525 thoughts on “Silent Unshow”

  4. So… yeah… Home from the doctor and sorry to hear about the diabetes, Lejon. Boo. Hiss.

    My foot might very well be broken after all. I have to go have x-rays.

    Ugh. FAIL.

    I thought it was just a flesh wound.

  9. Cj: I’ve a toe that I injured quite some time ago. Still to this day it likes to snap if I look at it the wrong way. Foot injuries suck.

  10. ditto Says:
    June 11th, 2009 at 12:54 pm

    NO CAPES!

    Metaman – express elevator!
    Dynaguy – snagged on takeoff!
    Splashdown – sucked into a vortex!
    NO CAPES!

  13. It’s the 00’s for goodness sake, stop batting your eyelashes and DECIDE.

    Err, I’ll just go back to the Victorian coal sellar.

  14. Oh. Van. Next time I’ll just club you over the head and drag you back to my cave. Jeeeeeeeeez!

    And though I shall NEVER stop batting my eyelashes (they are my best feature after all) I have made my decision! So there. hmph. I’m going Greek tonight! YUM!

  17. I am sick, y’all. I RARELY get sick, and today I have a 100 degree fever, a splitting headache, and I ache all over. What are the symptoms of swine flu again?

    Cough.

  20. (commenting on some comments from the previous post)

    ditto said:
    NO CAPES!

    imag1narynumber said:
    Lejon/ditto: Yeah, look what happened to Dollar Bill.

    Amy says:
    LOL!!!!! Only here and on Watchmen fan communities would Dollar Bill be mentioned before Syndrome. I love this group. 😀

  21. i: that is an impolite question. But since you asked . . . nah, just kidding.

    Thanks, Jack. The fever seems to have broken after all day of feeling like hammered shit. Now I’m just sweaty and sleepy.

  23. ditto: That’s fine. Good luck with all the stuff you’re digging out from under. I myself haven’t recorded anything all week because I’ve had a cold. I will definitely do some recording sometime this weekend, though.

  24. Thanks for the official birthday greetings Jack. I suppose it takes Jack (giver of delicious things that taunt me) to make it official.

    My Big Fat Greek Restaurant was my choice for dinner. I had lemon rice soup, Greek salad, and a shared a big plate of… well, I took a picture: http://tinyurl.com/mya4dg

    I have THREE takeout boxes in my fridge because “dinner for two” would have fed a family of six.

  35. Oh and a quick heads up. If you are using one of the fancier WordPress themes that uses categories to control where posts are displace – do not upgrade to WordPress 2.8. I don’t know exactly where the change happened, but the themes can’t find any of the categories anymore.

    I’ve tried out about 5 or 6 themes since foolishly upgrading and anything with a “simple” layout works fine, but anything that relies on categories for the layouts do not work.

  37. I’ve actually been picking on my husband (just a little bit). He developed a summer cold last week, then they found a few cases of H1N1 at his school. Every once in a while, when he coughs, I’ll make a pig sound around him. 🙂

  40. My fever is still gone, even though I feel like someone beat the crap out of me, so I’m off to Evil. It’s always fun to miss a day and then have to accomplish 2 days worth of impossible work in 1. Yay.

    Wolf, you reminded me that Evil has now “beefed up” their computer security and we’ve all had to change our passwords and they are auditing our offices to make sure we don’t have them written down anywhere. My short-term memory is absolutely for shit, so I am in huge trouble! What the hell is my password anyway??

    Before I came home sick yesterday, I had emails from 2 different sales reps who were emailing from their personal accounts because they were locked out of the Evil server because they either did not change their passwords per the 500 lengthy emails that came out instructing us to do so, or because they did and forgot it!

  41. We have to change all our passwords every three months at work. I always mess up for the first few days and type in my old password.

  44. I have four different areas I have to use passwords when using my computer. Two of them can have the same password, but otherwise they must have different ones. Not unusual for me to try to access a program using the password from another. Luckily I get three guesses, so I can usually get in without locking something up 🙂

  45. I wonder if people will still be making jokes about swine flu if the mortality rate shoots up this winter (like the 1918 pandemic did).

    The cynic in me says YES.

  46. I think the Swine Flu is over-hyped. It seems to me it’s really no different than any other flu. The symptoms are the same. People die from normal flu as well. Normal flus have names, we just don’t use them. (“Oh, I have the D1 flu virus”). This one just happened to have a nickname that was grabbed by the media.

  47. What people forget is that the 1918 pandemic had low a mortality phase in spring/early summer.

    It came back in the winter and killed more people than those killed WW1.

    Will swine flu do the same? Only time will tell, but it’s a bit early to get complacent about it.

  49. Mr. TEB does not have it. It is just a summer cold. But it’s still fun to pick on him.

    His school was even in the news (if not by name) today “the Calgary Health Region confirmed that several cases of the H1N1 virus has been found in students of a NE school…”

    They had to send a letter home.

  52. It’s actually hard to decide which books to do, Van as I’m never sure what people have read. I was going to do Steven Baxter’s Moonseed (If I plant it in the ground will I get large round rocky balls?), but decided against it.

  55. Well, work is done (I love Fridays), shopping list is made. Now to go buy groceries and bake cookies. I’m thinking Pecan Kisses again as that is one of hubby’s favourites.

  56. Happy Birthday CJ !

    Sorry about the sickness Essbee 🙁
    Sounds like your new password should be H1N1R2D2 (the last bit is only because they usually have to be 8 or more characters)

    RE: Swine flue mortality rates.
    I might also point out that (so far) it seems that the worst outbreaks of Swine Flue, the ones that have resulted in the most deaths – have occurred in areas where the level of health care is still roughly the same as in 1918.
    At least, I recall this being the case in Mexico.

