’d like to be, I think to myself that then I must put my head down and my nose to the grindstone. And so the same with God. But I feel like I’ve been doing that for so long now. Not so much in the job, per se, but I feel like I’ve worked so hard for everything, only to get where? I’m not really sure. I have long expected some reward, but feel as though I’ve received none.

I guess that in the end I just feel like all of my hard work and all of my past faithfullness has been met with no reward. And so why then should I continue trying? How can I continue doing this if I’m already burnt out on it? If God is telling me now to continue with this mentality of to just keep going, doing the right thing, keeping my head down, how much longer can I go? How long will you work only to receive the exact same reward as the slackers?

I applaud you if you have made it reading thus far. And I apologize for all the spelling and grammar and writing mistakes. Please forgive me for I am not an English major and have no desire to proof this. As much as I would wish it to be well written, I think that I like it better to feel rough and from me, than polished and reworked. I know that I am guilty for not reading most people’s long blog entries, so I am happy that you have read this one. And hopefully you will know me better for having read it. I’m not quite sure why I have written all of this for you all to read. And I haven’t yet submitted it, but if you are reading, then of course I have. These things have been brewing for so long… Let us hope that I am granted some resolution and peace.

Posted in General | 5 Comments

Cookie’s fortune

Posted by Thomas Fri, 17 Jun 2005 01:26:22 +0000

A very attractive person has a message for you.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

More randomness

Posted by Thomas Fri, 17 Jun 2005 00:56:20 +0000

I totally saw another Aggie on the way to work today. He had Texas tags, was in a truck, and had both a 12th Man sticker and the Association of Former Students sticker. Nice. That makes like 2 that I’ve seen so far… But, unlike Mindy, I haven’t actually spoken with one, only seen them driving. Although the first one was the first day that I was/moved here. I was taking the U-Haul back and this guy randomly honks at me and gives me the thumbs up. Which I quickly realized was a gig’em since he had some TAMU stickers on his truck as well. It was a good feeling to see him that day. Like taking a piece of CS with me. But honestly, it is quite strange because pretty much nobody knows what Texas A&M is, how big it is, what an Aggie ring is, or anything about Aggie culture or traditions. I just suppose that it was folly to believe that everybody would know about us…

I just read Ashley’s away message, and read it, “The soul is heated by children.” When in fact it said, “The soul is healed by being with children.” I think that I like my version better. :)

AND, numero 3; Shane and Shane are playing in Georgia tomorrow (Friday). Too bad I have work and I would never make it on time, ’cause it’s like 3 hours away… :( I get my hopes up and then they are quickly dashed…

Ok. Off to bed…

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Werk

Posted by Thomas Thu, 16 Jun 2005 10:00:28 +0000

There is a reason that they call it work and not happy-play-fun-time.

Note to self:
Self, remember that the Yukon is NOT a sportscar.

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WW

Posted by Thomas Mon, 13 Jun 2005 23:18:00 +0000

Yeah, so my parents today totally fed my addiction to the West Wing by buying The Complete Season 4 on DVD and mailing it to me. WHOOP! Plus they got Gladiator, too. Awesome.

Posted in General | 6 Comments

Purring like a kitten

Posted by Thomas Thu, 09 Jun 2005 22:58:38 +0000

Wow, 2 hours later, I finally finish replacing the spark plug wires in the Yukon. Yay for me. The real test will be at 80+ MPH tomorrow on the way to work in the wonderful, heavy, and fast Atlanta traffic. I suppose that I shouldn’t have started at 8 at night, after a day’s work, and not too long before the sun goes down. Plus I hadn’t eaten anything since my late lunch (and I still haven’t eaten yet…). But it works now, and thanks to the advice from my Uncle, hopefully now it won’t sputter when I’m idling and have the air conditioner on. Like I said, tomorrow will be the test for sure. So, I sweated a whole bunch, didn’t probably drink enough, and wound up feeling a little queasy. And my pants are all dirty now. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get all of the dirt and grease out. Well, hopefully the dirt, maybe not the grease. But all of my pairs of jeans are looking pretty ratty. I really should buy some new jeans and shoes… and a haircut… hmm… Well, I thought about buying some jeans online, but it was going to take like a bunch of days, like a week or something, which I really wasn’t willing to do, since I really do need them now, and I don’t really want to wait a long time when I could just go down to the store and pick up a couple 3 pairs and take them home today. Why would I want to wait a week when I could just go down to the mall and pick them up. I bet they’d even let me try them on, which I bet they won’t let me do online… Are you still reading? Man, I must be spacing out some. I really should get some fluids and some food. But I really just wanted to get this done because I had put it off so much. For like since I got here, which would be like 6 weeks. So, it’s about time. Anyway, I just told myself that I was going to be productive in some area, and so since I’ve been meaning to do this, and since one of the guys mentioned that he would be working on his car this weekend, I thought to myself, self, you really should get this done. So I did. You know when you decide something, and then you know that if you don’t do it like right now that you won’t get it done at all, or maybe just put it off for like 6 weeks… so I was like, I’m in a good mood to do this now, even though it’s a super crappy time, and during the week, but oh well. If I do it now, I’ll get it done and stop putting it off. And if I don’t do it now, then it’ll be 6 more weeks of winter… er I mean poor idling. Still reading? I can go on more, if you want… Or I could get some dinner. Or both, or I could just stop for now, eat, and then write some more stream of consciousness. Or I could stop. I’ll go with that one. Hope you enjoyed the post. TTYL!

Posted in General | 3 Comments

It’s nice to be quotable

Posted by Thomas Sun, 05 Jun 2005 23:58:43 +0000

Arr! I’m a pirate.
It hit home.

Never think that God’s delays are God’s denials.
Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius.

George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Weekend

Posted by Thomas Fri, 27 May 2005 01:00:32 +0000

Crap, this weekend is coming up fast. I have to write down all the info about my reservations, pack, get all the data that I need for my drive, and otherwise figure out what I need to take with me for the couple of days. I finally reserved a car, and it will only cost $75 for whatever reason, for the full three days! Yay! Undoubtedly I’ll have to do some laundry. And I have to be at the airport like at 6 or something to get there on time. Crap that’s early. It really doesn’t feel like it should be here already. Oh well. ..

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Sunday Night 2

Posted by Thomas Mon, 23 May 2005 01:52:34 +0000

Oh, and I totally left this out. For at least a week or two and for the most part, I have been unimpressed with the stuff that’s been coming out of the photo blogs that I watch on a daily basis. I dunno why. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen so much, that I’m over the newness and coolness of them all. Or maybe they all look the same to me. Like I said, I dunno. But, this one totally blew me away today. I’m sure that it strikes every person that sees it differently. I just can’t imagine being this guy. Sleeping with his dog in his arms. Surrounded by trash. And what I can only surmise as dog food in front of him. Great pic. Possibly the best that I’ve seen in a while.

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Sunday Night

Posted by Thomas Mon, 23 May 2005 01:42:15 +0000

I don’t know why I’m choosing to blog at this time of night. I really should go to bed. For what it’s worth I’m tired, but really I haven’t done too much today, or at least it feels that way. Plus I’ve got work in the morning, so I’m just losing sleep “for no good reason” or something like that… And I don’t feel like I’ve blogged that much this past week, but looking at the actual entries, apprently I did on Monday and Thursday. It seems pretty obvious to me that I have a lot more time on the weekends to do this, than I do during the week. I get up, go to work, come home, eat, check my email and blogines, maybe watch something, then go to bed, to do it all again the next day… So, I don’t feel like there’s that much to talk about during the week. And really, there may not be too much to talk about during the weekend either…

I don’t know if you guys know how much I don’t really like long blog entries. I tend not to read them when other people write them, so I try my best to not make mine too long, so that you guys will actually read them, because I really do want you guys to read them. So, I figure that this one will be longer than it should be, but hopefully you’ll stick it out. :)

So, what do I have to say? Well, the Hibbs/Ozborne wedding is coming up fast. I’m very much looking forward to seeing everyone, <rant> but not particularly looking forward to loosing 8 hrs of pay. It was my own choice to stay for the extra time, so nobody but me can feel bad about the decision. But, I’ve had some OT, so that might make up for it… but it would have been nice to have both… but I digress… </rant> I’m looking forward to spending time with the friends that I can scrounge up for those couple of days. And I appologize in advance for the undoubtedly forthcoming vagarity, which apparently isn’t a word, but I don’t care, so I’m using it anyway. Vagueness. So there. Anyway, I guess that I feel like the weekend could hold a great deal of promise for certain things, but things I feel I immensely suck at. So my imaginary expectations shoot through the roof while my prior experience and the realistic side of me shoot those expectations down, hard.

Why can’t life be just like the movies *cough*garden*state*cough*? And why can’t I just be content?

Anyhoo, there were like half a dozen typos above… ouch, but hopefully I caught them all. I really need a haircut. And I probably should have rented a car by now… And if anybody can tell me as to whether or not an extra 3 hours in Texas is worth an extra $75 on Monday, I’m open to suggestions. I’ve got 3 netflix that I need to watch. I saw Episode III. It totally kicked ass, no matter what Bru thought. I think that I use “that” too much. And I really need to go to bed, so ‘night.

