Home

Advertisement

Customize
Dec. 31st, 2009 @ 04:15 am Daily Tweet Summary...

  • 05:00 Dr off fail 2 call n pain med. Now out. Did doc say no or did staf refus 2 'bothr' him on wk off? So mad at thm. & @ myslf 4 nt dng ths ... #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
About this Entry
[info]fyre
Dec. 31st, 2009 @ 06:49 am The Low Road is Limbaugh’s Road – Leave it to him.
Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh via Wikimedia Commons

  • Remember how upset you were when Rush Limbaugh accused Michael J. Fox of “acting” when he displayed normal Parkinson’s disease symptoms?
  • Remember how you felt when you heard him refer to the sexual abuse of UNCONVICTED prisoners atAbu Ghraib as “It’s sort of like hazing, a fraternity prank. Sort of like that kind of fun.” one day and then said “I’m talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of need to blow some steam off?” the next?
  • Remember how in 1995 he said “Too many whites are getting away with drug use…Too many whites are getting away with drug sales…The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too.” and then in 2005 he kept his job and expected the ACLU to protect his civil rights after admitting “I am addicted to prescription pain medication.”?
  • If you have been paying attention long enough you may even recall when he called women who supported the law of that land granting women control of their bodies feminazis.

If you remember how you felt at any of those times, please try to go back in your mind and REALLY remember how it felt.

Remember how frustrated and upset you felt that the laws governing the public airways – through the repeal of a decades old FCC policy from 1949, that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was (in the Commission’s view) honest, equitable and balanced – granted Rush Limbaugh unfettered access to millions of Americans without guaranteeing access for an opposing view.

That FCC policy, put in place by the President who led us to victory over Germany and Japan in World War II, served the nation well during the massive post war boom in both population and national wealth. It stood until swept out the door with many other regulations when Ronald Reagan took office.

There is a reason Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, Savage, Beck, and their compatriots consider Ronald Reagan to be a saint. The same general clearing away of regulatory power – wielded by civil servants on behalf of ordinary Americans – created the talk radio echo chamber over which Rush Limbaugh and his many imitators have reigned all these years. These are men who have become not just rich, but VERY rich, through Reagan’s ‘deregulatory pork’ handed down to the Republican party.

Now remembering all of that, you can still, stick to the high road.  I know you can.   It’s taken us a long time to get to where we are now after the nadir of the USA’s flirtation with corporate fascism in first half of the ‘Noughts’. Lets not slide back and end up down on that low road with the likes of Limbaugh.

Nobody expects you to send flowers or even wish him well and a speedy recovery – if he indeed is ill. But crowing about his misfortune and publicly wishing for his demise on Facebook, Twitter, or on-line is THEIR WAY, not ours.

About this Entry
[info]techfunblog
Dec. 26th, 2009 @ 04:15 am Daily Tweet Summary...
  • 06:49 Apparently the new thing is that EVERYTHING wants to install the Yahoo toolbar when it installs. #
  • 06:50 "Welcome to Microsoft Office. I see you're installing a paper clip. Would you like to install the Yahoo toolbar, too?" #
  • 07:22 I'm wondering how google indexed my lifestream, when I haven't given out the link to anyone... (tinyurl.com/ykbsugw #lifestream #
  • 10:08 @mrbill Barely know you Bill... but Merry Christmas to you. Thoughts and prayers that the coming year... brings your happiness back. #
  • 22:08 As per usual i have to go and fuck things up. #
  • 00:43 @mrbill fight w wife ovr misundrstndngs, stupd stuff, n my own mntl crap. Thng I shld hve jst acceptd n lt go bt insistd on tryn 2 undrstnd #
  • 00:45 @mrbill n im strtng 2 get gd at typng full commentary in 140 characters. Scary when you consider how long my blog entries can get. #
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
About this Entry
[info]fyre
Dec. 25th, 2009 @ 11:59 am wtf is wrong
Tags:
Okay cPanel people...
Why the hell is this not working?
I've added some custom filter rules.
EVERYTHING ELSE is working but this lot.
I'm testing by 'telnet localhost 25' so we're running from esmtpa.
MAIL FROM: user@visa.com
RCPT TO: myusername@gmail.com
data
Subject: test
test
.
....and it accepts, and log shows it going through just fine.
The filters... wtf is wrong?! ... )
About this Entry
[info]fyre
Dec. 25th, 2009 @ 10:28 am (no subject)
Has anyone ever noticed how "Natives" on those tribal shows on Travel channel, National Geographic Presents, and so on and so forth seem so... happy?  Even the ones constantly "at war" with neighboring tribes?  What of their wars?  A battle every few years, perhaps.  I remember one show, and I quote very loosely, "the war has gone on for as long as [native guy]'s life. Longer, even, than his Father's life.  Yet he can only recall two battles, and only two more that the elders speak of."  ...four battles in, perhaps, 50 years... maybe longer.

