BunkBlog

Someone (phbt!) recently pointed out that it has been more than two weeks since I posted, which is some sort of rare event. Gee, sorry I haven’t had any particularly stellar blinding insights lately that I had to share.

I’m still happy with the MythTV box, which now has about 180 programs stored on it. I’m planning to get another drive to use just for storing movies, which I have been acquiring from late-night TV regularly now. I also had to stop feeling so packrat-like. I was recording shows that I remember from my childhood, as if I suddenly acquired the ability and desire to watch 45 hours of television each day while still going to work and caring for the Boy.

I’ve added limits to most of my recordings, to make them stop recording more than X number of shows (X can vary from 3 to 10). Exceptions are, of course, the SciFi channel shows, which don’t auto-expire and don’t have storage limits. Yes, I am predictable.

I’m still slowly converting my VHS tapes to DVD. Unless I buy a different piece of furniture for my television, I won’t have room for a separate DVD player or VHS player again, anyway.

Work remains fun and exciting. The two women I work next to need slapping on a daily basis, but it beats being in the Army.

It was 85 on Thursday, and 35 on Friday. Just in time for the big Rodeo Parade.

Three weeks until Game Night.

I’ve got chocolate.

The idiot governor of my adopted state says, Add intelligent design to teaching

From the article linked:

Marvin Olasky, a University of Texas journalism professor who has written favorably on intelligent design

That pretty much says all that needs to be said about Intelligent Design. No scientist is behind any of this. The college professors trotted out to be the educators willing to back ID are all liberal arts types. Nothing against my liberal arts friends, but you’re not scientists.

When we need someone’s expert opinion on Chopin, we ask a music professor. When we need an expert opinion on Shakespeare, we ask an English professor. When we need an expert opinion on biology, we ask…a journalism professor?

The printer naturally arrived in San Angelo while I was in San Antonio, and the FedEx office closed while I was passing through Eden. Checking the web site at the time I was supposed to be across town (near the FedEx office), I saw that it was supposedly not on a truck but was sitting at the FedEx office. Cool, I’ll swing by there. Nope, not there. The web site needed a kickstart, apparently, because the printer was on the truck, as of 7:52 am. This truck usually passes my house around 11 am, based on recent history. It actually showed up closer to 4 pm. Gotta love the holidays for slowing shipping service to a crawl.

Before I even unpacked the printer completely, I checked to see if the power switch worked. Yay! After pulling the fifty pound monster up onto the desk and printing the test page, there was much rejoicing. The thing is even bigger than I envisioned it, but prints pretty. Mission accomplished, finally.

So, the stupid printer is still in my house. The HP folks will send me a replacement, via next-day air, as soon as I let them know that FedEx has picked this one up. That will be tomorrow afternoon. Yay for taking time off work to wait for the FedEx dude!

Now, with Christmas being this weekend, maybe I can hope to have a printer on … Thursday? Oh, except I’ll be in San Antonio Thursday. Joy. So, maybe by Friday, but certainly before Christmas itself. In the immortal words of Mr. Garrison, Merry Christmas to you (yes, I did omit a word. So?).

Whenever someone asks what I want for $GIFTGIVINGDAY, I point them to my registry on Amazon. Yet, they continually do one of two things: don’t buy me anything at all, or say, “what do you really want?” Yeah, that’s why I have the wish list. I actually use the wish list myself more frequently than is probably wise. It’s pretty much ended up as a “hey that looks cool but I’m not going to buy it today” holding area.

Still, I have to wonder why someone would ask what I want, and then assume that I was just yanking their chain by telling them. Must be a lot of duplicitious people in the world, making folks that untrusting.

During the cruise, I brought along the new digital camera, the newish MiniDV camcorder, and a Jimi wallet. Here’s my impressions of how they fared.

Canon A610 digital camera

This 5 megapixel compact camera continues to impress me. I’m still on the original pack of four AA batteries that came packed with the camera. Considering that you usually assume the batteries that come with a device are half dead to begin with, this is very impressive. I’ve taken over four hundred photos on one set of batteries, plus a few short videos just to test it out.
I tried out the whole gamut of options on this bad boy last week. The series of cameras of which the A610 is part is the first group of consumer-level cameras equipped with the Digic II chip. The difference in speed from the Digic processor is amazing. I had a high-speed 1 gigabyte SD card and hit the “motor drive” mode to shoot still images continuously in full resolution (2,592 x 1,944). It never hiccuped, even after a series of 30 images in a row. Of course, this is without flash. Flash recycle times are the norm you expect.
Anyway, if you want to see the images, just go to the gallery and check ’em out. I didn’t do any retouching of the cruise photos before uploading them.

JVC GR-D270

The camcorder is pretty much what you expect from a $300 miniDV camcorder. It works well, but it’s nothing magical. The low-light exposure is not very good, but no worse than any other in its class. Fortunately, Adobe Premiere is great at post-production – I use the level processing frequently. I picked up a 3 hour battery for under fifty bucks at the post-Thanksgiving sales, and it didn’t need to be recharged during the trip. I used the viewfinder more than the external LCD, so that affects battery life a lot. I’m getting footage together for a year-end “Best of Alex” DVD. Yes, I’m a geek.

