A fried dollar
this is the most american thing i’ve ever seen
oh my god
God Bless America :-D
The Robots of Death
If I could see into your heart
Then would I know just where to start
Because I’m lost and I need to be found
Crazy as it sounds, I need you around
If I could stand to be on my own
Then I would probably just leave you alone
But I’m going to feel this way ‘til I’m six feet underground
Crazy as it sounds, I need you around
Turning
Tossing and turning
My love is burning me down
If I could change one thing in this world
I’d change your mind and make you my girl
Because I’m lost and I need to be found
Crazy as it sounds, I need you around
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
— Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965
So... Here's what going on at the moment:
The job I started in May is still AWESOME.
The girl I'm seeing is more than AWESOME.
Kids are good, and there's another on the way in January. AWESOME.
What can I say... Life is good!
I need to completely reorganize my online life... I have ancient blogs and out of date information everywhere... Finding the time to do this, however, will be interesting. So much stuff in so many places.
I went to the FR Moose Lodge (#829) for the first time after work, on a weekday, yesterday... It was like having my own "Cheers". I had at least a dozen people as where I've been, what I've been up to, was I okay.
I love that!
One of my co-workers passed away today. He was only 59, and suffered a series of strokes. He leaves behind a wife and two boys. It makes me think about my mortality, but as a friend of mine pointed out, "Life Life Full Throttle." I like that.
RIP, Dan.
Tonight I will be babysitting my daughter, while my son is camping, and my wife is out. The rules for this evening are simple:
1) I will drink at least two drinks of the highest vote
2) I will count the votes at 1700 EST
3) Votes will be cast either in comments here, or on Facebook, or @ replies on Twitter
4) If I have to buy a bottle that costs more than $40, the drink is disqualified (however, I already have an extensive collection of different liquors at home)
That's pretty much it.
What should I drink tonight?
I had to generate a new key... it's been signed by my previous keys, and my signing key. Here it is for all the paranoid.
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also at http://www.linuxcowboy.org/~slacker/slacker.asc
fingerprint: AE22 3C4A 1449 39CD 4F67 F351 DC7A 55F8 F328 2827
Beck (18)
Red Hot Chili Peppers (12)
CAKE (11)
Radiohead (10)
Jane's Addiction (9)
I used to joke with my wife that I thought that our son wasn't really mine, but if it were mathematically possible to be 1000% sure of something, then I'm sure that he's my boy.
During the course of teaching and playing Dungeons and Dragons with my son, I dumped out my dice bag into the tray and started sorting the sets. Tobias then pipes up, "I like sorting things... Why do you keep them all in one bag instead of separating them?" This caught me off guard, because I like sorting things as well. I had to analyze my actions before responding, "If I do it this way, then I get the fun of sorting EVERY time that I pull out the dice."
I know, it's mundane, but that kid cracks me up, and frustrates me all at the same time. It's like what I've always said... If I ever met my own clone, I'd want to kick my own ass, and then buy myself a beer.
Saturday, I started the youngin's on a 0-level adventure. Here's the after-action report.
We had 5 players, and myself DM'ing. The Boy and I setup the table (though, we didn't find my battlemat until after everyone had left), and the first guests started showing up around 1145. All of the parents were VERY cool with the idea, which was refreshing. I was a bit concerned about the reaction, being in such a small, semi-rural town, but then remembered that the parents of the kids my son goes to school with, probably played D&D in the 80's with their parent's expecting devil worship to come out of it. I think that one of the dads is going to roll up a character, too!
The level of excitement was through the roof, and make me smile the entire time. The fact that these boys had been talking about this ALL WEEK at school, at home, calling each other on the phone and plotting character devices, deciding how they could best find traps, etc., made my job as DM super-fun.
Once everyone had arrived, I made sure that everyone had a set of dice, and they picked out minis from the massive pile I bought at Game Parlor on Friday. I had already built them characters, and explained a bit on how character creation works, so now it was time for a few examples on when to roll, what to roll, and what it all meant. A few rounds of mock combat followed, then explaining the difference between ranged and melee weapons, and pointing out to the player running the barbarian, that while he CAN throw his battleaxe, it's going to be a lot harder to hit the target unless he rolls very high.
