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2005

12-14-04 9:28pm
Recently I have ordered new computers for all 3 in-laws. MIL, FIL and BIL. Just ordered DSL for MIL/FIL household, and a NAT router for the BIL cable connection. It is either a sign of the apocalypse, or a sign that I should be buying more Dell and Verizon stock.

Monday found me in an 'emergency' trip back down to Norfolk for the day. No planning, hopped in the truck and headed 3 hours south for a meeting with the Navy that went pretty well. In the truck longer than the meeting lasted! I hate all of my fellow drivers on Rt. 95 from NoVA through the Richmond area. WTF is wrong with you people? Cruising 60 in the left lane in a 65 zone where people generally go 75 will get you run over. And swerving to pass me on the left, narrowly missing a tractor trailer could get you shot.

The owner of ASAP sent me a nice letter in response to mine. He is working on the customer service issues I outlined. Seems like a nice guy and I know it is a small business where a word from the owner can make a difference. Unfortunately, that still means I won't have a driveway before the big snows this Winter. Too cold for asphalt now.

12-2-04 1:37pm
Hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving. I have just returned from a demo in Norfolk that went very well. I am building and rebuilding a series of Linux servers for the office which is keeping me busy at the moment. Not a lot else going on at work. This weekend we have two holiday parties scheduled for 4pm Saturday, so we can only make one of them. Two more the following weekend. 'tis the season.
11-23-04 3:15pm
Despite their promise to call me back, ASAP Paving left me hanging again. I am already contacting other companies with better customer service.
11-19-04 12:41am
Growing increasingly frustrated with ASAP Paving. I picked them to pave over the gravel driveway back at the beginning of October. It took over a week just to schedule an estimator who needed me home for the estimate. I left work to find that he got there early, did the estimate and left it in my mailbox. So much for the value of my time. I spent the next week trying to get a contract to sign, and the two weeks after that trying to get a call back to schedule the driveway paving. They finally schedule it for Friday (today) so I move a work trip to NY around, have someone go in my place, and take time off; then they call back and say another client (more important) has work for them to finish, and it will be after Thanksgiving before they can get to it. If they can't get it done by Wednesday, they can stick it. They may install a good product, but they have lousy customer service. I am finding that more and more with local contractors lately - from our pest control company that sent a rude, backtalking moron in place of the normal guy (later fired); to the chimney sweep that forgot to bring his 'special brush' to do the lint trap hose which we specially requested. You wonder about the homogenization of America by chain stores and mega corps? This is why.
11-3-04 12:58pm
Thanks for keeping it short Kerry. I welcome four more years. And Daschle? Got what he deserved. One for the record books. Now I can welcome my 32nd year on this earth in peace and at peace with friends and family.
11-3-04 9:19am
Stayed up until almost 1am watching election coverage, including the Daily Show of course. Things haven't changed much since we went to bed - Ohio is still in question, but it looks like provisional and absentee ballots would have to favor Kerry at a ridiculous rate for him to win. Bush had the highest popular vote EVAR!!1!1!!, surpassing even Reagan. Now I know W is no Reagan, but it is affirming just the same. Speaking of affirmation, the Kerry camp won't admit defeat until every last lawsuit can be filed.

"John Kerry and I have made a promise to the American people that with this election every vote would count and every vote would be counted. Tonight we are keeping our word and we will fight for every vote," Edwards, a North Carolina senator, said..

Just don't let it become another Florida, guys. The democratic populace is already rioting.

