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Badass

  • Jun. 11th, 2009 at 7:43 PM
animated black mage
This week's badass of the week is a canadian. (yes, there were a few)

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/albertjohnson.html

Thanks to [info]fearsclave  for the link.

One thing about Johnson's story that isn't mention there, is that there was another badass involved in searching for him. A guy by the name of Wilfrid "Wop" May, who was a total aviation badass.



Eddings.

  • Jun. 3rd, 2009 at 10:21 PM
animated black mage
Sad to hear about David Edding's passing. He and his wife may have written the same series 4 or 5 times, but I still read them all. A guilty pleasure I suppose, but still fun.

Silk remains one of my favourite fictional characters.

Plan today

  • May. 9th, 2009 at 10:57 AM
animated black mage
The plan today...

-Apply new screen protector thingie to GPS - Done.

-Go to das farmers market. Dont really /need/ anything there, but might as well go anyway.

-Put new geocaching decal on Comrade Jeep.

-Chill out, maybe play some TF2. Been getting back into that. 

-Go to Chimera tonight. (I so rarely get to go to the thursday local stompy, that I'm gonna make damn sure to make the saturday ones when they come up)

Hrm. I think that's enough for a Saturday.

Dreamwidth

  • May. 2nd, 2009 at 8:26 AM
animated black mage
Signed up for dreamwidth. No idea if its going to be used or not, but I do try to eventually get around to most new ideas.

User name there is the same as my livejournal username.

Time / Saturday / Camping / Happy

  • May. 1st, 2009 at 8:03 AM
animated black mage

[info]fearsclave , may his compound be ever welcoming to the unturned once the zombies rise, hath posted an interest timepiece link here. I think I want all of them.

(Note to [info]sagaiciouslu, fearsclave is the one I mentioned I think may be worth your time and pixels in reading.)

---

Juli's working at MAC tomorrow, potentially... so I'm trying to figure out what to do with my day on saturday. I've got 2 birthdayish events to attend in the evening, but my day is free. I may go geocaching (let me know if you want to tag along). I may go buy a new fly reel. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE STAGGERING....

...ok, for a very limited value of "staggering".

---

Mainly, I'm just restless, and want to go camping and fishing. While fishing's possible in may in a limited matter, camping isn't until June. (you can't get Juli in a tent before June. July is better. I can't say I blame her.)

I am thinking of doing one or two major camping trips this summer... major in the "come one, come all" kinda way, not major in distance or time involved. Just a weekend or two somewhere this summer. We've got two vehicles now, so its possible to move 4-6 people and a helluva lot of gear.  

---

Happy birthday to Hallewyn. (she turns 4 today. Wow. Time flies.)

Happy International Workers' Day. I may not always agree with the labour/union movement, but I know we'd all be a helluva lot worse off without it.

A pleasant Beltane to those of you who celebrate it.

Writer's Block: LiveJournal Book Club

  • Apr. 25th, 2009 at 8:04 AM
animated black mage

Out of all of your favorite books, pick just one you'd recommend everyone read. As a bonus: why did you pick that one?


View other answers



Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

Its one of the few books that doesn't have the name "Adams" on the front cover that has made me laugh out loud. Gaiman's good on his own. Pratchett's good on his own. Together, they crafted a book greater than the sum of its authors.

Why'd I pick that one? I've had a loaner copy of it to give to random people for a few years now.

Dystopia

  • Apr. 19th, 2009 at 1:16 PM
animated black mage
I'm broadcasting until 4pm on The Cape Radio! http://www.thecaperadio.com

The usual industrial/ebm/electro/synthy stuff.

North Korea Satellite

  • Apr. 5th, 2009 at 10:13 PM
animated black mage
http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKSEO88417

Now this makes things interesting. Someone with the right equipment has all they need to confirm whether North Korea actually put up a satellite or not. This whole sat-launch/missile-test thing has really piqued my interest. So many interesting factors in play.

I also note that no one tried to shoot it down, or at least, no one is claiming an attempt was made. I figured that would be the case. Ballistic Missile Interception still is in its childhood. Its not a 100% guarantee. And why expose any potential weaknesses in your system by making an attempt to shoot it down, and failing?

Earth Hour

  • Mar. 26th, 2009 at 3:20 PM
animated black mage
There's a lot of talk about the upcoming Earth Hour.

Frankly, I think its bullshit.

