Sunday, June 14, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Endless distractions
I think it's become obvious that the problem is not any particular distractor.. Myspace, dwarf fortress, my wife and son, facebook, online videos, and endless forums, but my capacity for being distracted and seeking out other sources of distraction (just kidding, dear)
House-hunting is weird. You walk in looking for a place you want to own, and either you're buying an empty home, or one that someone else is trying to leave. I find myself looking for clues about the people who had lived in a place, why they made one decision or another with paint, or landscaping..
Our realtor does her job, pointing out all the reasons not to buy.. Siding that will sponge up too much water and sprout fungus, roofing that won't last the winter, rooms that are designed oddly and will be difficult to use as we would want to.
I feel like I am forever passing judgement on the former or current residents.. Trying to figure out how i'll do a better job with their space than they have.. Or just trying to figure out who they are as people.
I shouldn't be considering any humans that won't be living with me. Writing little stories in my head about the people we will replace is too much of a distraction.. But i'm good at those.
Take it easy, i'll post again when I get to it..
BIRTH! SCHOOL! WORK! DEATH!
House-hunting is weird. You walk in looking for a place you want to own, and either you're buying an empty home, or one that someone else is trying to leave. I find myself looking for clues about the people who had lived in a place, why they made one decision or another with paint, or landscaping..
Our realtor does her job, pointing out all the reasons not to buy.. Siding that will sponge up too much water and sprout fungus, roofing that won't last the winter, rooms that are designed oddly and will be difficult to use as we would want to.
I feel like I am forever passing judgement on the former or current residents.. Trying to figure out how i'll do a better job with their space than they have.. Or just trying to figure out who they are as people.
I shouldn't be considering any humans that won't be living with me. Writing little stories in my head about the people we will replace is too much of a distraction.. But i'm good at those.
Take it easy, i'll post again when I get to it..
BIRTH! SCHOOL! WORK! DEATH!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
caller ID surprise
Up at the big honkin flea mart this weekend, across the street from Mr. Taylor, and what should appear on my caller ID?
Mushroom
YAY! MAYBE HE'S IN TOWN!
"Oh, hi.. I hit the wrong button trying to call someone.. Err.. how are you?"
Busy, but not busy enough to excuse my lack of social maintenance.
Been happily running a D&D game for several months, for some folks who seem to view all storyline as window-dressing for tactical miniatures combat, and who say things like "Ooh, the plot train is going that way.. CHOO CHOO!" whenever I give them a slight nudge (even when I intended it as misdirection).
Work has been whelming. Not overwhelming or underwhelming, just whelming.
I slacked off a bit recently in favor of rampant nerdiness, and went from top dog to "doing as well as expected dog" for about two weeks time.. Not sure I like that position, so I'll be barking a bit harder in the coming weeks.
My boss, even though he had seen me frequently playing games when I should have been working, clapped me on the shoulder and said "spend some time where you are.." when my numbers dropped. Guess I should take it as a blessing, but pride makes it hard for me to sit there. I might slack off of normal work in favor of "extra-cirricular work", things like writing articles that are actually more useful to my career than Dwarf Fortress..
Peace out, y'all. I won't promise more frequent updates.. but I do regret not having delivered some.
My vital organs chug away inside me
Mushroom
YAY! MAYBE HE'S IN TOWN!
"Oh, hi
Busy, but not busy enough to excuse my lack of social maintenance.
Been happily running a D&D game for several months, for some folks who seem to view all storyline as window-dressing for tactical miniatures combat, and who say things like "Ooh, the plot train is going that way.. CHOO CHOO!" whenever I give them a slight nudge (even when I intended it as misdirection).
Work has been whelming. Not overwhelming or underwhelming, just whelming.
I slacked off a bit recently in favor of rampant nerdiness, and went from top dog to "doing as well as expected dog" for about two weeks time.. Not sure I like that position, so I'll be barking a bit harder in the coming weeks.
