Obviously I've been a little down since the passage of the government health care bill on Sunday, and have been chronicling that on the political blog (and will do so after this post. So I've been seeking escape into the wastelands of D.C. In 2277. In Fallout 3. And the cool things I've done include finding the Declaration of Independence, visiting several museums (and shooting super mutants, ghouls, and robots), climbing the Washington monument to boost a radio station, and seeing the remnants of both the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial. Strangely, I like this DC better than the real world one.
But I've also been fighting computers (unfortunately, it sucks more in the real world). Yesterday, my phone software (critically important to working at home) took a shit on me. So after several tries to resolve it, I got to haul ass into work, with plans to get things working later. And as it was a relatively nice day, I threw my lightest jacket on, expecting it might get a little cooler.
It was fucking snowing when I walked out the door at 9. A blinding, driving snow that started to affect my car's performance (being I've been having issues with the distributor not throwing spark when it's cold and/or wet). And it was bitch cold too. So today, when I went out, I had moved to my winter coat, which, due to the fact I am a lazy bastard, had not quite made it to being packed away for the winter.
So this morning, I went to clearing out my computer to eliminate every other possible problem, then reinstalled the software. As well, I started setting my other desktop up as a backup. So I have the first computer up, but haven't confirmed the problem yet, when I get a request to clock in early, about an hour before my shift. At this point, I had not yet finished the rest of the install, confirmed it was working or failed, gotten dressed, and still had to run the kids to the babysitter (25 minute round trip).
So I got that done, confirmed the software wouldn't work, got the second computer up, and raced out the door. 25 minutes later, I arrived home to confirm that the second computer was having the same issue. And even better, another tech is having the same phone software issue. Which eliminates it being a computer ,router, or my Internet service provider ass an issue. It could be Windows XP, so I turn to my laptop (running Windows 7) and try to get the VPN (virtual private network) and phone software up. Nope, can't even get the VPN working (I probably made an install mistake, to be honest), which means another compatibility issue. At this point, it's my normal clock-in time, and I've been clocked in for 15 minutes battling the shit. So, realizing that it won't work any time soon, I abandon ship like a motherfucker, haul ass for work (a 20 minute drive ideally). However, I pulled out at the time Crown (local factory) and the government schools are letting out. And due to the fact that I had to drive an extra 20 miles, 'm low on gas. How low? My tank holds about 12 gallons. I put 12.006 gallons in it today before leaving New Bremen. Fumes, baby.
And don't get me started on the fact that this means I don't eat the supper I had planned to eat two days in a row. The best I could do was a few slices of roast beef (which I found cheap enough for my budget, finally).
So I finally get to work, get logged in and start grabbing calls. But the clusterfuck has not ended. My laptop is not connecting wireless now. So I begin the process of uninstalling the VPN software I installed initially. Windows flashes the Blue Screen of Death and reboots. Eventually, I end up running system Restore to take out the junk. I get those programs cleared out, but now the computer is still not connecting wireless. And I don't have the chance until I bed the younglings tonight to try it wired.
And yes, you're supposed to chastise me for not being able to solve an internet connection issue (as that is my job). In this case, it would be a situation where I'd be giving the customer the boot because we don't fix a driver issue (and that's where I think the problem is. I just don't have access to my Windows 7 disk to try to fix it. Not that I'm in a hurry to be free of cords, because it's too cold to be outside.
Now maybe I'll get lucky this weekend and it will get as warm as they say, because I have ice on my balls....
Friday, March 26, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
...so then I turned on C-Span.
I've been shoving the kids outside the past week as the temperatures got up to the 60's. And as my daughter would be getting a bike for her birthday, she got it over a week early so she could enjoy it while the weather was good and I had days off. The best part was that it meant I could break out the shorts (which I am wearing) and open the windows (noting the salubrious effects of fresh air).
