:: So It Is Written... ::

:: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 ::

 

I have to get up in 6 hours... have to teach a lab. At least I made out my notes. Hopefully I won't sleep in. Slept in today. Slept through my one class, and karate. Woke up on time, but went back to sleep... It's all Michael's fault. Kept thinking about his, "well, I hadn't slept in this semester... figured it was about time"... I don't think I had much choice in the matter. I only got 4 hours sleep.. was on the phone with tech support.. microsoft of all people. They're all stupid and couldn't help. They also couldn't get my win2000 pro and ME boxes to talk to my XP box.. if any random networking gurus out there want to take a crack at it, be my guest to shoot me an email. I hesitate to ask the one guru I know since I've bothered him so much lately that I made him sick... so sick he's missing work... yeah, I guess I am that annoying...

speaking of annoying, back to microsoft... since I was calling about networking, they got my IP address. Then something odd happened. within a couple of hours of hanging up with them, I got my very first virus. a nasty one, at that. all of a sudden, something started renaming jpg files to eml files and turning them from 50k files to 10 meg files and then scattering them randomly throughout my harddrive. and if that wasn't enough, it gets better. It changed some XP files, and then the stupid thing ate all of my XP restore points, so I couldn't go back. THEN it did something with internet explorer so that when you tried bringing up a web browser, it started some other set of programs running that respawned themselves quicker than I could kill them. I think those were the programs that were scattering 10 meg files everywhere. THEN the main windows explorer.exe started eating up processor time and ram. before I got my computer shut down, it was eating 98% processor (which is impressive, considering my computer) and it had over 407 megs in ram and was growing at about 1 meg/second. I was a little curious what it would do when it ran out of ram, but I decided not to find out. Anyone remember that email about the world's worst computer virus that like broke your refridgerator and turned your washer and dryer against you? yeah, that's about what I thought I was fighting. I just couldn't keep up. I tried everything.

In the end, I took my computer to Best Buy. You know what they told me? ok, this was just funny. This is what they told me: For $40 they can sweep the computer and remove the virus, but then I'll need to format the harddrive and reinstall the OS. so without thinking, I replied, "then why in the world am I paying you $40?" Luckily, I know the techs there. They're going to sweep it and then restore the OS, rather than FFRing my computer.

Ironic, isn't it? I get this little broken laptop up and running and think to myself, Hmm... what am I going to do with this laptop? Now, it's the only thing I have for the next few weeks. Good timing, fates.

In other news, my roommate got a DVD+R/RW for Christmas. We're learning how to copy... err... scratch that.. we're learning how to back up DVDs... and burn downloads onto DVDs... Anybody need anything backed up? Actually, it's pretty painful. It takes his computer about 24 hrs to convert files to dvd format. We're hoping to make use of the Beast's brute force to help speed things up a bit. when it gets back, that is. First thing I'm gonna try is putting my VCDs on DVD. I hate having to get up and switch out discs in the middle of a movie. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

ok.. I'm actually starting to get a little tired... which is a good thing. I have to teach class in less than 6 hours. I guess I'll sign off here and write more later.

later....

figures.... I write a novel and blogger won't post... stupid thing... actually, blogger didn't just not post... it completely erased this entire entry. Luckily, I'm used to blogger being worthless, so before I hit any buttons, I copied the entry to a word document. ha! take that, blogger. still very annoying, though.

:: posted by Tmber :: 9:04 AM ::

 

ok... I have beem meaning to sit down and write a novel since the first day I got back.. Unfortunately, that whole deal with the secure shell crap kept me from posting. Now I have forgotten most of what I wanted to say. They were mostly just tidbits of random thoughts that were neatly organized in my mind... couldn't keep them there for too long though... too much crap goes through my brain every day and I guess it just got caught up in the steady stream of stuff that slips out my ears. so I'll write down now what I can remember....

first, 16 1/2 hour of complete stream of consciousness thought is a wild and crazy ride. I suggest anyone driving cross country try it at least once. I tried to sort out what I wanted in life, but couldn't keep focused long enough... Kept being interrupted by thoughts like, "yeah, her name was Elaine, not lorraine!" (trivia: Sinfeld), and dream interpretation.... Amazingly enough, I did not listen to any audiobooks on the way back. I had the stereo turned on, but turned down low. Normally that kind of setting would have put me to sleep... but not for that drive. I had way too much to think about. Like what do I want to do with my life? What is my purpose? more on that in a minute

radio stations: everyone should go here and register to win a home theater system. They've already given two away, but they have two left... some radiostation in po'dunk oklahoma or thereabouts. and if you find out what those stupid points are good for, let me know!

ps2: james bond... it's all about bond... Nightfire has to be the most intense 4 player game I have played in years. Chesea and I played against Brian and Caleb one just one board to only 10 pts, and it took us over an hour! also, gran turismo is lacking. yeah, it's pretty, but the money just doesn't come quick enough. It's frustrating having to race the same races over and over and over just to get enough money for a single upgrade. but you cant' race any of the other races because your car's not quick enough to win.

