General

So I’m trying out this new program called “ecto” (available on OS X and Windows, it should be obvious which one I’m using). It’s pretty much a blogging client; you know, type what you want to post, click the “publish” button. It’s got a few nifty features, like a WYSIWIG editor, and support for the “excerpt” feature. It’s pretty sweet so far, although I really dislike the stupid drawer on the main window; I only have one weblog that I post to, and don’t need to see the full account list. ...

Holy crap. I can’t wait for April 29th.

On a different note, I bought a new truck last week. My old, trustworthy (until then) ‘93 Ranger finally gave out on Tuesday last week. I was in the parking lot at home, getting ready (at 6:15 AM, no less) to drive down to San Marcos for some training (given to me, not by me). I throw the shifter into reverse (manual transmission), and I get nothing. Back to first, nothing there either. I put it in neutral, and I get forward motion. “This is bad,” I think. So I have it towed to my local mechanic, and fall asleep somewhere between 8 and 9 (I slept really weird hours last week). I was off Wednesday, so I slept late and was awakened by Oscar, calling to give me the bad news. The transmission is completely b0rked: apparently the transmission fluid level had gotten so low that the gears had completely fused in either 1st or 2nd. And it’ll cost me about $2,000 to fix. So I wake up a little more, and drive my nice little rental shoebox (a Dodge Neon) over to the Ford dealership near me, and drive out a few hours later with one of these. The “Edge” model, with a SuperCab and a 3.0L V6. And you know? I really like having a new car (truck, whatever). In the words of Ferris Bueller (and I know I’ve used this quote before), “It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend you pick one up.” I guess the last 10 years I’d just gotten used to the quirks of my old truck, but it’s very enjoyable to step on the gas and actually go. Now if I can only get a good 8 hours’ uninterrupted sleep, I’ll be good as gold. ...

You know, I’m getting really tired of logging in to the admin portion of this site, and having to delete anywhere between 6 and 20 spams for onl1ne p0ker (obfuscation by me). I think I’ll just turn off commenting alltogether; it’s not like I get that many, and it seems like everyone who reads this site already has my email address…

So I’m sitting here, typing away on a new keyboard. It wasn’t exactly necessary; I mean, it’s a laptop. But I really liked the key rebound and tactile response from the Apple wireless keyboard, and since I already have a bluetooth mouse, it seemed a nice accompaniment. And it sure does work well; I just love not having to deal with cables. I can kick back, put up my feet, and type away without any trouble at all. As for the mouse, it’s a Logitech MX900. The base station that came with it isn’t compatible with OS X for some reason (which is strange, considering that if it weren’t for the Macintosh, Logitech probably wouldn’t make any Bluetooth devices at all). But I also have a USB bluetooth “pocket” adapter that does the job wonderfully. And with this nifty piece of shareware that someone mentioned on MacOSXHints.com called “GamePad Companion,” I’ve even managed to get the “Back” and “Forward” buttons to work properly. Plus I love having an Exposé button on the mouse; it speeds up window switching so much more without having to push F9 by hand. ...

Apparently the BBC conducted a poll on the top fifty things you should eat before you die. I’ve got 26 left. Personal guilty pleasure: “American Diner Breakfast.” With eggs fried over-medium, hash browns, and pancakes. Or good biscuits with sawmill gravy (but nobody has either good biscuits or sawmill gravy any more). link.

OK, definition time. The following links go to desktops, not “screensavers”. Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows ME Windows 2000 Professional Windows XP Windows XP (“Classic” style) A screensaver is what you see when you leave your system alone for a while. It’s usually a moving image of some kind, possibly with informational text, or maybe just a blank screen. It’s not the same thing as your desktop. If you call your desktop a “screen saver,” I will personally ridicule you for it. ...

Just took this screenshot 5 minutes ago.

Well, it’s X-mas again. And I’m at work; lucky me. At least I’m getting double-time for working, and I even get to spend the entire day with the family afterwards (assuming I can stay awake all day). Some updates to the site (and in general): A link to the other blogs I read is over on the right; look for the “See Bloglines” image (which I had to create myself, because apparently there isn’t already one). I think I’m going to just ditch the post categories; I never use them anyway, and they just take up space on the “write post” page. It seems the clutch on my truck is going out; I’m hearing an irritating whining sound when I accelerate, and I can’t downshift into 2nd without a lot of effort. I need to decide whether I’m going to fix it, or just buy something new House of Flying Daggers is really cool. but I think it’s funny that IMDB has it listed as coming out in 2004; the DVD I “acquired” of it earlier this week was pressed in 2003… That’s about all for now. Back to the movies I brought to watch tonight (assuming it stays slow): Perfect Blue Millennium Actress ...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything. I just ran out of things to say for a long time. Plus, I figure next to no-one actually reads the site on a daily basis, so it’s not like I’ve been depriving anyone. A few big updates since the end of September: I’ve got a Mac now. A nice, shiny, new iBook G4. And boy is it sweet. I’ve never been a windows person, but boy howdy do I like the Mac. OS is just about perfect, hardware IS perfect (except for the one-button mouse, but I’ve found a solution for that. I’ve moved the site to a different machine. It’s still hosted on my “really too slow to host a website” RoadRunner connection, but now it’s running on a box that isn’t my workstation. At the time it was a good idea, since my workstation had been crashing all the damn time. I’ve since fixed that (there was apparently a bug in the firmaware of the integraded Ultra ATA-100 controller on my motherboard; a BIOS upgrade got it sorted). New server is running Apache 2 (I forget the exact version, but it’s whatever’s in Sid. Also, while I haven’t done it yet, I’m looking really closely at switching to Qmail for my email. We’ll see how that goes. You’d think I’d have more updates after a 2-month hiatus, wouldn’t you? Oh, well. ...