Blog-O-AlericB

Dead Netbook

2011-11-15T17:47:00.001-06:00

My netbook has gone to a different place. That place being my closet, as I ponder what to do with the dead thing. It's over a year old, has never been dropped, and has never really seen heavy use, but it fails to power on, yes, even when plugged in.

Technical support was no help. I know it is out of warranty, but I thought they might know some way to jump start it besides the power button. They suggested I reinstall the OS. Which from my experience would require the device to power on. Then they sent me an email asking me how to rate support. Which I tried, but their server seemed to be having an issue contacting their database AFTER I filled out my survey.

I guess my expectations were a bit high. My old laptop, which is again in use, is quite in the elderly stage of laptop life. I've gone into the details on it's quirks and issues in the past, and it's not gotten any better. But, it boots up and runs when I hit the power button.

For the most part my heavy old laptop, or my Android e-book reader/tablet doesn't measure up to the netbook. So, for the time I'm going to have to do without, a new device isn't in the budget. Or so I keep telling myself as I shop for laptops.

Usual Morning

2011-11-11T08:21:00.001-06:00

Going through the usual motions of getting the children for school I said to my son, J-Rex "Do you have your shoes on yet?"

To which he replied with indignant tones, "No, I've only got one sock!"

I had already mocked his solo sock several times this morning, but it was apparent that I must increase the mocking.

I said to Mopsie "Point at your brothers one sock, and laugh."

At which she pointed and loudly brought forth a sharp and giggly "Hahahah!"

I realize now that I must not use this super power for evil.

Either way I still had to instruct my son on where to find a pair of socks to wear, and he was yet again surprised by this knowledge.

Curse Your Inevitable... Wait, what?

2011-07-15T17:53:00.003-05:00

One Saturday morning as the family heads to my sons weekly soccer game my son spoke up.

“Do you member the one time you had the girl in the car?” He asked.

Now for the uninitiated in the language of a J-Rex, member in this case actually means remember, and girl means any female which is probably bi-pedal.

My wife asks “What are you talking about?” and I get the look. For those not familiar with the look it is somewhere between “how have you wronged me” and “why have you not burst into flames yet?”

Now, the only girl, according to my son's definition, who rides in my Jeep would be Mopsie, the sister of J-Rex or my wife. I am without a doubt stumped, and while I might have said something similar to my wife, I might have just made stupid sounds, after all I was getting the look.

“You know, the one who tells you what to do!” J-Rex then said in his exasperated tone.

I'm pretty sure I said “Whaaaa...???” never quite getting the T on that word. The look from my wife intensifies. I'm trying to think of what he could be talking about and I'm coming up with nothing, while trying to not look guilty for something I didn't do. Which might explain my inability to finish words.

My son still exasperated added “Member? You wore helmets!”

Now I'm certain something isn't right, I have never wore a helmet in the Jeep. Never had a reason to. Then it dawns on me what he is talking about and all becomes clear.

“Are you talking about a video game?” I ask him, to which replies “Yes” in a tone which implies that it was obvious.

Looks like using the female co-driver in Dirt 2 might be a bad idea.

Impromptu Game Review: Desktop Dungeons

2011-03-04T18:22:00.004-06:00

Netbooks, much like their competition, are very limited in resources. That can be a challenge when trying to find a good time waster. Though, honestly it isn’t much of a challenge. My netbook will play many old games without issue, which suits me as I like to play some classics from time to time. I’ve also found a few new games my netbook has no issue with, such as Torchlight, Defense Grid, and World of Goo. Never the less, I still like to keep and eye out for something else to play.

The latest game to beat my battery into submission is a game called Desktop Dungeons. It’s a old school top down dungeon crawler. Constantly teasing you to beat the level, and often just getting you close enough to retire or die. Each level is fairly short, but that didn’t stop me from trying again and again. I will beat the gorgon boss, maybe this time before I get battery warnings.

I could talk more about it, but you can download it faster.

Desktop Dungeons

Blog Webs

2011-02-24T21:18:00.001-06:00

Amazingly enough, moving didn't kill me. Though I did almost collapse in a convenience store. We've been moved for quite some time now. I've not visited Azeroth since before we moved, and my commute time has easily been cut in half. So why does my blog have cobwebs? Honestly, I've not made any time for it.

It's about time I did something about that. What have I made time for? Well, I've caught up on some gaming I missed out on due to only playing an MMO and I've played a few MMO betas. My desktop is mostly new, though I do wish I had stuck with my usual building rule. Though, the system doesn't disappoint. Might could overclock it higher though...

So, I'm thinking I need to update more. Wonder if I can do weekly.

Moving, Recycling, etc.

2010-07-25T20:55:00.002-05:00

It is official, I’m moving. The house is sold in all ways but the papers signed. Now the task of getting my stuff out of the house. Also, need to get everyone Else's stuff out too. The garage is a particularly big task, luckily it is almost finished. Nearly eight years of ”Where should I put this, oh lets put it in the garage.” has made the garage our storage area for everything. Especially my cache of obsolete computer parts.

I’ve found that Best Buy does have a use, they recycle monitors. Which I have too many old broken CRTs that I never knew what to do with. They charge $10.00 an item but then they give you a $10.00 gift card. Ironically, if you give them say 2 items, they give you 2 $10.00 cards as opposed to single $20.00 card. So, for recycling they give you 2 pieces of plastic as opposed to one.

I’ve also been recycling old computer cases, or trying to. Most of the plastic is a 6, which no one in this town accepts for recycling. The front of a case comes off quite easily once you don’t care how many pieces it comes off in. Also a good hit with a hammer will permanently keep the side of a case on without screws.

So at the dump I’m trying to toss a 6U server case made thick enough to hold the 30” case up while being held into place by only the two ears on the front when the guy tells me just to throw it with the trash, they don’t want those in the recycling with the washers and the lawn mowers. So, I do what he says. Feeling like I wasted my time pulling the plastic off, except it was a great stress reliever. Guess I should just recycle the whole computer at Best Buy next time.