11-2-04 9:30am
I just voted at Buckhall fire station in Prince William. The R-Z line was around the room, but the whole process went fairly quickly. The lesbian couple in front of me were holding a Republican sample ballot which I borrowed to quickly scan my choices. As far as elections go, this was a fairly sparse ballot. I can only hope the Redskins omen was wrong this year.
10-28-04 12:35pm
Everyone ready for Halloween? Fark's You_mean_Im_gonna_stay_this_color sure is with this Kerry spoof. I am thinking of putting Kerry's face on my giant inflatable Frankenstein, but I don't want to confuse the neighbors into thinking I support him. The joke might not be obvious to them - the two look too much alike. Last night we caught the eclipse. It wasn't very dramatic, as the DC area has been plagued with clouds and rain for a while. Speaking of plagues, the long mounds in my front and back yard would seem to indicate that we have moles or gophers. Yeah! Just what we wanted. If I see one, I have a 12ga gift for it. The pest control guy has a gift of his own.
10-26-04 12:48pm
I have 6 GMAIL invites if anyone wants them. Just email me your information using the contact link above.
10-17-04 8:06pm
We had a good trip to see the Amish in Lancaster, the fires in Centralia and the wines of Pennsylvania. Centralia was quite creepy. Not many houses left at all, and not much to see besides the open fissures and sulfurous smoke. Enjoy the slideshow.
10-15-04 1:06pm
Headed to Amish country and Centralia, PA tomorrow. Will return with lots of trips and short movies. Leaves should be at their peak.
10-12-04 2:28pm
Enjoyed the Columbus Day holiday yesterday. Spent the day building a deck side log rack for the horrible Winter ahead. My old one was put into service along side two large racks for the Spring deliveries of chopped and stacked wood. Still working on getting the driveway paving estimates. Two companies flaked out and the third is very slow to schedule.

I have been watching all of the debates so far. I think Kerry held his ground a little better in the first debate. His recall of specific names and figures was much better in the micro than Bush's macro. The second debate went much better for Bush, except for his Kennedy and Internets slip ups. Focusing on the content, Bush won the second debate. The VP debate was clearly a loss for Edwards. I only wish the issue of his trial lawyer past raising the cost of health care had been focused on more clearly.

Think you know how to drive well? This guy is incredible.

9-27-04 9:32am
Rafting was pretty good but not great this year. The raft guide we had was a little too safe and secure, didn't want to surf rapids, and only flipped our raft once on the Upper Gauley. Thats fine for a group that wants to be safe and secure, but compare it with our trip last year where we flipped out 12 times, one guy stuck in a hydraulic for almost a minute. WooHoo! Trevor and I were doing the trip on just under two hours of sleep thanks to the asses at the campsite nearest ours. Radio blaring, drunk girls screaming - not in a good way. Argh. Now I am off to New York and Rhode Island for an install and demo. The install will be my first tower antenna site. Should be entertaining.
9-20-04 9:43am
I am happy to see that CBS can admit when they are wrong. Even if it does take a while to come about. Wild winds from Ivan brought a number of tornadoes to the DC area Friday. We had one land less than a mile from the house, skirting a new Shoppers Food Warehouse and tearing up trees and fences. We went to the gym and the skies were ominous. The gym was empty. Because of Ivan, we were forced to cancel our Gauley rafting trip for this weekend, and raincheck it to next weekend. The rafting company didn't seem concerned that torrential downpours and 35mph winds might affect our camping and rafting experience. Feh.
9-17-04 3:13pm
Now I hear Dan is considering that there might be some question to the documents. CBS : Can't Be Sure.
9-13-04 10:49am
Why won't Dan Rather admit that the documents might be forged? Is it because he has some personal stake in this? He has left all theoretical journalistic neutrality behind. I say theoretical, because Rather is one more advancement for the liberal press. I shouldn't really use Rather and journalism in the same line though - these days he is just another talking head playing to an audience that likes to see a familiar face.

The Assault Weapons Ban expired today, thankfully it went quietly. I half expected a Million Moron March to protest its demise. This was a useless ban that did nothing but mock its own ability to keep weapons off the streets. When guns are illegal, only criminals will have them.

9-11-04 9:19am
Three years ago 4 airplanes crashed in the Eastern US, piloted by Muslim terrorists. I remember the morning clearly, and the disbelief as the second airplane hit the WTC. Don't ever forget the lengths your enemy will go to hurt you.

Along the same lines, the DNC and CBS have apparently worked together to forge some documents regarding President Bush. In an effort at critical thinking, I re-typed one of the documents in MS Word. If you dot it with a pencil a few times and run it through a copier, you have an exact match. See for yourself - I made a zip file with the Word document, its PDF output and the original forgery, plus screencaps on the forgery and MS Word versions. When you overlay them in Photoshop, you get an exact match.

John "Waffle House-Fonda" Kerry has no platform other than to attack Bush's record; and that is no platform at all. Current polls - 51-46 Bush. No whining in November this election liberals.

