| Can anyone recommend... |
[Mar. 18th, 2010|02:17 pm] |
...a hard drive recovery service? I've got a drive I haven't backed up recently that won't spin up.
Personal experience with the outfit preferred. Gotchas and caveats and anti-recommendations appreciated as well.
Also, anybody know what the going rate is? (ETA: The $800 mentioned in the comment below is way more than the data is worth. I might stretch as far as $100 to get my stuff back, otherwise, I'm willing to eat the data loss. If the data were worth $800 to me, I'd have either backed it up or put it on the RAID pair in the first place. :) )
Fsilly thing died mere weeks before I was going to start building the replacement system, which would have been RAID all around (instead of just on the system drive), and only a few months before the server room and SAN are going to go online. |
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| Mariners commercials are out |
[Mar. 16th, 2010|09:26 am] |
(Updated with a better link, this one ends with an outtake reel.)
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?topic_id=8716162&c_id=sea
The Cliff Lee and Felix spot is OK, I guess. Maybe my problem with it is that I fall into the class of people being discussed, so I'm unable to see why anyone would think it strange in the first place.
Who doesn't like Franklin Gutierrez? Zduriencik's comment right at the end made me laugh.
The Junior-Ichiro commercial is probably the best one (as you'd expect), but it doesn't get you there until Ichiro's line at the end: "Of course you did."
The bullpen commercial--that's just wrong. I am right there with John Wetteland on this one.
Nice to see them continue the Rowland-Smith vs. the marketing team theme; this year's commercial takes one of last year's weakest offerings and manages to build on it. "Ever see what I did for Bartolo Colon?" I'm actually looking forward to seeing where this goes over the next few years.
All in all, a decent batch. Couple of laugh-out-loud moments, and only one that fell completely flat for me. |
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| Didn't get a photo but... |
[Mar. 14th, 2010|05:44 pm] |
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...driving past the road to the property on Friday, I saw a truckload of roof trusses disappearing up the hill. |
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| Well, hell. |
[Mar. 3rd, 2010|07:55 am] |
Turns out I counted wrong. Yesterday was only 4,995.
Showing my work this time:
Married June 28, 1996.
13 years x 365 days: 4745
+3 days for leap years ('00, '04, '08): 4748
+8 months x 30 days (to get to Feb 28): 4988
+5 days (for July, Aug, Oct, Dec, and Jan which each have 31 days): 4993
+2 more days to get to yesterday: 4995.
So today is 4996; Sunday will be 5K. Not sure how the extra five days slipped into my calculations.
On the bright side, I can take this opportunity to point out that it's not just 4996 days of marriage--it's 4996 days in a row! :) |
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| The Peter Principle |
[Mar. 1st, 2010|09:28 am] |
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Man, I hope this doesn't turn out to be an example. Have to keep reminding myself, being outside my comfort zone is good for me. Never been promoted before when the driving force was organizational need rather than personal accomplishment. |
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| Another difficulty... |
[Feb. 23rd, 2010|12:46 pm] |
...is that the house plans have a lot of 45- and 120-degree angles to them, and LEGO bricks are much like an Etch-a-Sketch in this regard, as Dave Barry once noted: "perfect verticals...perfect horizontals...really spastic diagonals".
I may have to play this weekend with hinges and overlapping tiles. Problem is, I don't have any spare hinges; I wonder if the boy does? |
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| Decisions... |
[Feb. 22nd, 2010|11:09 am] |
...I am half-seriously considering translating our house plans into a LEGO model. Ideally, the walls of the model would be proportional to the floor plan in the same ratio as in the actual house. This would mean, for a four-inch interior wall, the minimum scale would be three LEGO studs to the foot. (LEGO, obviously, does not make bricks narrower than one stud that could be used to construct a load-bearing wall.)
LEGO's stud pitch (the distance from center-to-center between studs) is nominally 8mm, or about three to the inch. This means my model LEGO house would be one inch for each foot of the actual house.
In other words, the three-studs-per-foot model house would end up requiring a space that was ~108" x 60", or nine by five feet. (The actual house is not a hundred feet by sixty feet; it's just that the attached garage is attached at a 120-degree angle, so the rectangle defined by the outer edges of the plan is much bigger than the footprint of the house.)