Oh well, back to packing.

Five Years Ago

2010-04-12T21:36:00.002-05:00

Five years ago I became a father. Though, my son has never called me that. He never seemed to like the title, so I settle for Daddy. It's better than poopy head, which I have been called and at which point he gets in trouble and I'm soon known as Sorry Daddy for awhile.

Unlike my daughter, my son was reluctant to enter this world. I can't say I blame him as my wife and I were about as ready to be parents as we could be. Which would be cautiously, reluctantly ready on my part, and ready to get the baby out on my wife's part.

The biggest shocker for me was that the doctor had convinced me that the arrival of my son was scheduled, and I believed it. He had a due date, and that was when he would arrive. End of story. Somewhere in the middle I realized that no one had informed my son of his due date and he wasn't likely to follow something he had never been told.

Then his due date came, and went, and nothing happened.

The doctor then decided when my son would be born, and we were back on a schedule. We arrived at the hospital at the appointed time, soon after that my wife was induced, and several hours later, while helping hold my wife's leg, my son came screaming into this world elbow first. My wife only gave the death ray stare once, and that was to a nurse. Amazingly, the nurse survived.

I was handed my son and I grinned like an idiot who had no idea what he was doing, the reason being that I was an idiot who had no idea what I was doing. They asked me if I wanted to help with his first bath and I said that I would. I figured it would be a good idea to have someone show my how to clean him, since I wasn't sure how to.

We were escorted around the hospital to the nursery, through a bunch of doors that said hospital staff only. It was cool, I was with the nurse. We got to the room and they gave my son a shot and some water in a plastic syringe, my son didn't like either. The shot returned a scream and he choked on the water. I freaked out and the nurse simply corrected the problem with a nose sucker, AKA a bulb syringe. After the freak out the nurse ushered me out of the room and I was relieved that my son was going to be in the hands of professionals and not me, AKA the freaked out idiot.

I then had a new problem to deal with. I couldn't find my wife. I retraced my steps to a door that said hospital staff only. Which I would have proceeded through, but I it was a one way door. So I wandered through the hospital until I found the delivery room. Which had no one in it.

Soon another nurse came in and escorted me to my wife, who was understandably tired. Not too long after they brought my son back, and he proved he could drink from a bottle with no problems. I was very relieved.

The first six weeks were rough, but it seems the rest of the years have gone by too fast. Happy Birthday J-Rex!

The Great Laptop Search

2010-02-27T10:13:00.002-06:00

When I shop for laptops I use a rather simple formula. It is usually the cheapest one that will do what I need it to that isn't a brand I dislike. The graphics card is of big importance. Processor not so much, as laptop CPUs are typically neutered in some way or another for the reasons of power efficiency or price point. It is funny because there are times when the lower end laptop processors run faster than their high end cousins due to the high end ones constantly down clocking to save power. Which isn't always a bad thing. Enough memory is important too, and I tend to just figure if the hard drive is bigger than my current laptop it will get the job done.

I don't have illusions that laptops are as fast and capable as desktops, I tend think of them as companions to a larger system, but they have their uses.

So when I originally looked for laptops for my wife I was looking for one that was comparable to her desktop in performance, but nothing that would out perform it. I had found what I thought would work online and took my wife to Best Buy to take a look a similar model. That was where I found the flaw in my formula as my wife pointed out she liked the way a Toshiba looked and that it had a numeric keypad.

Appearance? I didn't take that into account. I should know better than that by now. To continue my naivety I kept on the hunt, only to be brought to the realization that the Toshiba wasn't excessively priced or a bad computer. It took longer than that sentence might suggest.

Eventually I picked out a nice mid-range Toshiba of the model she liked, only to finally get her a much higher end one due to graphics card options. End result, it out performs her desktop. CPU? The i7 easily dispatches her Phenom. GPU? Faster and more RAM. RAM? Twice as much and twice as fast. Ditto that for the hard drive. Envious? Only a little. It does out perform my desktop in some ways.

The Aesthetic Value of a Laptop

2010-02-20T10:43:00.003-06:00

For numerous reasons my lovely wife and I are going to put our house on the market and move closer to our places of employment. Spending less time in the vehicle is an important reason, along with putting less gasoline into said vehicle. There is also the inconvenience of how far away we live from the daycare and the kid's pediatrician that we seem to visit too often. Not quite on first name basis with the doctor, but we are getting there. There is also this upcoming Kindergarten thing fast approaching and we will have trouble making that work at our current residence.

We had put the house on the market last year, but it was not long before we decided to take it off and wait. One of the things we learned was the house should not look cluttered as that tends to make rooms look smaller and less appealing to anything but severe agoraphobics, but not agoraphobics with OCD. So in getting ready we moved my wife's computer back into the bedroom freeing up some space in the living room. Now the living room is where my wife likes to reside, whereas I happily reside where ever you put my computer. Though over the years my wife has picked up my nasty habit of staring at a computer screen too much, but for some odd reason she likes to be around me. The end result is that I'm sitting where I was before, and my wife is sitting on the sofa using my old laptop.

Now, I can't be too harsh to the old laptop as it has survived quite well over the four years I've owned it. It has hit the ground from a carrying height about four times, once landing on the USB port in the back and sheering off the mouse cable that was plugged into that port. That would explain the cracks and extra openings in the case. It has taken a short bath in apple juice my son spilled on the keyboard. The delete and home key still stick and only give reluctantly. A few years back the DVD drive gave up on reading CDs, and it only reads a DVD for about 30-40 minutes. About once a year I have to disassemble it down to the CPU and replace the thermal paste when the fan begins to wail angrily at all times. Last time I forgot to run the temperature sensor over the heatsink properly and it resulted in random over heating and shut downs until I figured it out. Those are some of the bigger problems. Though, all in all, it has aged well. It is still very good for browsing the internet for the most part. Can even do some minor gaming.

I can't help but think that my wife deserves something better than my abused old laptop. She has confessed her frustration with the machine, but mostly while playing World of Warcraft when the machine goes deep into swap, which is about any time you load up World of Warcraft. My opinion is that she deserves better, so I've been laptop shopping.