And while I lost an hour of sleep last week and had a morning this week where I woke up late (giving me 15 minutes to take two kids from sleep to the bus (and in which I succeeded)), the effects of more daylight are starting to wake up what is an increasingly creaky body. Now if the sunlight would do something about my tooth mess, it would be wonderful.
I know I have at least 3 cavities remaining. I also have my remaining wisdom tooth, which is in need of prying out, because there's less than half that tooth remaining. And for some reason, after getting the worst cavity filled, it triggered several teeth into hypersensitivity to hot and cold. And since this encompasses everything I eat and drink, I've been hitting the Orajel hard. Actually, it's funny to watch me suffer, I'm sure. Of course, if you do so while I'm in agony, I'm going to punch you.
But this is the second weekend in a row I have to work (with the following two being work free). So I got to unload the kids to the Succubus, then proceed after work to do some birthday/Easter/general shopping. I still have the birthday shopping to finish.
But I did get another game which will suck many hours out of the night, Fallout 3. Strangely, I have the original incarnation of the game, with install for Windows 95/DOS (which Windows 7 really doesn't like). Not the oldest game I have, nor the oldest game of which I have a modern incarnation (that would be the Ghostbusters game from the prior blog), nor even the oldest game in my pc game collection (I have some old AD&D computer games circa 1988), or even that download of Wasteland (which occupied many an afternoon with my buddy and now fellow blogger Lars in front of his old Commodore 64 and gave us the immortal line of "the force stopped you, you hozer"), which was a precursor of the world of Fallout.
My daylight hours however are engaged in following the final days and hours of the debate (note: if you want to talk about the substance or politics, hop over to my political blog) by watching debate on C-Span. And the night will belong to a good ending in Washington (Fallout 3 is set in post-nuclear DC).
But in no way will I be messing with anything involving college basketball. Fuck the NCAA tournament, fuck all 64 team, fuck the whole boring-ass sport, as it sucks ass. It's more boring than a 2-hour air-masturbation session: no contact, no nakedness, no arching ropes of jism or soiled anything. It is among the list of sports I participated in when I was a kid, but even in the ranks of the Catholic school, I was the worst of players. Of course, considering I never really found a sport I was good at (soccer was banned in my day, due to the potential interference it could cause the sacred sport of football), I'm not really a fanatical sports fan anyway. But I can watch some sports and not be bored to tears instantly. And I've followed most major sports at some time. But basketball, never. And that's despite the fact that the only ball I could produce from my inventory to play a game would happen to be a basketball, which I got back in my RadioShack days and bears the logo of the IBM Aptiva. Yeah, the ball is a decade old but doesn't show the wear of a decade, as it hasn't gotten much use.
Ok, I've got 45 minuted of work left. My sleep is messed up because I woke up at 11:30 this morning. And the wastes await for an intrepid me to explore (maybe after a little manual self-exploration).
And on C-Span, the politicians drone on....
And while I lost an hour of sleep last week and had a morning this week where I woke up late (giving me 15 minutes to take two kids from sleep to the bus (and in which I succeeded)), the effects of more daylight are starting to wake up what is an increasingly creaky body. Now if the sunlight would do something about my tooth mess, it would be wonderful.
I know I have at least 3 cavities remaining. I also have my remaining wisdom tooth, which is in need of prying out, because there's less than half that tooth remaining. And for some reason, after getting the worst cavity filled, it triggered several teeth into hypersensitivity to hot and cold. And since this encompasses everything I eat and drink, I've been hitting the Orajel hard. Actually, it's funny to watch me suffer, I'm sure. Of course, if you do so while I'm in agony, I'm going to punch you.
But this is the second weekend in a row I have to work (with the following two being work free). So I got to unload the kids to the Succubus, then proceed after work to do some birthday/Easter/general shopping. I still have the birthday shopping to finish.