9-10-04 10:45pm
Tonight, work began on re-tiling my master shower. All is well so far, now that I have killed the mold behind the broken grout line. Tomorrow we are thinking about the Alexandria craft festival, then over to DC for 9-11 remembrance.
9-2-04 1:49pm
Several fellow employees have headed down to Florida to support emergency response efforts after the Hurricane Frances hits. I am left here nearly alone in the office to support them from Reston, VA. Good luck guys!

I have finished Rhonda's bathroom tile renovation as well as the garage floor painting. A couple more days before we can load the garage getting the car in out of the driveway. Next project : my shower.

8-27-04 3:50pm
The new garage door was installed today by Stoneberger Door Service and we are quite happy with the results. This weekend the cement floor gets a new paint job and the bathrooms get re-grouted. Home maintenance time. Now I am off to finish mowing the yard and cleaning the garage. 'Vacation' day.
8-18-04 4:49pm
Before you take the time to put your crayons down and send me a politically motivated hate email, take the time to realize that I could care less about your opinion. Unless you are family or a friend that is. Then I'll be happy to crack open a beer and argue the negative aspects of modern liberalism until the cows come home.
7-26-04 1:27am
I am back in Northern Virginia. I added a USB extension to the home pencam so you can actually see one of the two dogs in the basement. Give it a click <-----. Looking forward to catching up on office work in the morning, if I can ever get to sleep tonight. Had the opportunity to work with some new VPN technology in Florida, and I have a bit of remote troubleshooting to do so that everything will work easy-greasy.
7-22-04 11:35pm
I am in Tampa on an install. Spent the day on a 60 foot 'man lift' enjoying the sun in Florida. We must be about a mile from the sun. I'm fried.
7-6-04 1:32pm
July 4th went well. Unfortunately it rained quite a bit while I was cooking at the grill, so everyone had to scurry inside. The rain sucked all of the humidity out of the air and made it a generally enjoyable evening. We had a little fireworks show with dozens of full scale mortars and rockets. One fell over and launched into the Accord, leaving a nice door ding before sailing over our heads and exploding. Have to have some danger on the 4th. Speaking of danger, Geisha ate a plate of snacks with toothpicks in them. So far so good, but she may be making another trip to the vet this week if they don't pass.

This morning I headed to a local locksmith - Baldinos. For $20 they tried to fix my VFR seat lock but were unsuccessful. I had them drill it out so I can at least operate the seat. I never use the helmet lock down there anyway.

7-1-04 3:19pm
If you live in Northern Virginia, steer clear of B&A Power Wash. They did a half ass cleaning job the first time around, then refused to fix it or refund it. I'm getting tired of vendors that do bad work and don't stand behind their product.
6-30-04 9:16am
On a yacht in Norfolk, VA yesterday and today. Working on a satellite / wi-fi demo system, calibrating GPS and magnetic variation. Sound like fun? Mostly I am just surfing and reading email while watching ping times. Today it is raining and the AC is maxed out on the yacht. I am freezing.
6-18-04 10:15am
Major rains last night damaged the damn dam. Other people weren't as lucky nearby.
6-17-04 11:46am
I can't find my VFR keys. We have torn the house apart. To get a new key cut, I have to disassemble the triple tree which isn't easy. I can't get the ignition off without the tree coming off, so I'd prefer to find the keys. Last seen on my tank while adding a fuse in my 12v adapter on Friday. Prepped for ride Sunday - keys are gone. Sigh.

We planned a demo in Florida for Tuesday which was just canceled. Good thing - we were going to have to DRIVE from VA to FL again. 12 hour ride each way is a PITA.

If you find my keys, drop by the 4th of July BBQ and return them to me. You'll get an extra big steak and hot dog.

6-14-04 3:19pm
Spent the weekend cutting limbs off of various Bradford Pear trees to keep them from self destructing in bad weather. Along the way I lost my VFR keys. Tonight I'll dump the trash out in the garage and pick through it before giving up and having new keys cut. This sucks.
6-6-04 7:18pm
Have returned from North Carolina and a week at Carolina beach. Highlights involved not getting my email, not answering the phone and lying in the sun. Lots of driving, but a good quiet beach with a reasonable number of restaurants and activities in the general vicinity. Home now with the dogs who were grateful to get away from puppy prison. Actually, it is a farm style vacation home for dogs, so they probably didn't want to come home at all.