That's not my point.  My point is, the happiness.  These people have - by our standards - nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  They live in huts built with sticks, straw, mud.  Their floors are dirt.  They bathe - on occasion - in the local stream.  Their water is stream or river water. Their food is whatever they can catch or grow in the surrounding area.  They have no TV, no radio, no books, and - in some cases - not even light (aside from a stick pulled from the fire) after dark.  They wear anything from nothing, to sheathes on their penises.  Yes, they are happy.  They dance, sing, chant, make music, tell stories, and are happy.  Were any one of them to come to America, they would likely be the poorest person in the country, as they would have no marketable skills. Yet, they are happy.

I'm surrounded by stuff.  I live in a house, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a livingroom, dining room, kitchen, garage. I have a truck. I have Internet, over 300 channels on TV, if there's nothing I want to watch on TV (!!), I can download a movie or something from the Internet in as little as a few minutes. I have books galore... so many books I don't have enough space to store them all.  I have more clothes than I wear. I have movies, videos, music.  I have marketable skills. I could go to virtually any country on earth and get a job.  Am I happy?  I have moments of happiness... but am I happy, overall?  Like those people? No.  I've forgotten what it's like to be happy like that.  I've forgotten the happiness of childhood.

I cannot remember the last time I sat around with friends, and simply shot the shit.
Chilled out and swapped stories.  Discussed things. Philosophized about guys names Sven, or Hilary Swank's boobs, or whether or not Neitzsche and Marx would have made an interesting pair had they both been gay.  Discussed quantum physics and whether or not parallel universes really exists, and if they are really parallel or are really more perpendicular, or rather somewhat skewed.  Whether or not a quantum computer would be able to open a doorway, ala "Quantum Leap" to a parallel universe, should we feed in the proper mathematics, and the recipe for a really good grilled cheese sandwich.
...I can't remember the last time I was just... happy.

We all deal with so much on a daily basis.  Money, work, home, schedules, appointments, projects, and so on. We forget to take a minute to sit back and think about the things we have.  Then we forget to take an hour or two to get together with people we love - or even just people we know - whether that be online, or off, and forget about all of the crap we have to deal with, and just enjoy having fun.

Someone tell me the secret that these tribes have.  Is it simplicity?

I've always wondered.
I've been tempted, more than once, to go back to simpler times.  ...if I could figure out how.

Today I'm going to enjoy the day.
and love my wife.
and love the day.
and just... be.

and maybe, just maybe, I'll move to Africa, sometime, and see if I can't learn from the tribes.
About this Entry
[info]fyre
Dec. 24th, 2009 @ 04:15 am Daily Tweet Summary...

  • 00:45 At wal-mart. 5 lanes open. Appx 200 of us in lines (yes i counted) #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
About this Entry
[info]fyre
Dec. 23rd, 2009 @ 07:54 pm Cardinal Puff
Tags: ,
Since some have asked already, here's the somewhat modified/hybridized version of Cardinal Puff my circle used to use (before you guys, Alli).

WHAT YOU NEED: A pint full of your favorite beer. (If you're in ye standard American bar, ye standard American beer mug will be fine.)

OBJECTIVE: To consume, completely, in six tries, with NOTHING LEFT, WITHOUT finishing early. 

ALTERNATIVE: Use a bottle of beer, and consume in THREE tries with NOTHING LEFT, WITHOUT finishing early.

GAME:
Take your mug with tumb and index finger (one finger), lift into the air. Say, "I dedicate the first drink of the night to the Honorable Cardinal Puff."  Take a drink (remember, five drinks left. Meter yourself).  Using alternating left and right, tap the top of the bar with the left finger, then the right. Tap the underside of the bar with the left, then right.  Stand up, turn around, sit down. Tap your left thigh. Tap your right thigh. Snap both fingers at the same time, once. Tap your pint.

ROUND TWO: The number of fingers increases to two. Do everything with two fingers.
Take your mug with thumb and two fingers, lift into the air. Say, "Here's to the Cardinal Puff Puff, for the second time, tonight."  Take TWO drinks.  Again, alternating left and right, tap twice on top, twice on bottom of bar top. Stand up, sit down, stand up, turn around twice, sit down.  Tap thighs twice (alternating), snap both fingers at the same time twice, tap pint twice.

ROUND THREE: Do everything with THREE fingers.
Take your mug with thumb and three fingers.  Life into the air. Say, "I dedicated the third and final round to the Cardinal Puff Puff Puff." Take THREE DRINKS, making sure to completely empty the glass on the third drink. I repeat. COMPLETELY EMPTY THE GLASS.  Again, alternating, three taps on top, bottom of bar top.  Stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, turn around three times, sit diwn. Tap thighs three times (alternating), snap both fingers at the same time three times, tap pint three times.