My boss, even though he had seen me frequently playing games when I should have been working, clapped me on the shoulder and said "spend some time where you are.." when my numbers dropped. Guess I should take it as a blessing, but pride makes it hard for me to sit there. I might slack off of normal work in favor of "extra-cirricular work", things like writing articles that are actually more useful to my career than Dwarf Fortress..
Peace out, y'all. I won't promise more frequent updates.. but I do regret not having delivered some.
My vital organs chug away inside me
Friday, April 3, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
sorry about the silence
have been busy, not as much as some...
President To Face Down Monster Attack, Own Demons In Action-Packed Schedule
when earth and sky was first divided
President To Face Down Monster Attack, Own Demons In Action-Packed Schedule
when earth and sky was first divided
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Attention Metro
Judging by the number of people on the first bus into seattle, you might take the hint that some folks would like to get into town earlier. Maybe even before 5 am.
Train service that early would be nice, too.
'Go round and round-- all over town
Train service that early would be nice, too.
'Go round and round-- all over town
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
breaking news!
Asshat gives child controversial name and acts surprised by controversy.
Godwin's Law
no word on whether he has a little girlfriend named Eva.
it's appealing
Zero Punctuation - Waters of Knowledge mug design @ © SplitReason.com
Godwin's Law
no word on whether he has a little girlfriend named Eva.
it's appealing
Zero Punctuation - Waters of Knowledge mug design @ © SplitReason.com
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Mid-december flurry
Pond is definitely frozen out back, but it's not a foot deep in this part. Later I'll need to go see how the fountain is.
The good news is that that pic above is oriented the way i wanted it to be.
The better news is that there are a number of pages available of the Tao of Igor. Scroll down, hit next, repeat as necessary.. How sweet it tasted
i came close to using the bangles version
hold onto your hopes
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
how not to win at fantastic contraption:
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=4851544
Yeah, I've been playing a lot of contraption lately.
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=4851814 is a bit better.
beyond your latest ad campaign
Yeah, I've been playing a lot of contraption lately.
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=4851814 is a bit better.
beyond your latest ad campaign
Friday, December 5, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
tis the season..
Work in the support department has been slowing down enough to breathe a little. . May have another update later today.i demand a rematch
what the hell is with the blue band around his head?
[edit -- apparently i'm not as original as i thought i was]
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Whozits and whatsits aplenty
Greetings from my new computer!
It's put together, more or less. Assembled with blood, sweat, toil and tears.
Well, tears mostly.
Initial assembly happened a day or two ago. Case-- mobo -- cpu -- fan, plug in various thingies.
Shelved. Yesterday I put more parts together. Put the little backplate on (had to pull the motherboard to get it on there, and then push hard and screw in the mobo to put it in place.
Powered it on. There was a long beep, three short beeps, an unhappy sounding beep, and then the computer shut down.
I connected it to a monitor and tried again.
Apparently there were a few issues
-- cpu fan error
-- no keyboard detected (I knew that, I hadn't plugged on in yet)
-- usb unhappy (I don't remember the exact error message)
I disconnected the usb for the front of the pc from the mobo (I'm sorry, audience -- motherboard, the thing all the other components connect to)
No more 15-second shut-down, but warned of no OS. Understood, I need to connect a drive and install an OS. Probably ubuntu. I'm going to work hard at not putting any pirated software on here..
This brings me to today. Have time and resources to put in a cd rom (borrowed out of an old machine someone gave me, it would do until i could spend the meager amount of money for a SATA dvd burner.
Power on with keyboard, mouse, ubuntu install cd.. No luck. Kernel panic!
Screwed around with bios http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifoptions, pulled the video card, pulled one of the ramsticks, pulled the hard drive's connecting cable.. something was seriously unhappy.
I checked on the cpu fan error. I hadn't been too concerned about it because apparently there are going to be multiple places to plug in a cpu fan on a motherboard. If you don't put it on the right one, the BIOS (the OS of the motherboard itself) won't know the fan is working. It spun up, so I went into the BIOS option to ignore readings from the cpu fan.
I started testing with a windows install cd as well. BSOD every time the process got to "starting up windows" or something similar. It was consistent..