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Pop Quiz – Advanced Word Problem

Posted by Thomas Mon, 16 May 2005 20:44:34 +0000

Thomas has 13 slices of cheese, 4 sandwich buns, and 20 chicken pattis. Thomas eats two sanwhiches at a time, using two buns, two pattis, and two slices of cheese. Sandwhich buns are bought in groups of 8, cheese in 16 or 24, and pattis in 11. Buns should be bought at Wal-Mart, cheese at Kroger or Wal-mart, and pattis at Kroger (and possibly Wal-Mart). What would the optimal combination of buying stuff be, if Thomas is trying to reduce the trips to both Wal-Mart and Kroger?

Extra points if you write a program to figure it out. Double points if you use Java. Negative points if you use Fortran.

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Burning sensation

Posted by Thomas Sun, 15 May 2005 23:35:18 +0000

burns
Somehow in the past week or so I managed to burn my tongue, the roof of my mouth, my finger, and my toe. I burned the tongue and roof on hot food, of course and the finger on the toaster. But, I somehow managed to get a carpet burn, or rather a jean burn, by putting jeans on too fast. The toe was the index toe, otherwise known as the toe next to the big one… on the left foot… amazing, huh?

amazon refund coolness
After I bought my new hard drive, I noticed that they dropped the price on it like the next day by like $10 dollars dollars, you know, like? So, I shot them an email (or really submitted some web form). And they refunded my money! Yay! $9.40 extra. I’ll try not to spend it all in one place.

finished west wing
I finally finished the last of the six seasons yesterday. As I recall, I began this journey at the beginning of the year. 5 months isn’t too bad, I guess? Well see if I rewatch them…

customer service in ga is dead
Seriously. Everybody is nice and all. Especially driving and stuff, even if they do drive like bats out of hell on the highway. But for the love of everything that is pure and holy, get some customer service skills, people. I may be turning into my dad on this one.

Ok, so I went to Quiznos this afternoon. All I wanted was a BLT. Simple enough. It was almost all I ever ordered at the one in CS. So, I didn’t even look at the menu. I just ordered a BLT. Now, this was after the two people who were working finally got around to finishing their conversation, or rather the one who was talking so much finally stopped talking so that the other one could take my order. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard Dane Cook talk about ordering something that’s not on the menu, but it was something like that, because they were like, um, we don’t serve that, and looked up at the menu and stuff. Come on people, it’s BACON, LETTUCE, and TOMATO. Maybe throw in a little ranch and some cheese. It’s not that hard. And since I didn’t want to confuse them too much, and since what was close apparently was “The Traditional” I just got it (Roast beef, turkey, ham, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, red onion, black olives, Ranch Dressing). Why is it that it’s so hard for me to get people to give me stuff that’s not on the menu. Crap, man, just figure out what you want to charge me, and charge me for it. Overcharge me for all I care, but give me what the crap I want. Whatever happened to “The customer is always right”?

gitar [sic]
I picked it up again last night, since who knows how long ago. Good times…

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A quote of a quote

Posted by Thomas Fri, 13 May 2005 00:57:19 +0000

Away message from txaggiegrl07:

Look who misses me!!
txaggiegrl07: I miss you
thomas536m: i miss you, too

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Monday

Posted by Thomas Tue, 10 May 2005 00:08:19 +0000

Well, the day seemed to fly by. I’m not quite sure why… I did manage to get my oil changed, emissions test, and open a savings account. Hopefully my Mom will get the money from my account back home transfered tomorrow. I need to go by and register my vehicle in the state of Georgia. It looks like I’ll be screwed because I’m sure that I won’t really be able to get everything done/not have the right documents. Mainly because it’s not really my car and it’s not paid off. So, I think that they require the title or some form blah blah blah. I have until like the 18th to get it all done to stay within the law… yeah, like I truly care about legally operating a vehicle in Hotlanta. They can just [insert expletive phrase here].

I need to get a haircut. I need to get a car rental for the wedding. I bought a new drive and enclosure. 300GB from amazon and combo usb/firewire enclosure from newegg. I hope I have enough money for the stuff that I’ve had to buy to cover my obligations… But, I think that those purchases will be the last of them… well, that and the $1000 washer and dryer. Haven’t gotten the bill on that one…

Can somebody please explain to me what the fuck I’m doing here?

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Weekend wrapup

Posted by Thomas Sun, 08 May 2005 13:18:40 +0000

Well, yesterday I went to the DMV to get my license changed. Hiisss! I had thought about getting there really early to camp out for a while so that I’d be at the front of the line. Well, that didn’t happen. So, I finally got there around 8:55 (they opened at 9:00). I was at the end of a line of people that was approximately 150 people long. After almost three hours and $9 I had my new Georgia liscense.

On the way I saw a bunch of guys playing cricket at like 8:30 in the morning! And I saw a family of geese. Man I have got to get myself an awesome digital camera.

Yesterday I watched Meet the Fockers, which was good. And a little bit of Short Circuit last night. My parents sent me a care packages of some linux magazines, hot pads, some dish towels, and of course some cookies. Yay!

Well, I’ve got a bunch of errands to run, so I’ll git… ttyl…

Oh, and I’m going to be in Texas for Greg and Stephanie’s wedding Memorial Day weekend. If you’re within a couple hundred miles of me, you should knock me up… that’s British for giving me a call… pervs… I’m flying into IAH Saturday morning, then wedding all day, then party Saturday night, then hanging out somewhere Sunday and Monday morning, then flying out Monday afternoon. Be there or be square.

Posted in General, Movies | 1 Comment

Poll

Posted by Thomas Thu, 05 May 2005 01:17:32 +0000

Ok. Informal poll to all the A&M folk. I’m not asking for personal experience here, but would you consider a 3 or 12 keg party to be a big one, by A&M standards? Some guys were talking after work, so I’m curious… How many kegs would it take at A&M to make it be considered a big or the biggest party?

Oh, and this was funny…

Posted in General | 7 Comments

Monday

Posted by Thomas Mon, 02 May 2005 21:35:59 +0000

I watched the director’s commentary of “Garden State” yesterday afternoon, and then watched “Shaun of the Dead” last night. I recommend them both. “Shaun of the Dead” is a real horror movie, while at the same time is a comedy. Plus it’s Bri’ish, so that makes it worth it, all by itself. I forgot to put them in the mail this morning, though, so it’ll be another day before I get some more flix. I got my tix for the Hibbs wedding at the end of May. Apparently it’s going to cost me an extra $70 to turn the car in at 1pm instead of 9am. I suppose that I should have planned that better before I picked up the plane tickets… oh well, better luck next time. I guess I’ll put that off, too, as I doubt that their prices are as linked to time out at the time of reservation as plane tickets are.

I got my stereo setup to my computer, so now I’ve been listening to mp3s on the stereo instead of on headphones.

A little clarification on the subject of having to not tell some people that you love them. As most of you know, I don’t have any actual gf experience. I wasn’t speaking exactly to the spousal types of relationships, but perhaps more generally. Maybe everybody got caught up in my use of the word relationship, when perhaps the word friendship might have conveyed a little better exactly what I was trying to convey. I stand by my assertions. And I don’t deny that it’s probably a good thing to tell your significant other that you love them… I guess… But if you are doing it just to hear them say it, even when they don’t really want to, is that really what you want? For them to tell you exactly what you want to hear? Or should it be heart-felt? I’d prefer the latter. Somehow I doubt that I’m going to win this discussion…

Enough for now. On to some West Wing.

Posted in General, Movies | 2 Comments

Benediction

Posted by Thomas Sun, 01 May 2005 12:55:08 +0000

I’ll give you one guess what the benediction was at church today…

Posted in General | 5 Comments

Saturday Posts

Posted by Thomas Sun, 01 May 2005 00:28:35 +0000

I know guys that probably by the end of the day I will have posted something on the order of 5 posts. Now, I know that’s a lot for one day, but I also know that you guys love me, so I figure that you’ll read them anyway. :) Plus, the beauty of a blog is that you can skip a post or two, if you want to. And I won’t be offended if you say, “Man, I really don’t care about whether Thomas did laundry today for the first time in his own washer and dryer”. The beauty is that I won’t know. You can totally blow me off, and I won’t know. Just like being able to totally walk away from somebody when they were talking to you, but without all of the guilt. So go ahead. Read what you like, and toss the rest. :) I’ll write whether you read or not.

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More than words

Posted by Thomas Sun, 01 May 2005 00:27:39 +0000

I don’t know why I love that song so much. I don’t know if it was “love at first hearing” or if I’ve simply grown to love it. I’ve listened to it countless times, yet I still don’t fully understand what it means. Maybe I just get out of it what I want…

That there are relationships that surpass words. That there are times when saying “I love you” isn’t necessary. That there are times you say it without meaning it… That there is a point when you love someone so much, that expression in words of your love becomes irrelevant, because you already understand, more than words, how that person feels. I suppose that I love that idea so much because I am a man of so few words. And I’d much rather you know in your heart that I love and miss you, than have to actually say it aloud, because so often, to me, it’s canned, unreal, and unfeeling. I’d like to think that there are relationships where you know much you mean to me, so much so, that no words are required.