On the national scene, I was upset to hear of Reagan's death. Due to his condition, it is probably for the best, but just the same we have lost a great leader. He was my first real president - Carter doesn't count. Just because you make a decent life after you lost a re-election landslide, doesn't mean you were worth a damn in office, Carter. Reagan reinvented the Republican party as well as America. I only hope our dawn is as bright as you thought it would be.

I was also saddened to see Smarty Jones lose the triple crown on Saturday evening. I left dinner to hit the closest bar with a television only to see him unable to make the length. Great race. Were there riots when he lost? Seems like there are riots after every win and loss lately. Mostly spoiled college kids tired after a long day of protesting the world bank (what a noble socio-economic cause?) or chanting 'no war for oil' from the seats of their SUVs.

5-21-04 9:22am
Had my first cicada strike on the motorcycle this morning. I was only going about 20 when he hit me in the shoulder. At that speed, I barely felt it. Unfortunately the little guy exploded all over my jacket. I feel a little bad for the squids this season. Not a lot, just a little. They'll have bug guts covering their favorite shorts and tank tops as they wheelie between stopped cars on the highway.

Speaking of idiot drivers, if you live or drive in Fairfax County, you have this resource available for reporting the drivers to the police. The offender will get a letter in the mail. Hopefully next time they get pulled over, the cop doesn't let them off with a warning.

5-12-04 1:22pm
The Civic and Toyota Hybrids are only averaging 33MPG. I get 38 on my vfr! Suckers....

I am feeling better and better about the coming election. Even Democrats are starting to flee Kerry's side. Bush may not win by a landslide, but he will surely win a second term (as he did the first time around).

5-11-04 3:53pm
About an hour ago, some 'Muslim extremists' posted a video showing them beheading an American contractor named Nick Berg in Iraq. When will a Muslim leader stand up and denounce this behavior? Or will the 'torture' of Iraqi prisoners by American forces overshadow this hideous murder? When you go to vote in November, remember that there are millions of 'Muslim extremists' that want nothing more than to do the same to all Americans that was done to Nick Berg. This isn't because of Afghanistan or Iraq. It goes back decades, and will likely continue.
5-10-04 11:20am
This is one of many things wrong with Unions. Thankfully, Virginia is a right to work state, as every state should be. And you wonder why jobs are flowing over seas?

Camping this weekend was perfect. Nice hike, beautiful weather, thick steaks and cold beers. No Cicadas in sight, but I heard a few.

5-6-04 11:17am
Lots going on lately. But not a lot I can talk about. I will mention that I have the Windows and linux versions of gnupg (PGP) running on my systems now. I was having trouble with the old PGP paid versions, and I always prefer open source. My key is available over on the tech portion of the site.

Getting ready for vacation in a couple of weeks. Dogs have their shots, as do I. I need a vacation. Now.

4-16-04 9:58am
This may end up being one of the biggest announcements of the year, if not the decade. An electric motor that runs 80% more efficiently than similar designs, runs quiet, and runs cool. Imagine all of the applications. Hybrid vehicles that can travel 1000 miles on 6 car batteries and friction electric generation. Water dam hydro generation increases. Amazing.
4-15-04 2:29pm
Lots of news lately about families of fallen soldiers unhappy with the war, etc, etc. Funny how no one complained when they were making decent cash as a weekend warrior in the National Guard. I'm fairly sure that everyone who went through basic training knew they might be called to go to war. That is a simple fact of the military. I have compassion for the US soldiers killed so far (close to 700 in over a year) but nothing but revulsion for those calling for their own children to go AWOL. When the going gets tough, the tough don't get running off to Canada, Mexico or Spain. They suck it up and serve their country. Were it my child, I would have no problem sending them off to war in Iraq. I would hope for their safe return, and blame only the enemy should they not return.

I had lunch with a friend last week, and we started talking about how parents are sitting with their kids at bus stops until the bus comes. It wasn't so long ago that I rode a bus to school (late 80s) and I can tell you it was a rare occasion that my parents held my hand at the bus stop. We toughed it out with umbrellas or in the cold or in the heat. Its part of life, and a symbol of just how wussy the latest generation is (or at least how overprotective their parents are). My friend's comment was that in his generation, his parents would smack him for whining. My generation was ignored when complaining. But Generation XL seems to get whatever they want without repercussion. How does this relate to military service? I'm all for the mandatory draft. Toughen them up to the real world, and maybe some can make a career in defense. Do you think if that happened, we would have spoiled brats rioting on college campuses when their team wins or loses a game? Kids may be kids, but not when they are legally adults.

