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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

Month: February 2005

  • You Know It’s A Bad Workday When…

    You know it’s a bad workday when your entire day consists of one mysterious, pervasive problem that even the product’s tech support gurus find baffling.

    Our Cybex system seems to have gone to lunch in a remarkable and confounding fashion. Users on a chassis can’t see any other chassis. Mouse and keyboard response are sluggish on some user stations. User stations blank out randomly, for minutes at a time. (This is a Very Bad Thing when the user station in question is, let’s say, the digital audio workstation for a given broadcast studio. Argh.) The diagnostic tools return random results. I’ve sent diagrams and spreadsheets to Avocent, and the reply I got back amounts to, “Damn, we’re stumped, but we’re working on it. We’ll call when we have something.”

    Meanwhile I’m tinkering and poking and fiddling, sending notes along to Avocent as I go, and basically hoping for that 4-o’clock miracle to save me from having to do this all again tomorrow.

    I love my job. I love my job. I love my job…

  • Not exactly a cheery holiday thought…

    I’ve always had a minor talent at turning a pithy phrase, and here’s what I came up with this morning:

    Most of the pain in our lives is built upon a foundation of “should haves.”

    I probably don’t need to illustrate this, but I’m feeling particularly emotionally grim today so I’m going to do it nonetheless. Let’s see… I should have realized right away that I have no business being married, let alone in a strictly monogamous relationship. I should have been a lot more patient and understanding with those noisy, demanding little creatures I helped to create. I should have done my homework back in school. I should have told the truth, about a lot of things. I should have stayed out of some disputes that I had no business arbitrating. I should have learned not to make promises too quickly. I should have trusted my ability to manage finances. I should have tried harder. I should have cared more.

    And so on, and so on. The “should haves” outnumber the “shouldn’t haves” by a considerable margin, actually. Maybe that’s a symptom of what kind of man I am. If so, then I can’t imagine what attraction or value I have, because apparently what I’m best at is not doing things. Feh.

    Gloomy thoughts for what’s supposed to be a romantic holiday, but that’s what I’ve got for you. May you and your loved ones be happier today than mine and I are this time around. Perhaps next year won’t be quite so damned grim.

  • You remember Led Zep, right?

    According to a little quiz I found at J-mo’s:

    You Are

    Tangerine

    You are a beautiful person, in a wistful kind of way. If you could, you would spend all your time daydreaming and writing poetry. You are a tragic beauty.

    You are sensitive and caring, and you don’t take insults well. You don’t smile much, but when you do, you really mean it.

    People like to be around you because you are a calming influence. You have an appreciation for all things beautiful, and you probably have some potted plants. You also most likely own a cat.

    You like Sundays and hot tea. You will spend your entire life yearning for quiet beauty, which is a rarity in this world, so you read a lot.

    Everyone you know thinks you’re “nice.”

    Take the Which Led Zeppelin Song Are You? Quiz

    It figures that I’d get one of the songs I’m not all that excited about, huh? Jen at least got When The Levee Breaks…

  • Alex, the Game Maker

    First, he made 3D animations. Then, he made AMVs. Now he’s taking on computer gaming itself.

    That’s right, my son Alexander has a copy of Game Maker. With it he can create platformers, shooters, driving games and probably any number of other game types besides. If he’s anywhere near as good at that as he has been at mastering Blender and video editing, we should have some interesting little games to show off here in a while.

    No, I’m not living vicariously through my son. I’m saving that for when he becomes rich and/or famous…

  • A brand name full of comedic potential.

    I really, really needed a laugh this morning. Luckily, Frenzied Daddy provided me with one.

    I think the manufacturer in question should make a car called “This”…

    Lack of Foresight

  • Stress Relief, Geek-Style

    This has not been a good week, as you may have noticed or been privy to the details of. Today was something of a capper to the trend, leading me to a state of aggravation and frustration.

    One of the ways I deal with intense frustration is to build a computer.

    I know what you’re thinking: “Gee, Karel. Building a computer can be a challenging, frustrating experience. Why would you do this to improve your mood?” I’m so glad you asked, neighbor. You see, I’m really good at building computers. Sure, it’s frustrating at times, but the frustrations of a computer build are generally fixable in some fashion. Mind you, sometimes the fix is to throw out half of the parts and/or start the install process all over again, but there’s almost always a fix of some sort.

    Today I learned exactly how salvageable those HPs the company’s been buying really are. (In case you’re wondering, the answer is “somewhat.” Just don’t ask me to transplant the guts of any of those no-AGP-slot abominations they’ve been shipping us the last two years…) With an old Matrox dual-head card, a first-generation Soundblaster Live, a chassis I had laying around and a very large hard drive, I have something of an interesting piece of work cobbled together now.

    Now, of course, I have to decide what I’m going to do with it. That’s almost as fun as actually building the thing…

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