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Saturday post-mortem

Posted by Thomas Sun, 01 May 2005 00:26:50 +0000

  1. Shower, check.
  2. Lunch, in progress.
  3. Kroger/bank/gas
  4. Do the dishes
  5. Take out the trash
  6. Tidy up
  7. Wal-Mart
  8. Pay bills
  9. Plane tickets
  10. Car rental
  11. Movies
  12. Oil change
  13. See about RMA’ing dead drives
  14. Make media pc
  15. Laundry
  16. DMV

I totally got most of the stuff done. I blame the dish washer on the dishes, as I don’t think that maintenance ever came to fix it. I should call them about that… The trash compactor is really far away. I’ll take it out when I go out tomorrow. It’s ready to go, sitting by the door, I swear. I give up on the media pc. As much as I’d like to be able to watch West Wing on TV, I just think that the computer that I was going to use is going to be too loud. I’ll just have to buy this instead. Watched “Garden State”. Better than I thought that it would be. I’ll probably watch it again tomorrow.

It’s not looking very good as far as car rentals go. The major companies’ policy is only 25ers can rent. I’ll have to see about that…

Man, I really, really, really don’t want to get a stupid Georgia license and tags… I want to keep my Texas ones. :(

Posted in General, Movies | 1 Comment

Saturday!

Posted by Thomas Sat, 30 Apr 2005 13:41:11 +0000

Yay, it’s the weekend! But a lot of things to do today.

  1. Shower, check.
  2. Lunch, in progress.
  3. Kroger/bank
  4. Do the dishes
  5. Take out the trash
  6. Tidy up
  7. Wal-Mart
  8. Pay bills
  9. Plane tickets
  10. Car rental
  11. Movies

Well, there’s some other stuff too, like getting my finances in better order, and making a media pc out of an old computer, so I better get started… Check back later and we’ll see how much I get accomplished today.

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Friday Night

Posted by Thomas Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:52:59 +0000

Well, I finally got my Netflix in yesterday and today. I semi-watched “Ocean’s Twelve” last night. I had seen it numerous times before, so I wasn’t paying too much attention to it. I had hoped that there would be an awesome director’s commentary to explain a bunch of stuff, but alas, there was none. I can only hope that they will produce one in the future. I’ve also got “Shaun of the Dead”, and “Garden State”. I watched an episode of West Wing or two, and had Arbys for supper. Exciting, I know. I did, though use a coupon to buy 8 sandwiches. We’ll see how far my $10 gets me.

Hmm, what else… I did get direct deposit setup in time, so I got paid! Yay! But, unfortunately I paid ~25% in taxes, et. al. DOH! Not as much mula as I thought…

And, I’m a little nervous now, since many more people read my blog that I previously thought… There are the obvious peeps, but if there are any other stealth readers out there, then I’d appreciate a shout out…

Posted in General, Movies | 3 Comments

Monday

Posted by Thomas Mon, 25 Apr 2005 21:19:01 +0000

I finally got direct deposit setup (I hope), so that now I can be easily paid. YAY! I drove for what seemed like forever to pickup my large hand tossed Papa Johns pizza. The stupid thing costed $13.21. That’s highway robbery, or so I told the young lady who I picked it up from… an hour after I ordered it (oops…). Anyway, I got my pizza fix, as I had been craving it for most of the day. I asked if she would honor a coupon from Texas. She said no… :(

This made me laugh out loud. And this was good, too. Surely that is the best publicity that they’ve gotten in a while. While I did download it, so that I could help the cause of him trying to swim across the Atlantic, I have no intention what-so-ever to actually install it. Sorry, guys. Hopefully my Netflix will come soon, so that I’ll have something better to do than just watch the West Wing, or try to recover data from my external. :( I’m thinking about posting my wish list, so that you guys can buy me stuff! Edit: Ok. I did it. Only $1327 worth of stuff that I “need”.

Laters…

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Church 2.0

Posted by Thomas Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:43:13 +0000

Ok. This time, I tried a little harder. And I got a little further in the process of actually getting there. But the [huge] introverted monster in me reared its head and pretty much froze me up. Better luck next week.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Linguistic Profile

Posted by Thomas Fri, 22 Apr 2005 19:14:35 +0000

I usually don’t do these, but I couldn’t resist this one.

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English
25% Dixie
10% Yankee
5% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

Posted in General | 4 Comments

Oops

Posted by Thomas Thu, 21 Apr 2005 00:41:28 +0000

Oops… I started watching The West Wing (big surprise, right?)… and then I’m in the middle of a huge thing between seasons 5 and 6, and I can’t seem to stop… :) It’s not going to be a good morning in just a few hours. Oh, and I really should have secured a girlfriend before I left Texas.

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Cell phone bill

Posted by Thomas Sun, 17 Apr 2005 17:12:23 +0000

Well, it’s official. 150 minutes over for last month. Makes my bill a cool ~$110 instead of its normal ~$40. Ouch. Oh, and I guess that I’m just like everybody else and receiving text messages on my phone cost me $0.10. Oh well, at least I haven’t used them a lot…

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Church

Posted by Thomas Sun, 17 Apr 2005 14:04:18 +0000

I don’t know what your motivation is for going or not going to Church on Sunday mornings. For so long, I have felt things like obligation, duty, and guilt. Three things that shouldn’t be involved in this process. Yeah, so I didn’t go to church today. And, it doesn’t mean that I’m not going to go at all while I’m out here. It just means that I’m going to “take some time off”. I’ve been surrounded by so many Christians and have been in such a Christian environment (since I spend so much time at Wesley… or did at least). And this was definitely one of the things that I have worried about ever since… forever. I have known that it could be a huge struggle when I finally moved out of College Station. I just need some time off. Some time to get back to where I want to go to Church, and hang out with people who, at their core, are really just like me. And, I’m not saying that I’m just going to try and be friends with people at work. I should be, and will be. But the thing is that this is probably going to be really the first time in my life where I’m not going to be in a place completely surrounded by Christians. This is something that I have felt that I have really missed the boat on. For too long I have not been around any non-Christians. So, now is the time… but then again, how can I minister if I’m not doing what I am supposed to be doing in the first place, e.g. going to Church.

I just long for the times when I wasn’t so engrossed in everything that is Church. I want to come to a place where I can enjoy it. Where I can just go and not have to do anything. I long to long for God. And I don’t think that going out of obligation is going to do it for me. I need to remember what it’s like to be away. To not really be surrounded by people that love you. To not be surrounded by people who support you. I need to rely on God. I need to remember what that’s like. And I don’t think that I can get to that point if I just go back to what I’ve been doing for what seems like forever and faking it until I make it. Well, I’m tired of that. I need to really make it. I need to feel whatever it is that I need to feel so that I’ll come crawling back. I need renewal. And hopefully I’m not being lured into some trap. Hopefully I’m not shooting myself in the foot on this one.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

DP

Posted by Thomas Sun, 17 Apr 2005 00:06:06 +0000

Yay for Rachel and tiny, late-night DP. *cough*jennifer*cough* She and Cole bought me some, and I’ve found an excellent use for them when I know that there is like no way that I’ll finish one at like midnight.

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Saturday Update

Posted by Thomas Sat, 16 Apr 2005 17:44:04 +0000

I figure that I might as well go ahead and maybe try and head off some of the more common questions that I seem to be getting.

We got here fine. We stayed in Birmingham along the way to break up the trip some. Atlanta isn’t too bad. Lots of traffic, it seems. I will be starting work on Monday. I bought a washer, dryer, and microwave at stupid Sears. Spent too much money… Then tried to open a bank account at bank o’ america, but missed it by like 30 minutes. So, I guess that I’ll have to wake up early on Monday to try and get that squared away. We pretty much got everything up the one flight of stairs in about an hour. The only things left were the couch, tv stand, and tv. We rested a little while, and then we carried them. So, total time was about 2 hrs. Then pretty much the rest of the day to take stuff out of boxes and setup stuff. After the guy called me about the intraweb here, I figured it out, and had it up and running in not too much time. I had to get around some stupid guy’s rogue DHCP server to get a real ip. But I did, so no worries.

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I don’t know

Posted by Thomas Sat, 16 Apr 2005 00:31:32 +0000

Warning: emo ahead…

I don’t know if you’ve ever had to leave a place that was more home to you than you’ve ever known, only to move to a new place where you know no one and have no friends.

Have you ever expected yourself to feel a certain way, only to not allow yourself to actually feel that way, because of that expectation? Like you know how you’re supposed to feel, but then don’t really want to feel that way; so you don’t let yourself.

Man, feelings suck.

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The 37 Minute Song

Posted by Thomas Wed, 13 Apr 2005 20:16:55 +0000

Here’s the link for everybody for the 37 (thirty-seven) minute song by Callum and Marcus. Recorded by yours truly…

http://chobas.com/37_min_song.mp3

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Slashdot

Posted by Thomas Sun, 10 Apr 2005 16:51:59 +0000

I’m a little disenfranchised with Slashdot as of late. Since I’ve discovered Bloglines, Slashdot is just another aggregator. A slow, moderated aggregator of other sites. I see tons more stuff that I just plow through in bloglines. By no means do I say that I read everything that I see aggregated. I look at what I want to. So, I see stuff on slashdot that I saw a couple of days beforehand elsewhere. Plus, the comments of any random story aren’t usually going to be that informative; mostly just flames… So, why don’t I just throw in the towel on slashdot altogether? I dunno… Maybe I’m just bitter that I can’t get a submitted story accepted.
</rant>

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Yay! Two posts in two days…

Posted by Thomas Sun, 10 Apr 2005 16:41:11 +0000

I’m going to try and keep more up to date with stuff, even though the next couple of days are going to be extremely hectic. I do have a place to live, or at least I am in the process of signing the lease. Hopefully I’ll have both a place to live and utilities setup by the time that I move in. I will be taking a trailer and a bunch of furniture most likely. And maybe even a washer and dryer. So, I’ll be recruiting people to help me load the big stuff on Wednesday.