Grumble, growl, google, repeat. I finally tested unplugging the old cd rom drive and starting up, leaving the "unable to boot" message on the screen. 20 minutes later it was still there. I yanked out that cd drive, and removed the DVD-rom drive from my other PC and put it in.
Success! I was suddenly able to install. Everything works... well.
Outstanding problems --
1. CPU Fan Error -- The "right" connector on the motherboard, according to it's user guide, has four pins. The power plug fits three. That's why I put it on what is apparently intended for an extra chassis fan. I think I'll have to be calling some tech support folks, or googling it.
2. Front USB ports -- The plugs for these have been conveniently prebundled into a brick by the computer case's maker. However, the problem I'm having can apparently be caused when the case maker and the motherboard maker don't agree on what order they should be in. So I have to check the wires on the brick against the diagram in the user guide. A project for another day, I think
3. I was going to have the very clever arrangement of
Flatscreen monitor to "primary" slot on video card, old clunker monitor to secondary, through a KVM switch, which will also connect to other PC. That way I can switch back and forth on the old monitor between them, but have whatever screen is on the primary monitor stay. Somehow this arrangement upset my kvm switch, it started spastically jumping between them. Could be a coincidence, a byproduct of new connections it wasn't used to. Could even be that my new computer is supplying more power than the KVM switch would prefer. Either way, I may be going to a two-keyboard and mouse setup, or installing synergy.
4. I'm going to have to spend some time figuring out how to get games running on the linux build. Hopefully after christmas I'll have fallout3 and "the orange box", neither of which is likely to run on the old pc. Not sure if either will run happily in emulation on this box. I may have to dual-boot, or virtualize.
[edit] i now have a two-headed configuration with xinerama running (so I can throw an application from screen one to screen 2. the nvidia driver is working. couldn't load it with envy, had to use nvidia's own loader. Also it turns out I need to open a terminal session and run sudo nvidia-config, running it from the gui breaks because it doesn't have the right permissions. I tried editing the run command for nvidia-config by adding sudo, but that causes my computer to hang. Have to reboot as it sits waiting for a password on a terminal session which I can't access. Almost metaphysical, that is.
10 09 AM -- Restate my assumptions..
It's put together, more or less. Assembled with blood, sweat, toil and tears.
Well, tears mostly.
Initial assembly happened a day or two ago. Case-- mobo -- cpu -- fan, plug in various thingies.
Shelved. Yesterday I put more parts together. Put the little backplate on (had to pull the motherboard to get it on there, and then push hard and screw in the mobo to put it in place.
Powered it on. There was a long beep, three short beeps, an unhappy sounding beep, and then the computer shut down.
I connected it to a monitor and tried again.
Apparently there were a few issues
-- cpu fan error
-- no keyboard detected (I knew that, I hadn't plugged on in yet)
-- usb unhappy (I don't remember the exact error message)
I disconnected the usb for the front of the pc from the mobo (I'm sorry, audience -- motherboard, the thing all the other components connect to)
No more 15-second shut-down, but warned of no OS. Understood, I need to connect a drive and install an OS. Probably ubuntu. I'm going to work hard at not putting any pirated software on here..
This brings me to today. Have time and resources to put in a cd rom (borrowed out of an old machine someone gave me, it would do until i could spend the meager amount of money for a SATA dvd burner.
Power on with keyboard, mouse, ubuntu install cd.. No luck. Kernel panic!
Screwed around with bios http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifoptions, pulled the video card, pulled one of the ramsticks, pulled the hard drive's connecting cable.. something was seriously unhappy.
I checked on the cpu fan error. I hadn't been too concerned about it because apparently there are going to be multiple places to plug in a cpu fan on a motherboard. If you don't put it on the right one, the BIOS (the OS of the motherboard itself) won't know the fan is working. It spun up, so I went into the BIOS option to ignore readings from the cpu fan.
I started testing with a windows install cd as well. BSOD every time the process got to "starting up windows" or something similar. It was consistent..
