Archive

2/1/03 through 2/7/03

Alert Level Fuscia

Yes, alert level fuscia, which means terrorists are now keen to attack us. As opposed to before when they were just talking smack about us behind our backs. Maybe now we can get back to going after al Queda and leave Sodamn Insane to rot in Iraq.

Posted by: Max - 02/07/03 - 10:30pm CST -

Two and a Half Wars

About ten years ago, just after Desert Storm, Colin Powell presented a plan to the people of this country. He was just a five star general, then. We had just had a very successful, albeit anti-climatic, display of American force in the Persian Gulf. Now, people wanted to know - how big does the military really need to be?

Powell presented a plan that called for our forces to be able to carry on two and a half wars the size of Desert Storm. Two and a half wars - at the time I thought it sounded funny. Why would we ever fight two wars? Much less, have a half one sitting around just annoying us?

Yet, here we all sit, it's 2003, and we are about to be fighting two and a half wars. In case you hadn't noticed, we still have troops deployed in Afghanistan. Iraq is begging for us to come kick the shit out of them again. And now, rushing to have a power no one else really wanted, North Korea is threatening us all because they want to be in the Nuke Club, too.

We can send drones to do our fighting for us. Cruise missles do a heck of a lot more damage than WWII bombers ever could, all guided by satelite. Yet, with all our technological skill, we can't figure out how to stay out of wars. Instead of staying out of the fighting, we're actually going to get into three fights at once.

Funny thing, Powell is the mouth piece again and there is a Bush in the Whitehouse. Is anyone else sensing a pattern here?

A lot of people are about to die in some really horrible ways for a lot of stupid reasons. I hope .... hell, I don't know what to hope. Or, if there is even any hope left.

Posted by: Jericho - 2/6/03 - 10:56 pm -

Translations

I just reread my last post and realized that I threw out a lot of geek speak that may need some translation. So...

winmodem - A modem designed to work exclusively with MS Windows. They are unreliable but cheap.

CLI - Command Line Interface, which boiled down is a way of interacting with your computer in which rather than clicking on icons with a mouse, you type in commands to activate and run your programs. It is a powerful tool, which I love, but I require the convenience of a GUI to be available.

GUI - Graphical User Interface, which is what most people are used to, a way of interacting with your computer than involves clicking icons and menus on your screen with a pointing device, like a mouse.

PPoE - I have no idea what this is. It is obviously the creation of a deranged mind. Or at least a typo. On the other hand, PPPoE is one of the protocols, or groups of rules, the allows computers to make DSL connections.

Posted by: Max - 02/06/03 - 9:30am CST -

XP Experience

For years I have longed to get away from windoze. But despite my best efforts, it keeps coming back like an infection. I can't afford a Max. My one foray into Linux went okay, but I couldn't get online with my crappy winmodem. Now that I have DSL, I no longer have room on my hard disk for a decent install on my desktop, and my wife would kill me if I blank windoze completely. I can get a CLI install on my laptap. But I like GUI.

Now, in order to work and play well with my parents' XP based office network, which I will need to do now that I am part of the family tax bidness, as well as their part time tech support, I have had to downgrade, er, upgrade my laptop to Win XP. Since I have no choice but to work with it, I figure I can at least turn it into a couple of decent tech posts.

So far, I have run the install. I went against my better judgement and did an upgrade instead of a clean install. Although I had plenty of reasons to blank my computer and start fresh, I wanted to go the route that I figure most users would go. The install was painless, though time consuming. The interface is ugly. I know how to change it back to old school windoze (go to control panels>services> and then turn off the Themes service), but for now I will work with it to see how it goes. Setting up my DSL was a breeze. PPoE is built into XP and it took my just a couple of clicks to get online. Thumbs up for that.

That is the limit of my experience so far. Look for further reports as time goes on.

Posted by: Max - 02/05/03 - 10:30pm CST -

Two Wage Slaves In One

Tonight I started my second job. Although I enjoy my main gig selling drums, it doesn't pay anywhere near enough. That is the story of my life. I can choose between enjoying work life, but struggling financially, or making decent money and hating life because my job sucks. In an effort to hang on to the fun job I have taken a second, part-time, seasonal job doing tax returns. It is nowhere near as much fun, but Laura has calculated that if I do 360 returns (351 after tonight's labors), at $10 a return, before April 15th, I'll make enough to make up for what my day job doesn't pay and allow us to make it through the year. If not, I'll have no choice but to give my fun job up in favor of a return to cubicle hell.