laptops: I have a laptop, I have a laptop, I have a laptop, hey hey hey hey! :) I bought it broken, and after about 20 hours of stripping the thing down completely and utterly apart (I'm talking everything that could be taken apart was taken apart), I found the problem, fixed it, and it's working now! Now, if anyone can tell me what to do with a laptop, it would be greatly appreciated! I bought a usb network connector for it, and it likes the internet. I have done one useful thing with it... I cataloged all my DVDs, finally! Feel free to browse my collection here. If you want to rent a DVD, it's just the cost of postage! :) no way I can watch all of these at once; might as well make use of them :) Maybe I'll charge like 50 cents for each rental or something.

diets: My one and only new years resolution. Lose weight. I want to lose about 36 lbs before next Christmas. That's about 3 lbs./month, so it's not unreasonable... who knows? maybe I can actually do it... we'll see. eating healthy sucks, but I've been working on it, and so far I haven't had fast food since I got back to boulder.

the future: You'd think that 16 1/2 hours would be enough to answer a single question. You'd think that anyways... but when the questions is, "What am I going to do with my life?" and I'm the one asking it, apparently 16 1/2 hours isn't enough. It's even a multiple choice answer. There are only a finite number of logical answers. And for this trip, I was only trying to decide between 3 of them. Maybe it's because the correct answer isn't one of the choices I've given myself, but that's one of those things I'll never know. Yeah, it's a great thought to devote my life to opening up a Christian martial arts studio like Mr. Blackstone's, but it doesn't make sense.... why would I have devoted my life to aerospace? I was trying to find a long term goal for my life. and a short term solution... MBA? PhD? both? I never came to a solution to any of my problems, but as an update, I have eliminated one possibility. I won't be doing a PhD in Astrophysics at CU. I let the deadline slip past... mostly on purpose. During the break, I just was never overly excited about astrophysics. yeah, it's cool... yes, I could do it... but it's not quite the direction I've chosen for myself... I don't know what that direction is, but I don't think it's astrophysics. Now I have to decide... what do I want to be? a manager? an engineer? ::sigh:: I don't know. But, while thinking about it during the drive, and letting my mind wonder in stream of consciousness... I hit on an interesting thought...

dreams and life: yeah, this is a biggie... first a question: Have you ever had one voice in your head talk over another? Really think about it. sure, my inner voice interrupts itself all the time when I'm thinking, but it's always one voice. I might can have two or more thoughts at the same time, but I can't "vocalize" them in my mind at the same time. That's why, when this did happen to me during this drive, I shut up and took notice... now for the context.... The night before I left, I had a dream. It was a pretty cool dream which I won't be able to put into words, and it's been so long that I may have some of the details backwards, but it goes something like this: I talked to God. (God doesn't sound anything like you'd think he should). God handed me this little contraption. It was like a fat candle holder. It was brown. I understood it to be connected with the earth, although this was never explicitly stated in the dream. Ironically (maybe some of you will get the irony)... Ironically, God gave Krys one of these things, too. His was blue. Again, I understood it to be connected to water. These things were capable of the most amazing abilities. All you had to do was concentrate and this thing could become and do whatever you needed it to. Then someone (an old, ugly lady) stole my thing. I knew I had to fight to get it back. Krys let me borrow his to fight. I dreamed in blue. Unfortunately, one person could never wield this thing as well as the person for whom it was created. I confronted the lady who stole mine, and somehow or another, they got swapped back... I had mine and she had krys'... which was also no good. So I tried to fight to get it back. Only, I couldn't get it to do anything I wanted. I concentrated... it barely did anything. I used it as a weapon and it barely scratched her... I called out to God... "Why did you give me this thing capable of so much and then not tell me how to use it?" It was a very cruel joke...

I woke up very pleased with the vivid, colorful dream I had just experience, and then I went back to sleep (which is why I was 3 hours late leaving Memphis). Around 8 or 9pm that night... driving on I-135 through nowhere Oklahoma, that dream came back to me... and this is where it's a little weird. I began to ask myself "what did that dream really mean?" and I did finish asking myself that question; however, about halfway through the question, another voice (also mine) began talking over top of the first, and answered the question in a way like you would talk over someone who was asking a really obvious question so you could give him/her the answer before they finish embarrasing themself by asking it. The answer was, "God has given you a great gift, and now it's up to you to decide what to do with it."

I sat in silence for about 30 minutes.

:: posted by Tmber :: 11:59 PM ::

 

this was cool... I didn't get it... can you get it?

1) Find the next 3 numbers in this sequence:
1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, 312211, 13112221....

:: posted by Tmber :: 3:41 AM ::

 

ok... some filler until I get my new domain... The first thing on the list has to be the best :) The last one is particularly thought provoking...

NINETEEN THINGS THAT IT TOOK ME 50 YEARS TO LEARN By Dave Barry (Humorist)

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."
3. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
5. And when God, who created the entire universe with all of its glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, He WILL NOT use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle.
6. You should not confuse your career with your life.
7. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.
8. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.
9. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
10. Never lick a steak knife.
11. Take out the fortune before you eat the cookie.
12. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.
13. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.
14. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that
moment.
15. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.
16. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.
17. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them.
18. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)
19. Your friends love you anyway.


