2008.11.21 20:50:30

Administrator

I took him to the clinic on Wednesday and he spent the day getting his man balls chopped away.

I was impressed with the number of pet owners waiting in line to get their animals fixed.  They charged fifty dollars which was a great deal compared to the three-hundred my vet tried to charge me.

Mo seems fine except for the big collar he must wear.  It prevents him from doing anything that he really loves to do, mainly licking himself.  I want to take the collar off but the post-operative instructions say to leave the collar on for 7 days!

I don’t know if Mo will make it?  I laugh at him because he looks so ridiculous. 

He hasn’t slept very well and I guess I wouldn’t either if I was wearing a big satellite dish around my neck. 

I let him out in the yard for 5 minutes and the neighbor’s dog ripped the big collar off.  It was sitting in the corner of the yard.  Mo was so excited to be free; he was running uncontrollably around in circles.  It was difficult to get him to lie down so I could put the big collar back on. 

I feel bad philosophically about taking the dogs ability to procreate away but I am a responsible dog owner.    

neuter | Dog

2008.11.20 20:47:38

Administrator

I’m in a desperate race against time.  My mother arrives on the 25^th and my house looks like a 30 year old single man has been living there for a year!

I thought about giving up, I thought about burning down the house.

Last night I began to clean the kitchen.  I threw away the items that I was collecting on the counter tops, I put all the dishes away and took the empty boxes out of the refrigerator.  I could see some improvement and my spirits were lifted.

It’s true, there is so much more that needs to be done.  I think if I work through the weekend I can get the house together enough for my mom.  I think if I stay on task and put down the video games, remote controls and motorcycles I can make some progress.

The task at hand may be too large for one man.  I may not survive but I must try for my mother.

A little prayer for me:

Lord, please give me the strength to stay focused on cleaning the house this weekend.  Don’t make the weather so pretty I’ll need to go out on my motorcycle.  Don’t make the weather so horrible I’ll feel like playing video games.  Don’t make the domestic task at hand seem so painful.  Give me the morphine that only you can create.  Make me a blind, thoughtless sheep that smiles away with blank stares as I scrub toilet seats and fold laundry. Make me numb to the pain of domestic duty.

Amen

cleaning | house | for mom

2008.11.19 20:49:03

Administrator

The song below, written and performed by Tim Buckley will be covered by John Frusciante on his new album The Empyrean. Released January 20th-

I believe the song below to be about the the temptations of the flesh and the powerful forces that rip decent men and women apart.

check release details here -My favorite artist's blog page.  

frusciante | john

2008.11.19 20:37:26

Administrator

One of my favorite artist introduced me to this song.

It is so beautiful and powerful that I wanted to share it with you.

Read the lyrics along with him:

Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!

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Song To The Siren
(Tim Buckley)

TIM BUCKLEY
From Starsailor, 1971

Verse 1:

Bb          F       
Long afloat on shipless oceans
Eb          Gm
I did all my best to smile
Bb                F
'Til your singing eyes and fingers
Eb          Gm
Drew me loving to your isle
Bb        Ab
And you sang
        Eb
Sail to me, sail to me
Bb
Let me enfold you
Gm
Here I am
        F
Here I am
           Eb   Gm
Waiting to hold you

Verse 2:

Did I dream you dreamed about me?
Were you hare when I was fox?
Now my foolish boat is leaning
Broken lovelorn on your rocks,
For you sing, "Touch me not, touch me not, come back tomorrow:
O my heart, O my heart shies from the sorrow"

Verse 3:

I am puzzled as the newborn child
I'm as riddled at the tide
Should I stand amid the breakers?
Or should I lie with Death my bride?
Hear me sing, "Swim to me, Swim to me, Let me enfold you:
Here I am, Here I am, Waiting to hold you"

frusciante | buckley | tim

2008.11.17 22:15:11

Administrator

The open tray error has been fixed and I have renewed hope in hacking my brothers Xbox 360.

I opened up the dvd drive to see if I could fix the open tray error that the Xbox 360 was displaying.  It was the only thing left to do before throwing the console away because it wouldn't play any games!  I took the cover off to reveal the delicate laser.  With some rubbing alcohol on a q-tip I carefully wiped the lens down and sprayed the unit with compressed air.

We plugged the drive back in and tried to boot up a game.