Oh - and Bin Laden wants to offer Europe a truce and not the US? Thats fine. The US doesn't want a truce, we want to see his head on a pike. Eventually North Korea's Kim Jong Il may join him and Saddam. The dove approach was tried. It still has a focus, in reuniting the countries the hawks need to tear apart right now.

4-8-04 1:39pm
Rice testified today and did an excellent job. It is unfortunate that some of her interviewers were so left leaning they couldn't stand to let her make her point. Just the same she did a great job. In the end, no one could have prevented 9-11 without specific knowledge of the hijackers' plans. Blaming Bush for 9-11 is the equivalent of giving Clinton credit for the tech sector bubble. There were likely failures in the intelligence sectors that left dots unconnected. But trying to find a fall guy isn't going to make 9-11 not have happened. All we can do is fix the problems and move on. Go Bush '04.
4-8-04 9:41am
Back from North Carolina. Trip went well, but I still have my cold from last week. Can't hear out of my left ear, still waiting for it to pop. Round trip was a little over 800 miles from NoVA to the outer banks, southern coast and back. All business of course. Now that I am back, I have a bunch of projects to catch up on. Last night I repaired a crack in the canoe with a fiberglass kit. Tonight I'll sand it smooth. This weekend I have a lot of yard work to do, but it looks like mother nature won't be cooperating. Rain, rain, rain in the forecast.
3-28-04 4:39pm
spring brings bright colors
frogs and geese are noisy now
my allergies suck.

my ears are stuffed full
cotton behind my eye lids
benadryl napping.

vacation coming
a trip to the beach for us
no pollen i hope.

3-28-04 4:13pm
CCNA Bootcamp went pretty well. Cisco requires you to know some fairly arbitrary information for the exam, but 80% of it is useful information. The class was well taught in a bizarre 70s Xerox training facility in Loudoun County, VA near Leesburg. Apparently Xerox used to do their worldwide training there, then opened it up to the public when they didn't need to do quite as much training. The included food was good, but the required parking shuttle was annoying. As was the room numbering system, organized also by gaudy 70s color schemes (Orange, Yellow, etc). Felt like I was back in my 70s built High School. I plan on passing the CCNA exam later this week after I get back into the swing of work. The 8am to 8pm schedule of the boot camp threw me out of norm.

It is Sunday afternoon. Saturday I spent the day removing the front wheel on the VFR and swapping on a new front tire using a manual tire changer. When I got the bike back together, the front end felt loose. Today a DC Cycles list member came over to troubleshoot. He felt the bead was seated properly, but the front end felt loose. As it turns out, the rear tire had lost 20lbs due to a slow leak, and was causing the front end to feel loose. A few pounds of air and the problem is fixed. Next weekend, hear the saga of the new rear tire, sprocket and chain!

3-19-04 3:33pm
No more updates for a while, as I'll be in class. I knew I'd have class one day. So let me sum up a few items I have found here and there. First - I am no big fan of PETA, except when it comes to undercover animal welfare investigations. For example, this one at Iams, a popular pet food supplier. People that work in animal laboratories like that one make me sick. I understand that animals need to be used for testing products, and I accept that when it is done humanely.

Next - Spain. I feel bad for them. Al Qaeda hit them with a terrorist attack just before their general election, and the populace voted to go French and back down. Now that the terrorists have influenced one government to pull out of Iraq, there will be no end to their demands. And to those that think there is no Iraq - terrorist link ... well this one is pretty obvious.

Finally, I'm sick of smokers tossing butts out of their car windows along with any other garbage they happen to have in their vehicle. WTF is wrong with you people?

3-16-04 1:09pm
It is fairly miserable outside today. Rain, cold and cloudy. The local radio station is playing Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Nap time. To keep awake, I have added a number of new tutorials to the tech section of the website. I even located and posted the old and very popular Linux Guides.
3-15-04 3:24pm
Series of files have been moved due to high bandwidth linkers. Mostly images in forums and motorcycle videos. I just change the name unless they are persistent. Some of you may find these independent site stats interesting. They say my traffic is going down, but it is actually going up. That is based on their users with an Alexa toolbar. Not sure what kind of statistical significance they have with the likes of Google around.

