November 25, 2006

Interesting Mail

I got this in the mail yesterday. It came with some other stuff in an envelope meant to make you think it was from the county tax office, but it wasn't. It was from a company that will charge you $45 to try and get you a tax exemption. While I don't approve of their misleading practices, I did enjoy this insert...

1and1 again

I've been thinking about my rude comments regarding 1and1.com. Really, I have to take some of that back. What do I expect for $2.99 per month? I should be glad that they back up the data at all. A person shouldn't complain about something that is such an unbelievable bargain. I'm glad to be able to get their service for the price I do. But in a perfect world they'd backup even the bargain basement hosting people's data daily. :)

November 24, 2006

ASVAB

How long has it been since you thought about the good ole ASVAB?

"This program is designed to help students learn more about themselves and the world of work, identify and explore potentially satisfying occupations, and develop an effective strategy to realize their goals." And get suckered into military service, sez I.

These kids were thinking about it and did something about it!

I wish I would have thought of this, but my good friend drew tennis rackets, stick figures, and penii with the standardized testing bubbles. Man, those were the days! What a genius he was (and is).





Windows Vista pre-RC1 test program

Here's the text of an email I received Tuesday, August 29, 2006. I might have seen it if I checked my Hotmail more often. Oh well. Too much spam in that account.

I had originally downloaded a Beta version of Vista, but my PC wouldn't run it in a Virtual machine like I wanted to. I never got to try it, but now that the RTM version is out, I'm trying to get it for my new work PC.

Invitation to participate in Windows Vista pre-RC1 test program

We would like to invite you to help test the latest build of Windows Vista.

Thank you for participating in the Windows Vista Beta 2 Customer Preview Program (CPP). Your help is playing a critical role in improving the overall quality of what we believe is one of the most important OS advances in the history of PC computing. As a participant in the Beta 2 CPP, you will be able to download Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 (RC1) as soon as it becomes available.

In the mean time, we are inviting a limited number of CPP participants to help test a pre-RC1 build. Your timely feedback on this build will help us improve the quality of the final RC1 release that will be available to millions of customers in the coming weeks.

We are only making 100,000 downloads of this build available. As soon as we reach 100,000 downloads, the program will be closed. Participation in this program is not required for participation in the RC1 CPP. Whether or not you participate in this pre-RC1 test, we will send you another email message to alert you to the availability of the final RC1 build.

After downloading, please install and test the build as soon as possible. Most importantly, if there is a crash, hang or error, please make sure that you send the information back to us using the built-in Windows Error Reporting technology. Sending this information is essential to helping us improve the overall quality of Windows Vista, and collecting this information is the primary purpose of distributing this pre-RC1 release.

As with the original Beta 2 CPP, we remind you that this is pre-release software and you should not run this on production or mission critical PCs. Support will be limited to newsgroups, and you will have to do a clean install to move from this build to the final RC1 or RTM builds of Windows Vista.

You will be able to upgrade an existing Windows Vista Beta 2 or Windows XP installation to this build. However you will not be able to get back to your original installation after upgrading to this pre-RC1 build, you will have to do a clean install in order to get back to your previous configuration.

Installing this build requires a valid Product ID. Please use the same Product ID that was provided to you when you signed up for the Beta 2 CPP.

Thank you very much for your help in making Windows Vista great!

Sincerely,
The Microsoft Windows Vista Team

Black Friday

Lotsa people are shopping today. I'm not.

Wow! I've had a Hotmail account for over 10 years. I was just checking it today (which I do rarely since I get sooooo much spam there) and saw this: Registered since: July 16, 1996.

I have been working some more on mom's website. The stupid hosting company, 1and1.com, had a problem with the server we were on and had to restore from a backup. I'm glad they had a backup, but it must have been a week old, because a lot of my work is gone. I had a local backup copy though...

I'm going to watch "The Lakehouse" tonight. Jen and her mom watched it last night and say it was good.

Jen's mom and her husband have departed. They're early birds, so they left at 8:12 am. I'll really miss them. It was nice having company for a while.

November 23, 2006

Thanksgiving day

For once we aren't traveling today. Since Jen's mom has been here for the last couple weeks, and is leaving tomorrow, we are not traveling to see my folks this year. I must admit I don't mind not driving today. I'm a real home body sometimes. Oh well. I have many things to do this weekend. I'm working on my mom's website and scraping together a computer for Jen's mom before she leaves. Plus I'm watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which I love.

I have lots of picture that I havne't posted over the last few weeks, so I may have a mondo big picture post coming up...

Here's a word of advice du jour: If you eat cranberry sauce made with whole cranberries, just be sure that you chew them up. Happy Turkey!

Uncles

Jen's uncles are sure crass guys. I have to laugh about something they were talking about the other night when we were visiting the grandparents, though. I snickered to myself, but the topic of conversation certainly wasn't appropriate while there were ladies in the house.

One of em said that his buddy just came back from a contract job in Thailand and that everything was so cheap over there. He said that the buddy got a 2 hour massage for only 12 bucks and then a BJ to top it off. "Gee, I wonder what you can get for 20 bucks!!!" he said. Some people have no sense of what might be appropriate topics of conversation. This was told to his 2 brothers-in-law. I was in the room but not part of the conversation. What a schmuck.