Grumble, growl, google, repeat. I finally tested unplugging the old cd rom drive and starting up, leaving the "unable to boot" message on the screen. 20 minutes later it was still there. I yanked out that cd drive, and removed the DVD-rom drive from my other PC and put it in.
Success! I was suddenly able to install. Everything works... well.
Outstanding problems --
1. CPU Fan Error -- The "right" connector on the motherboard, according to it's user guide, has four pins. The power plug fits three. That's why I put it on what is apparently intended for an extra chassis fan. I think I'll have to be calling some tech support folks, or googling it.
2. Front USB ports -- The plugs for these have been conveniently prebundled into a brick by the computer case's maker. However, the problem I'm having can apparently be caused when the case maker and the motherboard maker don't agree on what order they should be in. So I have to check the wires on the brick against the diagram in the user guide. A project for another day, I think
3. I was going to have the very clever arrangement of
Flatscreen monitor to "primary" slot on video card, old clunker monitor to secondary, through a KVM switch, which will also connect to other PC. That way I can switch back and forth on the old monitor between them, but have whatever screen is on the primary monitor stay. Somehow this arrangement upset my kvm switch, it started spastically jumping between them. Could be a coincidence, a byproduct of new connections it wasn't used to. Could even be that my new computer is supplying more power than the KVM switch would prefer. Either way, I may be going to a two-keyboard and mouse setup, or installing synergy.
4. I'm going to have to spend some time figuring out how to get games running on the linux build. Hopefully after christmas I'll have fallout3 and "the orange box", neither of which is likely to run on the old pc. Not sure if either will run happily in emulation on this box. I may have to dual-boot, or virtualize.
[edit] i now have a two-headed configuration with xinerama running (so I can throw an application from screen one to screen 2. the nvidia driver is working. couldn't load it with envy, had to use nvidia's own loader. Also it turns out I need to open a terminal session and run sudo nvidia-config, running it from the gui breaks because it doesn't have the right permissions. I tried editing the run command for nvidia-config by adding sudo, but that causes my computer to hang. Have to reboot as it sits waiting for a password on a terminal session which I can't access. Almost metaphysical, that is.
10 09 AM -- Restate my assumptions..
Monday, November 17, 2008
It's hard work...
YouTube Contest Challenges Users To Make A 'Good' Video
i think it only applies to original content
we can make him not so tall
Sunday, November 16, 2008
not sick (or as sick) anymore...
have some thoughts, but they may wait a bit longer
sleepy now.
Isn't he a bit like you and me
have some thoughts, but they may wait a bit longer
sleepy now.
Isn't he a bit like you and me
Thursday, October 30, 2008
i'm hanging by a thread here..
This morning I had a weird moment of gnostic crisis as I passed by a leaf hanging from a spiderweb. At least, I perceived it that way. I couldn't actually see the thread, the leaf appeared to be floating in the air. It wasn't necessarily swaying in a way to imply that it was suspended, but maybe the line went down to the bottom.
As I didn't verify this, for all i know it could be held up by magic. I was tempted to go back and test this theory, but I was
a) in a hurry
b) unsure I wanted to dispel the illusion...
What does it say if I'm afraid to test whether something is really magic or not? I know spiderwebs exist, it doesn't bother me especially. Am I concerned about confronting myself with the idea that magic doesn't?
Should have taken a photo
I know this isn't a freaking novel. At least it's not more offsite links.
I can hold my head still
As I didn't verify this, for all i know it could be held up by magic. I was tempted to go back and test this theory, but I was
a) in a hurry
b) unsure I wanted to dispel the illusion...
What does it say if I'm afraid to test whether something is really magic or not? I know spiderwebs exist, it doesn't bother me especially. Am I concerned about confronting myself with the idea that magic doesn't?
Should have taken a photo
I know this isn't a freaking novel. At least it's not more offsite links.
I can hold my head still
Saturday, October 25, 2008
my new desktop image
Sorry for another link this morning
honestly i am planning on doing some writing this weekend.
isn't anyone noticing my blatant whitespace?
sweeter each season..
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