But I did get another game which will suck many hours out of the night, Fallout 3. Strangely, I have the original incarnation of the game, with install for Windows 95/DOS (which Windows 7 really doesn't like). Not the oldest game I have, nor the oldest game of which I have a modern incarnation (that would be the Ghostbusters game from the prior blog), nor even the oldest game in my pc game collection (I have some old AD&D computer games circa 1988), or even that download of Wasteland (which occupied many an afternoon with my buddy and now fellow blogger Lars in front of his old Commodore 64 and gave us the immortal line of "the force stopped you, you hozer"), which was a precursor of the world of Fallout.
My daylight hours however are engaged in following the final days and hours of the debate (note: if you want to talk about the substance or politics, hop over to my political blog) by watching debate on C-Span. And the night will belong to a good ending in Washington (Fallout 3 is set in post-nuclear DC).
But in no way will I be messing with anything involving college basketball. Fuck the NCAA tournament, fuck all 64 team, fuck the whole boring-ass sport, as it sucks ass. It's more boring than a 2-hour air-masturbation session: no contact, no nakedness, no arching ropes of jism or soiled anything. It is among the list of sports I participated in when I was a kid, but even in the ranks of the Catholic school, I was the worst of players. Of course, considering I never really found a sport I was good at (soccer was banned in my day, due to the potential interference it could cause the sacred sport of football), I'm not really a fanatical sports fan anyway. But I can watch some sports and not be bored to tears instantly. And I've followed most major sports at some time. But basketball, never. And that's despite the fact that the only ball I could produce from my inventory to play a game would happen to be a basketball, which I got back in my RadioShack days and bears the logo of the IBM Aptiva. Yeah, the ball is a decade old but doesn't show the wear of a decade, as it hasn't gotten much use.
Ok, I've got 45 minuted of work left. My sleep is messed up because I woke up at 11:30 this morning. And the wastes await for an intrepid me to explore (maybe after a little manual self-exploration).
And on C-Span, the politicians drone on....
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
...I could stream porn to it.
One of my ideas to save money in the long run was to get rid of cable. Since I moved from home way over a decade ago, I've been addicted to the ability to watch shit you can't get on the idiotic bad three networks.
However, that was in the days when your choices were limited to either an antenna, a cable, or a satellite dish (either the newfangled 2 foot ones or those giant 16-foot motherfuckers), or to go down to the video store and pick up a videotape.
Not so now, considering more and more content is streaming online. I've been able to watch a season's worth of shows, and in one case (Veronica Mars), I only saw the show online (and was crushed to find out there were only three seasons) because it was long gone prior to my even hearing about it (from Kevin Smith, who shows up as (what else?) a clerk in season two (which proves I'm so his bitch (and might be willing to take a shot in the mouth if asked))). So I've been looking and researching it for a while. It was one of the motivations for upgrading my TV this year (the other being that my old TV was ancient to begin with).
My original plan had been to hook a computer to that TV to stream shows and movies, as well as gaming. But since I have this laptop, I have lots of portability already. And the kids have their computer, and my original desktop (now almost exclusively my work computer) is still humming along. However, the latter two are not up to the task of streaming video. In addition, gaming on the PC is relatively expensive, because gaming computers are expensive, games hold their prices longer, and once you buy a game, you have it forever (I have games that run in DOS still!!!). I also had a PS2, which I used for some gaming, but there are few new games coming out, my old games were starting to show some age, and the system itself was wearing down (it had the misfortune of being purchased and abused during the Succubus era), and it was becoming a less-used system.
Enter the PS3. In addition to the gaming and the ability to play DVD and BluRay discs, it can also stream media from my laptop (it found it almost immediately), it can browse the Internet (not as well as a PC, but I can watch Youtube), it could do something with Netflix (again, part of getting rid of cable), and I can download and play demos, games, movies, etc directly to the PS3 (although this costs money in most cases). And it's all up to date. And as a bonus, the PS2, and all games, and all accessories, got traded for the new games.