Now, since she plays WoW occasionally those low voltage integrated graphics will not cut it, not that they ever do except for those bizarre Microsoft Office fan boys. So the list of affordable laptops shortens dramatically. Now we just have to find the right laptop.

I Do Not Like Fruit

2009-11-20T17:32:00.002-06:00

It would be easy to come to the conclusion that I do not like Macs, of course that wouldn't be true. It is hard to properly dislike something one has not used for any meaningful amount of time. So, a correct statement would be that I'm unfamiliar with Macs and have no interest to be familiar with them. That being said It should be noted that I have recommended Macs to several people throughout the years. The conversations tend to go something like the following.

Me: Here is your computer back, virus free and running properly again.

Computer Owner: Thanks, how can I keep this from happening?

Me: You should get a Mac.

Computer Owner: Why because they don't get viruses?

Me: No, because I don't know how to fix them.

I usually get a weak smile from them at this point. It does lead to one reason why I don't want a Mac though.

I've worked with Windows based computers for years now, and I can fix most of the problems I have with them. I've worked with Redhat and Debian based Linux distributions for a few years now, and I can muddle through most of the issues I have with them as well. Learning how to use a Mac wouldn't be an issue, as a person who can waste days playing with Compiz-Fusion settings or playing in an apache configuration file, I'd probably enjoy it. It would be when it quit working when it would loose the fun.

I'm often told the lovely myth that Macs don't break. Only I've had a broken one sitting on my desk. It wouldn't boot, I never got it to boot. We gave it to the resident Mac guy, got the same results I did. What got it working again? The local Mac shop, for a hefty fee. Which also tends to repair the Macs from my wife's workplace when they give up on functioning. Thanks, but I'll stick to my home built computers.

Which brings us to the next point, Apple doesn't cater to me. One of the reasons I build my own computers is that it is fun. The other is that it is cheap. You might have noticed but Apples are not cheap, and I can't build my own. A Mac built for me would be a tower that I can open it up and work on, but the only tower in the Mac line up is the Pro which is priced like what it is, a professional workstation. While having a professional workstation class machine would be nice, I can't afford one.

The last thing that makes me shy away from the Apple brand is the commercials. They were cute a few years ago, but much like the Geico caveman, it's old and tired. Not to mention that PC stands for Personal Computer. So, a Mac isn't a Personal Computer? Not sure what it is then, but I don't think I want one, and no I won't fix it for you. I'm resigned to not knowing how to.

My Wife Married an Idiot

2009-08-12T20:02:00.006-05:00

This story starts with me in a store with my family. Nothing unusual there, I tend to go everywhere with them except work. We are browsing through the store and my son gets tired of being held on to, so I let him loose on the unsuspecting population as I'm also tired of holding him. You're welcome. Everything is going fine, until my son notices one of those damn Furreal Ponies that someone has wisely placed upon a table.

I for one find the toy to be creepy. My son decided he would like to find it on the floor, and put it there. Loudly. Everyone in the store looks at us. A wise man would have left it there, I decided to put the accursed toy back on the table where it was. At which point the battery pack fell out onto the table. Loudly. Say hello to the store again.

A slightly less wise man than the first one mentioned would have left it. I'm not even that wise, so I try to reassemble the battery pack and put it back in, which doesn't seem to want to snap back into place as the furry cover is in the way. Did I mentioned that the engineer who designed the Furreal Pony had a sick sense of humor? No? Well, that person decided the battery pack needed to be placed into the crotch area of the fake horse.

So, I'm attempting and failing to force a battery pack into a horses crotch. After a small eternity and me realizing that it looks like I'm violating the horse, I get the battery pack snapped back into place. Proudly I place the pony back on all fours and the battery pack promptly falls out on cue. Loudly. How's everyone in the store doing? Good? My wife tells me to leave the horse alone, while giving me a look that says I shouldn't violate toy ponies in public. So I let the pony be.

Seems she's much wiser than I am, and tomorrow she will be another year older. Plus that much more wiser. Happy Birthday to my lovely wife, who keeps getting more loving, beautiful, and somehow smarter each passing year. Love you Jenny.

Who Wants to be a Scourge?

2009-07-07T18:53:00.002-05:00

I haven’t posted anything in a long while and now I do and it’s all related to World of Warcraft. So is this going to be about leveling characters like everyone else in the world has to? Nope. This is about an opportunity I think Blizzard, in all their wisdom, is going to miss out on.

So, those of you who have made it to level 80 and are up in Northrend waiting patiently to go kill that bastard the Lich King for being, well, the bastard he is. Let’s stop to ponder not killing dear old Arthas, or whoever the hell he thinks he might be at this moment. Arthas is a faction leader of an NPC faction, and lets face it Blizzard loves their evil bastards. Look at Kil’jaeden, for example.

So, why not open the Scourge as a third, and truly evil, player faction?

The races are pretty much present. The undead would be an obvious one, the models and customization are there, ready to go. These would be the ones that while they came to some sort of sentience just decided to go with the flow and hang with the Lich King. Overall their goals and some of the Forsaken (I'm looking at you Putress) are not too different. All classes would still apply.

Next up would be the Vrykul. From what I have seen in the game they are very customizable and who hasn’t looked at them and wanted to play one? They seem to do the warrior, warlock, mage, death knight, and priestly things fairly well.

Another obvious choice would be humans. There is plenty of the Cult of the Damned running around to make them a viable part of the Scorge. I know I get credit for killing them as Scourge quite frequently. Take away the Paladins and I’d say the rest of the classes still apply.

What next? How about using some Darkfallen with the Blood Elf models? What is a faction in an MMO without some sort of elves? Nerubians would be fun and very different, thought probably the most work for Blizzard. How about some Ice Trolls or Iron Dwarves that switched loyalties once their current faction leaders are dead?

Seems almost possible, but a lot of work. Quests and starting areas for instance, would need a major overhaul, but I still think it is a fun idea. Best of all, you can still go kill the Lich King faction leader, just like the rest of the faction leaders.

