KT should be landing in Chicago in about an hour or so. I’m really excited she is coming home today and I can’t wait to hear about her trip. I’ve caught myself about three times, before trying to send her an email. I think she saw a lot of things she really wanted to see. It also sounds like if she never sees the other woman who went it will be too soon.
I spent the majority of last night cleaning up the house. Not that I totally let myself go while she was gone, but she was so focused on the trip before she left that we didn’t do much around the house. Additionally, I pretty much tried to stay out of the way. Once she was gone, I pretty much down shifted into “lean” living mode. So in an effort to make her feel nice and welcome I cleaned up. There is a couple more things I want to do tonight before she gets in but for the most part the house is looking good.
We did another IJSMPcast last night with a different approach the first time around. I would rate the first cast as a “B”, the content was pretty golden but the technicals were the suck. I could rate the second one as a “C” the technicals were better but the content was boring. We had 9 people in the channel, and only about 4-6 really participating. By the end I felt like we were debating rather than discussing. So I’m going to try the following next time. I’m limiting the participants to 4-5 people. I’m going to try and keep the topics a little more light hearted as well. I do think its going well and we are settling into a groove.
Outside of a rough first day, it sounds like KT’s trip to England is going well. It sounds like they are seeing a lot of stuff everyday and she really enjoyed the Shakespear sites they visited. I have not talked to her yet today, but it was her second day in London. The over and under I got was that she liked the sites outside of London a little better than London itself. Keeping in mind that neither of us are real “city people” I can understand that. Compounded by the fact that she has to keep ~15 highschool kids out of trouble its probably a lot to manage. It also sounds like the woman who used to run these trips who came along this time has been a big PITA. It sounds like she is out of touch with the students and thinks they are all “plotting something” everyday.
She told me before the trip she wouldn’t do it again, largely because of the stress of people feigning interesting and pulling out at the last minute. I also told her that I really didn’t want to go, largely because I didn’t want to babysit high school kids during my time off. That being said, I think if she wanted to do this trip again I think I would go with her. I’m curious if after the trip she would want to go again.
I do miss her and I pretty much put life on hold between 3-4:30 everyday waiting for her to call.
I wonder how long she will just sleep once she gets home…
I was listening to This American Life this morning on my way into work. It was an episode from a couple weeks ago about childhood. The first act was about trying to find a babysitter the host had as a child. It struck me because I got the overall impression that the host had a bit of a crush on the girl, who was a college freshman at the time. It reminded me of a similar experience I had as a child.
My guess is that my sister was around 2-3 years old which would have made me about 6-7 at the time. There was a high school girl who lived down the street that occasionally watched some of my friends in the neighborhood. Her name was Carolyn, I’m not even sure that is how it was spelled but that is how I see it in my head. I vaguely remember what she looks like and the closest comparison I can make is the girl who play Lynn Tanner on Alf. Not that anyone but me remembers that show or Lynn for that matter. Anyway, my guess is that she was around 16-17 years old and probably the first “woman” I ever had a crush on. She lived next door to my friend and I remember she would always catch my attention when she would come and go from her house. I remember that they had a collie which was an excuse for us to go over by the fence and say “Hi Carolyn” in unison in a sing-songy little kid voice.
I remember begging my mom to get her to babysit for my sister and I. Finally, all my begging paid off. I have no idea where my parents went, but she came to babysit. My sister was horrible the whole time. As a child she never handled my mother being gone well. I think she screamed the majority of the night. I have only a flash of memory of “helping” Carolyn change my sister and pointing out where stuff was and an overall impression that she was never happier that my parents got home. I remember afterwards being very angry that I had a sister (clearly the only time that ever occurred:P). I suppose not too much longer after that she went off to college and we rarely, if ever, saw her again. Soon enough, we were moving away and it all became memories anyway.
What really got me thinking though was, what exactly did I feel for Carolyn as a young boy. I know that I didn’t want her to be my girlfriend. That was not interesting or really even a thought. I remember wanting her to notice us and talk us. I was far too young to have any real sexual thoughts about her, but I’m also pretty sure I would have stabbed my best friend to see her naked. It seems odd to me. The over and under is that I think my body knew it was interested in her more than my mind really did. At the same time, being about 10-12 I remember “talking shit” with the other guys at school about how many playboys we had seen. I also remember a guy who used to make up stories about seeing his dad’s girlfriend half naked. While we all knew they were bullshit we couldn’t help but imagine it was us. You figure that at 10-12 you are still 2-5 years off of really hitting puberty.
