Archive for July, 2005

That’s a lot of lumber

7/1/2005

These are my late grandfather’s speakers which were given to me along with some other things after he passed away. Shot taken in my basement. Supposedly they were $2500.00 each. I tried selling them on eBay for $300 for the pair but no one would buy them.. so.. maybe it’s a sign I should keep them. Most of the speakers are blown as you can see, but they can all be replaced.

These big 4-foot-tall oak boxes were made at the time when big speakers were the proper way (and still are) to push sound. They’re true 5-way with Infinite Slope technology built-in, and they’re 100% U.S.A. made. In short: These loudspeakers could fill an auditorium easily but at the same time are “civilized” enough to be used in a living room.

The largest problem will be finding replacement cones. Back in the day you could have replaced every single speaker at Radio Shack, but now they don’t carry cones any longer - at all. Major department stores like Wal-Mart and K-Mart don’t carry them either. It’s going to be a challenge to find cones, that’s for sure. It’ll probably cost around $200 per box (or more) to replace all of them. But it’s not like these boxes are going anywhere. I have time. (grin)

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Internet speak in a southern drawl

7/1/2005

My sister (who is currently going to college in St. Kitts) and I are about as Yankee New England as you can get. However, when we chat on the ‘net, the conversation always ends something like this:

Sis (05:49 PM) :
ok. I’ll talk to u again soon

Me (05:49 PM) :
k

Sis (05:49 PM) :
thanks again

Me (05:49 PM) :
np

Me (05:49 PM) :
pop will be mailing the package this weekend

Sis (05:49 PM) :
awesome! I love getting packages

Sis (05:49 PM) :
kid at summer camp syndrome

Me (05:49 PM) :
ah

Sis (05:50 PM) :
take care, I’ll let u know when I get it

Me (05:50 PM) :
k bah

Sis (05:50 PM) :
BAH!!

Yep. You read it right: BAH. Southern drawl for “bye” which is shortened “goodbye”.

I think it’s amusing, and yes, I started it first. ;-)

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What the !@^&@!!!

7/6/2005

Holy shit has the past couple of days been hell in blogland. This is going to be a geekoid post, I give you fair warning. I’m also going to swear a lot. A whole lot.

Okay, here’s the situation: This programmer asshole decided to release an “updated” version of DBD::mysql, version 3.0000. Why four zeros? I have no idea. This thing is used in cPanel, something a lot of web host providers use, including the one I use. In short, due to the God darned release, it broke almost EVERY SINGLE BLOG that uses MT and MySQL across the internet. Good job, retard! As of RIGHT NOW, there are SHITLOADS of MT blogs that STILL DON’T WORK.

Very fucking annoying. Many MT bloggers are now familiar with the phrase “Premature end of script” error, HUGE “core” files being dumped to the cgi-bin directory, “Error 500″ server nastygrams up the ying-yang and a busted blog.

So why is my blog working? Good question. Here’s a good answer.

MovableType gives the choice of using a few different databases on install. One of them is Berkeley. It’s not MySQL. It’s just a directory Perl thing-a-ma-doo whatever. “Okay, I’ll just convert over to that - shouldn’t be a problem.”

Or so I thought.

Turns out my MySQL database had a few “holes” in it where the entry and ID count were off.. (such as entry 434, 435, 437, 438 where it skipped a number due to a deleted entry or whatever) so when I exported the entries and then reimported to the Berkeley database, my phpBB comment system didn’t match up to the entry ID’s. ARRHGHGHGHGHHHH…

So I had to manually open the MySQL database and fix it LINE BY LINE by “filling the hole” with a dummy entry whereever a skipped number was present.

Finally, I got everything back together where the ID’s matched the comment system. I also had to manually import all the template crap from the MySQL db using phpMyAdmin and cut/paste into this MT installation.

This whole experience fucking sucked. I can’t believe that someone would release an “update” that would simply break MT blogs all over the place.

To those who are (still) waiting for a fix, the thread is here. If and when a patch is released, I seriously doubt I will go back to MySQL for a while. I worked really, really hard to get my MT setup the way I wanted it.. and I’m not about to let it go. I was considering migrating to WordPress or pMachine, but.. with my integrated phpBB comment system - that would be a pain in the ass to the ump-teenth degree. No thanks. I got my setup working now.. that’s all that counts.

