nowhere man

budhaboy @ 2008-07-06T14:17:00

2008-07-06T18:18:30Z

Is it time to buy a generator?

Seriously. The last one sort of freaked me out. Being without Electricity for five days really, really sucked ass. I've been told that during Isabell, our neighborhood lost power for about four days. If they call it for hitting the area, getting generator for anything approaching reasonable is out of the question. If the thing breaks another way I'm stuck with a generator it may be years before I need to use again.

budhaboy @ 2008-07-02T18:19:00

2008-07-02T22:21:54Z

I've been working on a cubby for the server room. Mostly as a practice run for O's desk.

Consider:

I made it out of sassafras with 1/2 in maple plywood for the back and drawer bottom (I used maple because I had some left over from Oliver's bed), and my goal was to make it as accurately as I could to plans I'd drawn up. When I finished the drawers and slid them in for the first time, a design flaw became clear: there was no way for the air trapped behind the drawer to escape quickly, and I'd made every thing so tight and square I'd pretty much made a wooden pnuematic cylinder.

Go me.

A couple of other firsts: 1) first piece of free-standing furniture, 2) First time I'd gone from rough wood to finished product for something more difficult than planks.

Things that aren't shown:

1) the plans, 2) the template I had to make for the radius cutouts on the drawers.

I applied three coats of semi-gloss poly.

budhaboy @ 2008-06-27T23:15:00

2008-06-28T03:19:52Z

I picked up the pater familias today...

He boozed it up pretty well on the burbon, but I got the feeling I contributed to the old boy's falling off the wagon and I'm going to hear no end of shit from my seester if he comes back a complete boozehound.

I was stunned to find out that we aren't descended [stagewhisper]Jews[/stagewhisper]... Apparently my great grandfather being a croat at the turn of the century didn't want to upset the family of a young Jewish girl who'd coverted to methodist, but still held some serious grudges from the old country. When they asked him his name, he picked 'Matz' from a hotel he saw across the street for want of any other better name. He couldn't confess the lie until they were married, so the name stuck.

All this time I've labored under the misaprhention that the people that raised me (well the male anyway) was part of the chosen group... Ehhh... live and learn. But then again... the girl was Jewish by blood... maybe that makes the case even more clear...

budhaboy @ 2008-06-26T11:48:00

2008-06-26T15:54:19Z

On Sunday, I worked out in the garage milling bits for that shelf/cubby thing, then assembling it. For some reason I didn't shower that morning, and had gotten out of the habit of applying deodorant at the beach because I was showering every few hours when I got in from the ocean.

Needless to say I sweated like a !@#$ing pig as it was about 100 degrees in the garage and really, really humid. I stank in a way I haven't stank in years. So much so H wouldn't let me in the car for fear of perminately stinking it up. I showered, dumped the shirt down the chute, and forgot about it. H washed it, put it in my drawer and this morning I put it on. I dashed out the door because I was late and by the time I got to work, the stink had come back about 30%... by the time I'd gotten in on the train it was at about 70% I gave up at about 80% and decided I had to get a new shirt but the mall across the street didn't open until 10.

My point?

Joeseph Bank clothes don't entirely suck.

budhaboy @ 2008-06-26T10:57:00

2008-06-26T15:09:34Z

I honestly don't remember a time I've been so busy for so long without a break... I feel like I've been going 100mph for about two years now. It's either watch the kids, go to work, or recover from illness.

In light of that, we did get back from our annual pilgrimage to the outerbanks on Saturday. For the first time in years I've actually felt more relaxed returning home, than before I left.

I think I'm almost able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, though. Big O's room is almost done, and it is at that point, I'm taking a !@#$ing break. To gear up for it, and make sure I don't trash 'expensive' wood, I've designed and almost finished a shelving, cubby thing for the server room... out of Sassafrass. It's almost done. Last night I started applying poly to the cabinet, and yesterday afternoon I re-learned how to make dovetails for the drawers, and set up my jigs to whack out the three drawers on Saturday. I'll post pictures when I get time.