I'm still waiting on my motorcycle parts from AZ Moto. New Honda grips were holding up the order, and they didn't bother to let me know. Order is now 15 days old. Fortunately, I ordered new tires from another dealership. Get to break in the Harbor Freight tire changer this weekend. Speaking of home projects, I finally started hanging the new office drywall last night. If the rain stays away, I'll pick up the rest of the drywall this week and have it done before April. Maybe.

Headed to the CCNA Boot camp next week in Leesburg. The commute is going to suck. Rt. 28 North in the morning is ridiculous, and I don't have much of an alternate route from Manassas. If any of you Northern Virginia visitors have any tips for heading that direction, please let me know!

3-4-04 1:59pm
It has been a while since the last update. Lots of things going on. Some asshat tried to break into the house a couple of days ago. Ripped the screen on one of our basement windows and pushed in the burglar bar. Fortunately ADT came to the rescue and called me at work. The PWC Police were somewhat apathetic about it and didn't write up a report. Possibly to keep their crime statistics low, I don't know. Anyway, he didn't make it into the house. Had he, two dogs were waiting for him. Swing back at night some time tough guy, a well armed citizen awaits.

I have been riding quite a bit lately. The weather is just incredible - high 50s to low 70s and a little bit of rain here and there. Perfect motorcycle weather. For some reason my patched rear tire started leaking last week, so I ordered a new set. Now the leak has re-sealed. At least I'll have the tires waiting for when I am ready.

On to political news. Kerry was picked to lead the Democrats to failure in November. I'm all for it. His shoddy record and ultra-liberal views put him in the same class as our good buddies Mondale and Dukakis. Both spectacular failures on their own. Do you realize Kerry advocates reasoning with terrorists while traveling around the world apologizing to everyone for the way the US behaved? Terrorists don't just hate Bush, they hate the United States. Remember the WTC bombing in 1993 under Bubba Clinton's watch? They hated him and us too. New England Democrats just don't hold up well on the National stage. Even when they can carry their own state. Now Bush haters are pissed off about the new campaign ads with a little under 1 second of 9-11 footage. Knee jerk reactions indicate this was a tasteless act. But should we ignore that it happened at all? It defined this Presidential term and every major policy decision in the last two years. Do you think showing a flag flying at WTC ground zero is inappropriate? Did it remind you of the strength Bush called upon and reacted with? It should. And be thankful Mr. Gore was not in the White House when the planes came down that day.

2-15-04 9:48am
Finally bought a hitch yesterday and installed it, along with the replacement tail light Rhonda's brother ordered for me. The old one melted somewhat in the fire. Doh! Speaking of fire, we ran a nice hot fireplace fire last night for the first time since the house fire. I hung a digital thermometer 2' in front of the blower fan and it got up to 141F. We turn off the heat pump and turn on the house fan and the heat distributes nicely. I am very happy we don't have gas heat in this house. Friends and family using natural gas are paying $4-500 to heat their <3000 square foot homes PLUS $200 electric bills. Our electric has been hovering around $300 in the cold months, which in retrospect is not that bad.

Speaking of heating up - Pakistan's nuclear proliferation hasn't gotten the news it deserved. Now look at the new nuclear age we have entered. Abdul Qadeer Khan's network has sold nuke secrets to Libya and North Korea. The secrets likely came from our always faithful friend China. The Pakistanis won't prosecute this bastard. He may now be the single most dangerous man in history. Time will tell. We already know nuclear technology has made it to North Korea (another stable country with a sane leader, eh?). Unfortunately, I don't think this is going to be another cold war. It will likely end up very, very, very hot. Liberals will continue to believe Bush was being over dramatic and that the war didn't make sense. But faced with the future of nuclear proliferation throughout the unstable middle-east and southern Asia, would you prefer to have a dove or a hawk? Go Bush 2004.

2-10-04 1:06pm
Happy Birthday Rhonda! 29 again?

Got some big news last night - a promotion to A.V.P. of TeleLand (a division of Wheat Wireless. It means a lot of responsibility, more money, and all the things that go along with responsibility and money.

