- Hmmm. @woot has $149 Asus Eee PCs today. Tempting... #
- Made waffles and bacon for breakfast. Well, I cooked them. The pigs _made_ the bacon... #
- Land of the Lost marathon is on SciFi. Nothing like stop-motion dinosaurs and banjo music to start your Memorial Day celebration #
- Screw BBQ, we're getting pizza! #
- Happy #towelday everyone! #
- Rolling boost::format into my MUD codebase. I should have started with it... #
- I have a lot of work to do on my MySQL API wrapper class, too. Seriously, a lot of work. I nearly have to rewrite it. #
- Listening to Richard Bartle talk at Metaplace while I work #
- For some reason, the monkeys at Verizon have my phone line set up as a multi-line account. It's been this way for over 8 years #
- Now that I'm changing my DSL service, this is a problem. I've only ever had a single line there. #
- When I called in to get this fixed, the automated menu system hung up on me. This, friends, is my life. #
- Now it's a race to see if I can get my refrigerator before my faster DSL connection. Who will win? Stay tuned to find out! #
- Listening to Captain Bogg and Salty now. Pirate bands FTW! #
- On hold with Verizon for a good ten minutes now. No end in sight. #
- My Ubuntu install has no development environment
I don't know how anybody can _use_ Linux without g++ at the bare minimum. # - Had to build boost-jam so I could build boost. For some reason I can't find the right way to install it with apt-get #
- Aha! Just located it with Synaptic Package Manager. When in doubt, scour the menus... #
- Hey look at that, there's bjam, too. #
- Finally on the line with Verizon #
- And, of course, Verizon has no idea what I'm talking about. Perfect. I want to shoot someone right now #
- 1hr 03 min on phone with Verizon. Complete waste of my time. Nothing accomplished. #
- Checking out wxWidgets' code::blocks for the first time, it's good a nice feel to it! #
- Sweet, just got my iPhone mounted in Ubuntu, and sloppy focus is now working. At least something is going right today... #
- I'm sad. Copying files via USB at 880k/second, but my Internet connection at work goes over 1,200k/second. #
- Almost done rewriting my wrapper class for the MySQL C API. #
- Is the Doxygen website down? It's not loading for me. http://www.doxygen.org/ #doxygen #
- Oops, need LaTeX to build doxygen PDF. Totally forgot about that. I love Doxygen's HTML output, though. Nice and clean looking. #
- Two dialog boxes and about two dozen UI elements to hook up and I should be done with this program. I love coding in Qt! #
- Okay, okay. Borked my iPhone last night when I hooked it up to my Ubuntu test machine. Restoring original image now. #
- Filling the car with gas #
- Still can't get a straight answer on my Internet connection at home... #
- Jeff just brought me a Pepsi Max. He's my favorite person right now... #
- Just picked up my new refrigerator in Spokane. Awaiting a furniture dolly to move it up the stairs. Not going to manhandle this puppy up... #
- My new refrigerator: http://yfrog.com/17ku6wj #
- It's days like this I'm glad I built the house with 45" wide stairs. I can leave the rail on and still bring the fridge up no problem #
- Wondering where the heck my little brother is right now with that dolly #
- Don't know it in Japanese, but it should be similar to Chinese that I do know: ç¥å¦³ç”Ÿæ—¥å¿«æ¨‚! #
- Well I'm off to buy a 3x21 belt for my sander so I can cut down the lip of my wall cabinets. I knew this might be an issue. Need 1/8 inch... #
- Cabinet face has been planed down. Refrigerator now officially is installed. Ice is being made. Virgin Pina Coladas to follow shortly. #
- Tacos and burritos for dinner. Del Taco's Inferno sauce is just a bit too much for me. That, or I'm too gringo. Probably the latter. #
- Off to read and turn in early. Was up til 1am yesterday playing "Last Night On Earth the Zombie Game" It was epic. #
- Having trouble getting back to sleep after Lorien woke me up an hour ago when she got in bed #
- Wow, the sky is already lightening up. I forget how early this happens in summer around here #
- Going to try to get a little more sleep now #
- Purchasing computer parts today. Almost $7k worth... #
- Just lost another game of #Munchkin. I was still level 1! #
- Just ran across @woot error page: http://bit.ly/ZBTFu
/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx # - Not Without Robots #3wordsduringOverdrawnattheMemoryBank #
- Met some new Chinese friends yesterday. Got to speak Mandarin most if the night, which is more than I've spoken in about 8 years. #
- Eating a late breakfast. Or a late lunch, take your pick... #
- Picked up Munchkin Booty 2 Jump the Shark. More #munchkin goodness to commence shortly. #
- Been doing some more work on my MySQL wrapper for my MUD. Next step: updating file I/O to make better use of boost::filesystem #
Well our new fridge is looking pretty good. We had a heck of a time getting it in place, but it's totally been worth it. First off, my dad and I drove to Spokane to the Whirlpool rep to pick it up. Due to road construction and a GPS that was giving us bad information, we had a little trouble finding the place. Getting it back to Post Falls wasn't very hard, nor was getting it off the truck. My brother Wesley came over and helped.