The console works fine now.  I believe the error was interfering with my attempts to flash the drive so I will try again. 

never | give up

2008.11.17 21:57:50

Administrator

Friday afternoon at 430pm.  I needed to be in Paris Texas by 700pm to make it to sound check.  We were playing at Crosswire.  A huge, two level county bar.   I never went upstairs but that’s where most of the folks hang out because they can smoke up there.

There wasn’t much setup time because the bar had a huge PA system and a couple of sound guys to hook it all up.  It sure does make the evening easier when you don’t have to haul in your own PA.

We all plugged in and tuned up and managed to get a sound check done before too many people arrived.  I hate doing sound-checks in a packed bar.  It’s always a screwy situation as the band plays through half of a song trying to work the bugs out of the PA system and setting levels.

When sound check was finished we still had a couple of hours to kill before we started.

This is a very touchy situation.  In our case we have six guys on a Friday night, each with a week’s worth of work behind them, ready to get to partying and drinking.  We all like to drink except the lead player who is a recovering alcoholic.  He never drinks.

So, we all do our best to pace ourselves and not drink too much before we get going.

The show starts promptly at 11pm and we play till the bar closes at 2am, with one 15 minute break thrown in for bathroom breaks.

The huge Crosswire wasn’t packed but we all had a hell of time playing through their PA system and hearing every little tone clean and clear.

When the show is over everyone is very pleased and ready to pack it up.  We have to hang around until the bar counts up the money at the door so we can get paid.

My girlfriend and I are tired and decided to stay across the street at the Holiday Inn.  She had investigated the local hotels and found the Holiday Inn offers a free breakfast at Dennys. We ate a huge breakfast at 3am.

I didn’t sleep very well and woke up at 9am and watched TV until she got up a couple of hours later.  Immediately, we began discussing our lunch plans!  She picked out the perfect Italian restaurant where I ordered a delicious Veal Parmesan.

Lunch was the long and slow kind.  We both knew there was no rush because we didn’t need to be at sound-check in Greenville Texas till 5pm.

We decided to go see a movie in Paris after lunch and then head to the next bar.

When we arrived in Greenville we found another excellent sound system already in place.  We were told to not setup any of our gear until the headliner, Honeybrowne arrived.  They would set their stuff up first and do a sound check.  That was just fine with us.

I was interested to see how this band Honeybrowne handled themselves.  They were coming from a Friday night show in San Angelo.

They arrived in a 16 passenger van with a trailer in tow and were very business like as they loaded in their gear.

They got sound check done in good time and told all of us we could use their gear which was a big relief to me.  That meant all I needed to do was have my guitar and a cable.

We played and then Honeybrowne played and we all had a hell of a time.  When it was time to leave my girlfriend and I once again headed for the Holiday Inn-  this time the express version.  She was upset because some bitch at the bar told her that I had been making time with her friend.  Girls are evil but my girl is an angel and she soon got over the episode and we fell asleep.

Sunday afternoon I dropped her off at her place and went home to play Gears of War 2 with my brother.

show | journal

2008.11.10 21:18:17

Administrator

When we play at private parties it seems our default stage is a gooseneck trailer.  I'm getting used to playing on a trailer.  When we get rocking the trailer starts to bounce and it feels like we are playing on a trampoline.

Saturday night I showed up and sure enough there was the big trailer.  It was already dark outside when I began to set up my gear.  For me, setup is fairly simple.  Find out where the power cord is, plug in my amp, plug the amp into the sound board and plug my guitar into the amp.  I was going through this routine when the gooseneck trailer bit me.

The trailer was really two trailers pushed together to make one big trailer “stage”.  There was a twelve inch gap that spanned the length of the "stage" - like a huge chasm waiting to eat me.  I wasn't expecting the fall.  One minute I was concerned with plugging in my amp and the next I was wedged between two gooseneck trailers bracing myself with my elbows and wondering if I was still alive.

I did a quick diagnostic on myself to make sure I hadn't seriously broken or sliced anything.  I was Okay.  We went on with the show and I felt okay.

I am stiff today, like I got into a car accident.  My butt hurts when I sit down, especially my right cheek.  The right side of my back feels tight.

falling | off | stage

2008.11.07 22:06:22

Administrator

I drive over an hour to get to rehearsal.