The final thing that strikes me, is trying to figure out when the transition occurred from being sexually interested in “women” to being interested in girls my own age(and obviously still interested in women). For me, junior high was when I was first really interested in girls. My guess is that is the typical point in time when you go from girls being “yuck” to “interesting.” Its strange for me to think about now though, having only interest in women that were at least double my age while I was surrounded girls that were my age. I think the truth is that there is just as much “nature” involved as “high level human thinking” as you are growing up.
A few of the normal crew decided to give podcasting a go last night. I figured that we expend so much uncaptured quality comedy on vent it was time to give podcasting a try. After a super crash course in trying to make Audacity work correctly we started rolling at about 9:30 central last night. Several folks questioned if we could really fill an hour with our usual jive. I thought the time flew. Had it not been so late we probably could have talked for two hours. Other than a few tweaks to a couple people’s setups I think we’ll be good to go.
After work last night I test drove a Dodge Avenger. I took it for a about a 15 minute spin. My first impression from the outside is that it was very slick looking, but a little small…especially the back seat. Although according to a review I read there is only 2-3 inches less of leg room in the backseat between this car and other cars in its class. The ride was really enjoyable, although I wish I would have investigated all the bells and whistles before the drive rather than after. The car is LOADED with creature comforts. Which is my only real complaint about my truck. I love the ride in the truck, I love the power and I love the utility. However, of those 3 I’m usually only really enjoying the ride on an everyday basis. Not to mention I pay as much in gas every month as I do for the trucks payment. I really wanted leather seats and a sun roof in the truck, but unless I was buying a $45,000 truck it wasn’t going to happen. So the Avenger has power everything, heated leather seats, radio controls on the steering wheel (why is this so hard to put in a truck?) and much better fuel economy. The 3.5L V6 also has enough power to keep me from feeling like I’m driving a golf cart. Overall, the Avenger was very comfortable to sit in and drive. It felt like a sports car with the ride of a sedan.
Lastly, KT leaves today for England for 9 days. I think she is very excited to go. I’m also really happy for her because I know it is something she has always wanted to see. It’s also hard for both of us as since college the most we have ever been apart is a long weekend. That being said, I also think its good for us to get away and do somethings we are interested in separately. I think she’ll love it, but be absolutely ready for another vacation by the time she gets back.
Kind of…in geeky terms.
I decided to upgrade to the next Alpha of Ubuntu last night, dubbed Hardy Heron. The update was about 1g+ of data to download and took about 2-3 hours. The update process took about 45-60 minutes. In general, the update was really smooth. Probably the smoothest yet.
I only had one problem and that was with Synergy. Synergy is an awesome tool that lets you share a mouse a keyboard between two machines seamlessly. What makes it really awesome is that you can use it between Windows, Mac and Linux which is something none of the commercial software seems to be capable of. The other bummer is that owner has stopped development of the tool, however it still works quite well. I'm not sure what the license is, but I think someone could make some money by forking the project into an profitable open source project.
So anyway, after the update Synergy started working sporadically and then would sometimes quit all together. I tried Googling without much luck. I searched the Ubuntu forums and I must have misspelled synergy at the time because I got no results. So I tried again this morning and pretty quickly found a post that matched my problem.
The current solution is to run synergy as root. It sounds like there is something in the new kernel release that needs to get fixed. I'm sure it will get resolved soon.
Other than the Firefox 3.0 beta, I haven't noticed too much different yet.
Still loving Ubuntu and Linux.
In the last few weeks, I’ve had several friends ask me about Tator. His recent blog postings have raised concerns with many of us. The questions have ranged from “is he going to be OK?” to “has he just gone nuts or what?” Honestly, I really haven’t talked to him much about the subject. My hope, is the same as everyone else “I hope so” (That he is going to be OK…not that he has gone nuts).
I’ve known Tator since college and since he changed jobs a few years ago we are not as close as we once were(not gay). One thing I can say about him though is he tends to float from one “subject” to another and go absolutely overboard with it. I think cooking, wine and cigars have been the 3 most prominent subjects but I think there were a number of smaller ventures in there as well like “the dogs”, his car, and Guild Wars.
So that being said, it doesn’t surprise me that he has taken “dating” to the “extreme.” Although, I’m not sure dating is the right term. It is also far from my place to tell anyone how to live their lives, so I write this out of concern and not contempt. Overall, I want my friend to be able to find resolution and in the end be the same good hearted guy he has always been.
My hope is that realizes that he doesn’t have to do anything to “impress” any of his friends as his blog has become quite boastful of his recent “adventures.” My hope is that he is doing things now, in the short term, to help gain closure. In my experience, relationships are based on how they are formed. If you meet someone new and treat them like a disposable person, you’re likely to get the same treatment.
Good luck buddy, I hope you find what you need right now.