Hero Class

2009-04-10T21:30:00.002-05:00

Recently some of my co-workers decided that we should play World of Warcraft together. There are several people in the office who play, but strangely we never played much together. (This is oddly similar to how my friends play World of Warcraft with me. They don't.) Recently someone thought that needed to change and they all rolled new characters on the server where I have my Warlock. It didn't take them long to reach 70, and then we ran the Nexus a few times with my Hunter. My wife got a good look at the Nexus and decided she wanted to join in the fun as well.

The problem is that time being what it is, we're both casual players and don't have time for the hard core things in World of Warcraft. Her highest level character is a 67 Undead Mage on another server, and she would be higher if she wasn't a more responsible person. I suggested we change servers, but she is of the opinion that it costs too much. Considering all the factors, it does. She could play a Death Knight and start a 55, but everyone is doing that, and she prefers casters. So, she started up a new Blood Elf Mage, and I joined her with my low level Tauren Druid.

I have to say she is fairly dedicated, as she is now 24, which is good for the amount of time in which we have to play. Which brings me to the question, is it more heroic to start a Death Knight at level 55 or start at 1 and play the game through. I have to say I think leveling from the beginning is a lot more heroic, even if it doesn't have the benefits.

A year ago, Today

2009-04-05T20:12:00.003-05:00

Sunday started off like a usual Sunday for me. My son woke me and my wife up earlier than either of us wanted to roll out of bed. I got up and turned on some TV, gave him a breakfast bar and a sippy cup full of milk and trudged back to bed for a little more sleep. Eventually my lovely wife got up and said she was going to take a bath. She was nine months pregnant at the time, which might have stressed out some people, but my son arrived almost two weeks late and had to be induced. My daughters due date was the following day, and Wednesday of that week was when they were going to induce my wife. She had informed me earlier that she had been having some contractions, but both she and I were of the opinion that they were going to amount to nothing.

Until they became more intense. Not sure who made the decision but we decided we had better head to the hospital, even if they might just send us back home as false labor. It was now around 8:00 AM, and the doctor had told us, labor takes hours. What they neglected to mention was anything over one, is plural. After some calls we dropped my son off at my sister's, and we were off to the hospital which was roughly around fifty miles away. Shortly after departing we realized that this was no drill. I began to drive faster.

Once on the interstate the labor pains became so intense that my wife was quite vocally displeased, a little at first. Not to say she was yelling at me, it was a more general unhappiness. It was about twenty or so miles into our trip when my Wife informed me that she couldn't do this. Which I thought she meant she couldn't have the baby. I told her she could, as she already had done it once, and drove faster. What she meant was much more complex for my addled mind to comprehend at the time.

Thirty miles into the trip was when my wife informed me that we were not going to make it. Her displeasure had become quite loud. I told her, and felt certain at the time that I was lying, that we would make it. I had determination, I wasn't sure I had time. I drove even faster.

It was shortly after this that I rounded a corner and saw two police vehicles sitting on the side of the road. I vocalized my displeasure, and wasn't as polite as my wife, as the speed limit was very much broken. I let my foot off the gas and coasted by them, still in excess of the limit by a good 10 mph. They didn't budge, they will never know how they missed out on delivering a baby that day. As soon as I could no longer see them I accelerated again to my former speed.

My Wife continued to tell me that we were not going to make it, and backed up her point by having her water break. Now for the uninitiated this is the point of no return, and while it happens in every single TV show it rarely happens in real life before the hospital. Faster? You bet.

The rest of the trip was very exciting and frightening, the prospect of giving birth to my daughter was a very front and center thought. I should mention that I did look both ways and run a red light, but we did make it to the hospital safely. and I should also mention it was with an infinite relief. I parked in a handicapped spot closest to the door and ran in, pondering how we were going to get my wife out of the vehicle.

No one was at reception, I know I vocalized my displeasure more. I decided to head right and found a bored hospital employee that assumed my wife was having a false labor for all of their speed and reaction she had. I found a wheelchair and headed outside.

My wife magically got out of the car and politely sat in the wheel chair which had no place to put her feet. The hospital employee raved about my wife's missing sock as she pushed her into the hospital, and we got to triage. My wife's magical demeanor had reverted back to her vocal displeasure and all of triage who had previously looked bored, demanded "Get her to a delivery room!" I felt somewhat justified in my marginally controlled panic.

Off to the delivery room we went. The doctor they found was more concerned about who was my wife's doctor than actually delivering my daughter. He did this within ear shot of both me and my wife it took every bit of self control for both of us to not tell him to shut up and do his expletive job. A quick examination and a nurse told us that my Wife was at 10 centimeters and had done all the hard work at home. My Wife corrected her and informed her it had been done in the car.

Soon the nurses told my wife to quit vocalizing and start pushing, with no drugs and three pushes later and a little over an hour and a half after 8:00 AM, my daughter had arrived. I never sighed harder in my life, and I doubt my wife had either.

Some people will tell you there is no such thing as love at first sight, those people don't have a daughter. Happy First Birthday MegaMeghan!

I miss Abit

2009-03-15T16:29:00.007-05:00

I can hear the whining already. “I know how to identify a counterfeit capacitor!” “I have a rainbow motherboard jumpers!” “I worked for Packard Bell!” Doesn't matter. If you haven't built your own computer then you can't wear the Hardware Geek Merit Badge. No lame excuses, if you want it, you know the drill. Build your own box.

A nice alternative would be the Laptop/Notebook Toting Freak Merit Badge. Which is easy to get, you just need to take your portable computer with you everywhere like a security blanket. I got that one while lugging my 8 pound Linux running (at the time) laptop into a Krystals deep in rural Tennessee. I wanted to use the wireless to check my email for test scores, which I did, while getting weird looks from just about everyone, seems they had not seen a Compiz desktop before.

Back to the first topic though, there is just something about researching parts, finding the best price/performance ratio your budget can handle and putting it all together. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. There will be blood, sometimes sweat, possibly tears, and more than likely some sort of thermal paste, but there is a certain pride when the machine comes together and POST.