That said, I had a look at Jericho and Steph's return for last year. I gotta ask, how bad are you at handling money? If I had your income, I can't imagine struggling anywhere near as much as you do.

Posted by: Max - 02/04/03 - 9:16pm CST -

A Matter of Girth

I have been heavy most of my life. Okay, let's cut the PC shit, I'm a fat bastard. Always have been. I'd like to call myself a fat-ass, but that's one of the few body parts I have that isn't engorged with pure fat!

For years, while in grade and high school, I would spend the whole summer in front of the teevee wishing I could figure out some way to lose weight. Every year I would return with a few more pounds.Could have been all the PB&Js ...

By the time college rolled around, I learned to accept my weight. It didn't stop me from doing the things I wanted to do. And, while heavy, I was active enough that I ate whatever I wanted and didn't gain any extra weight. Sure, not all the girls wanted to date me, but the important ones did. Steph saw me, not my weight. Those were the people that mattered.

The last decade or so, I have had a successive set of jobs that required me to sit all day, staring at a monitor. Each job has been more mentally taxing than the last, exercise was little and far between. Junk food was easier to get as my wages have increased. This has left me darned heavy. So much so that I'm more uncomfortable in my skin than I have ever been.

I hate discomfort. I'll do anything to be more comfy.

For the last few years, I have had a few failed diet and exercise attempts. Exercise is the only thing less comfy than my current body. Pretty much for the last two or so years I have had a gym membership I have barely used. And, my weight is just growing. In fact, I'm so heavy that I had no idea what I weigh. Most scales go to 350 and stop dead. For the last several years, I have weighed more than 350 and that's as much as I've known.

The last few weeks, Steph and I have both been trying again. We are going to the gym and we are eating better. She has been steadily losing weight for well over a year now, just because she has been watching what she eats. Thus, I have given in and am following her lead.

However, I still didn't know what I weighed. I don't have the sense of accomplishment that Steph has when she loses a pound or two. I just get an overloaded scale and a feeling like my only hope will be a stomach stapling after Jerry Springer wheels me from my house on a gurney. I could have lost six pounds or I could have gained seven, I would never know.

Neccessity is a muther. I don't know much about physics or engineering, but I know a few common sense things. For one, a structure built directly over it's supports will spread it's weight equally across all of them. Thus, a 40 pound table will support ten pounds on each of it's four legs. A structure with two supports, like a human, will place half of it's weight on each support - we call them legs. Thus, if I set up two scales, put one foot on each, when both had the same reading, I would have a good estimate of my weight.

I don't own two scales. I wasn't planning to buy two scales. So, we went to the local department store, looked around to make sure no one was around, and unpacked two scales right there. Now, we did this fast, and one of the scales still had a bit of packaging on the bottom so the weight wouldn't come out right. But, the numbers we got were staggering - the scale kept flopping around 250. Yup, that would mean that I weigh 500 pounds. That didn't make me happy.

Back to our little physics bit above. Weight is evenly distributed over the supports. Thus, as long as the structure is evenly supported, you need only place a scale under one support and multiply that weight by the number of supports. In our table example, the scale under one leg would show ten pounds, multiplied by four legs, gives us that 40 pound table. You wouldn't have the other scales to fact check against, but it would be close.

We own one scale, and some books. I set them up in my bathroom. When I stepped on, the scale said 220. 440 - that's a lot of weight, but for some reason it's a far cry from 500 in my head. That was about two weeks into this diet and exercise thing. So, I bet I started right around 450.

I have to lose 100 pounds just so a normal scale can work for me. I have a long way to go - but I'll keep you all updated. Wish me luck!

Posted by: Jericho - 2/3/03 - 10:30 pm -

Tha Moon

This is the greatest thing ever posted on a web site.

Posted by: Max - 02/02/03 - 4:48pm CST -

Don't Give Up

What happened today was a tragedy. The best thing we can do to honor our fallen is to push forward with manned exploration of space. Let's commit ourselves to by the end of the century have a Moon base, Mars base or manned space station named after every one of the astronauts who died today.

Posted by: Max - 02/01/03 - 9:42pm CST -