Cruftbox: My Box of Cruft

While going through the digital photos that have built up over the last few weeks, I found this gem.

When I was doing work on the girls computer I had to take the outer casing off. Mira decided to become the Kitty. She walked around a bit wearing the case, meowing the whole time. Unspeakably cute, I know.

It’s been a busy weekend. Friday was Brownies and then soccer practice. Saturday was a soccer game then a trip to my parents house. Sunday was a birthday party, a trip to the local fair, and dinner with the Diggs.
We had fun, but I am bushwhacked. After the kids went to bed I got a chance to watch the Sopranos. After that, I started watching Regarding Henry. I almost got sucked fully in, but pulled myself away.
Over the weekend, I d/led Mandrake 9.0 and got it installed on my old drive. It came up OK, but when I tried to upgrade the video drivers to the real Nvidia ones I screwed the entire X11 install to the point that the X server wouldn’t come up. I think I’ll stick to 8.2 until 9.0 gets a little more well supported.
More later…

From the Friday Five:
1. What size shoe do you wear?
9 1/2 or 10
2. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
8 or so pairs of shoes, 3 pairs of boots.
3. What type of shoe do you prefer (boots, sneakers, pumps, etc.)?
I think that a well made tennis shoe is most comfortable for day to day wear.
4. Describe your favorite pair of shoes. Why are they your favorite?
I like the tennis shoes from Simple Shoes. The do not have big logos or flashy colors. They are simple shoes that are well made and comfortable to wear. They remind me of the Vans shoes I used to wear as a kid. Too bad that Vans shoes these days are crappily made and styled for teenagers.
5. What’s the most you’ve spent on one pair of shoes?
$250, and yes, Michele made me do it.

I am sitting in Round Table Pizza. Thanks to a laptop & Sprint’s wireless net access, I am live on the net.
I headed out to pick up a new cell phone for Michele. Radio Shack had the model she want’s on sale for $99, that’s fifty bucks off the best price I could find on the net. The flyer said the deal was only valid until Friday, so I had to act to save the cash.
Since the last time we visited the Round Table pizza, the girls have wanted to return. The place has a video game section and since the girls are my progeny, they crave video games. They demanded that we eat out dinner at ‘the game place’ and I gave in.
I have a mug of beer, a nice salad, and i’m waiting for the pizza. The girls are playing games. Not a bad way to wait for dinner.
The Angels are playing the Yankees on the TV. I’m not really a big Angels fan, but I’d sure love them to smack the taste out of New York’s mouth and boot them out of the playoffs in the first round.
Check that, it’s San Francisco vs. Atlanta on TV. I hope SF loses.

After snoozing the alarm endless I awoke at 6:47AM.
Late. So very very late. School starts at 8:10AM.
Kids are eating breakfast now, I can’t rush that…
I need a loud alarm clock without a snooze button.