Last night during the long drive I turned to my dog.  Mo looked at me and his ears perked up.  I felt obligated to respond to his gesture.

I said, "Mo, we'll be there in about twenty minutes."

talking to | dogs

2008.11.06 21:01:40

Administrator

I have the nicest neighbors you could ask for.  Matt and Stephanie live right next to me and I can see clearly into their kitchen from my back porch.  They have two daughters, Sarah and Lauren; I think 15 and 10- or something like that.

A few weeks ago Matt had a NFL draft party and one of his guests knocked down part of the fence between our two yards.  Really, I don’t care in the least and would prefer that our two yards be one huge yard!

I bought Lauren a charm bracelet out of a small catalogue she got for a fund raiser from school.  Last night Lauren and her mom caught me coming back from a walk with Mo and she thanked me for the charm bracelet and gave me a cupcake.  It was delicious!

cupcake | present

2008.11.06 02:55:54

Administrator

I have a friend that used a strange metaphor when referencing his feelings for Barack Obama.

He explained to me that a black quarterback has never been successful in the NFL so why would a black president be successful as President.

I believe his reasoning to be some sort of fallacy- one that I’m sure has been labeled and put in a book.  Or maybe it’s just Dumb American Syndrome?

Can you picture a bunch of white men on a couch eating Doritos and watching football?

Can you picture a bunch of white men on a couch eating Doritos, watching football and talking about how white their quarterbacks should be?

Quarterbacks | White

2008.11.05 00:01:34

dog walker

I'm hyped.

After today, we will be rid of that idiot we elected -twice. The man who recieved a memo entitled, "bin Laden determined to strike in u.s." The man who couldn't get water to the superdome in new orleans- but still said the guy in charge did a "heck of a job." The man who invaded a country because they had "weapons of mass destruction"- declared mission accomplished, and rounded up people to be sent to prison camps.

But now we can look to the future. A man who understands that in this complex world- talking to potential enemies might be better than ignoring them. A man who puts healthcare, education, and peace at the top of his list- instead of tax breaks for rich people and declaring war on muslims.

What a wonderful day. Barack Obama brings hope to America. The countries around the world who were looking down their noses at us, are now thinking, "wow, they might not be as bad as we thought. They've elected a black man - and the guy has the intelligence of Bill Clinton, and the communication skills of Ronald Reagan."

2008.11.04 04:06:51

Administrator

On Friday I bought a soft-sided dog crate at Petco for Mo.  I stuffed Mo in the crate and put him on the back of my goldwing.  We rode for about an hour to a buddy's house to escape from the Candy Seekers.

He threw up in his crate, but he loved visiting with my friend's dog June.  They ramrodded around the entire weekend.  We had a delicious fish fry on Friday night and I spent the evening drinking corona and watching the dogs run around.

Mo and I got up early on Saturday and took a long walk on my friend's ranch.  We were out most of the morning and Mo saw his first donkeys and cows.

Saturday night we played a Halloween Party in the middle of nowhere.  They had a gooseneck trailer we used for a stage and big lights hanging from the trees.

I got back to my friends house at 3am and tried to sleep on his couch.

Sunday morning I stuffed Mo back in the crate and we headed for home on the wing.

He threw up in his crate.  

dog crate | throw up

2008.10.31 19:51:37

Administrator

I'm pretty sure Mo doesn't like riding in the truck.

He suffers the entire time, shifting and squirming in the chair to find a comfortable spot.  I cracked the window for him so he could enjoy the variety of smells that we drive past but that was only a temporary solution.

He began to salivate and lick his chops.  I could tell something wasn't quite right with the dog.  He threw up all over my dad's truck.  I felt sorry for the animal.

When we got to the rehearsal space I unloaded my gear and took him inside.  We tuned up and began playing our new hit song and all the fellows were really enjoying the vibe until the dog hunched over and took a big poo on center stage.

I don't know if MO will come to the rehearsals any more.  It's a long drive and he doesn't like the noise.         

Dog | distraction

2008.10.29 23:13:33

Administrator

I have made it through the first round of terminations.

A very nice man beside me with years and years of experience doing all sorts of things got walked out.  The nice lady on the other side of the office that always says good morning with a pretty smile got walked out.  I heard she is a single mom with three boys.