Got to watch “Clash of the Titans” yesterday afternoon. Well, I say got to. I had the remote, and I decided to watch it. I’m not sure who I made mad, but I don’t really care. Let’s just say that it was so bad that it was good. I’m pretty sure that the last time I watched it, it was during junior high. Like 7th or 8th grade English. We’ve been watching a lot of MoviePlex as well. It has both good and bad movies, but no commercials. Oh, and Bond movies, too, as of late. It’s fun to watch a movie where you have no idea of really what’s going on, but you’re enjoying it anyway.

Ok, enough for now. If a blog entry is too long, then I don’t read it. I’ll take any comments on the length of this one…

Posted in General, Movies | 1 Comment

Woulda, shoulda, coulda

Posted by Thomas Sat, 09 Apr 2005 23:48:46 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about what would have happened if this or that was different. Like, as my last post mentioned, I got a job with Google in Atlanta. Now, I did have another offer in Plano. I don’t know what I would have done, say, in the situation that I would have had a serious girlfriend in College Station. Unless she was pretty close to graduation, I’m not really sure that I would have been able to go all the way to Georgia. Would I still be in College Station, looking very much to stay? Would I be so obligated to stay here or Houston or DFW? Would it have even been a consideration to go? I don’t think that I know now, nor do I even think that I could speculate that much. I guess that I just assume that it’s one of those things that you don’t know what exactly you would do unless you were presented with the situation for real. Too many things to weigh. Another person to consider. Other feelings to consider. Oh well, I probably won’t know how I’ll act until later in life…

Another thing to consider is whether or not I might have influenced the outcome of the TAMU Student Body Presidental election. Scott Smith’s campaign had (inadvertantly) asked me to run their my thing for them, or to at least give them a copy of it, so that they could run it. I refused, based on the fact that I didn’t want anybody else to have it, nor to run it for anyone else except as a personal favor to Pat. So, would he have won if he would have gotten a couple hundred more votes? Would he have made to the run-off? Would he now be the new SBP? I dunno…

Posted in General | 1 Comment

What to write?

Posted by Thomas Fri, 01 Apr 2005 01:16:13 +0000

Hmm… I wonder what I should write about… well, I suppose that I could say that…

I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!!I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!!I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!!I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!!I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!!

WHOOP!

So, if anybody knows anybody in Atlanta, I’m going to need a place to live. And, if anybody wants to go with me, then I’ll take audience with requests…

Update: Note that this is not an April Fool’s joke. I did, in fact, get a job with Google.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

A While

Posted by Thomas Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:49:28 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, so here we go.

First, I wanted to say that the reason that I was up so late a while ago (this post) was because I was working on a little pet project. I call it Firewire Debian. It’s a little bootable cd that essentially boots Linux on an Intel machine off of an external firewire or usb hard drive. It’s not so big a deal about usb booting, but moreso for booting off of firewire. Apple has had it for a while, as I understand, but not so much for Intel-type products. You can check out my preliminary documentation here. It could use some polishing, and it may be quite wordy, but, hey, all the info is there. If you really wanted to try and replicate what I did, then I believe that you could. I haven’t posted the ISO, but if anybody wants it, then I can upload it and post a link to it.

I worked a little bit in Houston yesterday (Monday) doing some simple tech support stuff for MUD71. The best part of that was probably getting to eat lunch and hang out with Josh Masterson. I had to drive down to Sugarland to get there, but it was worth it. (It’s weird to realize halfway through a thought that the person that you are talking about is going to read this later on today…) Then I drove back to CS, which was quite an adventure. I usually don’t have issues driving in traffic, but between not having a good deal of quarters to pay for tolls and not really knowing the best way to get back, I had issues for a while. I don’t know how many times I had to turn around, but it was WAY TOO MANY! I usually knew where approximately where I needed to be going but was having a hard time figuring out how to get from point A to point B, even though I could see point B. Traffic was heavy and fast, but that just meant that I got to have some fun while driving fast.

Jobs.
Well, after what has seemed like forever, I finally have gotten a few leads on jobs. And they all have come at once… (When it rains it pours.) So, I had a phone interview with Perot Systems on Wednesday. Just before the interview was supposed to happen, I got an email from Google, saying that they wanted to setup a phone interview, too. So, I have that one a little later on today. After the interview with Perot, they wanted a face to face interview, to I have a team interview with them on Monday in Plano. Man, I guess it was a good thing that I wasn’t planning on going home for Easter. I also had a lead with a Java job, but I think that I’m going to pursue these systems admin positions, as that’s really where I want to be heading, job wise.

Posted in General, Technology | 2 Comments

Up too late

Posted by Thomas Thu, 10 Mar 2005 14:56:04 +0000

You know that you are up too late when you are racing home to beat the sunrise, Kolache Rolf’s is open, and Copy Corner is closed.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Job Hunt

Posted by laurie Tue, 08 Mar 2005 20:03:11 +0000

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Reading

Posted by Thomas Mon, 07 Mar 2005 21:44:34 +0000

Since there is that stuff going on between Syria and Lebanon, I figured that I could read up on some of the background history of the countries in the region. So, thanks to Wikipedia, I read up on the Lebanese Civil War, the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War, and the Iran-Contra Affair. The CIA World Factbook was also a cool resource, especially for the maps.

I didn’t get a chance to work on the video for Crunchtime on Sunday, but that’s ok. Jeremy talked to Marc and I today about maybe some of where he wants it to go. I also finally got the pdf of the newsletter working. Carol emailed it everyone, so everybody can check out the newsletter in color. Also, I picked up the business cards that I had Kinkos print up. They didn’t quite turn out as well as I would have liked, but they’ll do.

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Saturday

Posted by Thomas Sat, 05 Mar 2005 23:46:09 +0000

Men’s Retreat was glorious. We stayed up last night ’til something like 3am debating about science and Christianity. I finally figured out that I’m not so sure that everybody really can think for themselves. Yeah, I’ll agree that in an ideal world, everybody should have a thorough thought process and reasoning behind their choices, actions, and decisions… but we’re not in an ideal world. So, I would say that there are a bunch of people who don’t care and even more that really can’t grasp all of the subtleties of certain concepts. Anyway, if you have some free time, I’m sure that Jeremy would love to argu^H^H^H^Hdiscuss it with you.

So, really what I was going to post were my accomplishments for the day. Primarily, I captured the second tape of video from Crunchtime, since I finally have space now to work with, since I setup the 250GB drive. I also figured out some stuff about aspect ratios, et. al. of the video, since the video that we took is in a 16:9 format. I had exported the slideshow in 4:3 without knowing it and now know how to export in 16:9 as it should be. I also cleaned up the Crunchtime Productions video, since the backwards part was generally crappy and choppy.

The job hunt still continues, but with no feedback. Although I did finally pick a business card layout that I liked and went to Kinkos to have them print them up. Tomorrow (after 7pm) we’ll see how that comes out.

Enough for now… I’m going to watch some West Wing.

Posted in General, Technology | 1 Comment

Moving

Posted by Thomas Fri, 04 Mar 2005 15:03:24 +0000

I am officially posting that I am moving the blog over to chobas.com.

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Penguin Computing

Posted by Thomas Wed, 02 Mar 2005 23:07:55 +0000

I applied with them today. They make awesome and cool Linux clusters. They’re in San Fran, CA, which isn’t the most ideal of things, but working for them would be awesome, I bet. Let’s see if I hear anything from them…

I wonder if I should apply with Google, too. They have some Junior to Intermediate Administrator job listings posted on their website. Those are also in Southern CA… :(

It seems to me that Southern California is looking like the place to be. Which maybe makes me wish that I hadn’t turned down that offer of relocation assistance to Southern CA.

Or maybe some federal-type job… but that would probably be on the other coast…

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FP!

Posted by Thomas Mon, 28 Feb 2005 01:08:53 +0000

Well, since I bought into 1and1′s free hosting for six months, I figure I’d give everybody more bandwidth and stuff on their dime for a while. Unfortunately, though, URLs will change, but maybe they’ll stay this way for a considerable length of time. This is the first post, and I’ll probably announce chobas.com and feggconsulting.com officially when I feel like it, esp. after I get everything setup like I want it to be. I will be changing the theme of this, I am almost sure of, and will also bet that I won’t be importing the old posts to this site. It’s a shame that I might be changing the layout for the sake of changing the layout, and even though I am usually against such actions, this is an exceptio.

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Job Hunt

Posted by Thomas Tue, 22 Feb 2005 22:02:51 +0000

Since either one or both of my sisters mentioned my blog last time that I talked to them, here is a (semi-non-nerdy) update.

