Archive for November, 2007
11/2/2007
(part 2)
Yesterday I called up Verizon and had a chat about upgrading to biz-grade DSL.
Short answer:
Not gonna happen without downtime therefore I’m not getting it.
Long answer:
First, a correction. I said in a previous post they offered a “loopback” plan. The name is wrong; it’s called a “dry loop” connection.
Anyway..
Dry loop DSL requires no phone line whatsoever, however a box must be installed in order for it to work. I live in an apartment complex and can’t have Verizon drilling things into the wall, so that’s out.
The regular biz-grade DSL that does use a phone line can’t be installed without me losing internet connectivity for about a week. That’s unacceptable because as I said before I do a huge chunk of my work on the internet.
So it looks like I’m not getting the biz-grade DSL. Granted, I only wanted it so I could run a BBS again, but it kinda sucks the only reason I can’t is because Verizon can’t convert a consumer DSL to a business DSL without downtime.. or at least in Tampa Bay Florida they can’t do it.
I don’t want to sound like I’m bitching about Verizon because I’m not. I literally have no complaints about the service, speed or reliability because it works like it’s supposed to.
I’ll be staying with what I have for the time being.
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11/3/2007
In my late 20’s I started taking off the blinders while driving and opened my eyes. Previous to that I would just drive from point A to B without looking around at all during any trip whether long or short.
I have a distinct image in my head from when I first started looking at stuff. I was driving on Ware Road in Ballouville Connecticut right around this time of year, and for some reason I slowed down and just looked around me. I thought Wow, this is really nice. Even though the peak foliage had passed, the trees and color of sky looked cool. Everything was awesome.
I originally started doing this as solace. Because I really didn’t like where I was, I decided to concentrate on the good things rather than the bad. It turns out this was definitely for the best because it prompted me to take up photography.
Yesterday as I was driving around running some errands, I looked around and said “Wow.” That word does physically come out of me from time to time while driving in the Tampa Bay area. Only on very rare occasion did I ever speak it in reference to scenery while driving in Connecticut.
I honestly feel that many Floridians simply don’t realize how good they have it in Tampa Bay. There is so much life and activity - and I make darn sure to soak it in as much as I can.
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11/3/2007
I headed into Ybor City today so I could pick up some incense sticks at Green Dragon Books.
The store is gone. :-(
It was literally the only place I knew where I could get sticks. The only memory of the place is the photos I took inside last year.
The closest Wicks’n'Sticks is an hour away in New Port Richey; way too far just to get something that costs under 10 bucks.
Bleah, I say. Bleah.
Where do I go to get sticks now?
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11/3/2007
UPDATE: Get the Garmin StreetPilot and nuvi Power User’s Guide - tons of info, fully illustrated - a must have if you’re a StreetPilot or nuvi owner.
. . .
My primary GPS unit is the Garmin StreetPilot c580. The one previous to that was a c340 that I keep as a backup. Periodically I will plug in the c340 via USB to the computer, launch the Web Updater and let it update whatever it needs to. Seriously speaking, the Web Updater really does work and it’s stupidly easy to use.
The battery in my c340 is dead. Very dead. It absolutely will not hold a charge any longer and will only operate via the car charger or USB.
I read somewhere on the internet that it’s possible to replace the battery in the c340 if you’re willing to crack it open. I worked up the nerve and said Okay, let’s open this thing up.
Under the face plate are four small screws and the reset button. I loosened the screws. The bottom two come all the way out; the top two do not.
After opening it up, I saw a small white connector for the LCD screen, so I unplugged that. Now I could take the front bezel completely off.
In the rear bezel is the battery. There are two screws holding it down via a metal flap. I loosened those, and then..
Drat.
The battery appears to be soldered in place - and I don’t have the courage to break that solder to install a new battery. I totally admit I am no good with a soldering iron.
Also, I found that there’s an intermediary circuit board that is loose. It appeared to be attached to something before but I can’t tell what. In addition, I can’t tell what orientation it’s supposed to be in.
In true redneck tradition I said fuggit and pieced it back together in a way that seemed correct.
After that I plugged in the USB and powered it up, then smelled it to make sure that intermediary board wasn’t set up the wrong way (if it were something would have burnt instantly.) Didn’t smell anything so it appears to be back to the way it was.
So anyway, I was able to crack it open and see what’s in there, but I guess I’ll have to keep the dead battery unless I pony up and pay someone to install a new one. Not a big deal since I have the c580.
The only good thing that happened is that I found the c340 and c580 face plates are interchangeable. I think all the “c” series StreetPilot’s are designed that way.
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11/4/2007
Here’s something that’ll make your head spin:
Not including this post, there are 1,501 posts on this blog.
Yep.
Well great gobs o’ goose shit, that’s a whole lot o’ fucking posts. And no, I didn’t count them. My blog software does that for me (thank God.)
I was thinking of making a “best of” page listing the favorite things I’ve ever written here.
As I was scanning thru my posts from the beginning back in ‘04, I had enough energy to get to June ‘05 and stopped because there’s a lot of stuff to go thru.
However I can expound on what I read to that point.
1. Some of the stuff was really painful to read.
Obviously there are things in your life you don’t want to re-live again, but you’re more or less forced to if you go back thru a journal you’ve authored detailing stuff about your life. I saw a lot of anger and bitterness in some of the older stuff.
2. My writing style was (maybe still is?) directly influenced by the blogs I read at the time.
No one else could detect stuff like this but me. In several posts I found styles that I directly lifted from other popular bloggers. Note that I said styles and not word-for-word stuff (which I’ve never done.)