Oh, one more thing. You will see that I did post something on that thread where I said my comments go “out of sync”. This was before I fixed my little “hole” thing mentioned above. Once I got that straightened out I was able to reimport all my entries to the Berkeley db without a problem.

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Late to bed, late to rise

7/6/2005

In about 20 minutes I will be leaving for werk. I woke up late this morning so I called in and said I would be an hour late. Cool thing about this morning is wow, I actually have time to take a real shower (as in one that isn’t only 5 minutes long) and have more than just a few scant minutes to knock the cobwebs out of my head and plunder into the morning corporate cattle drive, better known as morning traffic on the highway. I even have time to write this lil’ ditty.

I think I’m writing this mostly because *whoa*, my blog is actually working again and I’m happy to have it back. Yahoo. Yahoo, indeed (the exclamation, not the company you boob). ;-)

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Someone is being disagreeable

7/7/2005

This cheered me up. Foamy rocks.

Pancake Madness

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Brac, Brac, Brac, and um.. no fireworks

7/7/2005

Being that I’ve been up since midnight and have positively nothing to do, I headed over to the local paper to see what’s up.

Let’s see here.. “Locals arrive at BRAC hearing”, “Connecticut presents its case” (before the BRAC commissioners), “Connecticut pokes holes in case to close sub base”, “‘Sun fireworks cancelled” and more sub base stuff.

I read the little snippets of articles. First of all, what the frig is a “BRAC” anyway? “Boobs Really Are Cool”? or “Bratwurst, Rolls, and Chimichongas”? or how about “Blown Rocket Ass Cheese”? It remains a mystery. Brac brac braca brackity brac brac. Probably has something to do with the sub base thing. I dunno.

And yes, I purposely stay completely detached from all this sub base stuff. The government wants to shut it down and move it elsewhere, that’s all I know from what I hear. Whether that will actually happen or not is anyone’s guess. I don’t read the paper, nor do I watch the news. I am blissfully uninformed.

“Wild Wednesday” fireworks have been cancelled at Mohegan Sun due to bad weather. It’s true, fireworks that day would have sucked. I find it amusing that you can reschedule anything labeled as “wild”. Think about that for a second. If you don’t get it, think of it in the same vein as “Controlled spontaneity”, then maybe you’ll get it.

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Don’t bite your nails

7/9/2005

How cool is it when you can write data to your fingernails. Hot darn, I want that. Most people can find me wearing my oh-so-trendy memory stick around my neck (note: didn’t know it was “trendy” until someone told me), but man.. to be able to laser-on a document.. or some mp3’s.. or whatever.. right to my nails.. wow. Now that’s technology I like.

“May I have your resume, sir?”

“Why, sure.”

I stick up my middle finger.

“There ya go, enjoy.”

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So it begins

7/9/2005

Being that I will have newfound freedom in two weeks (and yes, newfound is a word), I have made the decision to start advertising for a band again. I have a web site already set up for it. It’s been up for about a week or so. No, I won’t link it here. I’m doing that on purpose. There are a select few out there that seem to go through the roof every time I mention anything musically on this site.. with thoughts (by them) that go something like..

WHAT!? That asshole is doing music again?! Why that.. that fuckface! Ooo! Dammit! I hate that guy! I’m gonna sit here and stew about it and.. ARRHHGHGHHH! Stupid asshole..

Whatever. Lord forbid I actually do something productive (gasp) with my music.

Anyway, I’ve been sitting on the whole advertising-for-a-band thing because of my job.. which as anyone who reads this site knows just sucks the life out of me. Previously, I mentioned I was working with another singer but he’s now got his own project going (which is sounding quite good by the way,) so I’m just going to advertise for new blood instead. Now that I actually have time, I can do the ad thing.

Will the ad work? I dunno. I’m hoping I get a few responses. We’ll see..

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Tangerine Dreams

7/9/2005

“What the frig is with all the orange?”, you may be saying to yourself. Well, I decided to change around the site. Now everything is in TANGERINE.. woo-haa! I like it. Nice change of pace. Loads pretty quick, too.

–edit–

Orange was way too loud. Went back to blue. ;-)

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Pick your style

7/10/2005

If you look to the top of this site, you can now choose a color/style. Yes, I had this on here before but had to take it off (this was before I learned my CSS better). Now you can insta-pick a color. Yay. ;-)

I especially like this because it can now accommodate just about every monitor on the planet, whether viewing at 800×600 or 1680×1050 like I am. ;-)

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