  57. Good Morning!

    Thanks, J0e.

    Essbee – So sorry you aren’t well. Feel better soon. I know you ran off to work to use your new passwords, but don’t overdo it. Take care of yourself.

    I remember changing passwords by force every so often when I worked in cubicle-land. I hated changing my passwords. I’d always forget what I changed them to and well, honestly, I’m just a creature of habit to the extreme. I like things to be the way they are especially when they are good – they should just stay that way.

    Which is why I’m off to my Friday morning play date now. The foot x-rays to follow are a bit out of the norm, but oh well. I gotta get it done.

    Good day to you all!

  58. TEB: Good series

    EssBee: Glad you are feeling better.

    Re passwords: I’ve been having to manage a lot of passwords for years now. I have a few standard but hard ones and some that are based on series so I usually don’t have a problem remembering passwords.

  63. Cool! A friend has offered to buy the group Chinese food for gaming tonight. It’s hard to say no to that offer.

  68. It’s Chinese take out. Sent a menu out to everybody joining in gaming today and asked them all to pick a dish, which they will then pick up and bring to our place to eat before we game.

  69. I’m not sure why he’s being so generous. There’s going to be seven of us total tonight, so dinner won’t be cheap.

  73. Jack, everybody e-mailed in and, while they all chose a different specific dish, they still all picked chicken dishes (except me, I choose Salt and Pepper Squid 🙂 ) Now the discussion is on on who will have to give up their particular dish for something else 😉

  77. On passwords:

    Most passwords are indeed eight characters. Of course, it takes 14 before a brute-force attack is pretty unreasonable.

    Of course, at my 9-5 my machine is the only one with a password on it. No, really.

  79. Jack Mangan: Saving throw vs. General Tso’s Chicken? That’s friggin’ hilarious!

    Personally I’ll take sushi over Chinese any day. I always feel like drek the next day. Haven’t had Chinese in years.

  82. My first “real” job was actually at a Panda Express at a local mall. I’ve seen what goes into that stuff. /killjoy

  83. *covers ears* La, la, la la… I don’t want to hear it.

    I rolled a natural 20 on my saving throw so everything is good…

  88. Panda makes me sick and I don’t know why, but I can’t eat it without becoming ill.

    I like Chinese food; especially Won Ton Soup when I have a cold.

  91. I left my birthday wish nipple in the previous show. Whoops/

    Happy belated B-day CJ!

    EssBee – get better quicker. Drink more beer. 🙂

    My new password is Sph3r1c4lJ4ckm

    I will never be hacked with this password! WOO WOO

  94. TEB: Hooray on that roll! A fumble on this would not have been pretty. 🙁

    ditto: Yeah, the Chinese cooks eat the good stuff, not the slop they serve.

    As for the MSG, they all say they don’t “add” MSG. However, it’s in some of the stuff they get pre-made, esp. the “brown sauce”.

  95. EssBee – sounds like you caught what I had a few weeks ago. Fever lasted a day, and being beaten is exactly how I felt after the “symptoms” had passed. Hopefully, this means will be immune and survive the Zombie Flue Apocalypse come winter.

    Although, I suck at Left 4 Dead, so I may not be much help against the horde.

  97. I use a electronic wallet to keep track of my passwords. That way, I’ve only got to really remember the one to get to my others. Though I really only use a couple of different ones, depending on the criticality of the system.

  98. I have sworn off McDonalds this year for the rest of my life, although I’m pretty sure I did that last year too. Still, six months is a pretty good run so far.

  106. Oh, I see now. Jack’s just calling us names. See how he is.

    I’m totally committing the spelling of that word to memory – I can feel the tide of Scrabble tiles turning in my direction.

    TEB is currently on the slaughter and we’ve only just begun.

  108. I feel I’ve become enslaved to my podcast list..must/listen/to/every/new/episode

    Long podcasts are evil, EVIL, I tell ya.

  110. Time of the Preacher – Willie Nelson

    It was the time of the preacher
    When the story began
    With the choice of a lady
    and the love of a man

    How he loved her so dearly
    he went out of his mind
    When she left him for someone
    she’d left behind

    He cried like a baby
    He screamed like a panther in the middle of the night
    And he saddled his pony
    and went for a ride

    It was the time of the preacher
    in the year of 01
    Now the preachin’ is over
    and the lesson’s begun

  111. Oh and a reccomendation for Netflick users, a BBC series called Edge of Darkness (where I first heard that Willie Nelson Track), dated like Watchmen, but a fine series.

    Being remade into a film starring Mel Gibson..the horror, the horror.

  114. Vanamonde: I heartily agree re: long podcasts. I listen to many, many podcasts and I’ve had to dump some for just being too long. Most of them that are over ~ 30-45 minutes are way too low in the signal-to-noise ratio.

  118. Top 31 most played in iTunes:

    1.One With the Stillness 3:24 Jack Mangan
    2.Row, Row, Row, Your Boat 1:01 Various Artists
    3.Vanity Fair 2:57 Mr. Bungle
    4.fear regret and hope 3:32 Jack Mangan
    5.Is There Love In Space? 4:51 Joe Satriani
    6.Myself Within Love 2:14 jack mangan
    7.temple of earth and sea 6:01 jack mangan
    8.ABC’s Song 0:21 Blue’s Clues
    9.Earth Time Pigs Fate 3:23 Jack Mangan
    10.Lost In Space 3:28 Aimee Mann
    11.Dog Diary 4:15 Jack Mangan
    12.Slaughter of the Soul 3:02 At the Gates
    13.Black Circle Remix 4:19 Jack Mangan
    14.Candles II 1:03 Jack Mangan
    15.Wine 1:50 Jack Mangan
    16.right where it belongs 5:04 nine inch nails
    17.Head Out To The Highway 3:45 Judas Priest
    18.Up In Flames 4:33 Joe Satriani
    19.Candles 1:36 Jack Mangan
    20.Asteroid Speed Highway 6:00 Matt Mango
    21.Glass, Philip-Music Box 1:05 Philip Glass
    22.Rumble 2:24 Link Wray & His Ray Men
    23.Red Right Hand 4:49 Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
    24.Microphone Fiend 5:13 Eric B & Rakim
    25.Hallowed Be Thy Name 7:13 Iron Maiden
    26.Windowpane 7:44 Opeth
    27.I Don’t Have Anything 3:46 VAST
    28.Highway to Hell 3:28 AC/DC
    29.Defender 6:05 Manowar
    30.Motley Crue –Too Young To Fall In Love 3:36 Motley Crue
    31.West End Girls 3:57 Pet Shop Boys