I guess that it’s good that the jobs that I’ve been applying for are running together. Apparently in the past two days I applied for:

  1. Senior Computer Support Specialist on 2/22 with Center for Distance Learning Research/TAMU
  2. Linux Specialist on 2/21 with IBM (location Nationwide)
  3. Programmer Analyst I on 2/22 with Information Technology/Brazos County
  4. PC Specialist on 2/22 with Information Technology/Brazos County (I need to mail them tomorrow)
  5. Junior Software Technical Support Windows/unix Linux Solaris on 2/22 with Larson CGM Software Corp in Houston

And I applied for Information Technology Associate on 2/18 with CIS/TAMU. Hopefully that’s it. I might start logging my applications here, just to keep tabs on what I’ve been doing. I will be doing some work for Pat’s dad’s work on Thursday. I’ll drive down to Katy to see what’s up and meet with some people. I also got a pseudo-random call from a guy in Dallas who had seen my resume on Dice. He was supposed to have already sent me an email that I needed to respond to, but I haven’t gotten it, yet, which worries me. Maybe I’ll get it tomorrow and can send him my resume and he can be on the lookout for jobs for me.

Plus, as of late, I have all but finished the new brochure for Wesley. It has taken me a while, and with some help from several people, it is looking pretty good.

There are several Linux jobs at Rackspace in San Antonio that I need to apply for. And one NOC Technician position in A-town. Maybe I’ll get to them tomorrow.

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Everyday is a new adventure

Posted by Thomas Wed, 16 Feb 2005 15:02:54 +0000

Yeah, so I’m sick. It started promptly Saturday morning with a sneeze as I woke up. That didn’t signal much to me at the time. I figured that the allergies would run their course, and it wouldn’t be that bad. And it wasn’t until Monday that I ran into serious trouble. I woke up

Screw it. I’m sick. Everyday the symptoms seem to change. That makes everyday a new adventure in feeling crappy.

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Monday

Posted by Thomas Wed, 16 Feb 2005 01:02:10 +0000

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Yay for random AIM conversations

Posted by Thomas Tue, 15 Feb 2005 23:02:08 +0000

This is a conversation from the first part of last December that Ben thought he was having with me, but he was unknowingly talking to Nancy. Yay for friends who will go along with whatever the crap you throw at them.

(15:02:38) bigbrother0074: is the scheduler up?
(15:03:17) bigbrother0074: *operation timed out when attempting to connect to tamuwesley.dyndns.org*
(15:05:07) thomas536m: I love you so much
(15:05:12) bigbrother0074: ;)
(15:05:23) thomas536m: let’s run away together, ben
(15:05:32) thomas536m: leave it all behind
(15:05:33) bigbrother0074: now?
(15:05:43) thomas536m: sure!
(15:05:46) thomas536m: how’s vegas sound?
(15:05:49) bigbrother0074: umm….okay
(15:05:50) bigbrother0074: sure
(15:05:59) bigbrother0074: wait, aren’t your parent’s going to be in vegas?
(15:06:03) bigbrother0074: would that be a good idea?
(15:06:04) thomas536m: uh-oh
(15:06:08) thomas536m: san francisco, then
(15:06:13) bigbrother0074: fine for me
(15:06:32) thomas536m: there we won’t won’t have to hide our sweet gay love
(15:06:54) bigbrother0074: that’s what i’ve always dreamed about
(15:07:25) bigbrother0074: well, that and how to get that urine smell out of the carpet
(15:09:29) thomas536m: well, now you’re one for two
(15:09:34) bigbrother0074: YESSSSSS
(15:09:44) thomas536m: you need never think about that carpet ever again, sweetcakes
(15:10:01) thomas536m: we’ll have new carpet
(15:11:00) bigbrother0074: you’re so romantic
(15:11:06) bigbrother0074: i think i’ll make a sandwich
(15:12:36) thomas536m: I’ll even let you pick the color if you agree to be the woman
(15:12:48) thomas536m: at least 65% of the time
(15:15:04) thomas536m: where’d you go?
(15:15:08) thomas536m: did that last one scare you off?
(15:15:15) thomas536m: nooooooooooooooo! my sweet benjamin
(15:15:20) thomas536m: come back darling
(15:18:58) bigbrother0074: no, i was making a sandwich
(15:19:01) bigbrother0074: like i said
(15:19:10) bigbrother0074: i get to pick the hair color?
(15:19:18) bigbrother0074: yipeeeeeee
(15:19:54) thomas536m: no, carpet color
(15:20:00) thomas536m: tell no one of this
(15:20:05) thomas536m: it’ll be out little secret
(15:20:08) thomas536m: I gotta go, snoogums
(15:20:14) bigbrother0074: ok
(15:20:19) bigbrother0074: bye sweetie pie

Update: Apparently Marc had something to do with this as well… which takes some of the funny-ness away… but it’s still pretty funny.

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Monday

Posted by Thomas Tue, 15 Feb 2005 16:02:44 +0000

Hey guys, I really appreciate all of my friends noticing that I WASN’T AT WESLEY AT ALL YESTERDAY!

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Allergies

Posted by Thomas Sun, 13 Feb 2005 20:02:39 +0000

…are hell.

I’m not sure what’s worse, this feeling like I’m about to puke because of sinus drainage, or not being able to breathe out of my nostrils resulting in labored breathing out my mouth…

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Certifications

Posted by Thomas Wed, 09 Feb 2005 14:02:49 +0000

So I’ve been considering getting LPI Certified. Essentially it would pretty much be telling me that I know what I already know. Which of course is no surprise to me, but to everyone else that doesn’t know me, it would prove that I know what I already knew that I know.

I have always considered certifications to be somewhat of a cop out. I’ve always viewed them as a way for somebody who doesn’t really know much to tell employers that they know more than they really do. I’m just worried that if I do get a bunch of certifications, that it will look like I’m trying to cover up the fact that I don’t know anything… but I really do… but employers don’t know that, and I can’t prove to them without the certifications.

So, what am I to do?

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Saturday

Posted by Thomas Mon, 07 Feb 2005 21:02:31 +0000

So, Chris and I wound up watching 10 episodes of The West Wing on Saturday…

Yeah, I got nothin’

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Friday

Posted by Thomas Fri, 04 Feb 2005 20:02:13 +0000

Well, today, I think that I proved yet again how big a huge nerd that I am. Not only did I finally figure out how to let everyone delete print jobs at Wesley while they are still printing (yay for paper saving!), but I spent a good few hours editing several scripts and config files to add UPS monitoring to the plethora of things monitored by my wonderful installation of Cricket. Now, I’m going to go home to wind down and watch as much of The West Wing as I can, because I think that I’ve been sitting here for too long, and both my back and neck hurt some…

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Storage

Posted by Thomas Mon, 31 Jan 2005 22:01:35 +0000

This is a little scatterbrained, but for what it’s worth, here it is…

Well, if you read my last post, then you should know that I am in somewhat of a data crunch. If only I had been paying better (read any) attention to Mr. keystonelogic on Ebay. If I had, I might have been able to pick up an entire Fibre Channel array, including 10 36.4 IBM drives for anywhere between $195 and $255, plus shipping. THAT IS A STEAL! Although there is a Mr. retreadbdp that is selling a very similar product, but his start at $275.

Anyway, I meant to try and do a decent cost and feasibilty analysis of possible data storage solutions for myself. I figured that this would be a decent medium through which to do this…

Now, if I were to seriously get into video editing, which is why I need the extra storage, then I would also wind up getting another powerful machine just to do Premiere and Photoshop on. With this in mind, I then need to have data sharing between machines. This can be accomplished several ways:

  1. Firewire
  2. Fibre Channel
  3. Samba over TCP/IP

Firewire and Fibre Channel would be the most appropriate, since they speak directly to the hardware, instead of an intermediary of a host as would occur with the use of Samba, or NFS for that matter. Plus both Firewire and Fibre Channel have their own media over which to transmit data, whereas Samba would be over Ethernet (GigE, I would presume).

The speed of 1394a is 400Mb/s; the speed of 1394b is 800Mb/s; the speed of FC is 1.0625Gb/s (100MB/s); the speed of GigE is 1Gb/s, obviously…

Any Fibre Channel enclosure that I would buy would not only have hot-swap capability for the drives, but also redundant power supplies and dual communication loops to each and every drive.

We will assume that RAID will be done in software, rendering all of the disks as simply JBOD.

Internal SATA would be cheapest, but does not scale, because adding another drive requires adding another controller.

Fibre Channel requires smaller individual drives due to cost. After 36GB drives, the prices increase dramatically above what I consider to be acceptable, or $0.50 per GB.