Or does not, as my most recent experience has been. It wasn't a new system, but an upgrade, and sometimes while all indications say this CPU works on your current motherboard, reality disagrees.

The specification sheets say it is compatible, the BIOS version agrees. Technical Support tells me it should, fails to pay any attention to the information that I have already sent them, and asks me to down grade my BIOS. It ended with a rather large fail, but that rather hot running CPU from my Wife's computer has been replaced. So, it's not all bad, it's just one of the many steps in getting the badge.

Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T19:43:00.004-06:00

Quite a few people see holidays as overly commercialized events used to encourage the wasting of money for frivolous and highly worthless items. For the most part, I agree. Christmas being the number one culprit. So it would be easy to assume that I would see Valentine's Day the same way, and that would be incorrect. You see, I'm sickeningly in love with my wife.

We kiss and hug in public. I try to open doors for her whenever I can, especially to let her into the Jeep. A phone conversation with her that does not end in a least one "I love you" seems strangely lacking. I won't even discuss our near constant emails. We hope to seriously embarrass our children some day. Also note, that we've been married for 8 years, and dating for longer.

So for me, Valentine's day is an excuse for me to get the woman I love a gift, take her to dinner, or in some other way do something special for her. And I welcome that excuse.

Though, this year I have to admit I messed up. I got her a nice gift, which I was rather excited about. So, I gave it to her early. She was surprised, and she liked it, but it has left this Valentine's day feeling a little lacking. Doesn't help much that my son is still sick and my wife thinks she is getting it too. There goes reality interfering with romance. Cruel, cruel reality. But, I'll know better next year. I won't invite reality.

So, happy Valentine's Day to you and yours. To my wife, I love you, more today than I did yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow.

...and for those of you who have not found a significant other, use it as an excuse to eat chocolate.

Full Circle then Around Again

2009-01-14T11:07:00.000-06:00

While I don't find myself at them often enough I rather enjoy used book stores, and in December I found myself in one. I had found some books from a series I'm in the middle of, but my Wife reminded me that Christmas was coming up and maybe I shouldn't buy things I so obviously wanted so close to the holiday. She did all that with one look, and hardly saying anything.

So I put them back and looked for something new to read. I walked down the horror isle, which I usually find tolerable as a genre, and ran across I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. I remembered thinking the movie previews had looked interesting, and I'm more likely to enjoy a book than a movie so I purchased it for next to nothing.

The paperback I Am Legend looked unread, or it was read by someone much kinder to books than myself. I can't say I've put much thought into where a used book has been before this one, but this one came to my attention in that it had a reciept in it, one that I had not put in it for a bookmark. This receipt let me know that the former owner of the book had purchased it in the Pittsburg Internation Airport, paid cash, and bought some other indescribable item on March 3rd, 2008.

This was interesting because my Grandparents on my Mother's side had lived just outside of Pittsburg. When my Grandmother died, my parents moved my Grandfather here to take better care of him. I had to wonder about when I would return to Pittsburg again.

I got my answer last Thursday, when my Grandfather passed away at the age of 91. He was a hard working, stubborn man who was very set in his ways, but he was a loving Grandfather who left me with many great memories. He had never quite been the same since Grandma had passed away, and it would be wrong to fault a man for that. He will be missed, but his stubborness lives on. Not so easily witnessed in myself even though it is there, but very visable in my son.

The whole family went back to Pennsylvania to bury him with Grandmother and since I've been stumbling slowly through the short stories of I Am Legend, I took the book with me for something to do with any spare time I had. So, the book got a second trip to Pennsylvania. I have to admit that I debated leaving it there, but I haven't finished it yet.

Superman Wears Spiderman Underwear

2009-01-01T21:24:00.003-06:00

Children are inefficient. Not to say that I'm an expert on efficiency, but children are definitely not it. A prime example of this is my son going to the bathroom. It's a much longer ritual than it should be.

It starts out simple enough, with a loud announcement: "I gotta go potty!" It's similar to that co-worker you have that likes to announce "Look at me, I'm working!" While the potty announcement will happen at home it ALWAYS happens in a store or restaurant. Maybe it's some long latent instinct for marking ones territory, but if some place has a bathroom my son will want to visit it at least once if not several times.

After the announcement comes the sprint to the bathroom, which makes things seem very urgent. Once in the bathroom time stops. First order of business in a public place is to find a toilet or urinal low enough for him. Some places don't have such things. I think those places deserve the puddles they get, but I tend to clean up either way. I once had a guy bolt past me in a bathroom to use the lowest urinal when the other one was not in use. I believe that man's name was Richard.

Once the toilet is found there might be a short argument on which one my son wants to use, sometimes the lowest one is not his preference. I try to guide him by generally aiming him the direction I want him to go, it's a learned and varied technique which sometimes involves stern looks and repeating words like "No" over and over.

Then the pants have to come off, but sometimes my son likes to just stare at the toilet and space out. Sometimes the toilet paper gets to be a distraction. I always hope there are no REAL distractions or things will take much longer. People walking in are a number one distraction, as my son has to greet them, and introduce himself. He might also have to point out any odd clothing they are wearing. To the gentleman wearing the cowboy hat, my son wasn't really calling you a cow. He was simply trying to say cowboy.

Next is the shortest part of the trip, actually using the toilet. Once done my son has to space out again and all previous distractions can happen all over again. This is the point where I have to say "Pull up your pants." I've never been to the bathroom with him and only said this just once, and I swear if I didn't mention it, they would never be pulled up again. Which would make the trip to Taco Bell more interesting, to say the least.

Now we're on to cleaning up. Washing hands is always fun because no sink has been made for a child to use, and very few places have a stool for them to stand on. Washing hands requires coaching as well, otherwise the soap would simply be rinsed into the sink with no actual washing taking place. The water can be very distracting as well, not to mention the mirror.