It's enough to make me ill- and also pretty good incentive to find something I can do that doesn't depend on anybody but me!

We all waited to be called this morning- by lunch time they completed their terminations and told us "it's over"

I know I'm fortunate- we have Iraq veterans here that said this morning was worse than anything that happened "in the war"

selected | middle class

2008.10.29 20:11:34

Administrator

The Xbox is in pieces now.  The console is the cleanest I've seen with no dust bunnies hiding in the heatsinks or fans.  I successfully made the Iprep boot disk on a 1 GB thumb drive.

I've plugged the Xbox drive to the SATA connection on my A8N Deluxe mother board.  Iprep reports that the SATA chipset is compatible with a DOS flash.

I've run into a snag trying to get Iprep to report after the MTK vendor flash.  It doesn't seem to recognize the drive or the application may be using the wrong port.  I believe it to be the latter and will install XP onto an extra hard drive partition and try remaking the Iprep boot drive.

I am still confident that this box can be hacked.

Ben, be prepared to get your gaming on.

Iprep | Snag

2008.10.28 21:21:23

Administrator

My brother bought an Xbox 360 from Walmart about 4 months ago.

The console doesn't work anymore.  Every time you load a game it gets the "open tray" error.  This is a well documented error on the interwebs.  To show our defiance to shotty consumer electronics I am going to hack the box so we can fix the "open tray" error and download (i mean backup) all the latest games.

Fallout 3 and Farcry 2 look pretty awesome.

I will be following the directions found in this tutorial. (pdf)

A little background on this "firmware update" - I have successfully done this mod on two other Xbox 360's with Hitachi drives.  I will be attempting my first VAD6038 drive.

The hack is a little frustrating as the double layer disks required to copy the games are pretty expensive.  Only the verbatim double layer DVD+R seem to work.  Even then, booting the game on the console sometimes takes two or three attempts.  

hack | xbox 360

2008.10.27 21:45:53

Administrator

All three hundred folks on my terminated government program are sitting around waiting to be axed. 

It's enough to drive you to drink. 

getting | canned

2008.10.25 22:19:43

Administrator

My Decisions affect my future.

It’s important that I make the correct decisions in my life.  Wait just a minute! 

When three freaks come walking up to you at a bar and one of them is carrying whiskey shots you may as well drink them.

When a kind woman brings you beer all night, you may as well be nice and drink them.

And those are considered good decisions.  Because it's a kind gesture and the polite thing to do.

Would you make the right decision?

decisions | life

2008.10.24 19:53:05

Administrator

I give to you a recent email I received after our government program was cancelled.

All,

            To provide some clarification. 

The brown boxes provided earlier today are for your personal property that you will take with you to your next assignment; whether it is at Bell or another company.

            The orange crates are for moving the bell property, books, references, files, etc... that you will be taking to your next assignment at Bell.  The orange crates will be distributed once the ARH PM Director Bob Ellithorpe authorizes the distribution.  

            Another container, box, crate, etc will be provided at a later date for the “hard copy” data, uncompleted deliverables, files, CD, etc. that will be forwarded to the USG.  This data should be staged in your area, but not boxed until specific direction and containers arrive.

            Any questions?

email | corporate

2008.10.24 01:15:23

dog walker

The British High Court yesterday condemned the U.S. government's failure to turn over intelligence documents that could support the claims of a British resident held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who has argued that statements he made confessing to terrorism resulted from torture and are, therefore, worthless.

The court noted that the United States has said "it will reconsider the intelligence relationship with its oldest and closest ally if we, as a court in England and Wales, order the documents be provided . . . to enable justice to be done."

Binyam Mohammed, a 30-year-old native of Ethiopia, was arrested in Pakistan in April 2002. He says he was tortured while in Pakistani custody before being secretly transferred by the United States to Morocco, where, he says, he was again tortured, including having his penis cut with a razor blade. In January 2004, Mohammed was transferred to Afghanistan. He was sent to Guantanamo that May. The U.S. government has said there is no basis for his allegations of torture.

Kabul - US-led coalition forces mistakenly bombed an Afghan national army position in Khost province early Wednesday and killed at least nine soldiers.

This killing in the name of our safety must stop. I think Barack will try harder than McCain to end this senseless war.

U.S.A. is numero uno!