Take a napkin, or sometime like that, and lay it out flat in front of of you.  Grab the handle of your mug.  Say:
"Once a Cardinal"
Turn your mug over and place it upside down on the napkin, and say "ALWAYS a Cardinal,"
turn your mug back up while saying "drink it to the last drop."

If there is ANYTHING on the napkin, aside from ordinary condensation on the glass, you have failed, and must repeat the process.

If you are using a bottle, then you will do one drink per round, three rounds, and instead of placing the bottle on a napkin, you will hold it, inverted, over your head.  If anything falls out (your friends will tell you), you fail.

If you finish early.
If you screw up a sequence.
If you take an unusually long break between rounds (time to take a slight breath and a sip of water is all)...
fail.

A bit better explanation, if you're not quite getting it.. a script through round two... )
About this Entry
[info]fyre
Dec. 23rd, 2009 @ 05:50 pm (no subject)
Looking over TV drinking games.
I just have no one to play them with.
Joni doesn't much care for drunkenness in herself.
These days I mostly play with beer, but I can remember playing asshole, and drunk driver both with fricking coconut rum.

I'm gonna grab a beer in a minute, and play a game of the COPS Ultimate Drinking Game, by myself.  Given that I have only one beer, it won't do much to me, lol.  meh.  Just to start getting back in the game. 

Plus, I need to renew my cardinality (if you know what I mean... Once a cardinal, always a cardinal, never spilled a drop!  but it's nice to go through it again, just to prove you still can), and there's  few more challenges I'd like to complete before I die.

Says the man that doesn't like to drink alone.
Anyone want to harken back to the younger days, and get together every week or two or three and play some drinking games (with beer, and the very occasional shot)?


(EDIT: should have played with the 1/5 of a bottle of meade i have left (no, not a fifth of meade, 1/5 of a bottle). Higher alcohol content, lol. Two sections of COPS down, and I've had precisely two drinks. One person ran from the cops, and one female officer. (See here for rules.) What a loser round of COPS. I'ma gonna try the Cash Cab drinking game if I can find an episode on, to finish this beer, then I'm going to take a nap, dangit. oooo... yet another traffic stop. *sigh* OH car full of people. Maybe we'll get some drugs or something. I feel some drinks coming on. *laughs* I miss the enthusiasm of me at 21/22/23.)

(EDIT #2: Last sequence of the show... Should have just started chugging from the moment they opened her purse...)
About this Entry
[info]fyre
Dec. 23rd, 2009 @ 06:49 am Where do Russian women go when they want to enjoy autumn magnificence, and blossom like flower?
Tags: , ,
...me, apparently...
From an email from a supposedly Russian bride who will, undoubtedly have a horrendous time coming to the States, but will love, honor, and cherish me, at least until my bank account runs dry.

Hello guy! My name is Olesya. I hope my letter will find  you in good
mood. I have decided to write to you and maybe you will answer. 
Once upon a time, the loneliness has come into my home and since
then does not want to let me off. The loneliness establishes own
laws of life and life filles with sadness and disappointment.
I freeze from loneliness. Every evening I look at a sundown and I try to
absorb all warmth of day, up to last drop. I am looking for a partner in
life to share simple pleasures and together take off from the soul the
weariness and sadness given birth by loneliness. I am looking for a man to
become friends first of all and to go together along the road of life,
to have common joy, together enjoy autumn magnificence, together build the future.
I do not know if it is really possible to find it in such a way. But I know
that many people not been able to find happiness in the usual life, have found
happiness in this way. I am happy where I now, and my life is a good life,
but happiness has no sense if you cannot share it with person dear to you.
I could not find here a man who will make me blossom like flower.
That is why I took this courageous for me step. As speak, the journey of
a thousand miles begins with a single step. To tell about itself briefly is
impossibly, therefore I will not try to do it now. I will wait for your
letter and if you are really serious in your search, maybe we will find interest
in each other.

Please reply only to my personal e-mail:  doctor_obg@regionclinic.net

Neither of us knows to where
this path will lead but I am willing to walk it and see where it takes us.
I put a picture that you could see me. Olesya.


The picture?  You standard late 30's/early 40's-ish Red-head eastern european-esque.  Not model pretty, but attractive.  You're not missing much by not seeing it.  Go to a dating site and look up people in Russia. You'll probably find her pic anyway.
About this Entry
[info]fyre
Dec. 19th, 2009 @ 04:15 am Daily Tweet Summary...