The first challenge was getting it up the outside steps. Wesley picked up a furniture dolly and that problem was fixed right up. The next issue was the front door—the refrigerator wouldn't fit through my front door! We ended up having to take the doors off of it so it would fit in the house! Getting the fridge up the stairs was a piece of cake, though. When I had the house built, I made the stairs 48" wide. Even after you take off space for the drywall and the handrail, I still have plenty of room to walk the fridge right up. The only problem there was it weighed 350 pounds. But between the two of us (Wesley and I) we manhandled it up. When I hit the top of the stairs, he had to split, but I didn't need any more help. I put the doors back on and wheeled the fridge into place.
Right where I encountered the next obstacle. The wall cabinet above the refrigerator space has a faceplate that drops 1.5" down from the bottom of the cabinet. The refrigerator was 1/4" too tall, so I had to plane off some of the cabinet trim. No big deal, I actually ended up using a belt sander. It made a lot of dust. Finally, everything came together, and the fridge is in place.
It's a stainless steel Whirlpool Gold 25 cubic foot with french doors and a bottom drawer freezer and ice-maker. No water or ice dispenser in the door (I'm not a big fan of those, and neither is Lorien). It's super energy-efficient, it uses less energy than a 60-watt light bulb. This isn't the exact model we got, but it's real similar (the one we have has 1' larger fridge space and 1' smaller freezer).
It sure is nice to have a way to keep things cold again. Living nearly a month without a refrigerator wasn't a lot of fun. We ended up buying a lot of groceries today so we could start filling it up again. You can see a picture of my new fridge (on my driveway) here.
Wednesday night my youngest brother Wesley came over and we (he, Lorien, and I) played Last Night On Earth, The Zombie Game. Although it can be a 2-player game, I suspect it's a bit more playable with more than two people. It supports up to six.
This game is pretty incredible, it even comes with its own CD soundtrack! The game board is made of several pieces, four randomly chosen and one central piece, which introduces a nice variance to the game. There are always two sides to this game, the survivors and the zombies, with at least one player controlling each side.
The cards are very high quality, and real actors were photographed for the content. There are numerous (14) zombie pieces, and eight human pieces. There are many assorted counters and special tokens as well.
To help get the hang of the game, we started with the basic scenario, "Die, Zombies, Die!" The goal is to kill enough zombies before the sun sets. The combat sounded a little confusing at first, but it's really not very hard to learn. The tough part can be getting a weapon to help you kill the zombies. With luck, searching through an empty building will yield a useful weapon (like the chainsaw!), but not always.
Lorien and I managed to defeat Wesley's zombie horde with about two turns to spare before sundown. Having the basic game down made it easy to jump into the next scenario we chose, "Defend the Manor House." This time our goal was to stop nine zombies from entering the Manor House (it's on the back of the town center board) before it was too late. At one point, we nearly lost the game: there were eight zombies inside, and several more only a step away. Fortunately, the stranger Jake got some gasoline and a lighter and was able to torch six of the zombies, but unluckily, he was caught in the fire and killed. He died helping the rest of the survivors, and at least he got to have his "last night on Earth" (a Zombie card event) with Jenny the farm girl before his noble sacrifice.
In all, it was a really fun game, and I'm quite glad I have added it to my board game collection. If you can't find it at your friendly local game store, check out Flying Frog Productions' website and buy it online!
Today at lunch we played Munchkin Booty (Susan won). I would have won, had I not encountered a level 50 jellyfish!
I was at level 9 (you win when you hit level 10), so I would have won had I not got clobbered by cards.
