Sunday, January 13, 2002 01:42 a.m.
Guess what? It's snowing.

And hey, since when did game shows become all about punishing the contestants?

Saturday, January 12, 2002 10:54 a.m.
On television: flies strapped into an endless virtual reality hell. Next step: monkeys and Matthew Broderick. Oh, wait..already done.

Speaking of which, my Dad and brother and I went to see that in the theaters (I was 9.) I actually wanted to go see this but got overruled. We went to see it at the old Vinegar Hill Theatre, which is the only time I ever went there... it closed soon after, eventually to reopen as the Jefferson Theater.

My family didn't go out to the movies much when I was a kid (or that's my recollection). I do remember when we got our first VCR. We were living in Boulder, Colorado and the snow was driving us insane.

Liz is in a fog. It's the "good book" fog, but still.

Reminds me that I need to read some Jack Vance at some point if I'm to continue being a Vance fan.

V8 Splash is lovely, don't you think? I'm developing an addiction to the fruity yet fulfilling beverage. I guess there are worse addictions.

Scott Kurtz obviously isn't going broke anytime soon.

Ebay, ebay, I love you, you giant fucking Q!

Thursday, January 10, 2002 11:41 a.m.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Cosmic Color!. Uh... or something.

Oh, something gratifying: I recently bought a used NEC monitor at Goodwill for 6 dollars. It had an issue which I fixed, but otherwise seems to be fine. I recently was browsing a computer store, and noticed the same model selling used for 99 bucks. Not bad!

Wednesday, January 9, 2002 11:21 p.m.
Two MORE things:

Realized that I have to add Karen to the other pages. Too tired to do that right now. Later.

Upon thinking about that: finally came up with a plan for revising links and such. Small changes will come to the page soon.

I think I'm fairly happy with the design of the page, which is to say that I don't plan on changing it anytime soon and if it's turning your head into a flaming skull, too bad. :)

Now, sleep. Seriously.

Did I mention I can hear?

Wednesday, January 9, 2002 11:13 p.m.
Two things:

First of all, a lot of the time/dates on this page are off. This is because it takes the time from your computer's time, and my beige box is really off right now. I ought to fix that.

Second, Karen's blog is now linked. I'm not totally happy with the picture... too much white space. I may replace it with something else later. Once again, Karen, if you dislike the picture I will replace it.

Wednesday, January 9, 2002 06:52 a.m.
I can hear again! It's a goodly thing.

Lots of snow everywhere. It's very peaceful outside. Travel might be interesting tomorrow.

Feeling good...

Tuesday, January 8, 2002 10:14 p.m.
An interesting article about dating in Korea.

Liz is off ice skating. And it's snowing once again.

Monday, January 7, 2002 07:38 a.m.
Explore the wonders of the Tennessee Fainting Goat...

Sunday, January 6, 2002 12:23 p.m.
Since Karen has now updated a couple of times, she shall find a place on the right side of my page... just as soon as I find a good picture. Should be tomorrow, as I'm going to bed now.

One more thing: I've developed a real disgust for these people who are sitting outside a theater for 4 months waiting for Star Wars. It's not that they aren't doing anything with their lives (god knows I'm not either) or that it shows a sad devotion to the mediocre, but that sitting outside a theater seems to actively state, in public, in front of the world, "I consider this a more worthwhile activity than working to make the world a better place." To be clear: it's not the fact that they aren't doing anything that bothers me. It's the sense that not doing anything is cool.

Sunday, January 6, 2002 04:53 a.m.
Wow, the Pats really mulched the Panthers today. An AFC East champs.. not a bad way to end the regular season.

Friday, January 4, 2002 03:40 a.m.
Just when I thought I'd escaped the December malaise of cold and flu... ech.

Pitas is pissing me off. It's getting downright HARD to post without getting errors.

Thursday, January 3, 2002 07:38 a.m.
Liz and I got up early this morning and went up to Farmington with Liz's parents (to visit her grandparents). It was a fun trip... we got to play Ping Pong and generally hang out.

On the way over and back I digested Blue Planet, an RPG I got for Christmas. It's pretty damn cool. My only complaint is that it's one of those games that has a GM guide and a player guide. I hate that. Anyway. It's a cool setting, if shamelessly ripped off from Robinson's Mars books.

