Archive for February, 2008

History is important, change is good too!

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

Many years ago (circa 2002) I had a little website with two copies of b2 running on it. I had hacked the crap out of one of them to make a dynamically generated news page (archive.org link), the other was running as sort of a more journally setup. I have been meaning to import this data into wordpress ever since I moved from b2 but have been too lazy to actually make it work. So some hacking on the old b2 RSS2 engine enabled me to import ~108 posts from my distant internet past.

It’s cute to see how much I’ve grown the fuck up.

So to celebrate I went ahead and found a new theme for wordpress. It’s cute, kinda digg-esque. I’m not sure if I like it more than the old one so we’ll see how it goes and maybe I’ll go back. (if anyone actually reads the site, not the rss feed comments would be welcome!)

Sundays, and how I suck at this internet thing…

Monday, February 25th, 2008

So it is technically Monday morning now and as seems to be the case I’m fucking wide awake and dicking around doing things that probably could wait until later. Like uploading images into the gallery, and updating this silly little journal of mine that from what I can tell only a few people ever actually read. I have slowly been picking up this social internet stuff, getting accounts at linkedin, facebook and even twitter! I am not sure that any of this is better than good old IRC and e-mail in my screen session that I can ssh to from anywhere on the planet, but alas it seems the world is moving along.

I am finally getting over this stupid coldthing that has been messing me up over the last week which means I can stop swilling down NyQuil like it is water… which is kind of a shame, for the NyQuil coma is precious and dear, even if it makes waking up neigh on unbearable. Most of the mates at work seem to be over the hump of this latest winter menace and I think my friend Nina and her son are doing better as well, she seemed very unwell last time I saw her and the poor boy had a bit of the sniffles too. I think the best thing would be for this damned winter thing to end… if we can even call this schizophrenic season we’re having winter.

The first week of shovelglove is over and I have to admit it is a fantastic system. It hurts, it tires me out, it gets me sweating and thrashing around like a dork and yet for some reason I actually look forward to doing it. I don’t quite understand it but I feel like I am accomplishing something useful and I actually look forward to spending time doing it. Hopefully that means I will continue doing it.

And I miss my poor RX-7, sitting all alone at home. It doesn’t help that I still have another 200 or so miles left on the break in period on the new engine in the Kia. It has been very emotionally trying not getting to use the entire throttle or RPM range on the car. Nothing relaxes and de-stresses me like the sound of a lightweight engine spinning at 7000 RPMs or more. Not to mention carving freeway on / off ramps at 2x their ‘rated’ speeds. And I probably could use some of that good de-stressing.

So the plan is to spend a week in the UK this fall with some of the boys, culminating with a live Shpongle show. Should be a good time on many many many different levels, not the least of which getting to finally leave this country for a bit and see what it is like out there, elsewhere on this little blue marble we call home. I think this Mark Twain quote is sufficiently cliche’ to sum up how I feel about this:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

–Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (1869)

As one of my friends mjw seems to say occasionally “hope on top”.

***mernisse opens his hand, showing his soul as it sparkles and brightens.

This should be fun…

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

I think the image is somewhat self explanatory.Shpongle Tickets!!

(coupled with this of course….)

Disc encryption is somewhat less than perfect…

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

this is crazy shit
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9876060-38.html?tag=nefd.pop

Shovel Glove!

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

So a few weeks ago Ukie of all people turned me onto a random workout that you do with of all things a sledgehammer, it’s called Shovelglove. Last weekend I went and dropped the scant $25 on a 10lb sledgehammer and once Monday came around I gave it a try. I am impressed with how amusing it is compared to other workouts I have attempted in the past and quite frankly I am amazed at how well it seems to work. My arms are very obviously sore today but I was still able to manage about 8 minutes (out of the 14) of fairly solid activity. The best part is that if it doesn’t work out and I end up hating it, I’m only out $25 — assuming of course that I never find any other use for a sledgehammer, which I find doubtful. I have never had a very strong upper body, so this should if nothing else help build a little upper body strength that might actually end up helping some of my back and posture problems.

New Year, New Resolutions

Saturday, February 2nd, 2008

No Overscan on the LN-T4671FIt is February and 2008 is very much here now. Looking back 2007 was no where near what I had hoped I could make it. I had hoped after the end of my relationship in late 2006 that 2007 would turn out to be a year that I would use to recover and improve myself. I was hoping to do some traveling and perhaps even spoil myself a little bit, build some experiences that I could look back on and maybe shuffle off some of the stress that has built up between work, family and my personal life.

Well, without going into details 2007 saw the depletion of my personal savings, building stress at work, and my optimism biting me in the ass again in my personal life. I can’t really complain completely though, I’m still here, I re-kindled some friendships that I had neglected and in the few little ways I could pampered myself. My more ambitious goals didn’t get met, but sometimes I guess that is the reason one makes the ambitious goals, it is the trying that matters.

This year I will set the same goals, to pamper myself, cope with the stress and to finally travel. There is a whole damn planet out there, and as a resident I must go see some more of it. I already pampered myself in that I have bought the most expensive thing I have ever bought, a Samsung 46″ 1080p LCD HDTV (LN-T4671F). It is gorgeous, and it appears to exhibit no overscan, which means I can now watch fansubbed anime on it without losing some of the subtitles off the edge of the screen!

So 2008 is already starting off with its ups and downs, but if I can set myself some ambitious goals I think I can accomplish them.