And as a double bonus, if I download porn to my laptop, I can stream it to the big screen (which means parts at actual (but probably seriously pixellated) size).
To give you the game list, I picked up Lego Indiana Jones, as the kids liked Lego Star Wars, and I wanted to have a light title to play; Ghostbusters: The Video Game, which kicked ass despite being short, because it featured the same writers and talent from the movies (Akroyd, Ramis, Murray, and others), and because it had to be better than my last Ghostbusters game experience (it was a shit game I played on an Apple II clone), and Brutal Legend, which is like running, driving, and fighting through the cover of every heavy metal album you've ever seen (starring Jack Black (the main character), Ozzy (as the Guardian of Metal), Lemmy Kilmister (the Kill Master, who heals with a bass guitar), and more) to a soundtrack loaded with a shitload of excellent metal.
So hopefully, I'll get everything in place shortly so that I can cut the cable. Because I've found I tend to spend a lot of time in front of the TV wasting time on crap shows. I'd rather enjoy watching movies and shows that I really want to see than doing the channel flipping and planning around broadcast times. Especially since so many damned channels have to have pseudo-reality shows on them that suck a dick. Wait, correction, that's insulting cocksuckers.
But such is the result of my fascination with media as an escape from the mundane (and a chance to see the sex I'm not getting). Although that fascination is making me feel really old. Because the latest child star in the body bag is Cory Haim. I grew up the same time as this bastard, watching him growing up on screen. A point of fact, he only had 2 years on me (he was 38). I'm used to really old people dying. That's relaitvely easy. But when more and more people your age and younger start snuffing it, you start feeling OLD. Can't wait until I'm over 70, and the people my age start dropping faster than my libido after a marathon gaming session (also a rare thing due to kids, work, sleep, etc (and by etc, I mean masturbation)).
Of course, with the turn of the weather (it got above 60 today), I'm probably going to be spending more time outside and away from the TV....
However, that was in the days when your choices were limited to either an antenna, a cable, or a satellite dish (either the newfangled 2 foot ones or those giant 16-foot motherfuckers), or to go down to the video store and pick up a videotape.
Not so now, considering more and more content is streaming online. I've been able to watch a season's worth of shows, and in one case (Veronica Mars), I only saw the show online (and was crushed to find out there were only three seasons) because it was long gone prior to my even hearing about it (from Kevin Smith, who shows up as (what else?) a clerk in season two (which proves I'm so his bitch (and might be willing to take a shot in the mouth if asked))). So I've been looking and researching it for a while. It was one of the motivations for upgrading my TV this year (the other being that my old TV was ancient to begin with).
My original plan had been to hook a computer to that TV to stream shows and movies, as well as gaming. But since I have this laptop, I have lots of portability already. And the kids have their computer, and my original desktop (now almost exclusively my work computer) is still humming along. However, the latter two are not up to the task of streaming video. In addition, gaming on the PC is relatively expensive, because gaming computers are expensive, games hold their prices longer, and once you buy a game, you have it forever (I have games that run in DOS still!!!). I also had a PS2, which I used for some gaming, but there are few new games coming out, my old games were starting to show some age, and the system itself was wearing down (it had the misfortune of being purchased and abused during the Succubus era), and it was becoming a less-used system.
Enter the PS3. In addition to the gaming and the ability to play DVD and BluRay discs, it can also stream media from my laptop (it found it almost immediately), it can browse the Internet (not as well as a PC, but I can watch Youtube), it could do something with Netflix (again, part of getting rid of cable), and I can download and play demos, games, movies, etc directly to the PS3 (although this costs money in most cases). And it's all up to date. And as a bonus, the PS2, and all games, and all accessories, got traded for the new games.
And as a double bonus, if I download porn to my laptop, I can stream it to the big screen (which means parts at actual (but probably seriously pixellated) size).