In the fray were the following:
- Jellyfish, level 2. All bonuses count 2x on the Jellyfish
- Nelson's Blood. +5 bonus
- Demon Rum. +4 bonus
- Grenade. +3 bonus
- Navel Gunnery. Gives 2x modifier on all bonuses
Ergo, ((5+4+3)x2)x2 = 48, plus 2 for the Jellyfish's original rating. A level 50 Jellyfish! Holy Carp! See the evil hand here (insert obligatory crappy iPhone camera disclosure here).
Fortunately I rolled a 5 and ran away! Ha!
PS If you don't know about Munchkin, I highly recommend it as a great card game to play with friends.
I'm setting three goals this week:
- Get new refrigerator
- Upgrade DSL connection
- Don't die
Number three is just in case neither number one nor number two get accomplished, so at least I feel like I get something done this week…
It's official, I really like boost::format!
Forget all that old-school variable argument C-style code with the ellipsis(…), boost::format is where it's at!
Today is Memorial Day, and I'm grateful that so many people made so many sacrifices that I don't have to work today.
It is also Towel Day. Carry one with you.
42!
An old mission companion of mine is on page 102 of the current Ensign. Kevin Hsiung (Kuan-Yun) is a really cool guy. He lives in the LA area now, IIRC.
I've got a great recipe now for sourdough bread, and it's time to share it:
1 cup sourdough starter
3/4 cup lukewarm water
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3 cups flour (bread or all-purpose)
If you don't have a sourdough starter, ask a friend that does, or google for a recipe. I use the Giza Culture and have been very happy with it. I got it from my uncle. It can live in your refrigerator for months at a time without any care or attention. It's quite hard to kill.
Mix all ingredients together (use dough cycle if you have a bread machine). Put dough in a greased bowl, cover with a wet cloth, and let rise for 24 hours. Sourdough rises much slower than normal bread, at least mine sure does.
Punch down the dough and shape however you want. You can let the shaped dough rise again, or if you're impatient (like me) just cook it. I like to use a baking stone and cover it in cornmeal. Put the stone and a glass bowl full of water in the oven as you preheat it to 400° F. Take the stone out, sprinkle with the cornmeal, put your dough on it, and bake for 22-25 minutes. The humidity from the water will give the sourdough loaf a crisper crust. You can also wet the loaf or spray it with water.
- My sourdough is rising! Fear the dough! Going to let it continue until tomorrow morning #
- Sourdough has risen to a perfect size. Heating up the oven now. Can't wait! #
- The sourdough turned out AWESOME #
- Getting ready for work. Lorien is on Jury Duty this week #
- Just saw hippie-looking guy in truck with "keep the Earth green" bumper sticker throw his cigarette butt on the ground. FAIL! #
- The Cure's Inbetween Days #musicmonday #
- Hacking together some PHP code for Magento to enforce product requirements. #
- Just killed a yellowjacket in my boss' office. No, this isn't part of my job description. Yes, I still get to do it #
- Opened up a pack of 鳳梨酥 (pineapple cakes) I bought while in Seattle last week. Good noms from Taiwan! #
- Sounds of the Universe by Depeche Mode #musicmonday #
- Got one project offloaded from my TODO list. I wasn't even complaining about it. I'm certainly less likely to complain now though #
- Adding mutexes to my MySQL API wrapper to fix a nasty nested query bug #
- Holy cow. Can't type the word 'nest,' keep typing 'next' instead. Too much programming... #
- FAIL WHALE sighted! Where is Ahab when you need him?? #
- I love working with Qt Designer: http://www.qtsoftware.com/ #
- Might be moving a big dining room table tonight. #
- Overheard in the office today: "3am in the morning." As opposed to 3am in the afternoon?? #
- Filed complaint with FCC for a car warranty sales call on my cell phone. They didn't identify themselves and my car is still under warranty #
- Dreading going to work tomorrow. I've only been off work for 3 hours and I already don't want to go back #
- Just finished watching season finale of 24. Had trouble sleeping. It's going to be a long, long day. #
- Going to try to catch up on Doctor Who Podshock, I'm two episodes behind now #
- Setting t'gallant sails to make good time for Andrew at @sjgames. Gonna get me some silver! #
- Aw man! My Name is Earl got canceled! #
- Looks like wireless Internet is off the plate. I can, however, get 5Mb/768k DSL for under $40/month. I think that will do. #
- One of my biggest worries this week is now over. It's literally a ton of worry off my back... #
- Just heard a small child outside my office. Deploying feral wombat brigade. They're my first line of defense. #