My father is coming into town on Friday after work. This will be the third time he's seen O, and he's never met U. Now O has been blessed with his presence because 1) he needed a place to crash for his 50th highschool reunion, and we were convient, and 2) he was driving through with his mother (a witch so unspeakable that my wife barred her from every returning after that one visit which was cut short by four days because she was too put out by little O having diareah). Now don't start thinking it's about money or time, the dudes fairly loaded, and retired. Or that it's about travel as he splits his time between Lille, France and Scottsdale, AZ... It's because he's an unspeakable ass. His excuse for the past FOUR YEARS on why he can't come to see Uly by just flying to france from BWI is because he needs the miles (he tries to keep at least a 1,000,000 mile/yr balance... I have no idea why anyone would want to do this, but it seems important to him). This year is different, however because he realized that he can save $30 doing a stop over in BWI before flying to visit his mother in PA.

He arrives Friday evening, and leaves early Monday morning. It should be interesting.

budhaboy @ 2008-06-11T18:10:00

2008-06-11T22:12:25Z

Anheuser-Busch (BUD) says Belgium-based brewer InBev has offered to buy the company for roughly $48 billion.

A European company is offering to pay $48B for Budweiser... I grew up in the 70's I thought I'd seen as low as America could sink. We've lost our steel mills, the auto industry is on the ropes, most crap is made somewhere else, but beer?! Even total crap beer that no one but Americans want to drink?! Dark times are coming people, dark times.

budhaboy @ 2008-06-09T19:41:00

2008-06-09T23:43:32Z

Here's a tip:

If you are ever in a position where you're told to tell several hundred commuters who have been baking in an inside platform on one of the hottest days of the year they'll need to queue up and pass through single file one-at-a-time to get onto their train, you may want to re-think that one, as they WILL become both hostile and unstable and will likely riot if you push back to enforce you absurd rules.

Unfreakin' believable.

budhaboy @ 2008-06-07T15:57:00

2008-06-07T19:56:54Z

134

As a 1930s husband, I am
Very Superior

Take the test!

A couple of minutes to snivel...

2008-06-05T00:39:35Z

The last three weeks have seriously sucked ass. H has had three weddings and a funeral in the previous two weeks, forcing me to watch the kids 4-5 nights a week, and keeping me from racking up credit time. This week O (at aged 7, in first grade) went on a two-day nature camp with his school. Last night was the overnight portion and I volunteered to be a night chaparone. 15 6-7 year olds on their fist night way from home, in a severe thunderstorm. Many of the kids had their fathers with them as well, but some did not. One little fellow sniveled 'til midnight before his father took him home. I don't think I've had more than six hours of sleep in three weeks.

Now we've got insane thunderstorms yet again...

On the upside, I finished replacing the forty-year old mahagany on my neighbor's pieceofshitbutitwasmygrandfathers boston whaler. I used the single piece of scrap (damn, I'm good) to make a clip board for Oliver's 'graduation' from first grade. I got some closure on that !@#$ing variance project I've been working on for three!@@#$ing years by giving a seminar to the powers that be because they are too lazy/stupid to understand the 100 page paper (and in particular the three page executive summary) I wrote. Their response? Sounds good. Three years, a dedicated nine-box cluster that ran continually for months, at a minimum of five mathstats all making over $80k/year for three years and that's the response? 'sounds good'

I got three papers out of it. I got better response from a group of french speaking canuks who requested a seminar... 'Sounds good' On the one hand, I've got to find a new job... but on the other, it's a pretty sweet gig if you don't give a shit about anyone who manages you understanding a word you fucking say.

budhaboy @ 2008-05-28T19:27:00

2008-05-28T23:32:21Z

Nearly 95 percent of the country’s 10,000 ESOPs are now at privately held companies, like U.S. Sugar. Because their shares are not publicly traded, there is no market price. So workers cash out their shares without knowing what their value would be on the open market.

Niiiicccceee... Man whatever ruthless bastard who thought that scheme up I'm sure has a special circle in Hell waiting for him. I had no idea these clowns were taking their companies private... And to make matters worse the employees had no control over when to sell them. and THIS is 'better' than a pension plan? Let's inspect where the free market failed these poor hapless suckers. THERE WAS NO INFORMATION, also THERE WAS NO FREE EXCHANGE. Let's be clear here: the free market didn't screw these poor bastards, unscrupulous shitheels who can't make an honest buck did. IF it was fair, the employees could have sold the shares wheneverthefuck they wanted to whomeverthefuck they wanted for whateverthefuck price they wanted.