Apparently it would cost $299 + $49 to get a SATA to 1394b enclosure from these guys. Then you still have to get the drive, which costs approx. $180, and that assumes that you could buy one 360GB SATA drive. That’s $528, and it’s not that scalable. You can’t buy a 360GB drive to get up to our supposed goal of a 360GB array. You could buy two drives to get to that 360GB goal, but then you eat up your scalability, as you can’t remove a drive that already has data on it. So, if you buy a 300GB drive for $189, and you leave room for the other future drive, then you just spent $537. And I’m not even sure that you really needed to buy that extra $49 SATA drive tray! I would like to go with SATA for their speed and hot swap capability, but I’m not exactly sure in this case how it would truly be that beneficial. Sure, if there were one encloure with, say, only 5 drive bays, as SATA drives are much cheaper in larger drive sizes than FC, and

  1. Hot Swap Drives
  2. Redundant Power
  3. Scalability
  4. Price

AMD Athlon 64 2800+: $109.00
EPoX “EP-8KDA3+”: $110.50
Corsair 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200: $133.50
Seagate 7200.8 400GB 7200RPM SATA NCQ: $369.99 * 5 = $1,849.95
Thermaltake SILENT BOOST A1838: $28.99

Grand Total: $2,231.94
Price per GB: $1.12
2TB and a screaming, 64bit machine: $Priceless

AMD Athlon 64 2800+: $109.00
EPoX “EP-8KDA3+”: $110.50
Corsair 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200: $133.50
Seagate 7200.8 200GB 7200RPM SATA NCQ: $135.00 * 5 = $675.00
Thermaltake SILENT BOOST A1838: $28.99

Grand Total: $1056.99
Price per GB: $1.06
1TB and a screaming, 64bit machine: $Priceless

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The West Wing

Posted by Thomas Mon, 31 Jan 2005 22:01:31 +0000

So, I figure that I am offically addicted to The West Wing, now. Not only did I have to rent The West Wing: The Complete Season 2: Disc 1 from Hastings because I finished the DVD that I had from NetFlix on Friday or Saturday, I watched 7 episodes yesterday, Sunday. I finished off the last one today, and then returned it! Which is quite a feat, if I do say so myself. Roughly 5.25 hours of The West Wing… Plus, since I returned the DVD the next day, I get a dollar back next time that I rent a movie from Hastings… Way to go me!

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Productivity

Posted by Thomas Sat, 29 Jan 2005 17:01:35 +0000

I was thinking about this a couple of days ago, but I didn’t get around to posting. I must say that I am getting worried about the job that I interviewed for the first part of January. He said that he would call either way, and that it would be about two weeks. Well, this past Wednesday was three weeks, and of course, this coming Wednesday will be four. So, this is disturbing. I did, though, apply for another job. Drew pointed this one out to me on Wednesday night, if I remember correctly. It’s with Brazos County as an Assistant Network Administrator. I filled out the application and redid my resume somewhat on Thursday night. Cole said that I should probably go ahead and submit a cover letter with the app and resume as well, so I took the better part of my Friday to get that all done. I finally got it mailed, or I should say that Nancy mailed it, Friday before 5pm. Hopefully they’ll give me a call next week.

I would hope that sending out an application alone might make me feel like I’ve been productive, but it really hasn’t. And, on top of that, I ran out of West Wing to see, so I can’t watch any more West Wing until NetFlix sends me more, which will be like Tuesday or Wednesday…

Plus, Marc and I really need to get on the CT Promo video for next year, plus I need to work on the brochure and maybe touch up the postcard, but board meeting is next Saturday, so I doubt that Carol will have those things as a high priority. Plus, I’ve got the computer for A&M UMC to build when it gets here, so that I can have some more money. Plus Cole needs me to look at his network, and Liz needs me to look at her computer as it’s not connecting to Resnet. And, since I figured out how to do DVD menus, I need to finish up the menus for “A Day in the Life of Thomas”, and maybe sell them to some peeps. Which would also make me some money, if only a little. But before I finish it, I still need to do the director’s commentary, which I think that I’ll ask Drew to co-comment on with me, if I can. And, I’m trying to write an open-source photo blog/gallery web application in JSP (because the guy who wrote Folderblog is a butt and didn’t open source his code…). I didn’t think that it would take very long, but it’s taking longer than I expected, and my interest is sloping downward in an exponention fashion. And I’m running out of disk space! I really need to procure me some more… which costs more money… and I’ll really be screwed if we need to capture too much more video, because I just don’t have the space to put it. And, I need to put more memory in both of the servers at Wesley… since I finally figured out a good place to put the two sticks that Drew gave me a long time ago…

Alas!

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Bloglines

Posted by Thomas Tue, 25 Jan 2005 22:01:24 +0000

I finally caught up on my reading. I had probably something on the order of 3000 posts to go through, so I had been putting it off. I did also last night finish hacking together a photoblog for Adan. Hopefully he’ll be able to post some pictures that he’s taking in Spain and show them in a nice photoblog/gallery looking format.

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Year of the Rooster

Posted by Thomas Thu, 20 Jan 2005 23:01:08 +0000

Different from the Chinese, I decree that at Wesley, it is the Year of the Stealth Relationship.

Let the dating begin… and then let the breakups begin…

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El Quiz

Posted by Thomas Sat, 01 Jan 2005 23:01:09 +0000

Since I generally despise these little quizzes, I’ll selectively answer some questions…

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
i think new year’s resolutions are stupid

23. How many one-night stands?
Counting last night?… um, err… um, I lost count after twenty

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I’m a lover not a hater.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Kellie and Liz and Frankie and Chad and Wayne and Justin and all those other cool new kiddos at the Wesley (i stole marc’s answer, it’s just so perfect) (I agree)

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Happy New Year, er, whatever…

Posted by Thomas Fri, 31 Dec 2004 22:12:53 +0000

Since I made neither an obligatory Turkey Day post, nor an obligatory Christmas Day post, it would probably be more fitting that I not make this post, but alas, I suppose that I’ll just have to be inconsistent.

So, for what it’s worth… here it is.

Here’s to 2005 being better than 2004.

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Bax with Blankey 2 B/W

Posted by Thomas Fri, 31 Dec 2004 01:12:40 +0000

Bax with Blankey 2 B/W

On second thought, I think that I like this one better.

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Bax with Blankey

Posted by Thomas Thu, 30 Dec 2004 19:12:19 +0000

Bax with Blankey
Ok, well, I guess that I’m not going to figure out how to get this image’s text to wrap around it. Score one for CSS and score zero for Thomas. Anyway, this picture isn’t too bad, I guess, not horrible, but not great, either. Since I haven’t yet convinced myself to drop $1300 on a Canon Digital Rebel, I shot this using a Sony Digital8 camcorder, which doesn’t create the best snapshots in the world. In fact, the original picture came out so dark that it was unintelligible and required auto levels in photoshop. Yeah, yeah, I know, auto levels aren’t always the best, but I don’t think that it would turn out significantly better if I took the time to actually do it by hand.

I like the fact that it doesn’t look so much like Baxter is a dog, and more like a little kid sleeping with his blanket, mostly from the fact that normally he would sleep curled up or otherwise with his legs tucked in. As Baxter doesn’t consider himself to be a dog, and rather just another human in the family, this really does seem to capture his role in our family.

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Nerd Christmas

Posted by Thomas Wed, 29 Dec 2004 01:12:13 +0000

.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; }
.flickr-frame { float: right; text-align: center; margin-left: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Nerd Christmas

Nerd Christmas, originally uploaded by thomas536.

I figured that I should blog what all I got… It really was a Nerd Christmas. 4 power supplies, 1 UPS, the extended edition of the trilogy (LOTR), the silmarillion, and an albert einstein bookmark. I also got (not so nerdy…) some robogrips (the pair that I had disdapeared), a tool belt & speed square & paint (from a gift card from KB and Clay, thansk!) and an edison coin from the us mint. I also got some money, but technically some of it was a “gift card to best buy” (which is totally cool). I figure that it was a pretty good haul, if I say so myself. I’m surely pretty happy.

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Shopping

Posted by Thomas Tue, 28 Dec 2004 01:12:19 +0000

Yeah, so I had to pickup a gift for my sister today (Monday). We’re having Christmas on Tuesday, I think, because my bro-in-law had to work on Saturday. Or Friday, I guess, because that’s when we usually do Christmas. Anyway… I digress. So, I went to Best Buy and picked out what I was looking for like in 5 minutes. Then, for the rest of the night, my mother and sister (Laurie) went shopping. We hit Kirklands, Target, Ross, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc. I was in the car for most of it, but oh well. I remember hearing my sister say, “No, I don’t need anything.” Hey, wait, this trip was for me, but I bought like one thing (save the double sided tape at Office Max). I’m not upset or anything, I just have a short shopping span. Yeah for presents!

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Flickr

Posted by Thomas Sun, 26 Dec 2004 20:12:09 +0000

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

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photo-5-1

Posted by Thomas Sun, 26 Dec 2004 20:12:07 +0000

.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; }
.flickr-frame { float: right; text-align: center; margin-left: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

photo-5-1

photo-5-1, originally uploaded by thomas536.

Since Marc couldn’t seem to figure out how to post his pictures from flickr into his new WordPress blog, I figured that I might try and figure it out. Since he is currently on vacation in Jamaica, I figured that I would bend to the peer pressure (since apparently flickr is the biggest thing since sliced bread) and get an account, since their support for posting to blogs was apparently only accessible after login. Which, of course, required that I have a login.

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Home

Posted by Thomas Wed, 24 Nov 2004 01:11:12 +0000

Ok, so I sit down at my parent’s new computer, that I setup last time I was home, and fired up Mozilla Firefox to begin my browsing ritual. It came up to a critical warning that I needed to update Firefox due to security vulnerabilites. I think, ok, no problem, let’s update. Then I start to download the 1.0 Release. Look at this frickin’ screenshot!

Cox High Speed Internet Speed Screenshot

That’s over 4Mbits per second! I wish that I got that at my apt… Let’s hope that Cox get’s their rollout sooner more than later in College Station.

Anyway, since I burned all of those Dave Matthews Band cds before I left, I was curious if I could get any takers on betting how many hours I could listen to DMB. Well, whomever was closest to picking 7.5 hours gets the prize. Talk to me to claim your prize.