- Reviewing Qwit code to see if I can locate the bug that doesn't let me load @rikkisimons last link at http://tr.im... #
- Submitted bug report to Qwit devs. This is really strange. Other tr.im URIs work fine... #
- Dang! 1hr 13min left on Podshock, 50 min left of official workday. No...More...Interruptions! #
- Just ate a peanut M&M without a peanut. How dare they! Every time this happens a kid with a peanut allergy dies. #
- Okay that was the last distraction #
- Had nice chat with Teq. She's one of the few really cool people around here #
- Helped move some couches, made it 10 minutes before my allergies really took hold. My life would be so different without hay fever... #
- Getting a much-needed haircut #
- Stupid iPhone's silent switch just broke off. Now, just like its fanboys, my iPhone won't STFU #
- Attempting repair with superglue and tweezers. This could get messy #
- Deciding which position I want it in if I glue it permanent by accident... #
- Holy cow I almost DID glue it permanently! One drop of superglue sure is a lot! #
- Waited as long as I could for Lorien to come home and have dinner, it's 10pm now. Frozen burritos FTW! #
- Really going to try to get through the last 30 minutes of Doctor Who Podshock podcast. Too many interruptions #
- Donating my 25th pint of blood right now #
- Played @sjgames Munchkin Cthulhu at lunch today, with Call of Cowthulhu expansion. It was awesome. Seriously craving a silver piece #
- Don't forget to stop by my blog sometime at http://bit.ly/scurvy #
- Installing OSX on a Dell Latitude D820 #
- Closing up shop. Going home. Or to dinner. I'm not sure. #
- Got my soaps from @geekyclean today! They are awesome, you really should buy some! #
- With a USB keyboard and a USB mouse, the Dell Latitude D820 is running MacOSX now #
- For some reason it doesn't see the laptop keyboard or touchpad #
- All caught up on podcasts. Time to switch back to regular music! #
- Allergy season is really picking up here. I hate having such bad hay fever. #
- Holy cow what a day! RT'd by @muskrat_john AND @michaeljnelson in the same day. I'm never washing this tweet again! #
- Well since my wife was out of town for our anniversary earlier this month (May 5th), we're going out for dinner tonight. #
- Just had Kobe beef burger for dinner. It was epic. #
- Father-in-law does not have #hamthrax it's just a regular flu bug #
- Got Oingo Boingo playing out the speakers, gonna get some work done today! #
- RT @thinkgeek: HA! Boston Police only tweet truth about zombie attacks: http://cli.gs/1h9yMu (via @kingloud + @duckgrossberg) 100% AWESOME in reply to thinkgeek #
- Had dinner at black angus. We both had chicken. Mine was on a Caesar salad. #
- Fed the fish, saw the rainbow. It only happens at just the right time of year AND morning http://yfrog.com/0uxrtj #
- Up since 6am, still haven't had breakfast. It's lunchtime now. Today's task: teach the wife how to use the lawnmower. #
- Hate the spring, hate the outsides. This is the worst time of year for us allergy sufferers. 5 minutes and I'm coughing like a 20-yr smoker #
- Trying out Moblin on a Dell Latitude D820. It's really slow. Can't imagine it on a netbook like the mini9... #
- Making a new sourdough loaf. T might be ready by tomorrow evening. Could be sooner though, it's really warm today. Lorien even got sunburned #
- IT might be ready that is #
- Just saw a commercial for Scientology. Weird. #
- Scientology: because aliens are more believable than God #
This is composed of 100% awesome:
See the full story here.
Yesterday I had a brush with fame. I posted the picture of the Naturally Occurring Mr. T and tweeted it on Twitter over to Michael J. Nelson (of MST3K and RiffTrax fame), who almost immediated re-tweeted it.
This is what happened:
Woohoo!
In the spirit of Naturally Occurring Torgo, I'd like to start a Naturally Occurring Mr. T thread.
I spotted this one last summer in Amsterdam:
Addendum: I swear I had no knowledge of this beforehand, but the day I posted this was the real Mr. T's birthday!
Normally I don't have a problem with Dell, they take pretty good care of me, and I get a good discount on hardware.
This, however, is an exception:
(Sorry for the poor quality, came from my iPhone again—its close-up photography is teh s uck)
Let me clarify this picture. Those 12 screws were $1.99 each. Anything that sticks out at all will stop the device from being inserted into the server. And of course you need four per hard drive. Seriously, is that really necessary? This is a lot of goodwill lost over a stupidly cheap part, guys.
I just donated my 25th pint of blood. This is the beginning of my fourth gallon donated. Woohoo!