  119. Back from MA. Now downloading today’s podcasts.

    Jack, what does it say about you when your # 1 tune is your own? 🙂

  120. Top 31 most played in i-tunes

    1 – Neither Can I Neither Can I 6:42 Slash
    2 – Superhuman 4:16 Velvet Revolver
    3 – For Crying Out Loud 8:45 Meat Loaf
    4 – Reunion 2:34 Collective Soul
    5 – Crocodile Rock 3:57 Elton John
    6 – Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting 4:08 Elton John
    7 – I’m Still Standing 3:04 Elton John
    8 – Ikea 3:04 Jonathan Coulton
    9 – Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad 5:26 Meat Loaf
    10 – Dime Store Rock 4:53 Slash
    11 – Sleepwalk 3:24 Ann, John & Santo Farina
    12 – Track 2 11:29 Antonin Dvorák
    13 – Il Cimento Dell’armonia E Dell’inventione, Op. 8 Nos. 1-4: Le Quattro S 2:24 Berliner Philharmoniker/Nigel Kennedy
    14 – Joe Louis / Judgement Day 8:58 Big Sugar
    15 – Tobacco Hand 8:54 Big Sugar Hemi-Vision
    16 – Hosanna Filio David 0:44 Coro De Monjes Del Monasterio De Silos/Francisco Lara Canto Gregoriano.
    18 – Sacrifice 5:07 Elton John
    19 – She Hangs Out 2:19 – The Monkees
    20 – Livin’ la Vida Loca 4:05 Ricky Martin
    21 – Soma City Ward 3:50 Slash
    22 – Be the Ball 5:16 Slash
    23 – I Hate Everybody (But You) 4:40 Slash
    24 – Sucker Train Blues 4:28 Velvet Revolver
    25 – Nine Lives 4:01 Aerosmith
    26 – Pink 3:55 Aerosmith
    27 – Where the River Flows 3:35 Collective Soul
    28 – Bad Horsie 5:51 Steve Vai
    29 – Concerto for 2 Violins, Strings & Continuo in a Minor, Op. 3 No. 8, RV5 3:06 Berliner Philharmoniker/Nigel Kennedy
    30 – Open Up Baby 5:13 Big Sugar
    31 – Afternoons And Coffeespoons 3:58 Crash Test Dummies

  123. To 31 Most Played in iTunes

    Sway 4:22 Bic Runga
    Kiss You All Over 3:29 Exile
    Barbie girl 3:21 Aqua
    Ain’t It Funny 3:53 Jennifer Lopez
    So What 3:34 P!nk
    Vacation 3:02 Go Gos
    You Can Do Magic 3:52 America
    Honesty 3:52 Billy Joel
    Right Now 2:49 SR71
    The Breakup Song 3:12 Greg Kihn Band
    All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You 5:10 Heart
    Liz Phair – Why Can’t I 3:28 13 Going on 30
    S.O.S. 3:22 ABBA
    Macy_20Gray-I_20Try 3:59
    Blitzkrieg Bop (Kids’ Beat Bop) 1:48 Daddy a Go Go
    We Didn’t Start the Fire 4:51 Billy Joel
    Sweet – Ballroom Blitz 4:02 Daddy Day Care
    The Tide Is High 4:43 Blondie
    The Chemicals Between Us 3:37 Bush
    Like To Get To Know You Well 3:58 Howard Jones
    Bangles – Manic Monday 3:02
    Turn Up The Radio 4:33 Autograph
    Wild, Wild West 5:44 Escape Club
    Wonderful (Radio Edit) 4:37 Everclear
    What_About_Love 3:39 Heart
    The Air That I Breathe 3:27 Hollies
    Hungry Heart 3:20 Bruce Springsteen
    Uptown Girl 3:17 Billy Joel
    All Through the Night 4:40 Cyndi Lauper/Shaggy
    Trouble 3:51 Lindsey Buckingham
    Happy Birthday 1:36 The Ting Tings

    Look at that. Nothing surprising. Those are the songs I hear all the time. I recognize them.

  124. I don’t play anything in iTunes on my PC.

    It’s bad enough having to use the bloatware to sync podcasts to my phone.

    VLC for videos..

  125. I think these match up with the songs on my iPod. I don’t really play songs through iTunes either so it must sync up my most played counts or something.

  127. Left-brain firmly in the driver’s seat, and the website where I wanted to get some work done is down until tomorrow. Argh.

    Oh, well. Library’s closing for the day, anyway. At least I accomplished one of the tasks I wanted to.

  129. Ahhh, this is the life. Sitting on the couch, playing computer games and listening to hubby play his guitar.

    Why can’t every day be like this?

  136. Installation failed.

    Needed to unscrew two screws. One came of fine, the other wouldn’t budge, ended up shredding the head of the screw.

    Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

  140. Happy Saturday, DP!

    I am still fighting this flu bug – zombie apocalypse flu Ed? Yep, that’s what it feels like. It’s too early to sleep, so I shall read a spell.

    Wild weekend,huh?

  143. Careful there, Jack. You wouldn’t want to accidentally kill off the one thing that may save us from the Zombie Flue Apocalypse.

    Why do I see a Saturday night SyFy movie in the making?

  145. Any tips for removing a damaged screw from a m/b would be appreciated.

    Tips involving sacrificing dogs at midnight or “don’t damage it in first place” will not.

    Cough

  147. Van: If the screw head is above the motherboard you could try and use a pair of pliers to grab the head and unscrew it. I’ve also had some luck using a larger screw driver tip and pressing down hard to get traction. Both ate frustrating and slow but can work. Otherwise the only other advice is to use a drill.

  150. motorsports/

    Another 24 hours of LeMan is complete.
    Peugeot finally bested Audi for the overall win.

    In the GT1 class … Corvette bested the Aston Martin DBR9s and the Lamborghini to show that America might now a thing or two about making fast cars that can run really hard for 24 hours without breaking! I think this is the 2nd year in a row the Corvette has won the GT1 class. I’m sure it’s just coincidence that they are talking about doing away with GT1 now.
    /motorsports

  152. Van – along the lines of drilling it out the screw is to us a Dremel tool type device to cut a slot in the top of the screw for use with a flat head screw driver. I would point out the UTMOST importance of having a vacuum cleaner running as you apply power tools to the screw. You can’t afford to have any loose metal filings floating around on your motherboard.

    I also have another technique for screw removal that involves a high powered rifle … but as I am sure you might guess, you get only one shot at it!
    (*rim shot*)

  155. Thx for the advice JJ and Ralph.

    My brotherinlaw has all the tools so will have to wait for a few day before I can try again.

  160. Re: Today’s NASCAR race.
    The result was something even non “race fans” could appreciate.

    The cagey old veteran let the 2 wiley “youngsters” get in front of him to do the mano-e-mano, “slug it out” thing. Neither one of them was willing to “give” and with less then a half lap to go they had used each other up and the old guy coasted to victory.
    I love it when patience and experience beats youthful exuberance.

  174. Morning Pan, I see walking, shopping, and travelling by bus in my immediate future..should I resist fate?

    Browsing BT networks I see new series of True Blood has started..cool.

  186. Morning Panites!

    Getting my doors replaced later this morning. Can my life be considered boring when I find that exciting?

  188. You know, I’m seeing lots of buzz about how bad the GI Joe movie is going to be. Admittedly, the Snake Eyes vs. Storm Shadow action may be sufficient to suck me in anyway.

    But, if things go as expected, Jack may have to do a special edition Duel of the Fates pitting GI Joe against Megaforce.

    BTW – If you watched Megaforce as a small boy and thought it was cool – do not ever watch it again. Though, the same is pretty much true for the GI Joe and Transformers cartoons as well.

  189. I told hubby he has to be extra nice to me. Since he won’t be home when the doors are done, he won’t have a key to get into the house.

    I see chocolate in my future 😆

  200. The actress who played a bajoran on TNG is in True Blood.

    Be careful TEB that game is addictive.

    I first heard of the Surrogates on Starshipsofa, maxed out the CC this month so won’t be able to check that GN for a while.

  202. So, I’m reading my email, and I see a FB email regarding TEB. And the Google tie-in Ad? “The 50 hottest women in SF”. TEB is also appreciated by Google. 😉

  205. There was an incident in Edmonton (about 3 hrs. N. of Cgy.) where some kids broke into a house. The house had a pet cat. The kids decided, amoung other things, to microwave the cat. Not a nice story. Evo’s song reminds me of that.

    We have very light laws when it comes to animal abuse here so, it seems, something new comes out on a regular basis.

  208. It’s almost scary when I walk past where they’re working. Right now there’s just this giant hole in the wall where they’ve removed the door and frame.

  209. We get them from time to time here as well.

    There was a serial dog killer who left decapitated corpses on school fields.

    The most infamous one occurred a few years back when some kids caught a cat and stuck a firework up it’s backside and lit it.

    Some sick buggers out there.

  210. The most recent case, from last week, is when someone decided to take a baseball bat to a field of sheep.

    Some of the other memorable ones, though, include a case where a person stopped at a rest stop at Crows Nest Pass (just west of the city). This was an outhouse style restroom. They heard barking from below. Somebody decided to dump a litter of puppies down the outhouse hole. They weren’t newborns either. These puppies were weaned. This story had a happy ending, though. The puppies were rescued and all adopted out.

  212. On a more cheerful note: do we have a head count for Arizona on the Sept long weekend? I’m wondering if we should look into the cost of a party room for one day at the Disc World convention (and if so, what day?)

  213. Ha! They forgot to bring knobs and locks for my new doors. They had to call the shop to get someone to look into where they went. (not that it matters. Right now there’s only a big hole in my wall, no doors.)

  220. Sorry. The car was right in front of the store window.. I snapped and ran before the owner could catch me in the act. I wish I had a better shot, but it was at a pawn shop and I was afraid the owner would be inside and also the car was gone when I came out of the shop, so it was my only opportunity. hehe. I’m a chicken! bock bock.

  223. So, should one of us contact DiscWorld Con and suss out room costs for Saturday night (or Friday or Sunday)? I can if you want.

  225. Bunny – I will spare you my usual routine about having no free time….. but I can probably help to make this happen. I do know the guy running DiscWorld Con. (Your Con cred from WFC should definitely help too)

    I think the first step would be for the 2 of us to schedule a conversation. Maybe even one day this week, if possible.

  228. Door guys went for lunch before starting on my back door so I was nice to kitty and gave her her freedom for a short while.