November 19, 2006

PS 3 Games for rent

I was surprised that my Blockbuster Video already has PS3 games to rent. I went last night and picked up Golden Sun for the Gameboy Advanced to play in my DS (I'm cheap) and saw them there.

I also saw this cutout for Gears of War there...hehe.



I got a good deal on Golden Sun too. It was marked $14.99, but it rang up 9.99. Woo hoo! Thanks Blockbuster!

Super Mum

This is a pretty amazing video. I don't know how this woman can accomplish all that she does. She's strong.

Watch Super Mum

November 18, 2006

Yo, Fish Face!

Check out these great pictures! I don't know where they came from (a quick Google search didn't reveal it) but I like them. Click them to zoom.







It's or its???

I am always getting confused about whether to use it's or its. Even though this was trained into me in college, I'm beginning to be unsure of myself at times. So, I had to go look it up and I'm going to remember it this time.

From The Word Detective

Strictly speaking, in modern usage the possessive form of the pronoun "it" is, as you note, "its." The formation "it's" is a contraction, standing for "it is" (or "it has"). Thus we might say "It's (it is) a nice day for sailing, but my boat has lost its (the boat's) rudder." The difference between the two forms is clear, but evidently curiously difficult for many people to remember.

What that means is that all I have to remember is that it's is a contraction. The rest will follow logically. Whew!

Remember!!!

It's = It Is

:)

November 17, 2006

Joking Brendan

Brendan is so funny. Tonight he went we Jen and Andy and Jen's aunt and mom to see Christmas lights. When he got home, I told him "Tell me about the lights you saw, Bren!"

His answer: "Was red, yellow, green." He was joking with me!!! I was very surprised and has a good laugh.

Later, he said to me "You're a rascal!" and tweaked my cheek. I always tell him that. So I said "No, you're a rascal!" to which he answered "Well you're a monkey - say ee ee ah ah"

Oh I ROTFL at that one. He's such a funny boy. He certainly is getting our sense of humor.

Murphy's Lesser Known Laws

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.

Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

If you lined up all the cars in the world end to end, someone would be stupid enough to try to pass them, five or six at a time, on a hill, in the fog.

If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.

The things that come to those who wait will be the things left by those who got there first.

Flashlight: A case for holding dead batteries.

The shin bone is a device for finding furniture in a dark room.

A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of 12 people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

November 16, 2006

PS3 Launch Day

I'm excited about PS3 launch day. I plan on getting one...in about 5 years! It's waaaayyyy too expensive for me!

I thought I'd just take a shot of Best Buy's website to look at when PS4 comes out...



November 15, 2006

Bad Electricity Day

Today at work, our power was out for 4.5 hours.

This is bad since I work in computers.

For the first 2.5 hours, all the servers were on battery power, but once that ran out, we were dead in the water. We did shut down non-essential systems as soon as the power went out so that we could save the valuable battery power, and in the end we were down to like the 6 most essential ones, but the outage outlasted the batteries.

Now, these aren't normal UPS batteries like you might see in someone's home office. Oh no! This thing is the size of a small SUV and runs about 60 servers and a dozen monitors for the two and a half hour period. That's some serious power.

But, it didn't last. We ended up bringing in 3 small generators to try and power up our phone system (which is VOIP, so we needed our network switches) at least. We got that working and about 15 minutes later the power came back on. Doh! But we've decided that we need to purchase out own generator so that we have it ready on a moment's notice.

Here are some pictures:

[Just pretend. I haven't put them up yet]

November 12, 2006

Sakura on Ebay

Ebay has a ton of Cardcaptor Sakura stuff too. I want! ^_^

Sunday Plans


I got up early this morning with Andy, did some laundry, and ate some yummy cereal. My absolutely favorite right now is Cran-Vanilla Crunch.
<--- Yummy!!!!
I can go through boxes of the stuff. It is awesome. Fruity and Sweet, it's a diabetic's nightmare. Hehe.

Both boys are awake with me this morning so, this entry is taking 5 times longer to write than it should. Andy just went down for a nap in his swing. Swing is the word for GODSEND in Darrell language, in case you didn't know.

Jen's mom has been here this week and that has been cool. She's nice and pretty smart. She knows everything you would ever want to know about convenience stores. I think she's worked in them for many years and her husband manages them. She told me all about how Gasoline Delivery Trucks work. I've been trying to find more info on the net about that, but I can't. Apparently, the big tanker trucks that deliver to gas stations are not just giant tanks like I thought. They have smaller cylinders inside, I assume for safety. I wanted to see some pictures of that...

Also, this morning while listening to Japan-A-Radio, I was thinking of my favorite anime series Cardcaptor Sakura. I just love that series. I've seen every episode and the movies too. Next time I have an opportunity to buy myself a little something, I'm going to get these PVC figures from Amazon.com. I just love them.

Card Captor Sakura Sakura Sweet Collection



I was just looking at the archives on Blender.org. It is a really cool site for photorealistic rendering. Here's one pic from the gallery that looks just awesome. It's totally computer generated...but it looks like a really good photo. Cool huh?