My new CPU came in today and I stuck it in. Seems happy thus far. My computer has been making this odd intermittent quiet noise which I think MAY be one fan blowing a ribbon cable against something. Or some kind of vibration. Or something. It's kind of worrying, but I can't nail it down.

I got this really slick cooling fan too, but it won't fit on the CPU (so I'm still using my older cooler.) I'm trying to think of some interesting use for said fan, but I haven't yet thought of one.

Wednesday, January 2, 2002 10:53 a.m.
Had quite a good game session last night. Made me realize the real differences between playing tabletop and playing over IRC... IRC isn't really a substitute, because it allows/encourages different forms of play.

The Wayback Machine is good for more than nostalgia, as I discovered today. It's also good as a backup when a site you really need to get to happens to be down.

Monday, December 31, 2001 12:20 p.m.
Well, I think I'm going to ditch my resolution to not talk about my resolutions, because I found a good way of summing them up (and thus reducing them to two).

1. Personally, I want to find a future I can be happy with.

2. Globally, I want the world to find a future it can survive.

I hope that's not too depressing.

Karen's Blog! Hopefully she'll like blogging and I'll add her to the sidebar soon.

Monday, December 31, 2001 05:44 a.m.
It's New Years Eve, and the party approaches. Karen came over and helped us prepare, which was VERY nice, thank you Karen.

This is a neat device, and my mobo would work with it. And it's dirt cheap. I likey!

Well, I'm going to make some resolutions this year, but I think that I will do so privately. One public resolution is to update those links over on the left so they're perhaps a bit more useful. Or remove them entirely.

Sunday, December 30, 2001 10:16 a.m.
Just went out to dinner with Jim, Susie, and Liz. Was nice.

I have a new CPU on the way... hopefully I can get it to work. I've had good luck so far.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. We're going to have a little party at the hizouse.

Saturday, December 29, 2001 12:37 a.m.
Just went to see a band that's been around for 26 years. I can't even IMAGINE that.

Well, time for bed.

Thursday, December 27, 2001 08:54 a.m.
Well, knock on wood, but I think we have a winner from the Mill Creek Goodwill. Thanks go out to Jim... he let me know there was a new monitor over there. Went over there to discover that the monitor's male DIN connector had the female DIN from the video card still attached... just not the video card. OUCH! Anyway, I plucked that off and I now have a 15" monitor that cost me 6 bucks and works much better than the old one. (IE, it doesn't glow green) We'll see if it holds up.

Anyway, off to download some software. And then I shall pick up the Liz.

Thursday, December 27, 2001 12:23 a.m.
Had a GREAT Christmas. More on that later, perhaps.

Just saw Lord of the Rings. A great movie but also a failed venture... but not an opportunity lost. The task is simply impossible. As Liz said afterwards, "Nothing beats a good book."

Monday, December 24, 2001 10:54 p.m.
Twas the night before Christmas,

And all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring,

EXCEPT FOR LO PAN!



Merry Christmas, everyone!

Monday, December 24, 2001 12:40 p.m.
Well, it's Christmas Eve. I went out to the mall early with Susie... thought I'd keep her company. We were going to go to a bunch of places, but ended up just going to Target and Borders.

Target is INSANE... I'd never been there before. It's like Walmart, except twice as large and yet impeccably organized. It was eerily empty when we got there around 8:45, and I wandered aimlessly for a while. Watched some of Cats and Dogs on a TV, poked at the Game Boy Advance, and marveled at the sheer VARIETY of it all. Talk about a one-stop Christmas shop.

I'm banning myself from Ebay for a few days. I keep losing auctions and being glad I lost because what I was bidding on turned out to be less than ideal. That's really not healthy behavior. So, back to the drawing board with the computer upgrades. My quest: attempt to upgrade the machine without having to replace the power supply. Can I do it? Will Timmy escape from the well?

Sunday, December 23, 2001 05:37 a.m.
The patriots clinch a playoff berth 3 weeks before the end of the regular season!

And, in other news, heavy snowfall reported in hell!

Went out to the mall for some last minute shopping (yeah, I know, bite me) and it wasn't that bad, actually. I didn't go in the mall proper, but the traffic thereabouts wasn't all that extreme.

Saturday, December 22, 2001 10:47 p.m.
Andrew is grumpy. Too many fools online.