Jimi Wallet

I got one of these in teal, to keep my cards and money out of my pocket when I was on the beach and such. It’s not waterproof, just splash-resistant. It was perfect for a cashless week, but I can see a major problem if I tried to carry more than a few bills in it. The Jimi fits in the front pocket of your pants, not the rear – some folks would probably have issues with that. For the cruise, it was much better than a normal wallet. Now, to get a replacement for the worn 8 year-old eelskin wallet I bought in Korea. Anyone have any of those lying around? 🙂

As promised, I’ve posted about 30 photos from the cruise. One example:

After five days of cruising, the last one in some fairly choppy seas, it now feels like my house is swaying.

We’re back, safe and sound; photos and videos and all that are awaiting my attention. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

OK, you little deviants. I’m taking off for a week, cruising with my son and assorted family members to the Yucatan. It was supposed to be Cozumel, but I’m told that island is kind of hosed right now, so it sounds like we’ll be hitting Progreso and Veracruz. I promise to take a bajillion photos and videos – gotta justify the new memory cards and batteries, after all. 🙂

Try not to blow anything up while I’m away, k?

Seriously, is Veteran’s Day really a good time to attack your political rivals? I know, every day is campaign day in modern politics, but give it a rest already! I spent twelve years in the Army, and I’m proud of that service. I’m also happy to live in a country where I can disagree with a policy decision or pretty much anything else, and do so in public without fear of arrest or other bad things.

Here in San Angelo, the local school district finally decided to recognize Veteran’s Day. This is something which has been a long time coming, and is really bizarre considering how much the local population actually likes the military (not something I was used to at other postings in the Army). So, the Boy and I went to the parade again. Last year, it was cold and we had hot cocoa while sitting on a bench beside the Federal Building, watching the relatively small parade go by. This year, it was nice out, we stood in the street near the Federal Building (until he got tired and needed to take a break on the lawn), and the parade was much larger. It’s not quite as large as the parade for Rodeo Day, but you take what you can get in West Texas. I’m sure if we had a High School Football Day, the parade would be astounding in its scope. Anyway, a few new pictures up at the gallery of the Boy and the Cat. We built a gingerbread house that looks less impressive now than it did while we were decorating it. The Cat didn’t help.

Unsurprisingly, the “I hate gays” amendment passed overwhelmingly here in Red Neck Texas. If something is already illegal, why bother with amending the state constitution? Is it just a way to say, “no, really – we hate gays?” Of course, the way the Texas constitution is written, an insane number of things require amendments rather than laws – we’re up to 437 amendments, I believe.

California – what the hell is wrong with you people? You rejected every proposition, even the reasonable ones, just because Arnold liked them all? And, um…San Francisco banned all gun ownership? Damn, even the SFPD thought that was stupid. I realize that nobody needs a gun to go hunting on Fisherman’s Wharf, but that doesn’t mean the Second Amendment is irrelevant. What part of “shall not be infringed” is unclear?

If people don’t like a particular part of our legal framework, they’re perfectly welcome to attempt changing it. Just don’t circumvent it, eh? BTW, this applies equally to people finding legal loopholes to allow torture and indiscriminate imprisonment as it does to people who hate gays or guns. Some days, it’s hard to think of people as a group having anything like brains (Kansas, I’m looking at you!).

You would think Kansas would wait until after the Dover case was settled before trying this, but the Kansas educational system seems to like showing off its ignorance.

Next on the hit list, Germ Theory and the Theory of Gravity. It’s all deus ex machina, man!

Alex got a good haul of candy at the mall, and another bucketload tonight.

Why would someone be bringing little kids to my door at 9 pm? Geez, folks, get them to bed already!

I got two new toys this week – a CD player and a camera. Not too exciting, eh?

Well, the CD player is to replace the CD/MP3 player I’ve been using at work. That one, the original RioVolt from 2000, is still working, but it has poor battery life compared to newer machines, and no radio. I like having the radio as an option. So, I’ve been looking for a replacement for a while. I even bought a rebadged iRiver Slimx from Sharper Image’s clearance rack a while ago – it was inop on arrival. So, a new Sony Psyc CD/MP3 player is now on my desk at work. Unlike most CD/MP3 players on the market (like the ones two of my coworkers have), this one actually has an alphanumeric display. Go figure – you have 100 songs on a disk, it’s nice to know what the song is other than “track 75.” Oh, and 22-40 hour battery life with one AA battery – sweet.