  • 13:06 Is it true? Noone processes film anymore? That frightens me beyond all measure of belief. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
About this Entry
[info]fyre
Dec. 18th, 2009 @ 04:04 am One hell of a system...
Every so often I get bored and build a system at Dell, Alienware, etc...
This time it was a Dell Studio XPS 9000...
Here are the specs...
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition(8MB L3 Cache, 3.33GHz)
RAM: 24GB Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs
HDD: 3TB Dual Hard Drives (2x1.5TB SATA 7200 RPM HDDs)
HDD: 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Optical: Blu-ray Disc (BD) Burner (Writes to DVD/CD/BD)
Video: ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
Sound: Soundblaster® X-Fi™ Titanium
OS: Windows 7 Professional
Software: Microsoft Office Professional
Monitor: 22 inch SX2210 Widescreen Flat Panel with Webcam
Speakers: Bose Companion 3 Series II Multimedia Speaker System
Keyboard: Dell USB Consumer Multimedia Keyboard (Only because they didn't have anything I really liked so I'll buy one myself aftermarket)
Mouse: Dell Studio Optical Mouse (same as above, convert to trackball)
Networking: Dell 1525 Wireless-N PCIe Card
I'd buy a gigabit wired later.
PRINTER        Epson WorkForce 610 WiFi All-in-One printer
NAS: Netgear  500 GB ReadyNAS Duo Network Attach Storage (1 Drive & Upgradable) (I'll upgrade to 1.5TB w/ redundant 1.5TB mirrored RAID later)
Router: WNDR3700 RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router
Storage: Seagate 1.5TB FreeAgent External Storage (can plug into router and accessible across network)
Power: Monster Cable Products Inc  MDP 500 Digital PowerCenter Surge Protector
Just for fun: Star Trek Movie and Game on 4GB Data Traveler USB Flash Drive (that looks like a Star Trek communicator from the new movie).

TOTAL COST: $8,468

...yeah...

I came in slightly under that when I built my Alienware machine...
Alienware Area-51 ALX Base price $3,999
CPU: Factory Overclocked Intel® Core™i7 975 3.86GHz (8MB Cache) Extreme Edition Quad Core Processor
OS: Windows 7 Pro
Video: Dual 2GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon™ HD 5970 CrossfireX™ Enabled (4 DVI heads... quad monitors, eventually, woot)
RAM: 12GB DDR3 1333MHz (3x 4GB) Tri Channel Memory
Primay HDD: 2TB RAID 1+0 (4x 1TB SATA-II, 7,200 RPM, 32MB Cache HDDs)
Secondary HDD: 1.5TB RAID 1 (2x 1.5TB SATA-II, 7,200 RPM, 32MB Cache HDDs)
Optical: 6x Blu-ray Burner (DVD/CD/BR)
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
Speakers: Bose Companion 3 Series II Multimedia Speaker System
Monitor: 21.5" Alienware OptX AW2210 Full HD Widescreen Monitor
KB/Mouse: Alienware general

Networking was not included, apparently I ran out of PCI slots, so I would get the machine and figure out wtf was going on and ultimately probably wind up getting a USB or BT based wireless.  I'm not a gamer, so gaming networking doesn't concern me.

TOTAL PRICE AS CONFIGURED: $7,538

You noticed my storage choices?  For me, storage is the most important thing.  Ideally, I'd like a RAID 6 configured SAN storage array that's off of my network master. Failing that, a RAID 6 configured NAS box.  Why 6? Double-fault redundancy.  RAID 5 can be victim of double-faults.  RAID 6 cannot.  Theoretically, RAID 10 or RAID O+1 should be enough for anyone... but I'm planning on storing a lot of music, movies, and other data, and would like the redundancy of long-term storage, and that would be much more cost effective than dedicating half of my drives to mirroring, when instead I can dedicated the equivalent of one or two drives to parity. Instead of a 1:1, it would be more like a 3:1 or better, but with distributed parity.  Of course, finding a NAS box that's setup for RAID 6 with anything other than SCSI is nigh on fucking impossible.  I may wind up having to build one from scratch with an embedded linux OS on chip that will run RAID 6 for SATA.

But yeah, on that Alienware? I'd stripe the RAID 0+1 2T drives, and make them a 4T RAID 0, and use the 1.5T RAID 1 to store really important shit, at least until I could get the damned NAS online.

*sigh*
for now, though... I'll just dream.
and live with the single 320G drive I've got.
I feel so... like less of a geek.  Like I've been de-geeked.  My geek is limp.
I have so little space compared to everyone I work with.
I have so little space compared to most everyone I _know_ (geekly speaking).
I feel... like I am not worth of the Geek title.
poo.
My storage dick is tiny.
About this Entry
[info]fyre