According to this article, there are many, many more people out there in the same boat. Man is the next 20 years going to suck ass in this country.

budhaboy @ 2008-05-23T17:38:00

2008-05-23T21:41:20Z

Consider this:

It is a graph of google searches from China during the 'moment of silence' for the victims of the earthquake. I heard a report the morning after that about a spontaneous demonstration of support for the government, being chinese, that was startling. If only because of the act of the people joining together to mourn face to face, spontaneous demonstrations for their ability to help one another... What did we do after 9/11? Watch TV? Shop? Email one another? These are solitary statements. It's a harbinger people... This is so entirely the Chinese century, you'd best start studying mandarin, because brother, you're going to need it. If only to watch their reruns when you're in the old-aged home.

budhaboy @ 2008-05-21T20:01:00

2008-05-22T00:10:49Z

That was such a trip going back through those old boxen images... I'd forgotten half of those machines. I'd almost forgotten there was a time when I used to actually buy completed boxes, usually from some big-box store. They'd start to peter out after a couple of years then I'd get a new one. At one point atrition had killed off all the boxes but a Eone imac clone, and a compaq corporate castoff I bought for fifty bucks (that thing lasted forever).

Of the boxes I've got currently all of them i built (initally with the aid of the lovely and talented plural). One is a dual PIII that used to be a server at gentoo back in the late nineties. One is a 2.4ghz PIV sitting on an ASUS MB The thing is an 02 (maybe 03). It's the fellow that I use for capturing TV nowadays, the other two are also PIVs but newer vintages built within a year of one another in 05, 06. They have identical ASUS MBs, one's got a dual core PIV, the other a single core. Ones got a mondo raid, the other a mondo graphics card. I've got another garage sale box I was using for a web server and as far as I know it still works... I pulled it off the grid when they drywalled the basement and I haven't gotten around to putting it up again... Looking back, I guess I just haven't had the time.

I'm so !@#$ing burned out working on this house. Those of you who have been reading this journal for years have seen me crank out many projects... but this house? with two small kids? I think plural summed it up best when he took a look at the property before we closed on it: 'there's not many who'd have the balls to try this, P...'

budhaboy @ 2008-05-21T18:38:00

2008-05-21T22:38:47Z

I always like this picture:

One night I tied one on and tried taking different shots of this plastic chimp I'd bought O in Nov02... Being as how I was nearly blind this was the pick of the dozens I took.

budhaboy @ 2008-05-21T17:58:00

2008-05-21T22:04:42Z

When we moved three years ago, my server died. With it went all the copies of the boy's pictures to date... or so I thought. Last night, when I was digging through some archived images of different boxes (I made a conscious effort then (as now, really) to copy everything from machine to machine, then carry forward images. The downside is you carry an insane amount of crap... but not as much as you'd think if you exclude programs... The upside is you find nuggets years later. I stumbled upon an image of a machine from OH, and one of the first boxes I had in MD, this lead me to find ALL of big O's baby pictures (and some videos), a slew of pictures from OH, MN, and KY. I also found some of the first web pages I'd made, including one of a Christmas eve service H did in '97. I also stumbled upon 'other' images that lead me to quite a few of the pictures that I thought were lost the year before we moved (the time between boxen switches).

budhaboy @ 2008-05-07T18:04:00

2008-05-07T22:08:15Z

Seriously: WTF with HRC?

My MIL once told me that when the commies sent women to fight in WWII they found them to be warriors who were so savage, so appalling in their ruthlessness that they'd fight to the death killing in the most grisly ways imaginable. They NEVER knew defeat, and they got a little crazy and just start killing everything that moved. I have no idea if this is true or not, and I'm certainly not suggesting ALL women are insanely ruthless killing machines who don't know when to quit... but, you know, if the shoe fits.

budhaboy @ 2008-04-28T11:47:00

2008-04-28T15:55:56Z

Sometime tuesday U took the DVD remote from the basement and (I'm guessing here, as I really have no idea as to the truth) buried it in the back yard as he did sometime last year with my cell phone.