My next choice was "minifig scale", or a model that would be appropriately sized for the little LEGO people. This scale is roughly 1 stud per foot, which reduces the footprint to ~3'x2', which is still a model on the order of the biggest LEGO kits I've ever built. Given that these mass-produced and optimized for price kits have cost between three and five hundred dollars, I'm guessing that *my* one-off kit, with lots of specialized pieces, is likely to run me three times that if I'm lucky.
And as cool as having a LEGO model of my actual house would be, I'm not sure I can convince the Mistress of the Budget that it's a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars cool. I'm not sure I believe it enough myself to even try. |
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| THIS IS A REAL PRODUCT. YOU CAN BUY IT. |
[Feb. 18th, 2010|05:11 pm] |
"Blood Energy Potion 100 mL 3 pack"
Click the pic if you don't believe me.
I can see the advertising now:
"Hey, kids! Have you ever been standing over a potential thrall while she sleeps unaware of your sparkling presence, and been overcome by hunger?
Well, no longer do you have to decide between slaking your unholy thirst and preserving the secrecy of your existence! Just keep one of these handy, and when those urges strike, open the plastic bag instead of the jugular!"
I am glad there are no sporks in the office*, or there would be one mercifully stabbed into my brain right now.
*I checked. Twice. |
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| Photo Workshop |
[Feb. 17th, 2010|02:44 pm] |
Once a year, I attend a photo workshop with a professional photographer (or two) in one of the world's most photogenic places. I've done the San Juan range of the Rockies, Vermont in the fall, Denali National Park in Alaska, and lots of other places. I've never had a bad time, and I've always learned something that made me a better photographer.
This year, I've decided to stick close enough to home that I don't have to get on a plane. I'm going to Mt. Rainier for the summer wildflower bloom. It would be cool if some of y'all could join me.
The workshop leader is Rod Barbee; I've sung Rod's praises plenty of times before, so I'll just say here that I'd rather take one of Rod's workshops than anybody else out there (though there are some other folks I've gone with who are nearly as awesome, and many of those folks are also instructors with PAW).
What's nifty this year is that PAW is offering a $100 coupon for anyone who signs up and puts down a deposit on this workshop before June 1. The coupon code is PAWEMAIL
If you decide not to join me at Mt. Rainier, the coupon is good for any PAW workshop this year, provided your deposit is down by June 1. If you elect a more expensive workshop, you can save even more:
* $100 off workshops under $1000
* $200 off domestic (U.S.) workshops over $1000
* $250 off international trips
(They don't have any workshops at exactly the $1000 level, so their discontinuity there is immaterial.)
ETA: And I am always available to talk photography if y'all want. But you know that, right? |
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| L'Academie Francaise |
[Feb. 16th, 2010|05:20 pm] |
(From http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125544523318682497.html ):
Though most French people say "le week-end" and "un surfer," the correct translations of the terms are "fin de semaine" ("end of the week") and "aquaplanchiste" ("water boarder").
Man, you have to wonder what the "official" French term for "waterboarder" is, then. Or if they just think the interrogators at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo were taking their prisoners out surfing. Puts a whole new spin on the anti-American protests, doesn't it? |
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| (Tengen Toppa) Gurren Lagann |
[Feb. 16th, 2010|11:13 am] |
In the far future, mankind lives underground, in isolated enclaves. A very few people still whisper legends of a "surface" world, one with no ceiling, where life is unconstrained and free, but these people are mocked by the rest of their community.
Simon the Digger is the best driller of Giha village, even though he is only fourteen years old. He is stolid, hard-working, and quiet. His parents died years ago when an earthquake collapsed the ceiling on top of them. Simon would be content to live his life out, drilling new passages for the expansion of his underground town, but his best friend has different plans.
Kamina is the leader of Giha village's delinquents. Kamina seems to remember visiting the surface with his father when he was very young. Kamina returned to the village because he was too young for the challenges of the surface, but his father continued on. Kamina's driving passion is to return to the surface and show his father that he's now man enough for the wide world, but the vast majority of villagers do not believe the surface even exists.