  229. As for my “con cred”, I don’t know how good that is there as I don’t know anybody on the board. Although I did volunteer to help out at the convention, as needed.

  233. Thanks, Jack!

    TEB, I don’t see myself attending the con either, but you never know. I’ve done stranger things at the last minute. And, since I’m in town, you know I’m happy to help however I can. I’m still on board for your transportation needs. I’m pretty reliable too – so I’m told.

  234. We also don’t have to get a “party room” at the hotel, if anybody has an alternative idea for a gathering place…

  242. Alas, I shall be making just one trip this year – to Las Vegas with the wife at the end of July.

    You guys try not to burn anything down.

  248. I figure there’s no way to discuss the work being done on the back door without it coming out wrong, so I’ll just say it…

    the back door is in, but they still haven’t got a nob for it. Now the waiting begins…

    (Now the peanut gallery may commence with its remarks.)

  250. Only one Care Bear (or actually elephant), Van. The rest are other types of stuffed animals. Every one of them have names too (much to the annoyance of my husband when I quiz him on their names)

  252. So they came by, but had the wrong knobs. Now the workers are here, looking cute, waiting for the right knobs to be delivered.

  265. So, we’ve basically skimmed right past a day full of comments in quotes, along with words/phrases like “knobs”, “back door”, “threesome”, etc. . . Are we growing up? Could it be?

    Or just no longer going for the low-hanging fruit? *snicker*

  267. I really don’t know where my weekend goes. You’d think I could swing by once and say, “Hey there, Panites!” point giggle and run off.

    Responses to whomever:
    I will eat Chinese. The food, not the people (unless they ask)
    I don’t eat at McDonalds. Many reasons, mostly don’t like the food, and this didn’t help:
    http://www.bestwellnessconsultant.com/2008/09/23/1996-mcdonalds-hamburger-karen-hanrahan-best-of-mother-earth.aspx

    Something random about doors, homies, caring bears (do they care for elephants?), Cats (I like mine pre-dried – microwaves aren’t a solution)

    Quotation marks are just gods’ way of telling you something that you’ve probably already “forgotten” — Or, would that be “forsaken”? I’m never clear on that one.

    In conclusion: our new kitten is cute, and not microwave safe.

    http://www.touchingthemonolith.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/imag0001.jpg

  278. Good call on the Homies, Jack. That is an impressive collection, but you should see Sly B’s. She has both Homies and Mijos — all of em.

    I am 80% for Phoenix in Sept.

    I used to work for a guy named “Larry” who put “odd” random words in his “emails” in quotations. He was an “interesting” man. I could never figure out if he was doing it for “emphasis” or if he was just “dumb.”

  279. Do you guys have any words of wisdom for me as I shop for a portable hard drive? I’m getting one for my mom so that I can help her back up her downloaded embroidery patterns for her very high-end sewing machine. Are their brands to avoid? I see that I’ll probably be spending around $100 or so for a 320G.

    Thanks, guys!

  281. EssBee – I have but one rule to live by when it comes to hard drives ..
    ALL HARD DRIVES EVENTUALLY FAIL.
    I recommend using that bit of knowledge when deciding on the size of a new hard drive. When the HD reaper comes to collect your data, do you want to lose 250gb of your precious ones and zeros … or do you want to lose terrabyte.

  284. Mark your calendar now – Dollhouse returns September 18th.

    I’m not sure that I feel better knowing the date as it just means I have all Summer to wait with certain knowledge rather than a vague notion.

  285. WARNING DANGER –

    I had a very odd thing happen this past week whilst I was fueling up my car and thought I should give a”heads up”.
    The instructions on the pump said –
    1) Lift pump handle
    2) Select Fuel grade
    3) Fuel vehicle
    4) Return handle to pump

    SO … I lifted pump handle, selected grade … and immediately gasoline shot out of the pump! I was facing the pump of course and the fuel shot straight at the electronic display splashing all over the pump and my arm. It was a short burst of fuel but was more then enough to immolate me had it ignited.

    Further inspection showed that the last person to have used the pump, left the handle trigger squeezed in and locked. It never occurred to me to check for this condition because in approximately 1.5 zillion years of putting petrol in cars I have never even heard of this happening … much less having had it happened to me.

    So … always make sure that the pump nozzle is IN the tank before selecting the fuel grade.

  286. So, I had the most amazing birthday evAr this year. It was weird, however, when I realized all was said and done that for the first time ever I didn’t get a cake and nobody sang happy birthday and I didn’t get to blow out any candles.

    My hubby just went to the store to pick up some soda and came home with a little single serve cake. He put candles in it, lit em, grabbed the kiddos and they all sang to me.

    awwww 🙂

  290. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, twitter on a C64 is like a dog walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

  302. Good Morning, Pan.

    I have no ambition today. Went to bed early last night only to be woken up with some bizarre violent sickness. Blah. I feel like blah. Not sick this morning though. Just blah exhaustion. Boo.

    Hope you are all having great days! 🙂

  303. Sorry you feel yucky Cj. Be better quick.

    Rona didn’t have what I wanted, had to go to Home Depot – blech.

  304. Hey Bunny, sorry for the lack of email. I actaully wasn’t around any computers from 5:30-ish on…. I will send the email today.

    Are we in for a day of tumbleweeds?

    Feel better, Cj!

  305. Sons Of The Pioneers, Tumbling Tumbleweeds Lyrics
    Looking for Sons Of The Pioneers tabs and chords? Browse alphabet (above).