I then used this to motivate a rationalization that I needed to go buy a universal remote control... I ended up getting a midrange logitech gizmo. I can't rave enough about this thing if you are in the market for such items. It's nearly trivial to program and does the reasonable thing by: 1) creating a 'useful application driven' new remote that associates the 'play' button with whatever gizmo you are using a source... it can simillarly associate the 'up chanel' button with whatever gizmo you are using for a tuner. It also as four buttons that programmable as whateverthehellyouwant based upon the device you need. So, for example if you have a projector that is 16:9 and you find yourself switching manually between 4:3 and letterbox you can make macros to do this and associate them to these buttons. Note also that ALL the information about the buttons, what they do, as well as the IR freq they need to work are stored on some internet server somewhere and get downloaded to the remote via a USB connection.

Here's the rub though: these things have been out since at least 2006, and most of you who care have already taken the plunge. If you haven't though, and your memories of 'universal remote' are tainted by endless codes that you have to program, then set a switch as to which gizmo you want it to control may want to think again...

Consider:

2008-04-27T12:07:05Z

It's an american 'popemobile' for our man in Afghanistan. Check out those pimpin' sidewalls, and just meditate on them. Some dude in the government took the time to figure out white sidewalls for a freakin' hummer instead of say... putting in clean water and sanitation. And check out the microphone... clearly it's been hooked up to some kind of P.A. system again, some clown spent time figure that out instead of say, making the highways safe... I'm hoping the doors in the top are just hold overs from some sort of machine gun turret, but if not, what the Hell else did they trade for designing and implimenting them?

I'm sure there's a reason...

2008-04-19T23:41:50Z

But I have no recollection of anyone suggesting that cell phones be used as credit cards over an encrypted blue-tooth connection. This seems to painfully obvious (and cheap) there's got to be a reason it hasn't been implimented yet.

budhaboy @ 2008-04-15T20:51:00

2008-04-16T00:54:10Z

three !@#$ing weeks people.

I used the crutches Thurs, Friday to gimp to work. I gave up on Saturday when I needed to watch the boys (H was doing a continuing ed thing), and take them to Chinese school. I had a doctors appointment, and the butcher seems to think I may not end up a criple for life. I'd been meaning to change my icon to reflect my new 'franken-toe' status... Apparently the quack didn't have to replace the entire joint, just half of it. You'll also notice I don't have that ghastly lump any more.

In other news, I'm so sick of GTA sanandres I think I could scream.

budhaboy @ 2008-04-03T10:41:00

2008-04-03T14:45:24Z

I left pop-culture back in '01 when O was born... I recently started listening to the radio again after a six year hiatus. I'd been convinced that nothing 'new' was worth listening to. I can't believe I missed this whole 'garage revival' thing that was spearheaded by the whitestripes. When I was last aware of popular culture, I was HUGE into the ancient garage music, and thought it had ended there. Recently O when 'fell in love with a girl' came on O when nuts in the back seat (as did I). I spent some time researching them. DAMN, what a band.

budhaboy @ 2008-04-02T10:41:00

2008-04-02T14:53:56Z

Twenty-five years ago my sister maried this dude named Jim. Jim was about 17 year old than she, and while they were courting I was in Highschool, he and I became sort of close. My father was doing his various tours, he taught me how to drive, kept me company... He seemed nice enough, if not a bit old.

He had an interesting history, he was a biker in the 60's, was responsible for burning down buildings during the campus riots that my father was trying to save... that was sort of cool.

In the ensuing years, it sort of became clear he really didn't care that much for me... not entirely understandable, of course as I can really be an annoying fuck. In the end, my sister's raging success kept her too busy, and truth be told we grew apart. Jim ended up quitting his job in a petulant fit having something to do with a failed business venture involivng my sister and some of her friends having to do with airplane escape slides in the near east... For the last ten years or so, he's pretty much been her pool-boy, landscaper, and pithy consort.

Last week, he decided to comit suicide. He went into their garage, fired up the Jag and the Harley, trying to time his demise so that the machines would still be running when my sister got home from work. She found him, of course near death, and she called the paramedics.

He spent 48 hours in the hospital, says he still loves her and wants to work it out. My sister thankfully is having none of it, and throwing his ass out. I say thankfully, because my own personal history with friends who've died have left me thinking such acts while crys for help can also be screams of 'fuck you' by those too weak to do anything about their lot.

This may seem harsh, but there it is. I've buried way too many people, and had way too long to think about what it was they were really trying to say.

budhaboy @ 2008-04-01T19:04:00

2008-04-01T23:10:59Z

Mother fuck.