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Saturday

Posted by Thomas Sun, 21 Nov 2004 01:11:49 +0000

Went to the store today. First time in months, it seems. Forgot to get new razor blades, tho. Got up late. Didn’t wind up going to C-time leaders retreat. Ate some grub from the store. Watched “Lock, Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels”. Yes, Ben, I know that you have it, but as we found out earlier, I apparently can’t watch your movies… But I can watch Netflix… Don’t ask me why. Started watching “Varsity Blues”, but haven’t gotten to finish it, yet. I’ll probably finish it tomorrow afternoon, and then watch “Just Married” then, too. Then went over to T.J.’s apt for dinner. Turkey and the works. It was good. Watched “Monsters, Inc.”. It was good as well, but I’ve seen it a bunch, so no show stopper there. Now, I should go to bed, because there supposedly is Sunday School in the morning, and every week I get up later and later.

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The Tech Support Generation

Posted by Thomas Sat, 20 Nov 2004 14:11:31 +0000

“Newsweek technology columnist Brad Stone is looking forward to the Thanksgiving dinner with his family next week, spending time in candle-lit rooms, preparing holiday shopping lists and… let’s admit it – fixing the folks’ computer. ‘We are the Tech-Support Generation. Our job is to troubleshoot the complex but imperfect technology that befuddle mom and dad, veterans of the rotary phone, the record player and the black-and-white cabinet television set. Next week, on our annual pilgrimage home, we?ll turn our Web-trained minds and joystick-conditioned fingers to the task of rescuing our parents from bleeding-edge technology on the blink’, Brad Stone writes.”

Taken from Slashdot.

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Wish List

Posted by Thomas Fri, 19 Nov 2004 18:11:43 +0000

Well, it would appear that it has been a couple of days since I last posted. Hmm… what have I done since then? Well, I have been getting up later and later, it seems. I’m not staying up that much later than normal. I almost feel like I’m getting too much sleep, if that’s possible. And, on top of that, I feel more tired anyway. I think that it’s due to my general lack of activity. I guess that I should do something about that, but honestly I don’t want to. A job would probably help that, if I had to get up early and got into a semi-normal routine. I guess that I have been looking for jobs, still, and even applied for a couple this week. Still nothing, yet.

I did, though, work on my Christmas List. I figure that eventually Google will rule the world. Just the other day, I was thinking, “I wish that I could put stuff on my Amazon wish list that isn’t sold by Amazon”. And, then, low and behold, this week I finally clickecd on the “Add to list” link found next to results found by Froogle. The answer to my query! So, I’ve spent a couple of days working on finding the bargains of the stuff that I wish that I had, so that I could pass it out to my peeps (’cause they’ve been hounding me about it for months now… and I’ve been putting it off). So, here it is, my wish list for Christmas 2004. Now, I do mean that this is really a wish list, because it has a bunch of expensive stuff in it. The cheap stuff, like the tools and the CD are really on my list, but the other stuff is just stuff that I wish that I had, and have no expectation that I will get it, nor do I think that I deserve to get that stuff… Maybe when I get some income I can splurge.

I’m looking forward to getting to go home for a while. Hopefully I’ll get to run into some snow along the way. That would make me happy to see snow. I guess tonight we’ve got Movie and Game Night at Wesley starting sometime soon, 7ish, I think, and then I guess that we’ve got a Crunchtime leaders retreat tomorrow (Saturday) from 8:30am (ohh, that’s early) until 4:00pm. I think that it’s in Caldwell. And, for whatever reason, we can’t be in the building after the retreat, so I have no idea what I’ll be doing then. Ok, enough for now, I’ve got to grab some grub.

Laters.

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Getting past front-line support

Posted by Thomas Wed, 17 Nov 2004 23:11:16 +0000

Found this tech support story… great read.

http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jclingan/20041117#getting_past_front_line_support

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Does the desert really miss the rain?

Posted by Thomas Wed, 17 Nov 2004 20:11:27 +0000

Nick Thorn, on November 17, 2004, decrees that yes, the desert really does miss the rain.

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More than you ever wanted to know about multifunction printers

Posted by Marc Wed, 17 Nov 2004 09:11:06 +0000

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More than you ever wanted to know about multifunction printers

Posted by Thomas Tue, 16 Nov 2004 23:11:19 +0000

If you trust CNet (which I do), then their top multifunction laser is the HP LaserJet 3380 (7.7) and their top multifunction inkjet is the Epson Stylus CX6600 (8.1). Froogle would say that the HP starts at about $637, plus shipping, whereas the Epson starts at about $139, plus shipping. If you again trust CNet, then the HP costs 2.3 cents per page and that the Epson costs 2.7 cents per page. I then figure that, since the HP is cheaper by $0.04 per page, after about 12,500 pages (or 25 reams), you break even on your total investment. So, if you think that you’ll use the thing that much before the thing dies, then go with the HP, else go with the Epson. Also, the Epson has cool features like color printing (if you like color printing stuff) and multiple card readers for removable media.

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Ben’s RSS

Posted by Thomas Tue, 16 Nov 2004 13:11:40 +0000

Since Ben would like the links to work in my rss, I’ll work on it… by posting some more
Edit
Edit
It should work now.
Er, maybe now. And, if you buy now, you’ll get a new DOMAIN NAME! YAY!
http://thomas536.blogsite.org/blog

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Scheduler, Part Deux

Posted by bigbrother0074 Tue, 16 Nov 2004 02:11:48 +0000

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Scheduler, Part Deux

Posted by Thomas Tue, 16 Nov 2004 02:11:46 +0000

Ok, so apparently fixing the KINE’s wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I guess that the code to get around the encryption was a lot of what I was going to have to write to get the KINE’s to work. You can tell from the posting of this entry to the posting of the last entry how long it took me. You can let the high-fives and cookies commence!

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Scheduler

Posted by Thomas Tue, 16 Nov 2004 01:11:12 +0000

I finally finished fixing the scheduler. SHAMELESS PLUG! Apparently, in their infinite wisdom, whomever maintains courses.tamu.edu decided to encode (read 3DES encrypt) their urls. I can only assume that they are trying to cut down on automatic screen scraping. I hacked together a bunch of code, and finally came up with a working solution. It’s not pretty, but it works. I hope that they weren’t trying to reduce traffic to their site, because they have only increased it, as far as I’m concerned. Instead of me only looking up one page during data lookup, I get four! They’ve increased the page views by a factor of 3. Oh well. I should make it do some caching so that I don’t piss them off, but that will have to wait until sometime later.

Also, the kine’s don’t work anymore, I don’t think. That would appear to be a much bigger problem, that I’m not nearly as apt to try and tackle. If you really, really want me to look into it, then I might just, else, I don’t really care to spend the time.

It would appear to me that they used this guy’s code. Maybe they’re just paranoid about their data. But, if anybody wants to crack their encryption scheme and send me what they figure out, I’d apprectiate it. Thanks and gig em.

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Diploma

Posted by Thomas Tue, 09 Nov 2004 23:11:33 +0000

I finally cleaned our bathroom today, as well as hanging my A&M diploma, and finally fixing the post-it “art” that I took apart after we moved. Since there were a few more post-it’s found after I put it up, I figured that I should put them in as well. I re-started the project not too long after we moved, but became quickly bored, and only today finished it. I did laundry, too. Exciting stuff.

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The Incredibles

Posted by Thomas Mon, 08 Nov 2004 00:11:08 +0000

I saw “The Incredibles” tonight with Cole, Rachel, and Chad Hopson. It was better than I was expecting. I thought that it was pretty funny, even if Rachel didn’t think quite as much so. Definitely some good one-liners, and, as usual, lots of adult humor that I’m sure went over the kids’ heads. Overall a good movie, though. I highly recommend seeing it.

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OU & Shane & Shane

Posted by Thomas Sat, 06 Nov 2004 23:11:49 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted, so I apologize. I woke up at noon, after telling myself that I was going to try and get up earlier than that today. I ate some good brisket cooked by the meat men this year, from the wesley tailgate party. I then pretty much proceeded to watch us get beat by OU (I just watched on TV from the comfort of Wesley). It was a good game anyway, and we gave them a run for their money. Then I went to a Shane and Shane concert in College Station, at Central Baptist. They were awesome. I bought a couple of CDs, so I guess that pulls a couple out of the pool of possible CDs for Christmas presents.

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Monday

Posted by Thomas Tue, 02 Nov 2004 20:11:04 +0000

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Monday

Posted by Thomas Tue, 02 Nov 2004 00:11:17 +0000

Well, today felt a little more productive, even though I’m having a hard time remembering what all that I did today. Got up at 11:50am, after hitting snooze every 10 or so minutes since 9:30am (since I set my alarm for then…). Went to lunch Bible study a little late and did dishes afterwards. I worked on the scheduler sometime in there, even getting a little progress done, mostly conceptual, which I had been having some problems with. I also called Skier’s Edge in Santa Fe to check on their prices. Theirs were higher than at the base, so we’ll probably just buy tickets and rent skis directly from Ski Santa Fe. Hopefully I’m not missing some cheaper alternatives. This also unfortunately means that the total isn’t going down much. The room cost for 3 nights is like $120, plus 3-day lift tix at $111, plus ski rental at $46 adds up to about $280. Which seems expensive to me, but maybe I’m just ignorant of how much it really costs. That doesn’t include the cost of the bus, if there is any in the end, and also assumes that there are 20 of us to get the group rate for the lift tickets. We wound up with 19 deposits, essentially, today. Oh, and that doesn’t absorb the cost of Max’s stuff either… which increases the cost by another roughtly $15. So it probably will be right at the (high) cost of $300.