    Artist: Sons Of The Pioneers
    Song: Tumbling Tumbleweeds
    Album: Rca Country Legends
    Sons Of The Pioneers Sheet Music
    Sons Of The Pioneers CDs

    Download RingtoneSend “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” Ringtone to Cell PhoneDownload Ringtone

    I’m a roaming cowboy riding all day long,
    Tumbleweeds around me sing their lonely song.
    Nights underneath the prairie moon,
    I ride along and sing this tune.

    See them tumbling down
    Pledging their love to the ground
    Lonely but free I’ll be found
    Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

    Cares of the past are behind
    Nowhere to go but I’ll find
    Just where the trail will wind
    Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

    I know when night has gone
    That a new world’s born at dawn.

    I’ll keep rolling along
    Deep in my heart is a song
    Here on the range I belong
    Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

  307. Damn, WP didn’t like me posting the lyrics to Tumbling tumble weeds.

    How about just the chorus?

    See them tumbling down
    Pledging their love to the ground
    Lonely but free I’ll be found
    Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

  309. Thanks Bunny and Jack.

    I picture the tumbleweeds blowing around and hear that old west whistle as they fly by leaving dust in their wake.

    Ew. The fake cold just kicked in. I better turn it off and wake up the husband.

  313. Thanks. As for any e-mail I’ll be out tonight until about eight (my time, seven yours) anyway.

    Must kick some butt 🙂

  327. Van, while they do lose their cruncyness, reheated fries (chips) are better than ice cold ones. As long as you don’t overdo the heating and make them soggy. That would be just yuck.

  335. French Fries can sometimes (rarely sometimes) be rescued from cold-fry hell by sprinkling grated cheese on top and toasting in an oven or toaster oven.

    That’s my junk food tip of the day. You are welcome.

    M & M’s are also quite nummy after being toasted in a toaster oven.

    I’m going back to eating my lifetime supply of Red Vines now.

  339. Watched “A Prairie Home Companion” the other night.
    I think I kind of liked it. It was just about odd enough to be consider for a lollapolooza. Could have gone a little more “out there” for me, though.

  350. Great Cj. But does the news make it hurt less? I think you should act like it’s falling off and see how much you can get others to do for you 🙂

  352. TEB, I agree. I think I should send for cute men to come to my house and provide services. Isn’t that what you did to get the knob in your backdoor taken care of?

  353. The Doors — Back Door Man

    Wha, yeah!, C’mon, yeah, Yeah, c’mon, yeah
    Yeah, c’mon, Oh, yeah, ma
    Yeah, I’m a back door man, I’m a back door man
    The men don’t know, But the little girl understand
    Hey, all you people that tryin’ to sleep
    I’m out to make it with my midnight dream, yeah
    ‘Cause I’m a back door man, The men don’t know
    But the little girls understand, All right, yeah
    You men eat your dinner, Eat your pork and beans
    I eat more chicken, Than any man ever seen, yeah, yeah
    I’m a back door man, wha, The men don’t know
    But the little girl understand
    Well, I’m a back door man
    I’m a back door man
    Whoa, baby, I’m a back door man
    The men don’t know
    But the little girls understand

  355. TEB: I’m happy it’s not my fault. This time.

    Cj: Excellent resilience in your calcium structural lattice! Podiatry has merely been an overpriced annoyance, then? Or did they use their scribal talents to emboss their medicational recommendations for your reduction of discomfort?

  358. Jack is dirty. (Just the way I like him)

    Lejon – nothing has been done for me other than reassurance. I figure we pay hundreds of dollars monthly for that doctor to smile at me and tell me I’ll be OK, I may as well take advantage of him now and then.

  366. Van and Cj, I have a I-pod touch question. I’m currently on my touch. When I refresh this page it always seems to default back to the top of he page, meaning I have to constantly work my little thumbs to see the new comments at the bottom of true page. Is here a way to have it refresh to he bottom of the page like on the computer?

  370. T.E.B: It may be the browser. I’ve noticed that when I refresh on my work PC using Firefox, the refresh kicks the screen to Home position, then back down to where I was. I haven’t attempted it on IE, yet, but you’ll probably either have to get an app that will kick you to the “end” of the page (assuming it doesn’t already have an “end” key or something – sorry, don’t have ipod), or keep using your little thumbs

  375. The best way I found is simply type a comment. It will post and show your comment at the bottom, so no thumb workout. So, here’s to pointless comments.

  378. I don’t use Safari on my computer. I use firefox. Besides, even syncing, it would only take me to the last spot I was on the computer, I would still have to do some thumb action when using the touce exclusively.

  381. I’m home sick yet again. I went to the Dr. today. Diagnosis – double ear infections and a sinus infection. So THAT is why I feel so crappy!

    Nuclear antibiotics? Check.

  382. Well in the spirit of pointless posting, I mostly use Chrome these days, falling back to Firefox from time to time (I like the no script addon).

  386. The Ides of Bunnies is a curious thing –
    They hop and bound and jump and sing.
    Ne’er-do-wells can all but know
    how the Ides of Bunnies ebb and flow.

    We’ll sing the tale of Hares a plenty
    how rabbits swing the Bunnies’ booty
    We’ll crack the warren on the lawn
    for the Ides of Bunnies parties on!

  393. Okay, nicked from a tips webpage:

    #6 — Put a Web Page on the Home Screen

    Do you have a web page that you visit all the time? You could set up that page as a bookmark in iPhone 3G’s Safari browser, but there’s an even faster way to access the page: add it to the Home screen as a Web Clip icon. A Web Clip is a link to a page that preserves the page’s scroll position and zoom level. For example, suppose a page has a form at the bottom. To use that form, you have to navigate to the page, scroll down to the bottom, and then zoom in to the form to see it better. However, you can perform all three actions — navigate, scroll, and zoom — automatically with a Web Clip. Follow these steps to save a page as a Web Clip icon on the Home screen:

    Use your iPhone 3G’s Safari browser to navigate to the page you want to save.

