I finished the The Time Traveler's Wife a few days ago and have since then burnt through the backlog of magazines that I've been ignoring and resorted to reading Brown and Vranesic's Fundamentals of Digital Logic with Verilog Design in bed . . .
I think it's time for an Amazon.com book binge!!! Send me your recommendations! So far I've got The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay and Stephen King's Dark Tower box set (books 1-4).
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Just Like Chewbacca
I just noticed that my legs are pretty hairy - in fact, much hairier than I remember them being. Looking at them right now, I'm not sure if it's that the hairs are longer than they were before, thus giving the illusion of higher hair density or if the actual number of hairs/in^2 has increased. Maybe it's both, or maybe I've just remembered incorrectly or am thinking of someone else's legs.
In any case, I'm on the verge of whipping out a magic marker and a ruler and counting + measuring hairs.
AAAAaaannnnd the results are in! After marking off 1 square inch of leg with a ballpoint pen and a ruler, I counted 49 hairs (including the hairs that were on the line on two of the four sides of the square). Average length was ~0.75".
So, if you catch me with my pant leg rolled up or in shorts and see a random square drawn on my right calf, you'll know why :)
We'll take another measurement in a year or so . . . if I remember to do so (might need a reminder from you guys).
In any case, I'm on the verge of whipping out a magic marker and a ruler and counting + measuring hairs.
AAAAaaannnnd the results are in! After marking off 1 square inch of leg with a ballpoint pen and a ruler, I counted 49 hairs (including the hairs that were on the line on two of the four sides of the square). Average length was ~0.75".
So, if you catch me with my pant leg rolled up or in shorts and see a random square drawn on my right calf, you'll know why :)
We'll take another measurement in a year or so . . . if I remember to do so (might need a reminder from you guys).
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Darth Vader smells like Feet
I decided at some point yesterday afternoon that today would be my Sunday Hash. Now, for those of you who never lived on the Row, Sunday Hash was not the special pot you saved for Sundays (the lord's pot?), but rather the weekly (supposedly) thorough cleaning of the Kitchen that occurred every Sunday, but featuring a new crew of cleaners each week.
Today's Sunday Hash, however, covered the entire house plus the back yard and was crewed by just me. This was kind of nice though - I didn't have to go knocking at doors of no-shows, waste time delegating tasks or deal with completely incompetent hashers. Anyway, it wasn't all that painful at all, but I think there's something wrong with my vacuum cleaner.
I inherited this vacuum cleaner from my sister when she moved into her new house (with her new vacuum). Affectionately called "Darth Vader," my vacuum is about 6 years old and I've personally rescued it from the junk heap once when Darth stopped sucking. He seems to be doing ok right now, but he smells kind of funny . . . When I started vacuuming the floors I noticed that the living room area had a faint smell of feet. I immediately figured that the rug (purchased used from a student living in Kairos) was developing/reacquiring an unpleasant odor.
When I got to the second floor, however the smell of feet came back, but then started smelling like ass. As I was finishing the first room, the smell of ass became more and more like the smell of burning ass. Darth is still maintaining sucking power so I probably won't junk him, but I should probably look into this burning ass business . . .
Anyway, time for a cold drink and some TV . . . maybe some saxophoning too.
Today's Sunday Hash, however, covered the entire house plus the back yard and was crewed by just me. This was kind of nice though - I didn't have to go knocking at doors of no-shows, waste time delegating tasks or deal with completely incompetent hashers. Anyway, it wasn't all that painful at all, but I think there's something wrong with my vacuum cleaner.
I inherited this vacuum cleaner from my sister when she moved into her new house (with her new vacuum). Affectionately called "Darth Vader," my vacuum is about 6 years old and I've personally rescued it from the junk heap once when Darth stopped sucking. He seems to be doing ok right now, but he smells kind of funny . . . When I started vacuuming the floors I noticed that the living room area had a faint smell of feet. I immediately figured that the rug (purchased used from a student living in Kairos) was developing/reacquiring an unpleasant odor.
When I got to the second floor, however the smell of feet came back, but then started smelling like ass. As I was finishing the first room, the smell of ass became more and more like the smell of burning ass. Darth is still maintaining sucking power so I probably won't junk him, but I should probably look into this burning ass business . . .
Anyway, time for a cold drink and some TV . . . maybe some saxophoning too.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Mein Computer ist kaput
About a week ago my desktop PC froze. I was surprised. This wasn't the hooptie I converted into my media PC and it wasn't the barebones laptop I picked up from Dell for $750 two years ago - this was my kicking-ass-and-taking-no-prisoners system I put together about a year ago. Back then, the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core processor was pretty quick - it was certainly more than I really needed for my usual computing activities. Outside of a crappy ECS motherboard that came for free with my processor, everything I put in that computer was from a reputable manufacturer.
That PC was rock solid. I once tried to freeze it by running all sorts of random clock cycle-devouring applications to no avail. If I remember correctly, I barely railed one of the processor cores.
I ran some of my own diagnostic trials and identified the Mobo as a very likely source of the problem, had Fry's give me a new mobo and processor (as per the terms of my $50 extended warranty). I hooked all the new stuff up, hit the button and the fans spun and the LEDs lit up . . . for like a second . . . then everything stopped. It didn't even post. And the power supply was making this high pitched whining sound. Even with none of the other hardware attached (disk drives, graphics card, USB ports, peripherals) it still wouldn't spin up. Nobody suspects the power supply! It's like the Spanish Inquisition or winning with an off-suit 2/7 in the pocket. When you have millions and millions of transistors that need to be working in perfect sync for those1's and 0's to actually mean anything, it's hard to suspect the power supply . . .
Anyway, I brought everything in to Fry's this morning to check out on their test bench to rule out the motherboard as the source and found that my graphics card is jacked up too somehow . . . So, I suspect my Power Supply jacked up my graphics card . . . or visa versa . . . In any case, I need a new power supply and graphics card.
Sooo, I'll need to find some new hardware and reinstall all my apps after I get all of my data off of that harddrive, but oddly enough, there's a little excitement stemming from the prospect of shopping for computer hardware :)
That PC was rock solid. I once tried to freeze it by running all sorts of random clock cycle-devouring applications to no avail. If I remember correctly, I barely railed one of the processor cores.
I ran some of my own diagnostic trials and identified the Mobo as a very likely source of the problem, had Fry's give me a new mobo and processor (as per the terms of my $50 extended warranty). I hooked all the new stuff up, hit the button and the fans spun and the LEDs lit up . . . for like a second . . . then everything stopped. It didn't even post. And the power supply was making this high pitched whining sound. Even with none of the other hardware attached (disk drives, graphics card, USB ports, peripherals) it still wouldn't spin up. Nobody suspects the power supply! It's like the Spanish Inquisition or winning with an off-suit 2/7 in the pocket. When you have millions and millions of transistors that need to be working in perfect sync for those1's and 0's to actually mean anything, it's hard to suspect the power supply . . .
Anyway, I brought everything in to Fry's this morning to check out on their test bench to rule out the motherboard as the source and found that my graphics card is jacked up too somehow . . . So, I suspect my Power Supply jacked up my graphics card . . . or visa versa . . . In any case, I need a new power supply and graphics card.
Sooo, I'll need to find some new hardware and reinstall all my apps after I get all of my data off of that harddrive, but oddly enough, there's a little excitement stemming from the prospect of shopping for computer hardware :)
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