To give you the game list, I picked up Lego Indiana Jones, as the kids liked Lego Star Wars, and I wanted to have a light title to play; Ghostbusters: The Video Game, which kicked ass despite being short, because it featured the same writers and talent from the movies (Akroyd, Ramis, Murray, and others), and because it had to be better than my last Ghostbusters game experience (it was a shit game I played on an Apple II clone), and Brutal Legend, which is like running, driving, and fighting through the cover of every heavy metal album you've ever seen (starring Jack Black (the main character), Ozzy (as the Guardian of Metal), Lemmy Kilmister (the Kill Master, who heals with a bass guitar), and more) to a soundtrack loaded with a shitload of excellent metal.
So hopefully, I'll get everything in place shortly so that I can cut the cable. Because I've found I tend to spend a lot of time in front of the TV wasting time on crap shows. I'd rather enjoy watching movies and shows that I really want to see than doing the channel flipping and planning around broadcast times. Especially since so many damned channels have to have pseudo-reality shows on them that suck a dick. Wait, correction, that's insulting cocksuckers.
But such is the result of my fascination with media as an escape from the mundane (and a chance to see the sex I'm not getting). Although that fascination is making me feel really old. Because the latest child star in the body bag is Cory Haim. I grew up the same time as this bastard, watching him growing up on screen. A point of fact, he only had 2 years on me (he was 38). I'm used to really old people dying. That's relaitvely easy. But when more and more people your age and younger start snuffing it, you start feeling OLD. Can't wait until I'm over 70, and the people my age start dropping faster than my libido after a marathon gaming session (also a rare thing due to kids, work, sleep, etc (and by etc, I mean masturbation)).
Of course, with the turn of the weather (it got above 60 today), I'm probably going to be spending more time outside and away from the TV....
Monday, March 1, 2010
...not sure if this actually belongs on the political blog.
As you all know, I have both this blog and a political blog. On this one, on the right, I have a cute little Digsby app that lets people talk to me when I am online. On SPD, I have sitemeter. And I noticed that someone was dwelling on the personal blog for hours today.
The digsby app happens to list the IP address, in this case, 199.200.253.9. I looked it up. it belongs to the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment Standards Administration. Go ahead and look it up yourself. Now other than a fan of mine working there, I can't see any reason someone in the government would be checking out my discussion of the future of my kids, or my masturbatory preferences, or any of the weird shit I talk about. So I said hi, ID'd where they were browsing from, taunted them a little in my friendly way. No response, although they logged off shortly thereafter.
So I popped open sitemeter, and found this entry from today. Yep. Same person, most lkely, this time on the political blog.
A couple notes I gathered. They were looking at today's AOTW post, where I hammer Sen Bunnings and decry that we are becoming too dependent on the federal government. The computer is running Windows XP. The poor bastard is forced to use IE6, which generates a shame banner on the page suggesting that the user get a browser made in the 21st century. And hopefully they do, because they clicked to my tech post on this site.
Not that it's groundbreaking, just interesting.
And I hope I can figure out who the person was....
The digsby app happens to list the IP address, in this case, 199.200.253.9. I looked it up. it belongs to the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment Standards Administration. Go ahead and look it up yourself. Now other than a fan of mine working there, I can't see any reason someone in the government would be checking out my discussion of the future of my kids, or my masturbatory preferences, or any of the weird shit I talk about. So I said hi, ID'd where they were browsing from, taunted them a little in my friendly way. No response, although they logged off shortly thereafter.
So I popped open sitemeter, and found this entry from today. Yep. Same person, most lkely, this time on the political blog.
A couple notes I gathered. They were looking at today's AOTW post, where I hammer Sen Bunnings and decry that we are becoming too dependent on the federal government. The computer is running Windows XP. The poor bastard is forced to use IE6, which generates a shame banner on the page suggesting that the user get a browser made in the 21st century. And hopefully they do, because they clicked to my tech post on this site.
Not that it's groundbreaking, just interesting.
And I hope I can figure out who the person was....
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