Today it got up to 50, so I rode in again. Morning ice is treacherous, but it kept the ride interesting. Sand is beginning to drift in the corners. Eventually it should harden, then I can bank into the turns and gain speed on the sand dunes ;-)

2-9-04 2:01pm
I checked on the status of our TiVo at Sony today. On the phone originally they said the whole process would take a week and a half including shipping. The website says the repair itself would take 10 business days. Who is lying about the repair time here? We are learning once again that regular non-DVR TV sucks, and that there is nothing on when we want to watch it.

Spotted this excellent picture of George Bush on Drudge. Go Bush 2004.

2-9-04 10:48am
Saturday morning Rhonda's mom took her out to lunch and shopping while I installed new front door lamps, cycled the generator to keep it fresh, and charged up the VFR's batteries so I could ride to work today. Great day to work outside - sun was warm and the wind was cold.

Rhonda's surprise party went off smoothly Saturday night. She didn't have a clue our friends were waiting for her at Carmellos. Mwahahaha. Besides a lovely and expensive dinner, she collected a huge bundle of loot she was quite happy with.

Sunday was a good day to veg out and watch the Aliens box set. This set has 4 movies and NINE DVDs. To tell you the truth, I'll never watch the bonus DVDs. I like the letterbox director's cut version of the movie, but none of the other crap really matters to me. In the future - just put out the basic movie and shave $30 off the box set price.

2-6-04 4:33pm
Its the end of another long week. Looks like I'll be off in a CCNA course sometime next month. I already provide extensive Cisco support, but at this point I'd like to have the piece of paper. In a few weeks, I will likely be in the Bahamas for a wireless project with the government. Couldn't pick a better time to go - an inch of frozen slush is waiting for me on the roads for my drive home.
1-30-04 2:22pm
I played Quake for the first time in a couple of years last night. A quick deathmatch with 2 Reaper Bots. I used to have everything set up perfectly, with GL Quakeworld humming nicely. Now some of my configs are damaged, and I forget half of the commands I need to type to get things running. I plan on watching some old Clan CWO Quake demo files this weekend, as well as some piggybacks of the infamous Thresh. Seems I did nothing BUT quake in the late 90s. Do I still have some mAd SkiLLz? We'll see - when [CWO] The Wookie matches [CWO] Guts 'n Glory. I'd better get to practicing...
1-27-04 12:05pm
Red Hat is really frustrating me. I have an expansive network filled with RH9 Linux systems. Last year I convinced the owners to go with the RHN (Red Hat Network) which, similar to the Windows Update service, provides automagic updates and system management through a central web interface. As everyone has probably heard, Red Hat discontinued its free Red Hat 9 software in favor of its overpriced Enterprise software. Now I must switch to the new Fedora project if I want to maintain similar system structures .. or an alternate, less supported linux such as SuSe or Debian. These linux distros are each strong in their own way, but I really appreciated the time savings the RHN offered. Patches for the assorted services I run come out very frequently. Every time they do, I have to SSH into 16+ systems and apply a manual patch. If I am out of town at the time, a service may go unpatched for a few days, and that is all it takes to get cracked. Believe me. RHN checks for updates every two hours and applies the patches automatically...keeping the network safe. We pay $100 a system for this, and it is well worth it. But Red Hat got greedy and opted to discontinue this service for the standard RH9 distro in April. Back to manual updates.

If Red Hat had thought about it, they stood to make a ton of money by continuing to support RH9 through RHN. I would have continued to pay for the upgrades through the end of the product life cycle. Instead, I am a bitter user looking to get the red monkey off of my back. I'll probably wind up using debian and apt-get as a workaround, but it isn't quite the same. Eventually RH will likely flounder due to this decision. And they'll be taking the value of my RHCE with them.

1-26-04 9:41am
Its a snow day. GMU is closed and I am working from home. I'm not sure exactly how much snow we have - 6-8" I suppose. A car has spun out in the ditch across from our house. Not sure how that happened, but I assume the road is very slick.

Saturday night we went to the GMU-JMU game where Mason won 74 to 70. Close game all night. No rioting that I saw - but it seems college campuses burn down the dorms every time a big game happens.

This guy in the Netherlands keeps pounding one of my client systems - almost half a million packets last year blocked at the firewall. In exchange, I decided to add this little image pull from his server to get even. Hopefully his ISP will eventually respond to my complaints and shut him down.

1-23-04 10:45am
Not sure what to say here today. Everyone keeps saying how fortunate we were that the fire wasn't worse; then offering their own story of similar events. I don't feel particularly fortunate.