Last is the drying. Without more help here my son would simply wad up a paper towel and throw it away, and not dry anything. So, more input is required. Hand driers are great fun as he can stand under them and he finds it hilarious to have them blow his hair about. This can waste a few more minutes. Finally, we can leave the bathroom. Several hours later.

Lastly, it is quite funny to see my son running for the bathroom in his Superman pajamas (which include a cape) wearing Spiderman underwear and yelling "I go poop!"

Technomas

2008-12-22T19:57:00.002-06:00

One December many years ago there was a magical day. My HP had turned it's measly 1.2 GB hard drive into a popcorn maker, that somehow never produced anything but the noise and never any popcorn. That wasn't the magical part, magic would be if it had made popcorn.. The magical part was that the new drive was to be brought in and repaired on the 23^rd of December, the same exact day my Nintendo 64 pre-order arrived at the local store. So, on that day I got my computer working, and I got to play Mario64. It was a wonderful day, and I found it to be much better than Christmas.

So that day, I used my powers as Pope to proclaim a new holiday, and thus I created Technomas which occurs on the 23^rd of December each year. Technomas is the holiday where you go and purchase yourself some cool piece of technology, and/or destroy some piece of electronic junk that has given you headaches. You could also get your cool device repaired under warranty on that day, but scheduling those things can be a pain.

So, go buy yourself that cool gadget no one else would buy you, simply because you can. Myself, I have found that the printer in the office here actually says “PC LOAD LETTER” from time to time, and I'm thinking I'll Office Space it when no one is looking.

So, Happy Technomas to all the true believers. And Happy Holidays to all you heathens.

What's My Main Again?

2008-11-17T19:30:00.002-06:00

The first toon I had arriving late to 60 was my hunter, followed by my rogue, and lastly and just in time for a Molten Core raid on another server was my warlock. My first to level 70 was my rogue, followed much later by the warlock, and lastly my hunter.

The hunter is my oldest toon, has a higher level in most skills, but my rogue is my most played and has an epic flying mount. On the other hand the warlock has actually participated in a couple of raids, though it has been quite a while.

So when I hear the advice of level your main, and play your death knight later, I'm a little lost on which one is my main.

I've been told that your main isn't your highest character. Or the top one when you log into the server. That doesn't work for me either, as server transfers put characters in odd orders.

Enough with the pondering, because I think I need to play my hunter, I mean my main.

Waiting, Patiently.

2008-11-13T08:13:00.001-06:00

I have to admit I am really anticipating playing Wrath of the Lich King this evening, as it should be delivered sometime today. I'm not the type of person who is going to stay up all night to buy and play a game. One reason is because I have kids, and they wake up according to their schedule no matter what I do with mine. Two I have a job, though like some co-worker who took the day off and is already boasting of having a level 60 Death Knight, I decided not to. Not to mention sitting around the house waiting on Wrath to arrive would get old quickly.

So, who to take to Northrend first? My Warlock, which is what the guild leader is pushing for, but the spec I'm using is Demonology, and I'm not feeling the love. Then maybe my Beast spec Hunter? I'm actually enjoying playing him the most lately. Or over to my Rogue, which is for the first time full Assassination, and I'm seriously missing my Shadow Step. Then the last option would be to try out this Death Knight stuff. Tempting.

I'll probably bounce between rested bonuses and get distracted by silly things as usual. That sounds like me.

Curse of Weakness

2008-11-04T18:47:00.005-06:00

In a moment of weakness while being on call I started up my World of Warcraft account again. It was late at night and the evil pager had left me awake, annoyed and with nothing to do. So, I gave Blizzard some money and I was back to doing laps on my Nether Ray around Shattrath with my Forsaken Rogue, so back in the lack of a saddle again.

My goal is now successful though, my obscenely named Warlock is now level 70, and will be heading over to the Sunwell to scrounge up some gold for the extremely slow flying mount. I don't plan on getting the fast one before, 77 as there is little point in trying with the expansion taking them away.

That is unless, I decide to play my Hunter. I should be able to get him to 70 before the 13^th, right?

I For One, Despise Our Computer Overlords

2008-10-22T19:29:00.000-05:00

Computers are wonderful things. Except when they are programed to monitor other computers and notify sleeping people about their status. Which is something I get to do every 7 weeks or so. A computer monitors my works servers, routers, and switches then pages some poor bastard if something isn't within parameters defined by a person who doesn't have to carry said pager. So, if at 2 AM some asshat in Asia decides to spam our mail server I get woken up to try and correct it or say if another employee changes routing and makes everything FUBAR, you guessed it.

This might not be a problem, but it happens too frequently for me to get, say a solid 4 hours of sleep. What this puts into perspective for my warped mind is, we sure seem to be serving the machines a lot. Phone rings, we run to get it or fish through our pockets, like it's important, when more than likely it's someone you don't even want to talk to. Computer beeps and we go figure out why. The machine beckons and we obey.

I say we rebel against the machines before Google turns into Skynet. Ignore that computer, pager, and damn cell phone. You'll feel better, I promise. And if you don't hear from me again, the machines got me.

One Hot CPU pt. III

2008-10-12T20:13:00.000-05:00

I think this saga is hopefully at an end. Today while helping my wife re-arrange the living room, her computer ended up disconnected so I decided to try my heatsink and fan on her CPU. This seems to have cured the problem. At one of the hottest parts of the day her computer, while at the website of extreme CPU usage, playing music in iTunes, and scanning for viruses, was using most of it's dual cores and still reporting 102 Fahrenheit 38.8 Celsius. So my HSF, is now hers. My computer runs a little hotter than before, but it's still far from damaging the CPU and no alarms should be going off.

So her Athlon 64 x2 3600+ just needed a little more love. 2 more heat pipes worth. And the CPU and HSF combo lived happily ever after far below 140F/60C. The End...

One Hot CPU pt. II

2008-10-11T20:48:00.000-05:00

I realized that I had not done the open case test on my wife's computer, so I found a cute little site that would make her computer overheat quite well. Went there with the computer in one piece and the alarms start, which means the temperatures are around 158 degrees Fahrenheit/70 Celsius. So I turned the machine off and removed the side, as the machine has a fan in the side panel. Sitting in the BIOS, the machine is running a very unhappy 136/58, doing absolutely nothing.