What else did I do today… Old Army Bible Study essentially didn’t meet because Nick had Century Singers rehearsal. He forgot about us and didn’t tell anybody that he couldn’t make it… oh well… I didn’t care too much. Eric Brown cut up his leg pretty bad today, too, playing ping pong. Apparently his second ping pong related injury of the year.

I also tried to compress the “Day in the Life of Thomas” video so that people could download/stream it… but I failed. I talked to Adan about it, but he couldn’t offer much advice on what to do. So, I’m stumped on it for a while.

Yeah, I don’t think that anybody except Laurie and KB reads this, and even then I’m not so sure how much/often they do… If anybody else reads this, then you should tell/email/comment me about it. Thanks, I’d appreciate it.

Plus, this evening stupid Marcus got that song “Complicated” song in my head, as sung by the younger Simpson sister.

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Unproductive day

Posted by kb Mon, 01 Nov 2004 17:11:25 +0000

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Friday/Saturday/Sunday

Posted by Thomas Mon, 01 Nov 2004 00:11:54 +0000

Since I didn’t have much to say on Friday, I just skipped blogging about nothing.

Saturday was better, though. Unfortunately, though, I still got up at noon, but was pleased to find out that they didn’t really notice that I wasn’t around to help with the work project on Saturday. I just didn’t feel like getting up early. I figure that they need more indians than chiefs on stuff like that, and I am definitely a chief. I think that it worked out well that I didn’t get up and go. I was at Wesley for a while, and then around 6pm we headed over to Susan and Jaimie’s for a Halloween/Game Listening party. They fed us some cool ghoustly food and we watched “Saved!”, which turned out to be a better movie than I had first anticipated. Then we watched “Dawn of the Dead” which was also a quality movie, except that I didn’t quite like then ending. I’m not usually one for horror movies, but this one was good. I won’t ruin anything for you guys, but if you want to watch a scary movie, then you might check it out.

The best part of the night was probably the ride home. Ben Mason had a couple of masks that he brought, because it was actually a mask/costume party… So I put on this ugly, red devil mask, complete with horns and everything. I was wearing this, at like 3:30/2:30am, depending on how you counted the time, sticking my head out of the window. For several blocks we weren’t next to anybody, but finally I got to scare the crap out of this girl in the next lane. IT WAS AWESOME! Then there were a couple of guys, but they weren’t scared, and mostly they just played along.

Today did the Sunday School thing, setting up the laptop/projector and running sound for the little band that plays for Sunday School. Went to A&M UMC for church, then went to Fuddruckers for lunch, which was good as always. I just went home after that, taking care of some laundry and bills. Got to talk to Chad Suhr for a bit, since he needed some info for an application that he’s filling out for a pregnancy center or something. He misses Wesley alot and is super busy grading papers and stuff. He hasn’t been able to really find a church, nor a good small group to plug into. He’s involved with Intervarsity, but it’s not quite the same as Wesley was. Different types of people and a different type of organization. I guess that he’s considering Catholocism, but the priest that he talked to he really didn’t like and wasn’t too helpful. Anyway, paid some bills, made a deposit, then went to Wesley. Ate dinner there, and setup stuff for worship. Then pretty much since after worship, I’ve been working on writing new code for the scheduler.

Blah blah blah. Somehow I doubt that the details of my life would seem that interesting…

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Unproductive day

Posted by Thomas Fri, 29 Oct 2004 00:10:10 +0000

So, today didn’t seem to be a very productive day. I got up around 11am, which is a little earlier than the norm as of late. Which made me pretty early for lunch Bible study, but that’s no big deal. I seem to be getting hungrier earlier in the morning than I used to. Anyway, after LBS I started playing around with KB’s wedding video stuff that I was supposed to have finished months ago. I realized that in reality that it will probably be easier and generally better if I can just get a hold of those tapes from the wedding, and then use the camera to transfer the video to VHS. I guess that it’ll just wait until Thanksgiving. And then the balance of my afternoon was spent working on updating the scheduler. Since there is Division at Wesley tomorrow, they kicked us out of Wesley so that they could clean it all up nice for the people who will be coming tomorrow. So, I took the laptop and came home and watched K-19. It seemed to be an ok movie, but I wasn’t paying too close of attention because I was working on installing some stuff on the laptop… which I sortof got to work how I wanted it to.

Well, it would seem that I continue to make long posts, but I am happy that I posted again today. Woo! Two days in a row. Maybe I should change the name of the blog to blog-a-day to try and motivate me.

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Long time no see

Posted by Thomas Thu, 28 Oct 2004 02:10:04 +0000

I realized that this might be a cool way for my fam to keep up with what I am up to. Maybe that will give me some motivation to post frequently.

Today, I got up pretty late, i.e. noon. By the time that I got to Wesley, it was almost 1pm, so I was already a bit hesitant to go into Lunch Bible Study. In transit down the hall, Ryan Martin stopped me to ask if I knew anything about roofs. Since I have a little knowledge, I went with him to this house in Bryan to do a pre-site check before the workday on Saturday. That all want fine, and I even got to spend some time in an attic! Yay! The funny part about all of this was the ride back to Wesley. We were running late, so we took 6 back to University. Along the way the ladder flew out the back of Shane’s truck, skidding to the side of the road, ending up in the median. We turned around to go back and get it. I ran out once we got there to grab the ladder. Unknown to me at the time, we must have obliterated a fire ant hill, because the stupid thing was covered in them. While I was putting the ladder back into the back of the truck, I began to feel stuff on my legs. The median wasn’t too thick with brush, so I was caught a little off guard that these burs were hurting so much. When I looked down I realized that I had a whole lot of ants on me, and they were biting. I quickly got to flicking them all off, but I got some good bites in the meantime. I bet I’ll have a few scars now from them, just like most of my othen fire ant bites. We proceeded back to Wesley a little more cautiously and didn’t have any further incident.

Well, how’s that for a cool blog story? A little long though… I’ll try to keep the posts shorter, as I don’t personally like to read long posts.

There is barn dance on Friday night out in a barn, out in the country. I really haven’t quite decided if I’m going or not. If it’s like years past, there is a whole lot of square dancing, which I really don’t appreciate too much. Which makes me want to go late. But, if I do that, then I’ll have to drive out there; which I don’t want to do, because gas is to high… I dunno. We’ll see. Also, since I’ve been dancing so much as of late, I was thinking about maybe getting some new boots. I haven’t owned any since junior high, so I was pondering it.

And there’s workday, too, but I’d personally rather just sleep in. Since we are heading it up, and there are several other orgs participating, we are supposed to have more people than the others (esp. the Mormons). But I really don’t care. The last one we went on I got pretty frustrated building a stupid wheelchair ramp in the rain, with less than adequate tools. I figure that the same tool shortage will happen again, so it’s just better if I stay out of it. But somehow I bet that I get roped into helping out. I feel a lot like I’ve paid my dues, but maybe I’ll pitch in as a supervisor. But, I’m a crappy supervisor. I always just do it myself because it’s easier…

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New Processor

Posted by Thomas Thu, 30 Sep 2004 22:09:31 +0000

Yay for intesting blog posts… let’s hope that this is one of them.

Well, today, we finally got the processor in that I had ordered on Monday for Carol’s old computer. I guess I really did fry the other processor… bummer… but this one works like a champ, at a blazing 1.3GHz. 36.8% faster than the old one. So everybody should be happier now that we have ~4 working computers in the computer lounge. So, that makes me happy that I got it to work, but sucks that it has costed me about $50 for my mistake… oh well… now we just have to wait for the monitor on that computer to go out, and then for one of the Dell hard drives to go out. Oh joy. It seems like everything I touch as of late breaks…

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So far today

Posted by Thomas Sat, 25 Sep 2004 19:09:09 +0000

Since I haven’t posted, anything, really, I’d say what I’ve accomplished today…

I tried to pick the Kryponite U-Lock that somebody has their bike locked up with in front of Wesley with Bru around lunchtime. Unfortunately he got hungry and I got bored, so we didn’t really get it picked. Unfortunate, I know… Then I drew some, and I thought that I might post it here. Which led me to trying to see if I can attach pictures to posts… so here we go…

Yay… I guess that worked… I’ll have to keep that in mind… Then Chad, Ciara, and I went to eat at Koppe Bridge (the new one). We sat outside and got to see/hear/experience it rain the little that it did today… Exciting, I know…

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New permalink structure

Posted by Thomas Thu, 16 Sep 2004 19:09:18 +0000

Hmm… maybe this will work…

me_&_poppy

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me__poppy

Posted by Thomas Thu, 16 Sep 2004 19:09:12 +0000

me_&_poppy
977×1025 pixels 174.6 kB

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New Blog

Posted by Thomas Sat, 11 Sep 2004 22:09:55 +0000

Hey kids, I finally pulled my head out and figured out how to get PHP running on Argento. I think that I’ll give it a week, and I’ll be tired of it. Yay for WordPress and Debian.

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