And so, scarcely a year and a half after getting dragged kicking and screaming into the '90s, I've already broken into the 2000s.


Mostly I got it for the size, although getting an MP3 player in roundabout fashion didn't hurt either. Crazy lady at the Verizon kiosk in the Lima Mall tried her darnedest to talk me out of it, all I can figure is they run on commission and the Juke was only available online. And then the website shipped it next-day. Free next-day shipping on a free phone. I can handle that.

Got about $350 left on my student loans, that'll be paid off in February. Thank goodness.

Finally got my Windows Update working again, turns out I was somehow missing a keyful of entries in the registry that disabled communication. Still trying to figure out how that happened.

(Or: The Blog In Which I Use Too Many Acronyms)

So I got the bright idea to install SP3 for XP today, mostly just hoping against hope that it would clear up my KB892130 bug. No dice. Completely fubar'd my D-Link software too -- can't even uninstall it -- but now Windows is controlling the connection just fine. I swear, wireless is a more potent evil than the Devil himself. I'd complain more, but at least restarting WCZ was an easy fix and I remembered my insane WPA key first try.

Fiery Habanero Doritos. In a word: yes. Always thought it was habañero since I pronounce it that way, but for once Wikipedia has denied me. Anywho, these things are actually spicy. I can't just plow through them like the other flavors.

I've gotten so far out of the blogging habit that it's unreal. And I don't mean the FPS. In fact, video game-wise I'm back to Diablo 2:LOD. Oh yeah, POTCO went out the window, after a while it just gets too repetitive. You would think that eight years of D2 would get repetitive as well, but there's always something new to try. Not always viable, but new nonetheless.

Complaints go in the box below.
[]
Please write legibly.

Always check online before buying electronics, particularly accessories. A 6' HDMI cable costs $35 at Wal-Mart. It's $14 on Newegg, including shipping.

In other news, connecting an HDTV to your cable box via coax (and a splittered coax at that...) just doesn't do it justice. Better than our ready-to-die CRT, to be sure, but still.

In other other news, this is why I was bitching about building an entertainment center last post, the old one wasn't big enough. (This one just barely is.) Three-and-a-half hour assembly time my ass. Maybe if you have a room the size of a hangar, a powered screwdriver, absolutely no life, and the help of Santa's elves -- *maybe* you could swing 3½ hours. But it's done. I don't think I've sworn so much since I hooked up my stereo to my computer.

Oh, and speaking of dying CRTs, Pattie's computer monitor went out as well. Joy.

So back in the mid-'80s, our computer was a Tandy 1000 HX. A lot of stuff on it may have been bare-bones, but one thing it did have was a kick-arse (for the time, anyways) 3-voice sound card. And we had Thexder, an incredibly fun (and incredibly difficult) platform game. For whatever reason, they opted for classical music in the intro and credits, and thus my first exposure to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

Fast-forward twenty years, and that's what we're playing when Pattie walks down the aisle. How many people can honestly say they had video game music at their wedding ceremony?

Few things are better than instant hot chocolate mixed with instant coffee. I'd imagine instant hot chocolate mixed with expresso is one of them, but that's not instant and we already had hot water.

So anyways, a while back I'd complained about being in a holding pattern. To say the least, that's no longer the case.

• I've changed my permanent address for the first time since 1990, and it's no longer the same as mom's.
• I no longer work at OfficeMax -- actually, have I ever mentioned I worked there? I know I've regaled y'all with copy center stories....
• As of 16 April, Pattie and I are officially engaged. ♥
• We went to Toronto again this year, lots of fun but not as many pictures. They actually got me up on le Tour CN this year, which is where I gave Pattie the ring.
• Getting my computer set up was a PITA. More specifically, the stereo and the wireless were PsITA, the computer itself went fine. This wasn't really new for me, but Pattie says I swore more those two days than she's heard me in the previous nine years. Translation: She wasn't around when I was trying to set up wireless with the LinkSYS hardware.

And I'm spent.

As promised, here is the ring. Since it took me over thirty minutes to deliver, these pics are coming at you free of charge.





In other news, I finally got ambitious enough last night to figure out how to make my computer suspend, since the button for it on the keyboard doesn't work. Not that I really missed it here at home -- I'd just let the computer power up while I was cleaning clutter off the keyboard, mouse and chair -- but it'll be nice once I take the beast to Pattie's.

Snow in April. Duh-duh-dun-DUN-dun, I'm lovin' it.

And here, rearing its ugly head, is that LJ meme where you take the first sentence from the first entry of each month and pretend it's something meaningful. I dislike hard-boiled eggs.

