Apr
8
There I was biting my nails like I do in the middle of an intense thriller movie. Looking intently at the screen hoping and praying everything turns out okay. Of course I was not watching the latest thriller, I was just trying to install Ubuntu 8.10 on an old IBM ThinkPad. The past day or so I have been trying to get the installation CD to work to no avail.
I have at least learned a few things in the process though. Like for one don’t ever fully wipe out the partition until you know for sure the installation will work. You never know when a CD/DVD drive is going to bit the dust. A better idea is to partition off a section and try installing Ubuntu along side Windows or whatever other OS you currently have before blowing the whole hard dive away just to find out that halfway through the install process you get an unresolvable error. Better to have one OS then none.
The second thing–which I think is the issue I ran into–is if you are installing it on an older computer you should really take into an account that it has older hardware and not the latest and greatest. When I went to burn the ISO to the CD I just used the default speed on my burner (maximum). This as it turns out did not really jive with the ThinkPad’s CD/DVD drive’s speed. So after many failed installations and thoughts of just chucking the laptop out my second floor apartment and telling my brother it was stolen by intergalactic computer hacking gnomes. I tried writing the CD at x20 instead of the maximum (whatever that might be on my CD/DVD burner). So far it seems to be working albeit slow and steady.
Dec
27
It has been way too long since I have posted. I had ment to make a few more Christmas-ish changes to my site before Christmas but have been so busy going to parties and shopping that I ran out of time. Then dealing with some one stealing my personal identity at the same time has not helped the holidays go smoothly. But I look foward to a new year. I got the book “How to make things talk” for Christmas which I am excited about. Hopefully soon I will have the expertise to at least make some small robots. I can’t wait to get home and start on some of the projects in the book.
2008 has been a good year and I expect 2009 to be even better!
Sep
22
This will be a most intersting week. Way too many things happening all at once. First there was today where I had to get all 4 wisdom teeth pulled out (because I am not wanting to do this again!). So my brother stayed with me for the day to make sure I didn’t have a bad reaction to any of the surgery — my first surgery ever. Then going to work the next three days as I recover 
. On friday we are signing our lease and I get to start moving stuff from our apartment into the new apartment…yay! Then saturday we will be moving all day for a big push to get our heavy stuff out of the house. This is making me tired just thinking about it. Well time to try and get some sleep now….
Aug
31
So we were at a hotel this weekend for a wedding. It was a very nice hotel. Much nicer then ones that I usually stay at. We were able to snag it on priceline.com for a great price. The only problem it seems is that some of the other guests felt that it was ok to have a loud party in their hotel room at midnight. It was pretty inconsiderate really.
As I consider the situation I realize that many times I am like these guests. I assume that since I have the ability to do something then I have the right to do it. I overlook the consequences and effects of others. It is very difficult to consider the other person because this implies a sense of social responsiblity towards others. But beyond that it means loving your neighbor.
Aug
29
We went to a Mexican restaurant this evening called Vallarta. This is a hole-in-the-wall kind of restaurant where the chips overflow and the atmosphere is always festive. When you first are seat you are given a small bowl of a simple rice and chicken soup. Its very similar to traditional chicken and rice soup but with a twist of adding onion, cilantro and a small amount of tomato. The second item placed is a bowl of never ending chips. Seriously, I was full even before the food came because of that! It has some what of a sports bar feel without the bar part. There are TVs around the small restaurant playing anything from soccer to middle aged men wowing the crowds with their music.
Their prices are a bit less then most nice sit down restaurants…which means fairly affordable. It is possible to get a meal that is less then US$12.00 for two. However, the quality and authenticity of the food is not compromised. I had enchiladas verdes for US$5.00 which had a good kick to the sauce. The chicken in it was cooked to the perfect tenderness for the enchilada. A word of caution though if you like me assume that burritos are always bean burritos that is not the case. In fact it seems that in my area it is always beef burritos rather then bean.
The only negative part of the evening was that due to the small place it could get quite loud sometimes. Also, if you come during high traffic times there can be a long wait. However, it is a small price to pay for good Mexican food.
Aug
25
This evening I had a men’s group oreintation. It was a good time of hanging out and getting to know each other. Afterwards we went out to a resturant to grab some dinner. Upon leaving I was not able to take my leftover because everyone was saying goodbye outside. On my way home I realized that I forgot some papers back at the resturant. I went back and saw my leftovers still at the table. So I asked a nearby waiter if I could get a togo box with no questions asked. This got me thinking…Is it possible to just randomly walk into any resturant and and ask for togo boxes for leftovers with no one ever questioning you?
Aug
20
Last Monday after we came back from our long weekend minication (mini vacation) we found that we had ants. They had invaded our sugar bowl trying to take as much as possible. The past week or so I have been trying to figure out what to do. So far what seems to be helping is to
- sweep more often
- put water around cats food bowls
- leave no dishes on the counter at night
- wiping counters more often
- kill any ants as soon as I see them
I am still not sure why we have started having these issues since our cleaning habits have not changed in the past 10 months. Anyone out there have any ideas?
Aug
13
So I met someone that I came across on the internet. Usually I would never met someone from the internet unless I already know them in real life. You never know what crazy, wacky person you might find in this wild, wild web of ours. So why did I? I was trying to find a Blender user group in Atlanta (which apparently does not exist). I came across someone else who two years ago tried starting a group. It never came to anything but we did meet up to talk Blender.
I didn’t really know what to expect when we finally met up. After a few awkward moments we got into Blender. It was amazing all the things he knew. I definitely had information overload by the end of our converstation. I showed off the few small pieces that I worked on because being the geek that I am, I had brought my laptop with me. All in all it was a pretty good experience though I am sure by the end he was annoyed that I did really know anything. Will this be the start of an Atlanta Blender User Group?
Jul
29
Today is my two year wedding anniversary and I wanted to let everyone know I have the most awesome, kind, organized, beautiful, thoughtful, smart, and lovable wife that I could ever have. Everyday I fall even more in love with her. I hope she has enjoyed these two years as much as I have.
Jun
9
After being told from DirecPath that the soonest they could have a technician come out to my apartment to fix my internet was one week I was pretty upset with DirecPath. Then today I saw a DirecPath technician working at my box. I asked them if they work on my order (and amazingly they were not!). So I requested him to check my cable internet connection at my box. The fix took less then 5 minutes! I mean come on DirecPath I’m pretty sure you could at least had someone who was already scheduled out here to at least scope out this issue when I called the first time.
Apr
21
CNN.com just came out with a way of putting video headlines on a teeshirt. So if you go to the homepage (cnn.com) you will see teeshirt icons next to the headlines you can buy. It’s a pretty neat idea though I am not sure how well received this will be, since at 15 dollars a pop they are little pricey. On the other hand they seem to be good quality shirts (American Apparel). I sure hope they have some pretty good headlines to choose from. If anyone is curious as to what the shirts look like, I was able to snag a black one (black men’s medium):