So I realized that I was coming up on weblog entry 400 a few days ago. Rather than be all dramatic about the number and going on navel gazing, I will simply do an update. Of course I may lose a few of you as I wander through my mind, but that’s tough for you. It all makes sense to me.
Michele left for her latest quilt event in Virginia on Tuesday. She’s there. I’m home with the girls. Coordinating the pickups and dropoffs is a little hectic, but I’m managing. The toughest part is when they get a little tired and cranky. Not much I can do when they say ‘I want Mommy!’ besides ‘I do too!’.
I finished reading my book, Fallen Dragon, by Peter Hamilton. I had checked it out of the library and renewed it once, so I felt the need to finish it soon. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Hamilton’s touch for hard sci-fi is light, but enough to keep my inner geek intrigued by the tech in the story. The end seemed a bit rushed like the Reality Dysfunction, but it wasn’t unsatisfactory.
On the home tech front, I finally fixed the audio problem with the girls’ computer. After doing quite a bit of messing about, I finally realized it was the BIOS. I d/led the latest version, flashed it, and viola, clean sound in all the girls games. The first rule of computer fixing has got to be ‘check for BIOS upgrade before freaking’. On my own computer, I broke down and got the l33t Western Digital 120G hard drive with 8MB cache. They are getting quite popular and have gone up in cost $20 in the last few days. I’m glad I bought Ghost & Partition Magc for cheap off of eBay. It was pretty straight forward to install, partition, and ghost the old drive onto the new drive. Of course I had to upgrade the BIOS. The old Epox 8HKA+ BIOS wouldn’t recognize the WD drive. I have to say, the speed of the drive is noticeable. SCSI elitists have nothing on me. Once I decide to buy the Romtec drive selector, I can get linux running at home. I must curb my techno lust.
On the political linkage front, thanks to Radio Free Blogistan, I found this interesting image on plasticbag.com. Hi-larious. It also seems that Bush’s Energy Cabal planned the takeover of Iraq even before he was president. Wake up America! Big Oil is running the country with moronic puppet sitting in the Oval Office. Lastly, the new term of the season is chicken-hawk. Vote these fuckers into a lame duck administration in November.
I found a new spoken word artist to listen too. Somehow I ended up in the site of Earnest Kline. He talks a little faster than I’d like, but the content is worth it. Take a listen to The Geek Wants Out. The insane thing is that I get every single reference in the clip. If you like his stuff, buy it. It’s only $10. We need more of this and less of that stupid shit on TV that sucks minds dry. The Dance, Monkey, Dance clip is fantastic too, but he doesn’t have that MP3 available online. I only regret he only has one CD.
Oldschool – I had found bash.org a while ago and enjoyed much of the humor that a long time IRC user would enjoy. I especially like this one. Of course my knowledge of the internet reminds me of my age. Today on Genmay I saw this:
Usenet?
Where can I go find the Usenet or the Usernet?
I heard it is a P2p program or a similar program where people download games or what not.
Do we need classes in net history?
OK, it’s 12:27AM and I need to be up with the girls in less thant six hours. More as I think of it.

The Sopranos is over and the dish washer is running.
Part of me wants to climb into bed and read my book, part of me wants to play games, part of me wants to file some paperwork, and part of me wants to write up the geocaching trip.
The girls will be awake in 7 & 1/2 hours… What to do, what to do?

We just finished a geocache with the Diggs. I am sitting in a park tapping on the laptop as the kids play on the equipment, I’m testing out the new Sprint PCS wireless internet connection and it rocks.
I was a huge pain to get working, but now it’s pretty good.
I think after the park, we will go have some ice cream.
Life is good.

It’s funny, ’cause it’s true.

I thought I’d do the Friday Five tonight.
1. What are your favorite ways to relax and unwind?
I like reading, playing games, and goofing around with the kids. Being outdoors is always a plus. The key to me being able to relax is some peace and quiet. If everything around me is loud and busy, I have trouble relaxing.
2. What do you do the moment you get home from work/school/errands?
I put down my briefcase, unload my phone, wallet, keys, etc. Then I talk to the girls and see how there are doing. Usually it’s time for dinner, then the girls bath, then putting them to bed and reading. By around 8:30 or so, I get some time to myself.
3. What are your favorite aromatherapeutic smells?
I don’t like a lot of smells. I do like a hint of vanilla, coconut, or mint. Anything too strong is irritating to me. Poor Michele, she can never wear much perfume or I complain.
4. Do you feel more relaxed with a group of friends or hanging out by yourself?
Hard to say. Some times I like the peace anf quiet of solitude, but having fun with friends cures much stress.
5. What is something that you feel is relaxing but most people don’t?
Playing videogames. Michele refers to it as ‘killing nazi’s’. When I play games, my mind is focused on doing well on the game and nothing else. My thoughts of work, money, and other stresses disappear for the moment and I am in the moment of the game. I don’t think Michele or the rest of my family understand the relief I get after playing games for a bit. They all want me to sleep. Sleep sucks. As Warren Zevon said, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”