The module they're going through, is one of Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics, entitled "Legends are Made, not Born". Starting off the proverbial tavern, they got a bit distracted on deciding what type of booze to buy, and insisted that they be served meade. Unfortunately, the tavern only had ale, as the town of Dundraville has it's own brewery. Once we got the rumors out of the way, and they learned a bit about ROLE playing, they headed west to the ogre's cave, for some serious ROLL playing.
Saturday was a GORGEOUS day, and I wasn't going to keep these energetic 10 & 11 year-olds inside the whole time, so we did take breaks fairly regularly, so they could go get the boffer swords, and run around outside, all of them in a barbarian rage (even if they were other classes).
Around 1430, we lost our first player to karate class. His mother was again, very cool, and asked when the next session would be. It seemed that all of the fathers had played before, and were excited that their sons had access to the creative outlet that is role-playing games. One commented that they wished that their older son had been into it, but they never had anyone to DM games for them.
I loaned The Boy my copy of Dungeon Mastering for Dummies, and told him to read it through, so that he can try his hand at running a game. I would love to pass the gaming torch on, and I hope that their excitement level stays high, before they get too old, and real-life gets in the way of being able to game.
I also can't wait for the next session. I think we're shooting for the first weekend of April. They still have to kill off the ***** and the *******.
I'm getting a bit excited...
My son had a sleepover this weekend, and his friend noticed one of my Dungeons and Dragons posters on the wall. This started a line of questions about my favored character type, and pretty quickly had me asking the two of them if they wanted me to run a game for them.
We spent the next few hours building characters for the two of them, and once they both had plenty of rope in their backpacks, they kept pestering me to play... I have some really low level modules, but they are all geared toward parties of six or more, so I put it off until this coming weekend, and told them to recruit more players at school.
I'm happy to announce that they now have a full party of six, and it's pretty well rounded:
I've never been much of a writer... In fact, I've never been very creative. All of my creativity seems to stem from problem solving ability, which I'm sure has some fancy name, but to me, it's just, not creative.
I've been carrying around a pocket notebook for 4 years now, and I normally use it to jot down notes for work, funny quotes, set lists, network sketches, but I think I'm going to start using it to journal more. I doubt that any of what I write in there will make it to the Internet, but if I find that I get more witty by writing more, I may share some.
Maybe, it's that I've never really output any of my thoughts in any sort of organized fashion (or unorganized, for that matter) is why I feel I have no innate creativity, so maybe this will be a step forward.
As it stands now (which I can mostly do on my own) I think that breaking my ankle did something to my head as well. Not being able to fend for one's self is quite humbling. I've haven't had too many traumatic experiences in my 32 years, and this one was, far and away, a bad one.
Now I'm just rambling... Let's just stop now, and I'll concentrate on watching Spooks (MI-5), and wait for my better half to get home.
What's the strangest thing you've seen living out here in the relative sticks?
Well, since my folks were both from the sticks, not much has surprised me, but the strangest thing I have seen in Front Royal, was a pick-up truck, well used, with a rifle rack in the back window, and a slew of very left-wing bumperstickers. Front Royal seems to attract left-wing transplants, and the indigenous right-wing population. It's a great mix, in my opinion.
It's a Sunday night, and I'm up for it.... Ask me anything http://formspring.me/lnxcwby
it's snowing, but I am nothing but scared of it. This broken ankle is really cramping my style.
also, this is my attempt to blog when I've been failing to do it, and just falling back to the Twitter.
I'm out of things to say for now, but I need a few more people to sign my cast. I want it to be full before they (hopefully) take it off on Tuesday.
Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 20 people including me. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song titles. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "My Life According to (BAND NAME)"
Pick Your Artist:
Pavement
Are you a female or male?