Enero: First entry of the new year, and I've changed the style of my LJ again.
Febrero: I don't get heartburn.
Marzo: I am currently browsing teh intarweb with German Earthtrout.
Abril: ...and, after taking mom's computer apart, I can officially say I'm not allergic to the stuff.
Mayo: Or: "The chickens are comin' home to roost, Bobby Boucher."
Junio: Yet one more reason to love winter.
Julio: So, yuuhidokka says I must list seven songs I've been listening to a lot, or the zebra gets it.
Agosto: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America
Septiembre: We've been having intermittent trouble with our DSL for, what, a few weeks now?
Octubre: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca.
Noviembre: Seems like it rains every time I vote.
Diciembre: For some, it's schedules and PDAs.

I've written a lot less about food this year, probably because I've fallen out of the habit of going to Stites and picking up oddities. I should get back into the habit, those were always fun to write up. Also, less about wireless networking -- and the shiny new D-Link router seems to be rocksteady (Bebop unavailable for comment), so hopefully that's a subject I'm done with for a while. May Linksys fall on its face with its hands in its pockets.

Aside from a few events here at year's end (the car debacle and going out with Pattie), this year I really seemed to be in a holding pattern. I realize the whole "may you live in interesting times" thing is more of a left-handed curse, but really, I was boring this year.

For being a lifelong gamer, I don't write about games much either. I really should resubscribe to EGM. Even when I wasn't in the market for a game it was always a blast to read, and since I let it lapse a few years ago -- well, more like several now -- I've gotten further out of the gaming loop. (I honestly think my only game purchase this year was Gran Turismo 4.) Sure, I realize all the same information is available online for free, but not in one place and not as well-done. Or at least, that was the case several years ago. I should probably grab an issue first (at newsstand price, eww) just to make sure it hasn't gone down the crapper.

It's my birthday in 7 minutes. Yay 29!

We've been having intermittent trouble with our DSL for, what, a few weeks now? First up, they upgraded our service, sent us a new modem and sent a tech to make sure the outside lines were okay. That got us up-and-running for a few days, then the off-again-on-again started up again.

Next they sent a tech that was supposed to check the inside wiring. But Stupid McClusterfuck came at 1:30 when the appointment was 3-5, and since no one was home he closed out the job ticket saying nothing was wrong.

So I called and bitched, and finally today they sent out a real tech. And it turns out there was too much wire between our house and the ISP to support the upgraded service, so there was no inside work to do -- he called back, said they removed several thousand feet of wire by rerouting us, and he'd call back tomorrow to make sure it was working okay.

Stuff doesn't load anymore. It's like flipping the channel on the television.

I like this.

I've always wanted a website of my own. I just have no idea what the hell I'd even do with it.

Not to mention that, while I more-or-less understand the basics of HTML, there are few things I wouldn't rather be doing -- with one of those few being "creating an ugly-ass Geoshitties page".

If my page were going to be ugly, I'd want it to be my ugly, not "choosing the least-offensive premade layout" ugly.

I'm sure freeware exists to help with this, but I'd prolly want to have some idea for my website before I spent time looking for it.

Other criteria:
• A real domain. No one wants to see "www.whatwasyahwehthinkingwhenheletmeregisterthisdomain.com/ohnothisgetsevenlonger/redbeardneo1141".
• Free, or at least very cheap, ad-free hosting. This obviously wouldn't be a money-making venture, and money doesn't grow on trees.
• Something more interactive than just "zOMG teh GU35TB00K!!1!", which prolly makes the preceding point just about impossible (seeing as most free forums look even worse than Geoshitties).
• People to look at it, which makes the impossible even more so. Bandwidth doesn't grow on trees any more than money does.

Yeesh...why'd I want a website again?

---

On an almost-unrelated note, before "someone" asks, this is how you do lists. And yes, I do have to look at that every time I make one.

I made black bean tuna chili for lunch. Nummy. Then mom turns around and makes chili for supper. I R T3H B34N M4N!!1!

In other news, it turns out I may not hate wireless networking so much as I just hate Linksys. My wireless card died on me today -- reinstalled drivers, switched PCI slots, nuttin'. So this time I got a D-Link instead, and while I haven't tested it too much, so far it seems to be rock-steady. (Bebop was unavailable for comment.) Time shall tell, I suppose.

...and, after taking mom's computer apart, I can officially say I'm not allergic to the stuff. Still don't like the high-pitched whine her HDD is making though.

So she turns on the computer this morning to find herself in a lovely crash-to-reboot cycle. When I looked at it after work (I know not having the computer all day drove her nuts), not even safe mode would boot up. We dug it out (literally), finding all manner of interesting stuff in the process (including my strategy guide to the original Diablo, and a copy of McAfee touting itself as "year 2000 compliant"), and I stuck it in my computer to see if I could salvage data.

