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Posted on

santa’s coming

I don't care what you celebrate.
Christmas Eve morning, I read President Bush’s Christmas message in the paper today… full of hope and the Lord and whatnot. I’m fresh and clean out of the shower, in some dark jeans that fit well but are of course too long in the leg and a brown sweater in response to the cold, gloomy Oregon weather. We’re waiting on some of my family’s Oregonian kin to roll by for some Christmas drinks and holiday cheer (around Christmas, we drink a drink called Tom ‘n’ Jerry in our family, have as long as I can remember). It should be fun, one of those family get-together things with stories and a few awkward silences. Ahhh… holidays.

I started out writing, but decided to do a Christmas-themed template for the blog instead… which took most of my time (holiday logo courtesy of the GIMP2.2). I wanted to add some snow-caps to the text boxes, but gave up because I suck at art. Owell, at least the red and green thing seem somewhat in the spirit. It’s the blog’s way of saying Merry Christmas to you, all its readers (even the closet readers).

Today we decided to do nothing. The main motivation, other than kinda just wanting to do nothing, was to stay out of the holiday traffic. The last thing I want to do right now is go out, the streets were bad enough yesterday. And besides, it’s nice and warm and quiet in here and I can see the grey skies from the windows, so I’m not missing much in the way of people and horns and cold air. Mom’s in the kitchen cooking, dad’s reading a book, and Sharaun went out to pick up some last-minute stocking stuffers. It’s nice because it smells like cooking in here, and I’m comfy on the couch drinking a beer.

I think I’m done writing for today… I mean, if I do write more, I’ll just make it tomorrow’s post. Until then, then.

Posted on

you say tomato

Family.
Christmas Eve eve y’all. I don’t know if any of you saw, but today the blog was flat-busted. Yup, something was wrong on the server-side and all my scripts weren’t working. I couldn’t even log into the blog, so I’m writing this in a text file (just like the olden days). Anyway, chatted with the live tech support and they’re working to fix the problem, but I made a local copy of the database just in case. (Yeah, I’m stealing some neighbor’s wireless connection here at my folks’ place.)

The nine hour drive yesterday wasn’t all that bad, although the majority of it was in the dark and a little foggy. We made good time, and even stopped at a casino for a buffet dinner and a really bad cabaret show. By the end of the trip, there wasn’t an album in the world that sounded good. We listened to everything, and got sick of everything. I nearly crashed several times trying to watch Ben play Altered Beast on his laptop in the passenger seat, MAME is just too distracting for front-seat play.

The day we left, Pitchfork posted their top 50 albums for 2004. I always look forward to PF’s toplist, and usually find a few good albums I may have missed during the year. This year, I wanted to see how my personal top 10 stacked up against PF’s list. And, the results are in… they don’t prove much, other than that Funeral really was, by leaps and bounds, the best album of the year. Anyway, it was fun to see if I could remember the HTML for a table from memory – so here goes:

Dave’s Top 10 Position on PF list
1. The Arcade Fire – Funeral #1, I was pretty sure about this one.
2. The Killers – Hot Fuss Didn’t chart, not surprising… this is pure retro-pop indulgence, but I love it.
3. Brian Wilson – SMiLE #5, not bad for a 37 year-old LP.
4. The Radio Dept. – Lesser Matters Didn’t chart, but don’t let that turn you off… it’s great.
5. Interpol – Antics #27, we agree, it’s the half-best album of 2004.
6. The Go! Team – Thunder, Lightning, Strike #8, go team, go.
7. Modest Mouse – Good News for People Who Love Bad News #23, not bad for a commercial sellout (OK, they still rock).
8. The Stills – Logic Will Break Your Heart Didn’t chart, again… commercialpop at it’s best and most addictive.
9. DJ Danger Mouse & Jay Z – The Grey Album Didn’t chart, which surprised me… bringing a whole genre to the masses.
10. Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand #26, we both be likin’ the Franz.

I’d like to type more, but I’m tired and my laptop says I only have 13% battery left (there seems to be an outlet behind the couch, but that seems like a lot of effort right now). Tonight we introduced my folks to Ben’s folks in a large spaghetti dinner at the farm. Ben’s folks cooked, and we had a nice dinner for eight. It was a good time, but now I’m ready for bed.

Goodnight.