I had my post-op with the podiatrist this afternoon. He praised the work he did on the bones, but noted the swelling was WAY too much. He brow beat me in that supremely annoying way doctors have about my not following his instructions, as I hadn't spent EVERYFUCKINGMINUTE in bed. He claimed the swelling would be with me forever if I didn't get in bed and stay there... NO walking, limping, whatever the fuck. He then twisted the knife by noting I'd be off crutches by now if I'd been using them.

In short: back to square one.

Also, he's worried about an infection coming around as a consequence of the swelling. I've got another appointment in a week.

Honestly, if you could see our house their are two-step stair levels EVERYWHERE. Using crutches is completely insane. My solution? I'm moving to the basement. There's a john down there, internet, a futon, chairs, fridge... and best of all: no stairs. It was on my list of things to do, and I did have H try to set it up, but honestly, it sort of freaks me out being down there. There's no windows, and the idea of trying to hobble up those stairs if there's a fire kind of bugs me out.

budhaboy @ 2008-04-01T10:39:00

2008-04-01T14:43:05Z

Oh man.

I wish I had the time.

I just had this FLASH of a video montage of Clinton photos, headlines put to the music of Oingo Boingo's helpless:

Oingo Boingo Helpless lyrics

Countless long nights
While I stare at the wall
I ask myself over again...
How did I end up
In this little hell?
How - did it ever begin?
Oh, oh, oh oh oh helpess
Helpless to turn back the clock
That ticks on
With its cruel shiny face
It laughs while it watches
My every disgrace - I was
Born a sap - all the
Nurses laughed when they
Saw me the first time
They giggled and they said
This poor little monster'd be
Better off dead.
Oh, oh, oh oh oh helpess
Helplessly trapped in a body
I'm sure -
Should have never been mine.
I bet that my real one's
Doing just fine - and I
Don't belong here, I
Don't belong here - I
Should be quite rich
With a big shiny car
A house with twelve rooms
I deserve to go far.
Oh, oh, oh oh oh helpess
Helplessly falling in love
But does love
Really last through the night?
To love - To honor -
To kick and to bite! and I
Don't belong here, I
Don't belong here
It's all a mistake
I was destined for greatness
A leader, a prophet -
They're just too blind to notice.
Where did this whole silly story begin?
It seems that my mind has gone -
Blank.
I think that I've messed up a chapter or two.
Perhaps it is best if I'm frank!
Oh, oh, oh oh oh helpess -
Helplessly lost like that
poor chap who came
For an innocent dance.
He left with his brain smeared
All over his pants! cause he
Didn't belong here, he
Didn't belong here
He never should've left
That warm cage in a zoo!
His face was so ugly
What else could I do?
Can you - really blame me, I
Had to smash it.
He left me no choice,
he was just like the others.
I just had to kill him.
With my poor, dear, old
Mother.
Oh, oh, oh oh oh helpess
Helplessly fucked in the ass
By a legion of forty ex-cons
That's what it feels like
When you walk all over me.
Don't belong here, I
Don't belong here
Your eyes burn right through me.
They fill me with fear.
I could've been at home
Watching football, and drinking beer.
Oh, oh, oh oh oh helpess, so Helpless.

Vincent Foster of course would be the person the subject in the song kills, and the 40 excons fucker her in the ass would be the Democratic Senators who aren't supporting her as superdeligates...

The only downside, of course is the song is like three minutes... Unless you spent and insane amount of time, that'd get really, really dull, really really quickly.

budhaboy @ 2008-03-31T10:05:00

2008-03-31T14:07:01Z

Last night U woke us up with tails of a nightmare involving crutches with Teeth chasing him down the hallway. Interestingly, when he first saw them, he was really sort of startled by them.

I can't bitch enough about how much this sucks having to stay in bed without actually feeling sick.

budhaboy @ 2008-03-28T02:14:00

2008-03-28T06:17:11Z

Big O turned seven yesterday. I can't believe it's been SEVEN years since he was born. He loved his Wii, of course. We did our level best to keep the suspense up, and yesterday I asked him if he was surprised, and he said not really. I asked him why? he said, "because you promised you'd get me one". I pointed out that I'd only promised that I'd try my hardest to look... He seemed convinced that this would of course have been suficcient, and he was never worried.