My other new toy, the camera, is a bigger step. My first digital camera was the Canon Powershot S10, which was the smallest 2 megapixel camera on the market at the time, with the best optical zoom. After four years, it finally gave up the ghost. I tried to take a still shot with the camcorder recently – ick. So, when Buy.com pinged me with a “for sale” sign linked to the new Powershot A610, I took a look. Half the price of that S10, uses standard batteries instead of the $35 ones the S10 used, over twice the resolution, swing-out LCD, double the zoom… Well, suffice to say, it’s sitting on my desk and it’s pretty sweet. It is slightly larger than the S10, even using SD instead of CompactFlash for memory, because it uses four AA batteries – this does lead to it working for 400 or more photos instead of the 150 I’d get from the S10, so I’ll accept the tradeoff. Still fits easily in a jacket pocket, so it meets my criteria of “the best camera to use is the one you’re willing to cart around.”

Alex decided to be a white ninja for Halloween this year. Isn’t he adorable?

BTW, I installed Gallery2 this weekend, so any old URLs you had to my photo gallery don’t work.

I went grocery shopping this morning, as I usually do on Sundays. I thought I’d go ahead and pick up a six-pack of 1554, but then I realized that when I moved to San Angelo I’d moved to the 18th Century as well. Can’t buy alcohol until noon on Sundays. I have this good-looking cake recipe I want to try this week, which requires raspberry liquer in the mix. Not only can’t I buy that until afternoon, I can’t buy it in the grocery store. Although they’ve recently made it legal to sell hard liquor within the city limits, nobody is doing so as yet (licenses not issued I’m guessing). OK, fine. I know I’m stuck in Bibleland (thank you, Poppy Brite, for that term), but at least the liquor stores outside the city limits are available, right?

Not on Sundays. I don’t know whether it’s a law that they be closed or just that nobody goes to the sinful liquor vendors on church days, but they’re all closed until tomorrow. Guess I’ll make that cake another day.

Our own local fishwrap, the SubStandard Times, has a brief article about the Intelligent Design debacle debate. One person quoted is a biology professor at Abilene Christian University:

”I see good evidence for evolution, but on the other hand, I see my body works almost perfectly. It seems to be a tremendous leap of faith to say this body is the result of total randomness.”

It’s not total randomness! To conflate evolution with purely random chance mutations is to deliberately mislead people. How is this guy a college professor? It’s not like you have just as good a chance to evolve something bad as something good – that’s the point; the bad mutations tend to die and the good mutations tend to out-compete the nonmutated organisms. Evolution is the only theory on speciation (not the origin of life – another common confusion thrown in) that has withstood the test of time and research. There has not been any serious debunking of evolution since Darwin’s time; it looks increasingly unlikely that there will ever be a legitimate failure found in the basic tenets of the theory.

Two other professors, from a non-religious university, say the same thing that every actual working scientist has said: ID isn’t science, it’s faith. If you want to believe in a deity or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, good for you. Just don’t try to use that belief to bring down science.

They also quote a Catholic Bishop, as the “other side of the debate” – there is no debate. If you want to have a theologian discuss his views on a subject that is not in his area of study, why stop there? How about if we use expert opinions on automobile maintenance from a grocery clerk? Why not take a biologist’s opinion about quantum physics as a legitimate counterpoint to an actual physicist’s research? Some things are not opinion – they are observed reality.

Alex turned six yesterday. Seems like just last week that he could only say things like “gup” and “joosh” – now he talks nonstop about just about any topic that pops into his head.

His mom got him a Spiderman game for Xbox, and a really cool model airplane. The plane has interchangeable bombs and drop fuel tanks and the cockpit opens to put the little pilot in his chair. He really digs the plane, which he insists is a “Model” not an airplane. heh

My mom sent him a check (much more than I remember any of my grandparents sending me when I was six, that’s for sure) and we had to go spend it. He ended up with a giant swamp-creature racetrack for his Hot Wheels cars.

He wanted to get up at 5:30 on his birthday, to open his presents as early as possible. At the usual wakeup time, he ran to the living room and ripped the paper off his two Hot Wheels toys, and then looked at the 1000-piece tub of Legos. This morning, he doesn’t even want to watch cartoons, he’s so intent on building stuff with his new blocks. He’s done a sword and a firetruck so far. I’m glad he likes building toys – it always seems more healthy to construct than to destroy, although there is always a component of destruction when the blocks have to go back in the tub. 🙂

Tonight, we go over to his grandfather’s house for more presents (I presume) and some dinner and apple pie. Yeah, he doesn’t really get into cake too much, and besides – he had some of that chocolate cake on Monday.

Overall, it seems like a pretty good week-long birthday, eh?

Althought the traditional Bavarian recipe I have been using for Black Forest Cake has always been a hit, this month’s Cuisine Magazine included an alternate recipe. So, that’s going to work tomorrow. Well, I’ll keep a piece or two home, but most of it goes to my coworkers – I don’t need that much chocolate.

This recipe omits the chocolate mousse and cream cheese frosting, replacing both with more layers of whipped cream and cherries. And, the cake is noticably moister than the European norm. Unfortunately, it has to set overnight so I can’t taste it, but it sure does look good. Mmmm… chocolate and cherries….