Well, today my jobs are to mow the grass if it warms up and to attach Brendan's slide to his swingset. Here's the before picture...



The swing attaches on the left platform, so that he can slide down into the grass rather than into the cement fence. Smart right? Hehe. Next post will have an after picture if I get to do it.

November 11, 2006

Pew!

I usually don't go for humor this base, but the expression on the pig's face at the end is just too much.

Too Funny: Jurassic Fart

<-:)

November 10, 2006

Amusing Thoughts

I got these amusing thoughts in a spam email today. Far be it from me to suggest that spam actually has some redeeming value, but I giggled at these for a while.

  • Do the security guards at airports have to go through airport security when they get to work?
  • Why do we teach kids that violence is not the answer and then have them read about wars in school that solved America's problems?
  • Who gets to keep the pennies in a wishing well?
  • If you went back in time and killed your mother would you disappear the moment you killed her?
  • If money doesn't grow on trees then why do banks have branches?
  • Why is Donkey Kong called "DONKEY" Kong if he's a monkey?
  • If a bunch of cats jump on top of each other, is it still called a dog pile?
  • How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
  • When a boy is named after his dad, he is called 'Junior,' but what do you call a girl that is named after her mother?
  • Just what was the "Baby On Board" sign for? Did it help us decide which car not to hit in case of an accident?
  • Does Hawaiian Punch come from Hawaii?
  • If your name is Mr. Crunch, and you joined the Navy, would you eventually be Captain Crunch?
  • Can you cry under water?
  • If all of the Acme stuff doesn't work, why does Wile Coyote keep buying their products?

Folding@Home

I've just learned that PlayStation 3 owners will be able to download and run a special version of the Folding @ Home software (think Seti @ Home) that will let them donate the spare processing power of their PS3. This is a major advance!!! It could add thousands of high-power machines to the network, and that is really good for the project.

Check it out at their site.

November 9, 2006

Angel Decoy

Take a look at this picture of the Angel Decoy flares from a C-130 that someone sent me. I put the pictures together as an animation.



After I made that, I found this video where the pics were grabbed from.

November 8, 2006

Windows Vista

I'm really excited about Windows Vista. I'm also really excited about Microsoft Office 2007.



This looks like my flat screen and my cable modem sitting next to each other. I wish my computer was that fancy.

Not related to Microsoft, I'm liking the idea of SixPop.

There's some beautiful photography on WideRange.

And Remote Control Lan 2.7 looks useful. Can you tell I've been surfing today. It's been a while!

Daily Dilbert

Today's Dilbert is really funny...in a morbid sort of way.

November 5, 2006

RuneScape Halloween Event

This was a fun morning. I have been thinking a lot about RuneScape lately and how much fun I had making my goal of 1 Million gold in the bank. I haven't played it since last Christmas, so I figured I'd log in and do the Halloween Event.

I did some Ghost busting and got a snazzy Halloween costume.


Darius Oxo in Halloween 2006 costume


Spooky Braziers from the sign-in screen.

I really loved that game when Jen and I were playing. It was great. Playing it again makes me want to play World of Warcraft, but I know I'd get Mega Addicted. And there's no Betty Ford Clinic for WoW players that I know of.

As always, I have to show Google's Halloween logo. It's great!

November 4, 2006

Lackland AirFest Pictures

Brendan and I had a great time at Lackland AirFest today!!! I took lots of pictures. We parked at Wolff Stadium and took the free bus that dropped us off right at the front gate. We saw tons of planes, went in some, sat in the pilot seat in some, and saw the Mighty ThunderBirds! We even got a couple of autographs and bought a poster. It was wonderful. Here's the free book they were giving out for you to get autographs in. Click it for a bigger version.
I've made a Flickr set with all the pics because I didn't want to have this huge long ginormous post with all of them. So, get ready and just click on the smiley cat below to see them!


Click me then "View As Slideshow" on next page!

Lackland AirFest

Today Brendan and I are going to Lackland AirFest. I can't wait to show him the C-5 Galaxy cargo plane! I hope we get to go in it!



We're also going to the the fantastic Thunderbirds!

I'll post pictures when we get back.

Blogger Beta

I'm very happy to say that I have successfully switched over to the Blogger Beta. It's nice! I've already deleted 25 spam comments, which is one thing that is much easier to do in the Beta.

I would suggest that anyone use my backup procedure before switching. I (fortunately) didn't have any glitches during the switch, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Baby born from embryo deep-frozen for 13 years

A Spanish woman has broken a world record by having a baby from an embryo frozen for 13 years. Isn't it amazing what modern science brings us? I can't imagine what will happen in the next 50 years!

read more | digg story

November 3, 2006

FREE Directory Assistance (411)

Free411.com provides free, ad-supported 411 calls via their 800 number. Since Sprint/Nextel charges me an outrageous $1.40 per 411 call, I'm going to switch to this. You get an ad, then you tell the fully automated system who you are looking for, then you get another ad, and then the number you asked for. It's worth it to me!

read more - digg story