One day while digging, Simon finds a small drill bit buried in the ground. Soon afterward, he uncovers a huge metal face. As he is sharing his findings with Kamina, the mythical surface finally and dramatically comes to Giha village, in the forms of a giant mecha and a beautiful girl, and Kamina embarks upon his quest to find his father, with Simon in tow...
( Cut for length and (minimal) potential spoilers... )
I rented Gurren Lagann from Netflix, but it looks like all 27 episodes are up on hulu: http://www.hulu.com/gurren-lagann |
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| House update |
[Feb. 15th, 2010|10:47 am] |
Sacred koi*, we have a second floor! Well, we have the joists installed, on which the floor will be mounted:
Next, a couple of shots showing the basement, pretty much fully framed in:
After all the time it took to get the foundation laid (crappy weather is crappy for pouring and setting concrete), it's pleasantly surprising (and, I must admit, more than a little thrilling) to see the framing going as quickly as this. It's starting to look like an actual house. (At least, it's starting to look like it's going to look like an actual house sometime in the not-so-distant future.)
Damn, that means I'm going to have to clean and pack the workshop. Not good.
As always, photo credits to M.'s dad.
*By which I of course mean "holy carp!" |
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| The Valentine's Day agreement |
[Feb. 11th, 2010|10:41 am] |
So I was out shooting pool with a couple of buddies Tuesday night, and one of them (we'll call him "Jeff") asked me, "So, are you buying M.* a big bunch of flowers for Valentine's Day?"
I said, "No."
"Chocolates?"
"No."
"A card?"
"No."
He looked bemused by this, and thought for a second before asking a more personal question, to which I replied, "It'll be Sunday, so maybe" and pointed out the quelling presence of the seven-year-old.
It was clear that largely or entirely ignoring The Big Day O' LUV was a novel concept to "Jeff". :)
But the deal I have with M. is that I do not buy her things (flowers, candy, jewelry**) because the calendar says I ought to. In return, I *do* buy her things when the thought occurs to me. Everybody (who counts) wins in this scenario: I don't end up in the doghouse because I got too busy to shop right before a holiday, or because I flat forgot about it; M. gets things at random times throughout the year so it's always a pleasant surprise; and when I *do* buy her something, she always knows that I did it because I wanted to, not because I feel like I'm obligated or because Hallmark and/or FTD need a boost to their bottom line in an otherwise slow season. Also, I rarely pay a demand-driven markup, so I usually get more flowers for the money, not that this is a huge concern.
I can't take credit for the deal; it's been my parents' arrangement for as long as I can remember.
I hear you asking, "Did he have a point in all this?" to which I reply, this is my space; I don't need to have a point.
*Obviously, he knows my wife's name and used it; it is only online that I slightly obscure her identity. It's not like it's difficult to track it down if you really want to. |
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| DM tip #37 |
[Feb. 10th, 2010|10:59 am] |
1) Find the weakest, most useless feat* that the PC will qualify for on their next level-up.
2) Insert the situation for which that feat was designed into your adventure. Three times, if possible. The situation should be extremely expensive in one or more of hit points, magic, or gold to overcome without the feat, nearly painless with it. Level or ability drain would be ideal.
3) At time of level-up, point out the existence of the feat that would have made the prior challenges easy.
4) If the player does not take the feat, repeat steps 1-3 until they do.
5) Never put the PCs into a situation requiring that feat, or any situation even vaguely reminiscent of same, ever again.
*Obviously, if your game does not have "feats", substitute any player-option character attribute that does not become available until the next time the player has an opportunity to select attributes.
ETA: And if your game doesn't have level-ups, it probably doesn't have dice either, and why am I even talking to you? |
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| Bouncing off the walls... |
[Feb. 2nd, 2010|12:43 pm] |
Please don't, actually. They're not very sturdy yet. But they're there.
 
Some of them, anyhow. That's the garage.
Thanks again to M.'s dad for the pics. Without him, nobody'd ever go up there and check on those guys, between my work schedule and M.'s need to ferry the boy around everywhere that a busy seven-year-old needs to go. |
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