At this point, let me say I'm very glad I bought different IDE cables for my computer. I had to use the master-slave cable that came with the motherboard, and that thing was crap. Got the job done, but refolding that thing took more effort than it was worth.

And in the end, salvage wasn't necessary. Ran CHKDSK and defragged it, and aside from the whine it's good as new.

Lima Memorial Hospital used to put on a Follies show. Amateur comedy, but pretty funny stuff. Well, mom has season tickets to the civic center's "Broadway in Lima." And silly me, I thought, "hey, LMH Follies -- comedy. Will Rogers Follies -- this oughtta be a hoot."

Hot damn, that's one shitty-ass musical. Mom said it wasn't even good for a musical, we left halfway through.

Oh, and "I Hate Wireless Networking, Part Eleventy-Billion." For the longest time, I haven't been able to play Diablo 2 more than about 20 minutes without getting booted, and I blamed it on Blizzard 'cause they're the suck. Got Guild Wars and wasn't able to play it more than about 20 minutes without getting booted, and I blamed it on ArenaNET, which is largely made up of ex-Blizzard employees, and Blizzard is the suck. So Shadowbane stopped charging a monthly fee (it's now 100% free), so I downloaded it, and I wasn't able to play it more than about 20 minutes without getting booted, and as UbiSoft is no relation to Blizzard, I finally had to assume it was something on my end.

So I hit Google looking for anyone else having wireless gaming trouble, and one suggestion was to disable the Windows connection agent and re-enable the Linksys software. So I did, and voilá, I can now game again. Silly wireless.

I am currently browsing teh intarweb with German Earthtrout.

=D

If you're using Firefox 1.5, http://h1.ripway.com/Peng/xpi/?firesomething-1.7.0-mv16a1 (copy-and-paste, clicking doesn't work for some reason) will update the Firesomething extension to work. Arseome.

In other news, I have invented the word "arseome." I have no idea why.

So, the trip to Toronto is now official. I'll have to practice saying "eh" and calling people "hosers" so I can look even more like a redneck tourist. Well not really... Pattie wants to drag us to a Hard Rock Café -- I'll be brutally murdered when I get home, my sister's life ambition is to go to a Hard Rock.

In the pain that never ends, I got hit with wireless networking woes -- again -- when Mike wanted me to network his laptop with Pattie's printer. Moral of the story: Don't forget to reconfigure ZoneAlarm. Pain in my ass.

Southern Comfort, red Sunny D, and lime juice make a tasty drink. I highly recommend it.

Oh, and if you want to see what happens when an Easter egg vomits on MySpace, click here.

I think I hated Cher's song "Believe" when it came out just because it was so overplayed. Heard it on the Muzak at work the other day, it's actually not a bad song.

Alright, time to get advice from my venerated friends list.

Finally getting around to putting my CDs on my computer, partly for ease of access and partly because the CD medium isn't turning out to be as durable as they said it was when they first came out. Although knowing the difference between the acrylic layer and the dye layer makes a difference. But I digress. Been using WMPv9 (AKA "t3h debbil") to do the transfer, and at the better bitrates it's eating the balls out of my HDD -- which I expected, pretty simple math. Then I got to looking at what I have available to burn with. Nero makes no mention of what bitrate it burns at, but WMPv9 maxes at 128 kbps, so it seems a lot of bitrate is wasted.

So, my questions are: What bitrate and format should I be using for my music, assuming I'll be burning it back to CD at some point? Is WMPv9 what I should use for the ripping, and WMPv9 or Nero for the burning; or is there another freeware program I should use for either/both?

So, last week sometime, our DSL starts crapping out on us. Usually I can get it fixed, but this time it was no-go. So, I call Sprint-Earthlink tech support. My first thought is, "Wow, an American doing tech support." My next thought is, "Yeah, but someone in India could have told me to reset the modem and call back if it does it again." Which, 12 hours later, it invariably did.

Lather, rinse, repeat. For five. Whole. Days.

Early on, I surmised our modem was going bad, but as soon as you say "no connection" these people go into auto-pilot. Apparently, there are magical phrases of power that one must say to get help. "No connection" is a failed spell, dooming the caster to the Hell of resetting the modem. AGAIN. "Could our modem be going bad?" is the mystic rune carved upon the very living rock of their psyche. Almost before the words left my mouth, they checked the lines from their end, sent a tech to check the lines on our end, and left a new modem. Aaand...problem solved.