His s-list for today:

1. People who post a lengthy and detailed reply to your post WITHOUT READING IT. I had this guy tell me to use an external modem instead of a winmodem. Like, the only words he saw were "external" and "winmodem". Which had NOTHING to do with my post.

2. People who subscribe to mail lists and then get pissy whenever ANYONE posts ANYTHING that involves actual REPLIES and mail TRAFFIC. What do you expect?

Bleeargh. That, and there's Xmas music on EVERY RADIO STATION. I want to punch my radio, destroying it utterly. Of course, then I'd probably be blown up by a wizened chinese man hurling explosives. That's just the way things are going.

Saturday, December 22, 2001 01:30 p.m.
I had a really great evening over at the Austin's. Liz should be heading home from her Midnight Madness shift.

Ok, my external modem is messing with me. It's been working fine now for quite a while. And I'm even in Mozilla. Somedays it seems to like working, somedays it seems to like thumbing its nose at me. I guess that's better than not working at all.

Saturday, December 22, 2001 05:00 p.m.
The Pats win! Wow!

Having a good time over at the Austin's... we just finished watching the game. Liz is between shifts on her hell day.

It's getting close to Christmas....

Friday, December 21, 2001 10:21 p.m.
Well... I'm feeling better this morning. I think. At least, I feel like going over to the Austins to watch the game. That seems like energy to me. OTOH, the Austins seemed to be oppressed by all kinds of sickness the last time I was there, so hopefully I won't catch anything. I just don't want to be sick over Xmas.

It's frantic time for all you last-minute shoppers this year. I have a few little things I want to do, still (fork-sticking notwithstanding) but I'm not sure when I'm going to get them done. Tomorrow, probably. That should be FUN.

The intrepid argonauts of Mozilla managed to hit their "ideal" release date exactly this month. I'm impressed... I'd like to think it had something to do with me asking for a build for Xmas but really I think they're just kicking ass.

Liz really got run over yesterday. I hope she has a better day today.

Friday, December 21, 2001 08:48 a.m.
Flarg!

Friday, December 21, 2001 02:27 a.m.
Hmm. I am somewhat sick. It's odd... I have fairly mild cold symptoms, and am having trouble concentrating on what I'm doing. I figure either I'm getting sick very slowly (like, over the course of 3 days) or this is a very mild cold. Hopefully the latter.

Have decided to put off computer surgery for a while. The computer seems happy enough (like I said, it's amazing what a difference the memory makes) and I'm honestly not sure what I want to do next.

Friday, December 21, 2001 12:41 a.m.
So, you want to hear about my dream last night? Ok then.

It all started with me sitting out in front of McDowell (at St. John's). I was sitting in a johnny-chair, along with Michael Jordan, Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz. I was interviewing them for some kind of Hollywood puff piece, but I was pissed off and so I was trying to push their buttons. Suddenly, Jordan became enraged and started jumping up and down on me.

The next thing I knew, I was heading over to my apartment. I was pretty steamed about this whole being jumped on thing, so I was plotting my revenge. Seth was with me, as well as this other guy who was in my class (who shall remain nameless). This other guy was annoying us by following us around and making jokes about how I got stomped by Michael Jordan. So, when we got to the apartment (which was like my apt. in Annapolis only even more dingy) I waited for a good moment, then slammed the door into his face. He kind of wobbled and ran away.

Ok, fast forward to an ice rink. I had decided that the best way to get back at Jordan was to challenge him to a boxing match (yeah, I know). So anyway, I was at this ice rink, and these two teams were playing kiddie hockey or something. One team was winning 142 to 1. A few rows behind me, my high school friend Liam was taunting me about Michael Jordan kicking my ass. I gave him the finger. Then I noticed Susie coming into the rink area, so I skated onto the ice to try to flag her down. Everybody got really mad at me because I was interfering with the Zamboni, which was actually a gang of kids skating around on brushes.

And, then I woke up.

Wednesday, December 19, 2001 10:04 p.m.
Welllll. I think you can stick a fork in me, my Christmas shopping is done. I probably got too much stuff and spent too much this year. But I've always sucked at this whole gift giving thing. I think people who are good at it are truly amazing.

Wow, you know, having 256 megs of RAM is kind of nice. I was fooling around in Enlightenment and I got my icon guy the way I wanted him, so I started running programs, then minimizing them. After a while, I realized that my computer was like, "Go on, I can TAKE IT!" So I loaded a couple more, then played a couple rounds of Maelstrom. No problem. This compared to before, which was more like "please hammer don't hurt 'em!".

