BunkBlog

Meme of the day from Mike:

Why do you read my blog?

I seriously appreciate the automatic update feature of Windows XP. It is very convenient, and unobtrusive if set to nag you rather than do everything without input.

I do wonder, though, why I need to install security updates for programs that I don’t use and have purposely removed, such as Outlook Express or MSN Messenger. Oh, right. It’s because you can’t actually remove OE or IE or MSN Messenger. No matter what you do, the little bastards just stick around, opening up their security holes for all to exploit. If Linux had decent wifi usability…

Yes, I know you can use various and sundry hacks and workarounds to attempt to get your wifi card mostly working with some specific combination of hardware and software. Doesn’t count if I need to work at it that hard.

If you have over 40, you are spoiled.

Do you have:
() your own cell phone
() a television in your bedroom
(1) an MP3 player
() a photo printer
(2) your own phone line
(3) TiVo or a generic digital video recorder
(4) high-speed internet access (i.e., not dialup)
() a surround sound system in bedroom
() DVD player in bedroom
() at least a hundred DVDs
() a childfree bathroom
() your own in-house office
()a pool
() a guest house
() a game room
(5) a queen-size bed or larger
() a stocked bar
() a working dishwasher
() an icemaker
(6) a working washer and dryer
() more than 20 pairs of shoes
() at least ten things from a designer store
() expensive sunglasses
() framed original art (not lithographs or prints)
(7) Egyptian cotton sheets or towels
(8) a multi-speed bike
() a gym membership
() large exercise equipment at home
() your own set of golf clubs
() a pool table
() a tennis court
() local access to a lake, large pond, or the sea
() your own pair of skis
() enough camping gear for a weekend trip in an isolated area
() a boat
() a jet ski
() a neighborhood committee membership
() a beach house or a vacation house/cabin
() wealthy family members
() two or more family cars
() a walk-in closet or pantry
(9) a yard
() a hammock
() a personal trainer
(10) good credit
() expensive jewelry
() a designer bag that required being on a waiting list to get
() at least $100 cash in your possession right now
(11) more than two credit cards bearing your name (not counting gas cards or debit cards)
(12) a stock portfolio
(13) a passport
() a horse
() a trust fund (either for you or created by you)
() private medical insurance
(14) a college degree, and no outstanding student loans

Do you:
() shop for non-needed items for yourself (like clothes, jewelry, electronics) at least once a week
() do your regular grocery shopping at high-end or specialty stores
() pay someone else to clean your house, do dishes, or launder your clothes (not counting dry-cleaning)
() go on weekend mini-vacations
() send dinners back with every flaw
(15) wear perfume or cologne (not body spray)
() regularly get your hair styled or nails done in a salon
() have a job but don’t need the money
() stay at home with little financial sacrifice
() pay someone else to cook your meals
() pay someone else to watch your children or walk your dogs
() regularly pay someone else to drive you taxis
() expect a gift after you fight with your partner

Are you:
() an only child
() married/partnered to a wealthy person
() baffled/surprised when you don’t get your way

Have you:
(16) been on a cruise
(17) traveled out of the country
() met a celebrity
(18) been to the Caribbean
(19) been to Europe (when I was an infant!)
() been to Hawaii
() been to New York
() eaten at the space needle in Seattle
(20) been to the Mall of America
() been on the Eiffel tower in Paris
() been on the Statue of Liberty in New York
() moved more than three times because you wanted to
() dined with local political figures
(21) been to both the Atlantic coast and the Pacific coast

Did you:
() go to another country for your honeymoon
() hire a professional photographer for your wedding or party
() take riding or swimming lessons as a child
(22) attend private school (for two years)
() have a Sweet 16 birthday party thrown for you

Pretty much everyone knows that cats enjoy giving presents to their owners. Holly was just mewling at the front door, and when I looked out she had some rather large lizard in her mouth. I got her to drop it so it could scurry away, but it did seem to be missing its tail.

This creature keeps giving me dead birds and live lizards. No matter how many times I discourage her, she just won’t stop. Has she ever seen me eating a sparrow or gecko? Why would she think I’d appreciate these things? I don’t assume she’d like Screaming Yellow Zonkers.

The latest in the world of “energy drinks,” Coca Cola Blak, is quite possibly one of the strangest beverages I’ve ever tried.  Coke and coffee?  I think I’ll stick with Dew.

Rachael Ray is my friend. I’ve been going through the recipes in her book “365 No Repeats” for the past several months, and Alex is loving most of them.

A couple weeks ago, I made a three-onion soup with cheesy bread – twice in a row, by request. Tonight was a creamy broccoli soup (with cheesy bread again, go figure), made with pureed broccoli and onions, cream, and chicken stock. Again, a big hit.

I love that my boy tries new things without complaint – some kids are supposedly quite evil about eating. I guess years of, “if you don’t eat it, you get nothing until breakfast” work, so long as you actually stick to your guns. I can’t imagine making two meals, one for me and one for him. Shoot, when I am not feeling well I have a hard time convincing myself to cook for the boy at all.

This video has to be seen if you want to truly understand how long it will take to rebuild New Orleans.  It’s 22 minutes long, 82 megs in size, so don’t be impatient with it (or use dialup).

As ikilled007 has said, years – not months – years to bring it back, if ever.

Exactly why is it that nobody in The Unit wears a uniform while in garrison? Sure, when they’re in the field, they wear a mishmash of military and civilian attire. But, when they’re supposedly doing their homebase training, they hang out in t-shirts and jeans. Yeah, right. Well, there is one guy who stays in BDUs (the Colonel), but he doesn’t wear insignia of any kind, name tapes, patches, nothing.