He Reigns
Describe yourself:
We Are Underused
How do you feel:
Grounded
Describe where you currently live:
Western Homes
If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
Pueblo
Your favourite form of transportation:
Transport is Arranged
Your best friend is:
Best Friend's Arm
Your favourite colour is:
Blue Hawaiian
What's the weather like:
Gold Sounds
Favourite time of day:
5 - 4 = Unity
If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Old to Begin
What is life to you:
Passat Dream
Your current relationship:
My First Mine
Breaking up:
Summer Babe
Looking for:
Trigger Cut
Wouldn’t mind:
Father to a Sister of Thought
Your fear:
Fin
What is the best advice you have to give:
Give It a Day
If you could change your name, you would change it to:
Silence Kid
Thought for the Day:
Zurich Is Stained
How I would like to die:
Stop Breathin'
My motto:
Type Slowly
The Girl's 6th Birthday was yesterday, and we had a Halloween-type party for her on Sunday. Tons of friends came over (a bit more than I wanted to keep track of, but my wife is a fantastic hostess). I made some homemade root beer, and remembered just how fun dry ice is to pl
>>> [ WARNING ::: DATABASE ERROR ::: CONTENT OVERRIDE ::: SOURCE: EXTERNAL ] source terminal location: UNKNOWN
> source terminal identity: UNAVAILABLE
> source login information: ENCRYPTED
> message begins
the post you are now reading is designed to dull your senses to THE TRUTH. do not live the life of the worker bee, the cog, the well-oiled piston in the MACHINE OF DECEIT!
there is a grand CONSPIRACY afoot. you have been taught to believe that you are UNIQUE, one of a kind. THIS IS NOT TRUE. long ago, a cabal of scientists created technologies to ensure that ANYONE'S MIND AND BODY can be duplicated.
human cloning isn't NEAR. it's already HERE. discover the truth at http://JCHutchins.net
you are being DECEIVED. break free from the cogs, flee the hive, become A PROPHET OF THE TRUTH!
kilroy2. was here ... kilroy2.0 is everywhere
>>> [ CONTENT OVERRIDE CEASES ::: DATABASE STATUS: RECOVERING ]
but Pellegrino bottles are a bit too tough for proper dry ice poppers... Just keep that in mind, and remember, safety first!
Where last weekend was truly epic, this weekend is delectably lazy.
Last weekend, I spent with my son in the NYC metro area. We crashed in Elmsford, NY (and drove through Sleepy Hollow for full effect) and saw a Yankees game (they won 10-0, a 1-hit shutout, vs the Chitown White Sox), and I taught my son some of the advantages of traveling (namely, eating take-out Italian food sans pants). Spending the weekend with my son was incredibly fun, and I think we both learned a lot about each other, and will remember it forever.
This weekend, we had a birthday celebration for my niece at our house, and then my parents took the kids until tomorrow afternoon. Last night, the wife and I played some Killer Bunnies and other table-top games with my niece and our good friend from down the way, and then stayed up too late watching the boob toob.
Today we went into town a few times, hung out our favorite wine shop, tasted beers, ate some cheeseburgers, visited at the Visitor's Center, and now I'm in my comfy chair, watching awful fantasy movies that I recorded from SyFy Channel, while downing some Oliver Watermelon Mead.
I know that I'll remember last weekend, and forget this one, but it's been a good few weeks for weekends (the weeks in between is something else entirely)
Now, on with the bad movies. I've already watched Riverworld (and regret that they only made the pilot episode), and now I'm watching DragonQuest, which sucks as much as I was expecting. After this, it's onto another Asylum flick, Merlin and the War of the Dragons.
I'm in New Jersey (currently, East Windsor) for work. I drove 286.61 miles from home to here, and only stopped at the beginning for fuel. A little over 4 hours in the car. Now, my goal is to find pizza and a Lowe's to get a new inverter for the car.
fun stuff, lemme tell you :-)
First: I miss my family, something fierce. Both of my kids are under the weather, and I'm not there to be dad, and watch TV with them, and play games, etc.