Call me a cranky, tired, and hateall beeotch, but I don’t understand why we even have Day Light Savings Time anymore. Is it really necessary? I decided to see what Wikipedia had to say on the subject. It seems like there are conflicting studies on whether it actually saves any electricity. Since California is one of the places hurting the most in the area of consumption of electricity, it seems interesting that DST had little or no effect.  Good game on savings.
It seems like an outdated practice that doesn’t really provide any value anymore. With the “new global economy” and “round the clock” business efforts it seems like this doesn’t really serve much of a purpose anymore. On top of all that, I would like my hour of sleep back.
Firethorn, Red Leader and IJSMP have a new addition as of last night(I think, twitter fails at time stamps). Congrats to them on their baby boy. Now if Fire would stop failing the team and give us the vital stats!
KT and I are very happy for you both!
Today's update is so great, it prompted the editing of a category. The Home category has been officially moved to Home Pwnrship. Shortly after buying his first home, Firethorn described some of the joys of home ownership. Of course I believed him, but without experiential data it is hard to really "feel" these types of things. All things considered, we have been in home for almost a year now and aside from a few plumbing issues things have been very good…
So Friday night, KT and I went to bed around 11pm. We were planning on getting up around 7-8am and going grocery shopping before heading down to visit our parents in Illinois. Suddenly, I find a noise waking me up from my sweet sweet slumber. Immediately, I believe it is my alarm clock and I begin bashing it like a drunken clown trying to open a coconut. After about 10-15 seconds, I conclude that if it was the alarm clock I would have killed it by now. I turn to KT who is frantically bashing her alarm clock. After about another 10-15 seconds my brain defogs and notifies me that this is the smoke detector going off….correction….ALL the smoke detectors going off. OH FUCK!
I quickly assess the situation and determine that 1.)There is no smoke upstairs 2.)I see no fire upstairs. I check the basement and similarly no smoke, no fire. Defcon status lowers from 5 to 4. Then I remember we have a CO detector right by the smoke detectors. I've replaced the batteries in it but never taken it down. I know the smoke detectors are wired so I figured the CO detector might be wired too. I go back up stairs and take one of the smoke detectors down from the ceiling but I can not get it unplugged from the wiring. Over the heinous symphony of electronic screeching, I'm starting to realize that, at least in my mind, they have been going off a long time. I try a few times to get the alarm unplugged with no luck and some fear that if I break the connector off the other alarms may never shut up. GREAT.
So I'm running low on ideas and I'm starting to get concerned the neighbors are going to hear the alarms….because holy hell are they loud. My last ditch effort is to cut the power. So I go downstairs and flip the master breaker, everything goes dead….but the smoke detectors. Good ole battery back up to "save the day." I'm starting to feel 1.)beaten 2.)concerned the neighbors are going to call 911 3.) worried that it still might be CO and 4.) Worried that in my half awake/half panic of trying to shut everything up so I can think, I have potentially missed a fire somewhere in the house. At that point, I said "fuckit I pay my taxes call the pros." So I have KT call the non-emergency number and they send the fire department (which is about a 1 minute drive from our house.) DEEP BREATH.
I stick my head out the front door and I can hear the truck and the siren. Luckily, they weren't running the siren when the pulled up…but they did bring the ladder truck. So two guys, about my age, come up the driveway in full fire gear. I quickly explain everything I think has happened to this point. One has a CO detector and the other has an infrared camera. They both do a sweep and come back with everything is OK. The smoke detectors are still screaming like mortar attack victims. There are four, that sit in the hallway and the three bedrooms. They are probably each about 3 feet from each other(not my design.) The one guy comments "Well those are annoying enough." So they try to pull them down and after some of the same trouble I had they finally pull the one off and the others shut up. We pull the battery out and it is quiet. At which point the one guy says "Hey LT, permission to take one this outside and smash it?" My thought is KILL IT WITH FIRE, but the irony there seems too much. MORE BREATHING.
So the LT starts to take some information for KT, and the other guy suggests we throw a new battery in the troublesome detector. So I go downstairs and get a 9V. When I come back, they are impressed I actually have 9V batteries. We put it in the unit and it starts screaming again. "You can just throw that away then" the guy says. So they finish up and leave. After they left, KT said that while I was downstairs the one guy walked around the living room and kitchen and commented that he really liked our house and the new TV. KT got a kick out of that. SAFE.
So by my best guess, the alarms started going off at around 2:30 and the fire dept arrived at about 2:50 left at about 3:15. KT and I pick up our hearts, that long ago jumped out of our chests and tried to go back to sleep. After about an hour, I fell back to sleep. I don't think KT went back to sleep. SLEEP GOOD.
Yeah, we got pwnd at home ownership.