Posted on

i don’t want to watch

Open road.
Vacation. Off to an “iffy” start though, as vacation’s defined at least. I’ve got two meetings to attend tomorrow (via cellphone, of course), so I won’t get that whole separation-from-work vibe until sometime well along the road north. It’s OK, I can deal with it I suppose. Tonight we got together to do another mini gift-exchange with friends, and when Ben ended up getting Napoleon Dynamite in said exchange – Suzy and he stayed over to watch it with the Mrs. and I. Man… what a great movie, right up my alley in terms of disjointed, sometimes squirmy, humor. I can’t wait to see it again. After that Sharaun and I were left to prepare for the trip: packing clothes, packing up gifts (we’re exchanging up there), and readying other bidness. This is the first chance I’ve had to write, and it’s nearly midnight…

The first real porno I ever saw was called I Want to Watch; I was in 9th or 10th grade. I was at a friend’s house hanging out on the weekend, and the subject came up. He said he had a real porno, that he’d borrowed from another kid we knew. Of course, once this info was out of the bag – there was nothing to do but watch the tape. There was no jacket, just an old VHS tape with a cheap white label. The video was old, at the time I pegged it for early 80s by the feathered hair and clothes strewn about the floor. The movie was light on plot (I guess that’s not really fair, considering it was porn). Anyway, the premise was that there were four sex scenes, and in each one there was someone “watching” but not participating. The watcher was always a female, and was perennially masturbating. Somehow, this tape was passed down to me. I kept it locked in a briefcase in my closet (why I had a briefcase, I have no idea). I don’t know where the tape is now. Perhaps, unbeknownst to me, the cycle began anew and some teenagers are getting their first look at the early 80s coke-fueled porn industry, and all the unkempt body hair it has to offer. I can only hope. Oh, and if you somehow have my tape – the 4th scene is the best.

Well, it’s Wednesday morning, my 8am meeting is over, and I’m officially on vacation. At least… until I have to call into my 10am meeting. Hoorah. I’m all packed and the bags are by the door, ready for Ben to come by and load up before we head out for a pre-road-trip breakfast. Then we run some small errands, and finally pick Sharaun up around 1pm. Then the tires hit I5 and don’t stop for 9hrs.

And with that, I’m done. I’ll write when I can.

Posted on

down again

The PC is dead. Long live the PC.
One more day of work and then the road gets Wednesday. I’m looking more and more forward to getting out of town for a while, and to seeing my folks’ new place. Work is at this “apex” right now, an important phase in our project (they always seem to line up with big holidays), and things are crazy. I’m supposed to have the week after Christmas off, but I think I’ll be in a “checking in” mode with work since things are so hectic. Y’know, not quite a 40hr week, but not quite a vacation either. That’s fine, I don’t care. Then I’ll be “working from home,” or “WFH” as we abbreviate it on the whiteboards outside our cubes, the week Sharaun has her knee surgery… so for a while here work will be somewhat non-standard.

Nerd-talk coming up…

Well guys, something hosed my XP install, and my home system was trashed last night (tonight, as I write). It started out innocent enough, I noticed IE was displaying some fonts kinda funkily. Then my desktop icons started changing into icons for stuff that they weren’t… and I couldn’t run “regedit.” Then things slowed down, a buttload of files were missing from the c:\windows and c:\windows\inf directories… I couldn’t repair anything… something was wrooong. I assumed it was a product of installing Linux as a dual-boot, but it turns out that restoring my hard drive (pre-SuSE) resulted in the same problems. So, I reinstalled SP2… but that only seemed to make things worse. Tried to run Recovery Console, but that wouldn’t even launch. So, I reverted back to my last good backup… from sometime in early October. Yes, it was a catastrophic failure, but I’m back up and running and typing this on my dead-an-hour-ago PC, hooray for backups.

So… no Linux. Owell, I couldn’t get the sound working, and SuSE wouldn’t recognize my RAID array. On the plus side, I got to give my backup solution of choice a true test-run; and I’m happy to say it flawlessly restored my hard drive to it’s pre-Linux state. So that’s it. I think this is my last try, honestly. I’m gonna break down and buy Windows XP Pro and go with all freeware apps. Speaking of, I’m way excited for the impending new version of OpenOffice, and the newly released GIMP2.2 (dang I’m a nerd). As for my Windows problems, I don’t know what caused them. It wasn’t Linux… because my pre-Linux backup captured the problems. The only other thing I did was install, and subsequently uninstall, Firefox. It’s the only thing I can figure. Owell.

/end nerd-talk

Today Anthony and Ben and I decided to take our laptops down to the cafeteria and work. When they suggested the idea to me, I agreed immediately, writing “working from cafe, where I can see the sky” on that whiteboard outside my cube, the one we already talked about, remember? Actually, I got a lot done down there… away from the phone and and self-made interruptions.