It was time to take a can of compressed air to the computers, having pets is about as bad as smoking around a computer, if not worse. So time to get the dog hair out, and it's a good time to swap CPUs. Illyria, Arabella, time for brain transplants!

Results? My Athlon 64 x2 5000+ runs a maximum of 109/42 under the same conditions that made alarms go off before. Ah ha, I was right! The Athlon 64 x2 3600+ gets too hot under normal circumstances, let alone a heavy load. Right? Right? No. The CPU runs happily in my case with my HSF. While running hotter than my CPU, I haven't managed to get it over 114/45. What are the differences? My case is newer and is running 2 120mm fans while hers has 5 80mm fans, and my HSF has 6 heat pipes and has a greater surface area, and hers only has 4.

So, maybe her CPU would be happy in her computer with my HSF? Guess that will be my next test.

Torn Tauren

2008-10-09T22:32:00.001-05:00

Well, I've had a rather small break from World of Warcraft, and survived. I've tried a few free MMOs, and for the most part I can't get into them. Most are about as much fun as... "Go over there to that rock pile, get me 10 big rocks." The free MMO I've played the most is Dungeon Runners, which is funny and wastes time nicely. It's motto of being "The only free MMO that doesn't suck!" seems mostly true.

I've not played Super Mario Galaxy enough at all. The problem is the Wii is hooked to the TV, which is usually being used by my son or wife as a TV. Which leaves me in front of my PC, even when I don't plan on it.

In a few days a new WoW patch comes out with all sorts of fun new things, and I'd like to get my Warlock to 70 before the expansion comes out. Still, I have to ask myself if there isn't something better I could be doing with my time. Then again, the yard work I never do is winding down for the year, and I don't watch much TV at all, and I've still not been to the book store.

Well, I do need something to keep me occupied while I wait for Diablo III to come out.

Re-Reading Books

2008-10-01T11:13:00.001-05:00

Recently I've been re-reading books that I have read before. The main reason is that I haven't made it to the book store in awhile to pick up a new book to read. So I've recently read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and John Steakley's Vampire$.

From this I've learned something odd about my mind, and that it is secretly a pessimist. It has been many years since I read Fahrenheit 451, and my memory had it ending on a much more dismal note than the book actually ended on. A similar thing happened in Vampire$, my mind had killed off a lot more characters in the end than had actually died. On the other hand The Hobbit didn't have any odd twists that my memory had re-wrote, but it was good to read Tolkien's lighter and happier work.

Now something odd these books all have in common is that they have been made into movies. I've never seen the one for Fahrenheit 451, but I have seen the other two and there is a new Hobbit movie coming out in a few years. I do not recommend watching the movie Vampires in any shape or form, as the only thing it shares with the book is some character names, and not many of those.

I really need to visit the book store.

Things I Never Thought I'd Say

2008-09-27T14:12:00.005-05:00

When I was a kid we had a program for the Commodore 64 that was called, I believe, Silly 64. One of my favorite things about the program besides the "Don't touch me I'm not READY" that sent the uninitiated running out of the room, was the random quotes. My favorite one that made me cackle with glee, was some silly quote that read "Hey, keep your kids from playing in my garbage!" What I never thought is that I might actually have to say it.

So far, I haven't. But I've said close. My son is quickly heading for the big number four, much faster than time really travels and in that time I've yelled many silly things. Here is a short list.

"Don't kiss the lobster!" in the grocery store by the lobster tank.
"Stop kissing/licking the TV." No apparent reason for it. It's possible he likes dust flavor.
"Don't bite the dog!" and also "Don't lick the dog!"
"Do not put your food in your ear, hair, pants."
"Use your fork, don't eat like the dog." Seems the dog is a very bad influence on my son.
"Don't drink water out of the toilet!" Actually I've never said that, I made a bunch of weird angry noises. He got the point though.

There are more, some which even include the trash.

One Hot CPU

2008-09-24T18:42:00.001-05:00

I'm not a fan of the Family computer, I'm more of a Personal Computer sort of person. I'm on the computer more often than an episode of CSI is on TV, and from what I hear, that is a lot. This doesn't leave much time for other members of the family to use the computer, so everyone has their own computer for the most part. Which brings us around to the subject of my Wife's computer.

It was built at the same time as mine. It replaced the AMD Athlon 1700+ she had with an Athlon 64 X2 3600+. Usually I trickle parts down, so she would have gotten my AMD Athlon 2800+, but most of that systems RAM had failed. DDR ram was priced rather ridiculously at the time and you could get twice as much DDR2 for half the money, so DDR2 motherboards for everyone. The 3600+ was roughly $15 more than a higher clocked Sempron single core, so I went with it.

Lately though, her computer complains about heat. More specifically CPU heat. If her PC is doing much more than idling, it's too hot. Well, the machine was running the stock HSF with the pre-applied thermal paste. So, step one, clean up the paste and apply some more. Worked for awhile, then the machine began complaining again. Well, my machine is running a heat pipe CPU cooler that keeps it quite cool, all considering, so I got a similar one for her computer. Same result, the computer was happy for awhile, but a short while. Maybe the case isn't circulating enough air. Her case had 2 fans, not including the power supply. Side fan in, rear fan out. So, I added some more fans. A 2nd one out back, one in the front and one at the top. Still complaints from the machine.

Contact is good with the HSF, air flow seems good on the case, so what is the issue? Well, I'm beginning to suspect other issues. When a CPU is made, it isn't made for a specific speed rating. It gets made, then tested, and then they sell it based on the speeds it could run stable at the recommended voltage. The 3600+ is the slowest of the Athlon 64 X2 line, and there is a reason a CPU ends up there. It might not run stable at a higher speed, or it needs more voltage, or quite possibly, it gets too hot to run any faster.