Some of you may say, “But the US Code says that you can’t wear an accurate uniform.” That is actually not true for actors. Oh, it was true once, but it’s not true now and hasn’t been for years.

Larry the Cable Guy tied Basic Instinct 2 this weekend. That’s gotta hurt.

The BBC has a list of 10 stories that could be pranks but aren’t. Nice to know on this April Fool’s Day. I particularly like #6.

Slashdot is pink. ThinkGeek is selling USB tanning centers and wireless extension cords. Welcome to April Fool 2006. Be afraid.

1. Name one of your flaws. I’m a gigantic smartass.
2. Have you ever won first place?  In 7th grade, I won first place for the science fair (Tesla coil and Jacob’s Ladder) and also for an art contest (some elephant sketch).
3. Who is the last person to make you smile?  Probably one of the ladies at work.
4. Describe a time when you should have tried harder.  High school.  Specifically, the “getting into college” period.
5. What are you good at?  Folding paper, building computers, animated GIFs, sex, cooking, baking.  A few things, all of them indoors.  Huh.

Alex has finished his second week with the “Kid’s Karate” program, and he’s starting to figure out his left from his right. All in good time, I suppose.

He’s very cute in his little white uniform, jumping around like a tiny kangaroo.

And so ends another week. Back to hanging out with my main girl, the cat.

I read the graphic novel a while ago, and the movie version of V For Vendetta
is true to the source material and yet quite different.

The Commander’s review pretty much covers the material, so I won’t be redundant.  The most striking difference between the novel and the movie in my mind was the final scene.  I don’t recall a scene like that in the novel (the above ground bits, that is).  Makes the movie more hopeful than the book, which is not nearly as dark as most Moore stuff.  Might explain why he screamed to take his name off it.

Since Qumana didn’t work, and I finally got my host to unlock the xmlrpc functionality so Performancing can work now. Let’s see how this goes.

Checking out the Qumana blog editor for posting to the site. It’s also supposed to work with Livejournal, but it’s not working for me.  Maybe in the next beta.

Since Livepress is stuck in version 1.5, and I’m using WordPress 2.0.2, the automatic post synch doesn’t function directly.  This is my attempt to get there through a different route.  Maybe another way, since this isn’t ready yet.  *sigh*

Several people have recently asked why in the world I would need 350 gigs of storage space, when that equates to hundreds of hours of video footage – way more than I could watch in a reasonable amount of time.

So, here’s the explanation for those who haven’t drunk the DVR koolaid yet.

I don’t record things to watch them at a specific time (except for a few shows that I look forward to talking about at work), but to have them for whenever I feel like watching them. Say I feel like watching a cooking show.  Six months ago, I could flip over to the Food Network and hope one of the shows I liked was on, or deal with watching the Al Roker barbecue special again.  Now, I just see which Good Eats or 30 Minute Meals episode I feel like watching. And Alex has three episodes of every one of his shows on tap, for whenever he wants to spend his 30 minutes of screen time per day.

Although I’m still opposed to the idea of tuners being not part of an industry standard and therefore being held hostage to a cable or satellite company for digital signals, I can see the utility of a dual-tuner HD box sometime in the future. The bigger problem is that whole DRM nonsense. As the consumers get more educated and begin to revolt against all the copy protection crap the MPAA and RIAA want us to encumber our media with, they continue to plan even more.  France has legislated the first step toward making DRM illegal, and yet the US government opposes the measure.  It’s astounding.

As Cory Doctorow says, nobody wants to do less with their media today than they did yesterday.  Yet, that’s what the MPAA want to force on us.  Why?

Surprisingly, Alex is in love with a new recipe for onion soup with cheesy bread. Pretty simple soup (sauteed onions, leeks, and shallots in beef broth), but the cheesy bread had three cheeses – smoked gouda, gruyere, and cheddar.  I’ve got a bowl sealed up and waiting for lunch at work tomorrow, along with one chunk of bread.

The Boy actually requested the soup two days in a row.  Guess it’s a keeper.

Apparently, Microsoft is still running into issues with Vista, even after deleting several features from the original Longhorn plan. They’ve announced an updated availability date, and it’s 2007! For those keeping score, Longhorn was originally planned for a 2004 release.

They delayed it until 2005 for security issues. At that point, Allchin promised WinFS would be in the release.

Four months after that announcement, MS announced the removal of WinFS from the 2006 release.

Eight months after that, there was rampant speculation that the 2006 date was optimistic. MS denied any such thing.

Just recently, EFI booting support was pulled from the planned Vista release.

Wonder when it will ship and what will be in it.

I swear, Family Guy is written just for nuts like me. Just in the first seven minutes of tonight’s episode, the references included Mytzlplk, 80s children’s television, John Cusack movies, the Disney versions of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, and the war in Iraq.

The other obscure references that I noticed include the Dukes of Hazzard, Punk’d, the psychotically vague Second Amendment verbiage, a particular Burgundy wine (or restaurant in Tribeca), Planet of the Apes, Woody Woodpecker, Fatal Attraction, Less Than Zero (or maybe Bright Lights Big City – I’ve only read the books not seen the movies), and zombie movies.

There was also a reference to a movie that doesn’t seem familiar – ancient language-speaking forestdwelling people who are apparently reincarnated soul mates later in history. Anyone know that one?