I saw on a couple pages yesterday that Wal Mart will be offering a low-end cheap laptop that comes pre-installed with the Linspire OS. For $500, this thing reeks of a buy-it-and-install-pirated-XP strategy – which is I’m sure what many will do with the machine.

Sorry the entry was so techy today. Goodnight.

Posted on

b-a-n-a-n-a-s

Dag yo, messy.
A cool and sunny Sunday afternoon; “crisp” even, although I’m unsure how that adjective relates to weather. The heat has been on now for almost a month, keeping the house a comfortable 70° for us warm-blooded folks. The sensation of being warm and “safe” inside a house while still being able to see the potentially unfriendly elements outside has always appealed to me. Like being in a tent in the rain, or sitting in a screened-in porch in Florida while a thunderstorm rages around you. Shelter; caves, Gilligan’s Island huts, Abe Lincoln log-cabins, whatever… it’s a known obsession of mine.

Today I finally broke down and installed SuSE Linux 9.2 as a dual-boot on my home machine. My thought was, since I’ve abandoned most of my non-freeware software on Windows, maybe this time the big “switch” would be easier. I’ve tried Linux before, but haven’t ever been able to stick with it. I always get frustrated and got back to Windows because I can’t do some ridiculously simple thing like change the screen resolution. This time though, I’m hoping the dual-boot scenario might help “ease” me into the switch. Ideally I’d love to run a completely no-cost system, but I guess time will tell. Right now, I’m happy because I’m trying it out, but I’m still not sure if I’ll stick with it. I mean, as it is now… it won’t see my RAID array and despite recognizing my sound card, I got no sound. Whatever.

Foggy this morning, the ground’s wet with it and the Christmas lights on the house won’t stay on for 30sec before tripping the GFCI circuit. This weekend was ultimate low-key for me, although we did host a meal and gift-exchange thing on Saturday night, which involved beers and champagne (toasting Suzy’s new job) and darts. I put on the Charlie Brown Christmas Special CD, what I consider to be the penultimate embodiment of Christmas music, jazzy and warm. Then we all played “adult” and sat around to open presents from each other. The rest of the weekend though, I sat around and did absolutely nothing. I practiced my dart throwing for a bout an hour on Sunday, watched some old Twilight Zone episodes, and did the dishes. The shit is bananas people, b-a-n-a-n-a-s.

Wednesday we set out on our trek to Oregon, I need to get the tires rotated and oil changed in prep for the journey. Checking this awesome page, the I5 pass into Oregon looks like it’s snow-free (click the little cameras for live shots of the road… the internet rocks). That’s not to say it may not snow between now and then, but at least we know it’s not snowed under now. I’m kinda looking forward to the drive, even thought it’ll be looong… but I kinda enjoy road-tripping, especially w/friends and an ample supply of good tunes.

That’s all for today, Dave out.

Posted on

to the rescue

Too soon homies, too soon.
Now, I know we just saw the Arcade Fire… but they are coming back in mid-January for a rock-star binge 3-night stand at the Great American Music Hall. I knew about the shows when we saw them at the first show, but just assumed we’d seen them once – so why again so soon? But man, reading all the hype about their LA shows selling out in less than 20min… and hearing that two out of the three nights in January have already sold out, it makes me wanna go see them again. I told Ben that since Suzy didn’t get to go last time, we might be able to use her missing them as an excuse… y’know, we’re doing it for Suzy. Yeah, that’s it. Problem is, that’s a mere week after Sharaun will have had her knee surgery… do I leave her alone to fend for her gimpy-self? Such a dilemma.

Hey, I’m starting this paragraph now! It’s “evaluation” time again at work, I’m sure most big works have something like this each year. Y’know, it’s where you’re compared to your co-workers and ranked for possible raises and promotions and whatnot. Some people hate it, but I have a theory that those people are just sucky workers. I don’t hate it, although I do get kinda tired of writing “reviews” of myself and others. It doesn’t scare me though, like it does some, I guess because I’m confident that I’m a decent worker, and that there are a lot crappier employees than me. The sucky workers who always complain about the process must have something to fear, I figure. The guilt of knowing you suck, or something. I don’t get too worried, I just tire of the long formal process of giving feedback about others, “assessing” myself, and then waiting for what seems an eternity before hearing how the money and promos finally pan out. It’s a necessary evil though, so I always do my best to write good reviews of my co-workers (the ones that don’t suck, at least). So, bring on the review… do your worst corporate-America… I’ve been not-sucking all year in preparation. Rank me, rate me, compare and contrast me, for I am a cubicle dweller known to his company as a number… and I am to be feared.