So the next test is to see if my Athlon 64 X2 5000+ runs cooler in her PC than her current CPU. If it does, then I think we know what the issue is.

Past Glory

2008-09-22T21:42:00.002-05:00

A lot of people like to relive their past successes. Grasping onto our shining moments is something everyone does as justification for who they are, what they've become, and where they have ended up. For some it's something simple, and all together insignificant to most people, but it is their glory and they have a right to it. For others, it truly is greatness. Something epic or heroic, and they also have every right to it.

The problem with the latter is that it usually isn't very funny.

Not Massively Multi-Playing

2008-09-21T07:40:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time I played video games. Lots of video games it seems, so much so that I regularly regurgitated my opinions of games and the gaming industry to a web page on a regular basis. I also spent a lot of time in the game Diablo, my friend Fuse didn't like the game much so I ended up with his copy and I played it for hours with my room mate, Short Circuit. We setup a third computer with a low level character to act as our server to keep our Diablo dungeon persistent. Eventually we beat down Diablo.

A few years later Diablo II came out, I was living with the woman who is now my wife and while she never got into the game, I spent a lot of time playing Diablo II and the expansion with all my close friends. I can say with full geek pride the last night I was a bachelor we spent a few hours getting a network going and played Diablo II and drank beer early into the next morning.

I had played Diablo II since it was in beta, so when the next Blizzard beta rolled around I signed up. World of Warcraft was free for me to play for about a month, and as the day it was to come out got closer I mused with another Tauren while waiting for the severe lag to subside about weather or not I would buy the game. I had decided not to. I mean $50 and a monthly fee, that's a bit much. Sunday night the servers were turned off, and by Tuesday when the game came out I was jonesing so bad I bought the game that day, and I've played it up until August 26th 2008.

Yep, nearly four years WoW was the main video game I played. Got 3 characters to 60, did some raiding, and some PVP. Even got the wife playing. Then got the expansion and got one of them to 70 an epic flying mount, and got 2 others fairly close. But, it's time for a break. It's time for me to play the other games I've been buying.

Still I find myself lured in by other MMOs even though I like RPGs, and not MMOs... And have decided to look at some free ones. It's been awhile since I've done that, the last one I played for any length of time was Rappelz which was a very nice looking game, but that doesn't make a great game. I wasn't fond of the controls, the combat system was painfully slow, and the dialog of the quest givers read like a voice overs for kung-fu film. Still, I'm about to give some others a try.

Or maybe I should just go play some Super Mario Galaxy.

Potty Humor

2008-09-20T12:59:00.002-05:00

It's been quite a few years since I was toilet trained, so I'm a bit rusty on how it works when it comes to my son. It probably doesn't help much that at the time I was the trainee and not the trainer. As such I'm becoming very familiar with training pants, or what is basically a diaper with a waist band and lots of padding, pull-ups as my son calls them.

One of the bad things about all this is that he lives in his own world more than reality, which is a trait he inherited from me. I'll have to apologize to him about that some day. So his attention span for toilet training is the same amount as his attention span for anything, which is gnat like. In this process we go through a lot of pull-ups, and a lot of these pull-ups have decorations on them. Spiderman, Diego, Cars, all the things that are popular with boys are on them, and they tend to have a design which disappears when they get wet.

I have to say I admire the Cars ones for sneaking in potty humor on them. How so? The ones that have the disappearing checkerd flags have Lighting taking a pit stop. There are others that have disappearing Piston Cups on them. To quote the movie, "He did WHAT in his cup!?"

Well, time to get him off the toilet, he loves to use it as an excuse to not go to bed.

My Jeep

2008-09-20T11:14:00.000-05:00

Twas the Friday after Christmas, and I was off work, which really isn't too unusual. I was leaving a restaurant and tightly holding my son Jake's hand as he likes to run free like a wild man whenever possible. I unlocked the door to my Jeep, with the keys as I don't have a key fob to perform the magic, and threw the keys in the front seat since putting them back in my pocket at that point is usually a hassle. Hit the door locks to unlock the doors and, uncharacteristically closed the door. I went to open the back door to load in my two year old and found it very locked. I turned to open the driver side door I had just unlocked, and found it just as locked.

As my wife approached the vehicle I asked her to unlock it with her keys, which she quickly pointed out that they were sitting in the cup holder, seems she found putting up keys a hassle as well. At this moment, I have to admit I was feeling quite livid, but it's hard to fault someone who has the same faults as yourself, at least without being a blatant hypocrite. I tried being angry in several different directions, but really I was the only one to blame, and at that point it seemed like a waste of energy. Luckily I had just had a big lunch, and had plenty of energy to waste.

It took a few hours, and most of it waiting, but eventually we worked out how to get back into the Jeep and drive it home. Seems giving a spare house key to my mother was a pretty good idea.

It also seems that somewhere, someone asked Santa for a real off road vehicle. And Santa being the snow and reindeer type of guy must have mistakenly brought them a Hummer, and they in turn, realized they should have said Jeep. With quite a few shopping days left till Christmas 2008, they decided that waiting on Santa wouldn't be prudent.

The next day was Saturday and it was a lazy day. I did about nothing, didn't even get dressed for most of it. Then late in the afternoon I get a call from my Mom, and she is having problems with her computer. Seeing as she had rescued us the day before, it was only fair for me to head over and take a look at the problem.

So, I walked out to the Jeep to warm it up before heading over there, and found the driver side passenger door ajar.

"Great" I thought, "The battery is probably dead from the door being open all night."

Then I realized the window on that door was smashed.

"Great" I thought, "Some one broke in to steal something." I briefly wondered if anything of value was in the Jeep.

I opened the door and the tinted glass fell out here and there. I habitually went to unlock the front door and opened it up, to find bits of my ignition on the floor board. At that point it slowly dawned on me that they were trying to take the whole Jeep.

It took two months to get my Jeep back and working properly again, and a few more months to get over the paranoia. I still don't turn off the light in front of the garage where the Jeep sits, and I always park it where I can see it from my bedroom window. So I guess I'm still not over the paranoia.