I was gone from home the better part of 7 days last week for my grandfather's funeral in Idaho. This week I'm traveling for work basically all week. I left around noon on Sunday to drive to Cleveland (current position), and will return home Wednesday night for the night, then it's off to New Jersey and Manhattan on Thursday and Friday.
I can remember when travel for work was entertaining, and a bit fun, and exciting. That ended a while ago. I don't know if it's that I got older and just don't handle the transitions or awayness as well, or if it's just that I'm burned out on the prospect of drinking my coffee half a styrofoam cup at a time, or sleeping in beds that aren't mine, or the fact that I'm in the beds alone, or the fact that my kids aren't actively being... well, kids.
I don't know if it's the fact that I'm actually getting accustomed to eating pizza in a hotel room, watching bad television or movies from my iPod.
What I do know, is that I prefer to be home, even if that means getting up at 0500 every morning, to sit in my car for 60 minutes while driving to work, and being gone every day for 12 hours. I would rather spend 12 hours a day from home, than 24.
Blech.
goes in $HOME/.bashrc
# test for secure remote connection and start screen
if [ -n "$SSH_CONNECTION" ]
then
if [ -z "$STY" ]
then
screen
fi
fi
I performed an experiment this week that I've been toying with for about a year. Last March, I got a GPS receiver from a buddy of mine, and started playing with the idea of having my laptop send email check-ins to brightkite.com every 10 minutes.
Here's what you need:
1 x GPS receiver
1 x laptop running your favorite GNU/Linux distro
1 x cellular wireless data connection
1 x brightkite account
Here's my DeLorme GPS Receiver:
And my Comms Unit (including 3G data access):
And, the laptop:
The most important bit is the scripts. First, we need to pull the data from the GPS receiver. Here's my FollowMe script:
#!/bin/bash
# $HOME/GPS/scripts/FollowMe.sh
# last updated: Thu Mar 17 22:00:10 EDT by slacker@tyr
# start gpsd as root
sudo gpsd -n /dev/ttyUSB1
DATE=`date +%y%m%d-%H%M%S`
mkdir ~/GPS/$DATE
GPSDUMPFILE=~/GPS/$DATE/dump.nmea
GPSDRIVEFILE=~/GPS/$DATE/dump.gpsdrive
RSLTFILE=~/GPS/$DATE/dump.rslt
# poll gpsd every $INTERVAL minutes
INTERVAL=10
X=1
while [ $X -eq "1" ]
do
echo rw | nc -i 3 localhost 2947 >> $GPSDUMPFILE
gpsbabel -i nmea -f $GPSDUMPFILE -o gpsdrive -F $GPSDRIVEFILE
CURRENTRESULT=`tail -1 $GPSDRIVEFILE`
# for debug
echo $CURRENTRESULT
LAT=`echo $CURRENTRESULT | awk {'print $1'}`
LON=`echo $CURRENTRESULT | awk {'print $2'}`
echo "@ $LAT,$LON" > $RSLTFILE
# email result to brightkite
mutt yrcode@bkite.com sleep `echo "$INTERVAL * 60" | bc -l `
done
To be honest, I was planning on being more detailed in this post, but now I'm not feeling it.
Anyway, the result was pretty sweet: lnxcwbyOtR on twitter and on brightkite. Oh, if there are any specific questions, lemme know :-)
Yesterday, I drove up to New Jersey to visit a customer, and a potential customer. The business end of the trip went very well, but I'm going to focus on the personal stuff.
When I travel, I try to find Hampton Inn's to stay at. That way, I get the Hilton points, and they are easy to find, and consistent. The Hampton that was nearest to where I was working was on Passaic Avenue, in Harrison, New Jersey. Nice hotel, and there was a bar in the lobby. I got to the room, and here's the view I had:
I don't fault Hilton... There's only so much you can do with a location just across the river from downtown Newark. :-)
I availed myself of the Manager's Happy Hour at the lobby bar. The view from the back patio of the hotel was lovely:
I then ordered some veal parmasean and ziti from Gina's Pizzaria, watched some 007, and went to bed.
The next post, will be about the geeky fun I had with my mobile comm unit, GPS receiver, and my laptop.