    Scroll to the portion of the page you want to see.

    Zoom in on the page until you can comfortably read the text.

    Press + at the bottom of the screen. iPhone 3G presents you with a list of options.

    Tap Add to Home Screen. iPhone 3G prompts you to edit the Web Clip name.

    Edit the name, as needed. Names up to about 10-14 characters will display on the Home screen without being broken. (The fewer uppercase letters you use, the longer the name can be.) For longer names, iPhone 3G displays the first few and last few characters (depending on the locations of spaces in the name), separated by an ellipsis (…). For example, if the name is My Home Page, it appears in the Home screen as My Ho…Page

    iPhone 3G adds the Web Clip to the Home screen and displays the Home screen.

  412. Morning Pan. I’ve been getting a fair amount of entertainment from Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show of late, though I’ve caught up with the current ep by now.

    Meanwhile, decent rain finally, but I bet the drought isn’t over yet…

  414. There were actually a couple counties here that wanted to combine and rename as “Lake Wobegon County,” although I’m pretty sure it was mostly about combining the counties and the rename helped get that effort a lot more publicity.

  424. Well commenting from the Pre is much more effective than from my old “dumb” phone. Scrollingthrough 400 comments took about ten scrolls to get to the bottom.

    I might be in the market for a refurbe 32GB touch at some point to replace my HD based ipod.

  426. I have a 60GB hard drive based one now, but I’ve got it right about half full. So, I could comfortably live with a 32.

    My wife, on the other hand, could stand a 160GB unit.

  431. Googling “Prairie Home Companion” – not familiar (ashamed at my lack of pop culture knowledge)

    I was just thinking last night that I hadn’t seen any posts from Mr. Boze in a while.

  435. LOL jOe.

    I just came home sick. AFter all, what has Evil, Inc. done for me lately? Why sit there miserable? I must have a year of sick time accrued.

    Cough, cough.

  438. Ten bucks for the i-touch up date! That’s highway robbery. Oh well, I guess they know people like me will get it anyway.

  444. We are seriously low on our precipitation levels for June. They are already speaking of sprinkler bans for the summer.

  446. So in another attempt to remove that fucking screw using my brotherinlaws tools, crushed one of the wifi aerial connectors, managed to prize it up and blutack the aerial back in, but wifi connection is a bit unstable.

    screw is still in.

    I feel like I’m in a Pink Panther episode.

  449. Cj: We also have fire pit bans in place. Especially now with it being so dry.

    Van, am I evil is I’m smiling at your description of your computer antics?

    👿

  452. re: Apple –
    If it will make any of you feel any better about giving your hard earned cash to Apple … I own stock in that company. So instead of thinking that you’ve given Mr. Jobs another $100 bucks, think about it as though you’ve given me another 100th of a cent !!!
    🙂

  455. I’m admitting defeat and taking it to a local computer shop to see if they can get that damn screw out.

    I’m not hopeful.

  458. ditto: Actually, by all accounts (Microsoft included) Apple sells products that work better.

    What upsets me is that comparable products can be purchased or home-built for substantially less than Apple’s price structure. It’s not because Apple’s components cost more (as seen by this company that makes Mac knock-offs on the cheap: http://www.psystar.com/), it’s because Apple sees themselves as superior, and charges accordingly.

  459. It’s really a whatever the market will bear thing anyway. We may all complain about price etc (which really didn’t bother me), but as long as we’re willing to pay…

  460. Justa J0e – The fire marshall banned those clips in Massachusetts and, in New Jersey, you can’t even pump your own gas. Now I finally understand why. That’s terrifying.

  461. So installing 3.0 for the iPhone didn’t go without a hitch, the update crapped out on my netbook. Had to plug the phone into the desktop to update.

    I like the iPhone, but have no interest in buying a Mac computer.

  463. Van – This probably isn’t an option for what you are working on, but … sometimes I am able to get out a screw with a stripped head by removing all the other screws and then basically use the entire thing to unscrew the bad screw. Push down on the screw head and try to rotate it and the entire motherboard at the same speed.

    This has worked in the past for removing large machine parts, so… 🙂

    Another option, and probably a bad idea, is to take a slotted screw driver and use a hammer to drive the tip into the offending screw. Once it is embedded into the screw, you should be able to either unscrew it or simply split the head off. Once the mother board is out of the way you can grab the leftover bits of the screw with some pliers.

  464. However it does seem to be running slower. I’m not sure if it’s the upgrade or if my network is just acting silly right now.

  465. I may be getting an iPhone for the pre-Mrs. in a few weeks and I’m a bit nervous about it. I had a refurb iPod 3G for a few months and that is my only experience with Apply products… so most of my time with it were spent after the hard drive failed…

    birrrrrzip birrrrrrrrzip birrrrrzip 🙁

  466. Many of my points have been for me. Apple is a business. They are in this to make money, just like Microsoft, Sun, and hundreds of other companies. Sometimes they make mistakes. Sometimes they do not.

    Perceived value is a legitimate force for pricing. If people really, truly thought Apple’s products were over-priced, that Apple was gouging them, then people would stop buying those products. And then Apple would drop their prices.

    What happens most of the time is the top dog on the pile is attacked because they are on top. It happens to Microsoft all the time. It happened to IBM a lot in the day too.

  467. I do like Open Source and think it would be nice if Apple opened up iTunes. However, Apple doesn’t sell iTunes. It is solely a support product for iPods. So, there is no reason whatsoever for Apple to change it to accommodate other companies. Not unless those companies paid apple to do so.

    I think statements like “Apple users hate our freedom” just emphasize the Open Source zealotry that I really dislike. Open Source is good and useful, but people and companies should have the *freedom* to choose how they want to develop their software.