Well, that and GIMP is a LOT happier now. Which is a good thing.

We're supposed to get mo' snow tomorrow night. Goody goody!

Tuesday, December 18, 2001 10:09 p.m.
Listening to one of my MDs... playing das game. Quiet evening. Liz seems to be doing all right. She's zoning out in the living room.

Tuesday, December 18, 2001 07:51 p.m.
Had a slow day today. Liz is sick and not up to much. I'm been fiddling with my computer. Despite some really great help from the seller (if you're reading this, thanks!) I am still stumped on the ISA modem issue. Haven't given up, though, and it's only a minor annoyance right now, as I can use Liz's computer to check email, etc.

That, and I'm looking at ways to perform upgrades cheaply. I need: a K6-2 or 3 CPU @ 400-500mhz (cheap on ebay and elsewhere), a Matrox G200/400/450 (also cheap on ebay) and a new HD. My only concern right now is cooling the CPU.. I'm not sure my old fan will cut it.

It continued to snow into the afternoon today... nice big flakes, blowing in several directions. Walking down the block to Colucci's became quite an adventure. Should be clear tomorrow, which is good.. I REALLY need to get some pre-Xmas things done. Hopefully Liz will be feeling better, too.

Suz will be home to watch the Pats get crushed by Miami...

I won't be seeing LOTR tomorrow. I'm trying to be patient, but I don't think I'll last past Friday, really.

Monday, December 17, 2001 11:54 p.m.
Ugh. I'd forgotten how horrid the modem was. It's physically painful to use. I can't believe I spent money on that hunch of crap. Looks like I'll have to pursue other options. I REALLY don't want to buy another modem... perhaps I can twist someone's arm with an old machine. Or just do some looking around...

OTOH, I think the GPF issue is a power management issue (I should have turned APM off anyway). I'll check that soon.

Tuesday, December 18, 2001 11:55 a.m.
IT LIVES... AGAIN!

So I got my new motherboard today. Opened up the computer on the kitchen table and performed surgery. Man, my fingers are too big. Anyway, things seem to be running as well as can be expected right now. Remaining issue- the internal modem doesn't work, so I'm stuck using my serial-port external. This wouldn't be a problem except that (bizarrely) this modem and Mozilla just do not like one another. If I start Mozilla and start browsing, it quickly loses its whatever and I have to reconnect. I don't know what in God's name that's all about, but it's annoying. Anyway, I suppose Netscape and Links will have to do for the moment.

But hey, OTOH I'm just damn pleased everything went so smoothly. (crossing fingers, knocking on wood) No major problems besides the modem issue. Two strange issues... the display locks up for a very brief moment when starting or restarting X-windows. That didn't happen before. That and I get a GPF AFTER system halt when shutting down. The hell?

Hopefully those are just bizarre software issues. The memory and video card and CPU are working fine, and the drives as well.

Next? Possibly CPU. Possibly HD. I think those are the main bottlenecks right now. I'm a little worried about heat and power issues... not quite sure how to figure out the amount of punishment my system can take.

Got gifts from the folks today. My parents are lovely. Both sets!

Liz is getting sick, I fear. Hopefully it's just a cold and not the dreaded flu.

Monday, December 17, 2001 02:20 p.m.
Well, I was going to walk downtown today. So I got outside and realized how cold it was, and then went back in to get more layers.

And then the snow began to come down, and it's still coming down! Yay, snow!

So, no walk for me.

Monday, December 17, 2001 12:28 p.m.
Well, it's getting close to Christmas, and everyone is getting a little CRAAAZY. Liz is in the maelstrom of retail as we speak... thinking about her right now. Hopefully she's not having a LOOOONG day. Two days off for her next, but I think we're going to have to scurry around with Xmas shopping and all. Hopefully she can get a little R&R in too.

I ran into this service recently, and it seems a good solution for spam problems.

Oh, I thought of something else I'd like for Christmas: Mozilla 0.7! I imagine there'll be a new milestone somewhere around Chirstmas. At least, that's what the prediction is.

And now my download is done. Adios!

Monday, December 17, 2001 09:57 a.m.
Christmas archive!

Andrew will have to Move To Greenland.