3. Many things I read I totally forgot ever happened.
A good example of this is the way I felt after seeing Episode III. Not only did that post make mention of the Killingly Cinemas 3 (why I didn’t write the name of the theater that in the post I don’t know,) but it also made reference to when I saw the re-release of Episode IV in 1997. So I got to remember the crappy theater (said with love) I saw the movie in and get my fill of memories 8 years before that - which at this point is now 10 years.
4. I’m different now.
The guy known as Richard from years ago is still the same guy but now older, wiser, more seasoned and now literally in a place where he (that being me) wants to be.
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11/4/2007
Place: Picnic Island Park
There are little pavilions with benches and grilles. You can see the top of the pavilion in the photo next to some palm trees.
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11/5/2007
smoking update
Starting this week I am going to attempt to not smoke a cigarette more than once per hour. Last week I did really good and did not smoke more than once every half-hour, which included many instances where the time was a lot longer than that. I only cheated once (and only once) in the span of seven days and that’s acceptable because it was very early in the week.
I figure if I was able to “survive” with the half-hour limitation, the one-hour limit might just work.
For the past six hours I’ve had only six smokes. Cool! Well, not cool that I’m smoking, cool that I’m smoking much less - to the tune of 50% less.
I can definitely tell because every time I light up a smoke I feel a high.
. . .
tech talk
For a good long time I’ve been outright avoiding tech talk on my blog because I felt that no one particularly gave a shit about that sort of stuff. However I forgot one thing - computer nerds use the internet more than anyone else. To this day I still get search engine hits on really old stuff I wrote about tech related stuff.
What this means is you’re probably going to see more of it because there are tons of things I’ve skipped writing about just because I was avoiding the subject.
And with that said my next post will probably be something tech-o-rama. :D
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11/5/2007
A few minutes ago I received an e-mail.
From: Austin Nichols <blisstalentent2@yahoo.com>
I’m sorry man, but you suck………
..and that was it.
Didn’t say what I sucked at doing. I have no idea whether it was about my music, my blog, my photos.. no clue.
Instead of responding I found it better to just post it here just to prove that yes, people really do think I suck. Or at least one guy does. :D
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11/6/2007
Y’know, I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner.
The mail on frostedside.com is powered by Google Apps; it works very nicely.
I had assumed when signing up for Google Apps that the system would simply “convert” my Gmail account into a Google Apps account. Nope. The accounts are separate.
So how do you get all your Gmail into your Google Apps account?
It’s actually a stupidly easy 1-2-3 step process:
1. In Gmail: enable POP.
2. In Gmail: Set to “delete Gmail’s copy” when your Google Apps account accesses the mail on the Gmail account (makes it easier to manage).
3. In Google Apps: Go to Settings/Accounts and add your Gmail account there.
Google Apps auto-tags (unless you specify otherwise) the incoming Gmail as the e-mail address and it will grab every mail from the Gmail account.
Cool.
You know what’s cooler?
You can actually set your Google Apps account to send mail as your Gmail account for future send-outs.
Yes. Very cool. I likes it. :D
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11/7/2007
I am a sorta/kinda arcade game buff. In fact, I did own a Mortal Kombat 3 true-blue arcade machine at one point. More on that in a moment.
Okay, so I bought a video game; something I don’t do very often. It was an online purchase thru Steam for Sega OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast. The reason I bought it is because it was relatively cheap and it’s a racing game. I love racing games. Always have.
Below is a video of me playing a round.
This game is worthy enough to be called OutRun. As arcade buffs know, the original arcade Out Run was a huge hit. It was difficult to play (mainly due to the fact the graphics would darn near give you vertigo) but what made it work was the music. And the steering wheel physically shook when you hit debris, another car or crashed. That was cool.
Here’s the original 1986 Out Run:
The programmers of OutRun 2006 made sure to put in plenty of classic original Out Run elements, such as the red Ferrari Testarossa and the ability to play original BGM (background music) from the 1986 release.
And the game is just a blast to play as well.
Glad I bought it. Thumbs up.
. . .
Now on to arcade machines. I mentioned above I owned one at one point. This is true. Any kid who grew up in the 80’s desperately wanted the real-deal insert-coin big-ass box. I had one.
And I barely played it.
Let me inform you of why owning an arcade machine may not be the best idea in the world.
1. It’s big.
People don’t truly realize how large one of these machines is until it’s in your house. While it’s true most aren’t heavy (one man can easily move one usually, i.e. drag it around), it is tall and wide. The thing has some girth to it.
2. It eats electricity for breakfast.
Even today, arcade machines aren’t exactly what you’d call “green”. From the moment you turn one on it’s an electric eating monster. The older ones are notorious for this. Newer ones at least have modern electric component that eat somewhat less electricity. Repeat: Somewhat.
3. It’s no fun to play alone.
This is the biggest reason why most coin-op arcade machine owners never play their machines. These big huge boxes, while cool looking, sit there and get relegated to being nothing but conversation pieces.
In addition to that, you experience none of the magic of an arcade playing the big box at home. Why? Because your house isn’t an arcade.
The guys who actually collect these boxes understand this completely. Maybe once in a great while they’ll play a round or two but don’t do much more than that.
. . .
I still want another arcade machine - however the next one I get will actually have a purpose other than being a game.
Something you never see anymore (although easy enough to buy) are cocktail-table versions of the classics. This is a two-seater setup where you stare down at a table in order to play.
The one I want is Ms. Pac-Man. Small chairs are put on either side and when the game is not in use it can actually be used as a regular table, albeit a small one.
Prices are anywhere from a few hundred used to a few thousand brand new. And yes there are companies that do that and even include warranties on the product.
At least with a table you have something that can be used for something other than a game; it’s not just the big hulking box sitting there doing nothing.
See there? Functional, practical and super-cool at the same time. :D
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