I'd almost say I should go work for their tech support, but I doubt they'd want someone actually trying to fix problems instead of following a flowchart. News flash: You can train a monkey to read a flowchart. You can train a bipolar brain-damaged toddler on ritalin and Jolt Cola to read a fucking flowchart. If that's all your techies are gonna do, don't bother -- just SEND US THE FLOWCHART when we sign up. Oh, and don't even think about pawning me off onto LinkSys tech support when I can still network the computers together and resetting the modem gets BOTH computers connected, 'cause the router obviously ain't the problem.

And now for something completely different -- the complete 14-DVD set of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Mi madre has been spending quite a bit of money on my sister of late -- which I don't really care about, she's got a house and all so she needs the help (new refrigerator, new fence, etc.), plus she actually collects stuff (Fenton glass, to be exact) whereas I'm usually more of the raccoon persuasion.

"Ooh, shiny."

ANYwho, mom's on eBay looking at Fenton stuff, and asks me (at the time I thought jokingly) what she should look up for me. Knowing her love for British humor (i.e. zero), I said "Monty Python" and waited for the groan. Instead I get...the TV series box set? I was like, "But it's not even Christmas or anything." But, she insisted, and proceeded to remind me how much she'd spent on my sister lately. Which, like I said, wasn't an issue with me, but if she's gonna justify it that hardcore, hey, she must really want me to have it, so I accepted and was thankful. And there was much rejoicing. Yay.

:D

I am: -7% Republican.

"You're a damn Commie! Where's Tailgunner Joe when we need him?"

Are You A Republican?


In other news, don't install the newest update for the "User Agent Switcher" Firefox extension. It totally fubar'd my Firefox, I had to delete everything. It wouldn't even uninstall, I had to kill it manually. Not happy times. Of course, I don't think I ever actually used that extension, so bye bye.

So, today was an adventure. My friends and I went on a road trip to Columbus to see the Titanic exhibit at COSI. I'm of two minds on the subject -- it was a horrible tragedy, yet I'm the one who went around with a shirt saying "The boat sank, get over it" when the movie was so popular. I think some people take it a little too seriously.

But first things first, and first was a new culinary experience. Ribbon and friends go to White Castle for the first time. (Told you we were deprived in NW Ohio.) I had four of the jalapeño cheeseburgers sans onion and a Barq's red cream soda -- good stuff. Cheap, too. We should get one of those here.

Anyways, on to COSI. We got there at quarter 'til noon for the 12:30 walkthrough, and were immediately glad we were early. They were having computer problems, and by the time we left the line was, well, titanic. (The irony of computer problems at the Center Of Science and Industry wasn't lost on me, either.)

The exhibit itself was pretty interesting, what got my attention was the mock-ups of some of the rooms. The main stairway was sweet, while the third-class accomodations showed a second world on the same boat. (The lady dressed up as a third-class peasant was incredibly fekking hot, but that's another story.) At the beginning of the walkthrough we were given boarding passes -- I pulled J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of White Star Line -- and at the end was a guest book, which many people signed in character. I couldn't resist, the title of this entry is actually what I wrote.

And now for something completely the same -- I bloody well hate wireless networking. My connection crapped out terminally, so I uninstalled and reinstalled my wireless card. It's now connecting just fine -- through the Linksys utility, instead of through XP. It's the devil's magic that this stuff works at all, I swear it is.

Yeesh.

Yesterday I had a horrific vision of what my mother's computer would look like if I didn't take care of it.

My friend Mike occasionally talks about running an antivirus scan, so I figured he had antivirus software. Of course, that wasn't the case -- he just ran a web-based scan once in a while. So I download avast! for him, and it's so full of viruses that I literally had to scan it twice to get them all. Grand total: 50 viruses, mostly trojans of various sorts. I'm surprised his computer didn't asplode.

Next up, I downloaded Ad-Aware on his computer. And thought THAT was gonna asplode. Watching the scan was, for a few minutes, more fun than playing Madden 2005, as we took guesses on where it would finally end up. It would level off for a few minutes, then kick back into roughly mach 4. Grand total: 1025 pieces of spyware. That is not a typo: one thousand twenty-five pieces of spyware.

After that, I figured a better firewall than just SP2 standard issue might be in order. Yeah. Somebody has his number: in a half-hour, ZoneAlarm logged 378 unauthorized access attempts. For comparison, I installed ZA when I first built this computer just before Christmas. Number of access attempts blocked: two. I can't wait to see the total next time I'm over there.

Edit: Was talking to Mike on IM earlier. ZA's total 24 hours later: 5044 blocked access attempts. That is just insane.

'Tis a success. I'm typing as fast as I ever did (which isn't fast, for someone who's been using computers for, what, 17 years?), provided I'm not looking for Z. And the one thing I thought would be a problem -- switching between my computer and mom's -- really hasn't been.

Aside from that, chorizo tacos (damn Z again), and ocular spiders, nothing new here.