Speaking of work, got word the other day that it’s likely they’ll be willing to bring Sharaun to Taiwan – providing I stay for a monthish amount of time. So, that set us planning and scheming ways she might wrap a weekend in vacation days or something, so that she could be there for near a week with the minimal amount of time away from the classroom. If the whole affair gets approved, she essentially gets a free ride to Taiwan, and I get a little break from the hotel-room masturbation doldrums. I really hope it works out, I think she’d get a big kick out of the city, and I’ve been there enough now to show her around pretty well. We could hit the night markets, Taipei 101, dig on some real Taiwanese food, and both party in the palatial hotel. I won’t miss home nearly as much if I can take her with me… so I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Tonight, when I asked Sharaun to pause the OC so I could do the dishes, she decided she would take that time to run up to the store and pick up a gift for her “secret santa” at work. She left, I went about my business: putting away clean dishes, putting new ones in the dishwasher, taking the house trash out to the bin and the bin to the curb, and feeding the cat. Somewhere just after taking out the trash, my cellphone rang. It was Sharaun. “Hey babe, do you see my wallet on the kitchen table?” “No… no I don’t,” I replied. She sighed heavily. See folks, this is not the first time she’s gone shopping only to get to the register and realize she forgot her wallet… in fact, it’s not even the first time this week she’s done it. I looked around the house with her on the phone, and finally located the wallet in the guest bathroom. I told her it was here, she sounded sad, and we said goodbyes.

After that, something happened… I can’t explain it… I guess it was like my “good husband” instinct kicked in. I called her back right away and asked where she was. I grabbed her wallet, threw on some flip-flops, and headed out for a wallet-delivery. Running out in my standard after-work ensemble of shorts and a t-shirt, still slightly damp from dish-washing, I got some strange looks from the people bundled up for the cold. At Target we did a little shopping, and overheard a highly-comical conversation between two white teenage Target stockboys, who were restoring order to the rifled rack of Christmas cards, about who’s lyrics were more poetic: 2 Pac or Biggie Smalls’. It was highly entertaining, their recitation of accolades for the two gunned-down gangstas drilled into their heads by MTV’s “Diary” and VH1’s “Behind the Music sounded so serious.

I’m outta here guys, goodnight.

Posted on

if Good Morning America is any indication

No idea.
Guys, I don’t know what happened… I thought I missed one day of writing this week, but it turns out I completely missed two, count ’em, two days. Really, something happened to me, because I don’t even remember not writing on Monday night. I remember not writing last night (Tuesday), but that’s about it. Contrary to what my lack of posts may indicate, I have been writing this week – fragments of stuff not good enough to fill out an entire post… so I’m gonna do one of those “flush” entries where I get rid of a backlog of stuff.

7am on Wednesday morning, somehow ended up on the plus-side of time this morning… I dunno, got ready fast today or something. So I sat down and flipped on Good Morning America to see what’s happening in the world. Apparently, Laci Peterson is happening in the world… and is maybe the only thing happening in the world, if Good Morning America is any indication.

For the past couple days, I’ve been coming home for lunch and playing darts with friends. Anthony and I broke in the new dartboard and dart sets on Monday, which involved me playing my first ever “real” game of darts (y’know, not just the “hit the bullseye” version). While playing, I realized darts could be a pretty fun way to kill some time. Get some people over, have some beers, listen to some tunes, and play some darts. In fact, maybe coming home for lunch and drinking some beers and playing darts would be awesome too. Whatever.

Looks like I’ll be spending nearly a month in Taiwan come late February. I have mixed feelings about an extended stay… my longest trip so far has been two weeks, and I was more than ready to head home near the end. I think this stay will be somewhere between three weeks and a month. The only good part about it is getting to stay in that swank high-roller hotel for that long. I can look forward to an entire month of late-night bloody marys at the bar and lonely nights on fluffy sheets. Other people I work with will be coming and going over the time I’ll be there, so at least I’ll have that. So if anyone wants to make their way to Taipei in March, you can have the floor in the hotel room.

Saw a post on /. the other day about open-source GPL schematic capture and board layout software. It may seem nerdy, but it’s what I do. It’s so awesome that you can get free software to do most everything… even the things you do every day at work… bleh.

I noticed from my referrer logs that Suzy linked me on her “friends” page, many thanks. And now it’s time to head to bed, I’m up early to deliver friends to the airport. Sorry for the crap entry. Goodnight.