Computer Viruses
CLINTON VIRUS - Gives you a 7 Inch Hard Drive with NO memory.
VIAGRA VIRUS - Makes a new hard drive out of an old floppy.
LEWINSKY VIRUS - Sucks all the memory out of your computer, then emails everyone about what it did.
RONALD REAGAN VIRUS - Saves your data, but forgets where it is stored.
MIKE TYSON VIRUS - Quits after two bytes.
OPRAH WINFREY VIRUS - Your 300 MB hard drive suddenly shrinks to 100 MB, then slowly expands > >to > > > 200 MB.
DR. JACK KEVORKIAN VIRUS - Deletes all old files.
ELLEN DEGENERES VIRUS - Disks can no longer be inserted.
TITANIC VIRUS (A strain of the Lewinsky Virus) - Your whole computer goes down.
DISNEY VIRUS - Everything in your computer goes Goofy.
PROZAC VIRUS - Screws up your RAM but your processor doesn't care.
JOEY BUTTAFUOCO VIRUS - Only attacks minor files.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER VIRUS - Terminates some files, leaves, but IT WILL BE BACK.
LORENA BOBBIT VIRUS - Reformats your hard drive into a 3.5 inch floppy then discards it through Windows.
COLIN POWELL VIRUS - makes it presence known, but doesn't do anything. Secretly, you wish it would.
HILLARY CLINTON VIRUS - Files disappear, only to reappear mysteriously a year later, in another directory.
O.J.SIMPSON VIRUS - you know it's guilty of trashing your system, but you just can't prove it.
BOB DOLE VIRUS - Could be virulent, but it's been around too long to be much of a threat.
OPRAH WINFREY VIRUS - Your 200MB hard drive suddenly shrinks to 80MB, and then slowly expands back to 200MB.
PAUL REVERE VIRUS - Warns you of impending hard disk attack. Once, if by LAN, twice if by C:
POLITICALLY CORRECT VIRUS - Never identifies itself as a "virus", but instead refers to itself as an "electronic micro-organism".
TEXAS VIRUS - Makes sure that it's bigger than any other file.
ADAM AND EVE VIRUS - Takes a couple bytes out of your Apple.
AIRLINE LUGGAGE VIRUS - You're in Dallas, but your data is in Singapore.
FREUDIAN VIRUS - You computer becomes obsessed with marrying its own mother board.
STAR TREK VIRUS - Invades your system in places where no virus has gone before.
HEALTH CARE VIRUS - Tests your system for a day, finds nothing wrong with it, and sends you a bill for $4,500.

Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
- Stephen W. Hawking

There are no physicists in the hottest parts of hell, because the existence of a "hottest part" implies a temperature difference, and any marginally competent physicist would immediately use this to run a heat engine and make some other part of hell comfortably cool. This is obviously impossible.
- Richard Davisson

-You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.
-A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
-If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.
-Don't sweat petty things... or pet sweaty things.
-A fool and his money are soon partying.
-Money can't buy love. But it can rent a very close imitation.
-Attempt to get a new car for your spouse -- it'll be a great trade!
-Hell hath no fury like the lawyer of a woman scorned.
-Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.
-Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.
-Eagles may soar, but weasels aren't sucked into jet engines.
-Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back.
-Half the people you know are below average.
-A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
-Everyone has a photographic memory. Most just don't have film.
-Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?
-I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.
-Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark.
-Laughing stock: cattle with a sense of humor.
-Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?
-Wear short sleeves! Support your right to bare arms!
-Black holes are where God divided by zero.
-All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand
-Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.
-Love is grand; divorce is a hundred grand.
-Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
-Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly and for the same reason.
-An optimist thinks that this is the best possible world. A pessimist fears that this is true.
-There is always death and taxes; however, death doesn't get worse every year.
-People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them that Benjamin Franklin said it first.
-It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
-I don't mind going nowhere as long as it's an interesting path.
-I always wanted to be a procrastinator; I never got around to it.
-One of life's mysteries is how a two pound box of candy can make a woman gain five pounds.
-It's frustrating when you know all the answers, but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
-Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever.
-Age doesn't always bring wisdom, sometimes age comes alone.
-Life not only begins at forty, it begins to show.

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:
*29 have been accused of spousal abuse
*7 have been arrested for fraud
*19 have been accused of writing bad checks
*117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
*3 have done time for assault
*71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
*14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
*8 have been arrested for shoplifting
*21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
*84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year.

Can you guess which organization this is?

It's the 535 members of the United States Congress - the same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.

:: posted by Tmber :: 3:15 AM ::

 

and now my archives are screwed up... aaaaarrrrggggghhhh!!!!!

:: posted by Tmber :: 3:34 PM ::

 

that's THREE TIMES blogger has eaten my post. Let me explain... new security crap sucks. stop. no static IP sucks. stop. new domain coming soon. stop. not much update due to too much hassle. stop...

:: posted by Tmber :: 3:27 PM ::

 

this is a test to see if the university's new "security" BS stops my blog from posting... if it works, there should be a small novel here later today....

:: posted by Tmber :: 12:20 PM ::