The temp was hovering around 10F this morning with a rise to 28F sometime this afternoon. I'd like to start up the fireplace, but with tarps in place of siding, I'd rather not risk them melting so close to the fireplace.

(totally unrelated) : Why do people throw crap out of their car windows? My commute took me through an area park this morning, with trash bags, empty pallets and a mattress flung on the side of the road. What kind of lazy bastard dumps his trash off on the side of the road instead of the dump? Hell, just take it to a company's dumpster. I'd rather see it illegally dumped in a proper location than a park.

1-20-04 11:39pm
This evening our outdoor trash can caught fire. Fortunately a neighbor (name unknown) came and notified us just as we noticed smoke in the living room. We were able to put out the immediate threat with a fire extinguisher and buckets of water. The Buckhall fire department arrived to remove the siding and tear out burning wallboard. The smoke spread to the basement, but fortunately the fire was contained to the exterior. There was no serious structural damage, no water damage (besides basement and exterior insulation), and only minor smoke throughout the home. We are shaken but not too badly.

The fire was started with day old fireplace ashes that were cool to the touch. They had been in the AAA can for about three hours before the blaze erupted. I hate to think what would have happened if we had not been in the room adjacent to the fire origin. In the future I will be using a metal ash can to store the ashes for several weeks before disposing of them. Something we should all consider with the long cold winter ahead.

Pictures of the damage are available here

Looking at an earlier blahg comment, it seems ironic that I was so happy with the fire on Monday.

1-20-04 11:02am
From the pages of the truly bizarre we have 3D implants. The same people getting these things are picking up 100 tacos for the Dr. Who marathon.

It was a nice weekend. We had a cord of wood delivered and burned 20 sticks on Monday alone. After moving some gravel around in the yard, the rest of the day was spent reading and toasting by the fire. Ahhhhhh.

1-6-04 11:43am
A driver fell asleep in Iowa and ran over 3 motorcyclists last year. The jury just found this driver not guilty of homicide. When will people start accepting that their decisions are their own responsibility?

On an unrelated note, I have implemented secure email using SSL via stunnel and sendmail/pop3. No big deal to get running last year, but I suddenly came to realize that stunnel shows up as localhost, and my sendmail relays any email coming from localhost - effectively creating an open relay for spammers. Fortunately it was not exploited. My solution so far is to require smtp AUTH and disable localhost relay by default. If any sendmail gurus out there are interested in this issue and want to contact me, feel free.

In other news, I am freezing. It was 15F this morning with a wind chill of -1F. Last week it was 6F when I woke up. For reference, it rarely gets much below 20F around here in the winter, and we all have heat pumps.

1-12-04 1:11pm
I just ate a terrible tuna salad sandwich at Safeway. Actually, I didn't eat it, I threw it out. Salty. The buffalo wings were tasty though. Mmmmm.

I just found out that May 25th is zero hour for the return of the 17 year cicada. That is our wedding anniversary. The crickets and frogs at that time of the year are enough to drive you crazy. Can't wait for the cicadas.

1-12-04 11:33am
Saturday we made our way to Hooters, then the 2004 Cycle World International bike show. I have plenty of pictures if you are interested. I will say that we got a good free parking spot near the Washington Convention Center. Too bad it was 6 degrees outside, and we completely froze just getting to the restaurant. Sunday was fun as well, with a trip to the new local luxury theater to see Monster and really enjoyed it. It was a fairly dark and depressing movie starring Charlize Theron and Christini Ricci - both offering up stellar acting. Check it out.
1-6-04 10:51am
You people need to buy more of my stuff to suport the site. If you don't want to buy stuff, you can always make a small donation using Pay Pal! Or, you can just continue to visit and enjoy the free Internet while it lasts.
1-4-04 4:09pm
Found a local shop selling used Playstation games yesterday. Wound up killing the day playing Crash Racing, Jet Moto 3 and Parappa the Rappa. The last one is quite addicting. If you haven't played it before, click on the screenshot.
1-1-04 9:57am
Dinner in old town Clifton last night was nice. Followed by a relaxed evening at home (unplanned). This morning I posted the images from the DC Auto Show and ran them through igal for local indexing. Pretty quick and easy compared to my old method of Photoshopping them into size and manually indexing (or not at all!).


Blahg Archive: 2003