  473. I disagree Van. It’s their software. They can choose what devices work with it.

    And there are good reasons why Apple would choose to do so. Take this not unlikely scenario: Someone synced a device with iTunes and the device got damaged. It’s not inconceivable that this person would try and sue Apple because of this. If Apple didn’t try and actively stop such abuse, then they could be found liable. So, this behavior makes good business and legal sense.

  474. Excellent points, ditto. I’m most offended by Apple’s pointless and/or self-serving end-user limitations and restrictions.

    I’m also bothered by the brand-allegiance thing. Apple’s company and consumers are presented as this cool, hip tribe — which stands separately from “uncool, evil Microsoft” and all others in the computer/device/app games. . . But really, Apple is by-and-large no different from any other mega-corporation. In spite of their shiny happy people claim, they have utilized plenty of greedy, fuzzy-ethical, end-user-punishing tactics and practices in the past.

    But the root of the brand-allegiance problem runs way deeper than Apple, Coca-Cola, Saturn, etc. and I’m stepping down from my little box now 🙂 .

  483. Surely all they have to legally say is that they don’t support non Apple devices. If you then come a cropper by plugging in a non Apple device you wouldn’t a have leg to stand on.

    So 3.0 update went fine on the desktop, and iTunes on the netbook restored all my stuff to the phone.

    Sooooo….

  493. All I can say (in all seriousness this time) is I luvz my touch. I don’t care who puts it out, is put out, or puts out. I can’t see being without it anymore.

  502. Bunny, Me too! My iPod Touch doesn’t leave the house without me nor I without it. I do so love it!

    And yes, briefly exchanged words with Jack. He’s gotta talk to “his people” and then he’ll get back to us with more details. (Jack’s so important and ya know… “all that” so it’s hard to pin him down anyway.)

    hehe “pin him down” *swooon*

  513. So under strange… the news is reporting on how catholic bishops in Alberta are giving their opinion on the possibility of building nuclear plants for energy. I didn’t know it was religious issue.

  514. Apple products are overpriced for what you receive, I don’t think anyone can argue that. Some more that others.

    To a large degree, open source software works, and works well, BECAUSE of zealots. You have people that will code in every spare moment they have and simply give the fruits of their work away for anyone to use. You also have people that want to give others living in the various armpits of the world some of the power that we have by virtue of the fact that we were born into an affluent country. The OLPC was born of this drive. I’m sure many would find either of these examples “zealots”.

    I would argue that many Apple fanboys and fangirls are zealots of another kind. They’re zealots to the brand. Screaming at the various presentations and blindly buying the latest iProduct. Slaves to the idea that Apple stuff is cool and hip. And Apples never crash (snicker, snicker). To me, this is very empty zealotry.

    Apple does indeed hate our freedom. As examples, bricking jailbroken iPhones, no Ogg support on iPods, and the DRM in their music files. I don’t think anyone would argue that Apple is a company and doing things to increase the value of the company and market-penetration. And yes, they do have a right to do these things (ignoring the recent FCC inquiry into the iPhone/AT&T marriage). However, blocking people from CHOOSING to play Ogg files or install a stupid app that Apple doesn’t deem good enough for their store for whatever inane reason does, by definition, inhibit our freedom to use our products as we see fit. It was only market pressure that forced Apple to finally drop DRM from their music files. And yes, people SHOULD vote with their wallets and push Apple to change their ways. But many don’t, and some that don’t will announce that one of the reasons they don’t is due to their freedom-hating ways.

    To close, I think we all know that companies are looking out for their best interests. Some of those are really disgusting. How about Net Neutrality? That is in the best interest of some big companies, but really squashes the freedoms that we currently enjoy.

    I think I rambled quite a bit. I’m not very good or knowledgeable in this arena, and I hope I did not come off churlish. Time for me to start cleaning the house.

  515. I don’t have a big opinion on Apple, but I do LUV my iPod and MacBook. There might be a little passion involved.

    In other news, Obama is bumming me out.

  523. Maybe I’m over reacting, but I’m rather creeped out right now. I regularly post pictures to my Flickr stream as a way of sharing with family and friends. Most of my pictures are rarely seen and that’s fine.

    But, in the last few days, some pictures of my daughter had been favorited, which, particularly since they weren’t necessarily the most interesting pictures I’ve ever taken, struck me as odd.

    The user who favorited them is not someone I know. That in itself is not so unusual. But, when I went to check his profile to see if he had any interesting pictures I found….nothing. No pictures, tags, groups, contacts, anything. Buy chance I clicked in his profile that shows what other people’s pictures he’s marked as favorites. That’s what really set off my spidey sense. Essentially four dozen pictures taken by a couple dozen different people – all of young girls. Nothing struck me about any individual picture as problematic. They were just pictures of people’s kids at birthday parties, swimming pools, playgrounds, playing dressup, etc. But, seeing them altogether in a group of thumbnails just gave me a really bad vibe.

    I’ve ended up blocking his access to my pictures, which has also taken off his favorite markings. I also contacted all the other Flickr users whose pictures that I had favorited. I simply pointed out what I’d found – that a guy whose posted no pictures has been favoriting pictures of young girls in that user’s photostream. I said I was blocking this guy and I wanted to pass this info on to them as well.

    I know, in reality, once a picture is shared with the public on Flickr, well, any sick freak can get a hold of it. They can download them to their own machines if they want. I try to be careful about what pictures I post, and I never geotag anything taken at my home or other family and friends homes – after all, I can easily remember those locations.

    I don’t know that there’s anything else to be done at this point.

  525. Morning Pan, that guy actions do sound suspicious Ed.

    So this morning I have an embarrassing called to the local computer shop:

    “So does removing a screw fall within you installing upgrades remit?”

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