Don't get me wrong, power consumption awareness is a good thing. I just don't think turning your lights off for an hour teaches any lasting lessons.

As a reminder of "WOW am I ever thankful for electricity", it could work.

I have no intentions of turning my lights off or anything like that. I will do my usual thing during that hour.

This is not to say I'm not doing my part mind you. I just bought a Kill-a-watt meter. I want to get some idea of what the devices in my home are /really/ drawing, and maybe make some smarter choices about when my computers and other devices are on/off, etc.

Jeep Report

  • Mar. 22nd, 2009 at 10:54 AM
animated black mage
A fair bit of snow.... and the Jeep handled it exceedingly well. I didn't even have to shift into 4WD.

Not bad for a rear-wheel drive setup with no weight in the back. That traction control system is nice.

OID has been picked up from the airport. Looks like she had a good time in Hamilton.

Writer's Block: What Next?

  • Mar. 19th, 2009 at 4:15 PM
animated black mage

What do you think happens to us when we die?


View other answers



I've got no idea, really. I don't think anyone else knows either. There's several possibilities, but unfortunately anyone who can speak for the validity of such concepts, are dead!

I don't necessarily believe in any god personally. Gods may or may not exist. I've got no ability to tell. If there may or may not be gods, there may or may not be an afterlife.

Personally, I do hope there is an afterlife. I hope we get to meet some of the people we knew, maybe chat with some of the people we didn't know. The chance to look in and see how the living are doing now and then may be nice.

I hope I get my own little section of afterlife to create and shape as I choose, maybe to share with a few others who wander past to visit.

There's just as good a chance, mind you, that the lights fade and that's it. That's all she wrote. Its sad from my perspective now amongst the living, but once it happens, I won't care.

Manga

  • Mar. 19th, 2009 at 3:45 PM
animated black mage
I see Book Closeouts is having quite the sale on Manga.

http://www.bookcloseouts.com/default.asp?N=3291&promo=Manga+And+Anime+Sale&rid=manga

They're a US site, but I've ordered from them before with no problems.

Yoinked from gilmoure

  • Mar. 7th, 2009 at 11:25 AM
animated black mage


I've like most Pixar movies, but this is a concept near and dear to me.

Writer's Block: Daily Grind

  • Feb. 24th, 2009 at 2:23 PM
animated black mage

Describe your morning routine.

Submitted By [info]its_miley


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Far too detailed:

Step 1:

Get a kiss from OID as she leaves at oh-stupid-thirty hours in the morning.

Step 2:

Go back to sleep.

Step 3:

Blackberry auto-on at 0730.

Step 4:

Blackberry promptly explodes with ZOMG EMAILS AND VOICEMAIL at 0731.

Step 5:

Grumble and try to ignore whining from blackberry.

Step 6:

Get fed up with blackberry, get up, shamble incoherently into the kitchen without tripping over cats.

Step 7:

Put on kettle. Make tea. Realize once again, just like I do every morning, that waking up /hurts/

Step 8:

Turn on computer. Log in to work. Start dealing with conference calls before my denmark crew falls asleep for the night. Sip tea.

Step 9:

Maybe grab second cup of tea. Shower. Find something that doesn't resemble pajamas, for work. Get dressed, leave apt, stagger over snowy parking lot, brush truck off... wait for truck to warm up a bit, and drive to work.

Step 10:

Arrive at work, answer more ZOMG emails. Maybe finally achieve cohesive thought.

Linux geek "durrrr" moment

  • Feb. 24th, 2009 at 1:19 PM
animated black mage
Did you know that if you use LVM for your disks, that it can't use write-caching?

Well I sure as hell didn't.

I was wondering why my I/O was so horribly slow for that oracle DB. *YOINKS LVM out*

*writes up on the blackboard 200 times* "I will not use LVM for volumes in a secure and redundant environment. The minimal increase in ease-of-use is not worth the performance hit."

Tags:

Before I skip to banff...

  • Feb. 21st, 2009 at 2:56 PM
animated black mage
[info]pyrotech_c3h8 has submitted a video to a contest... about Peanut Butter and Jelly.

Its not your standard fanvid submission for PB&J. Oh no. This one, in his particular and notable style, involves mutants, hearses, and car chases. Click here to check it out. Frankly, I hope he gets a lot of people rating it highly. Just to picture the Welch's execs having to face the very real possibility that they have to award a prize to a tall bastard in a multi-hued mohawk who drives a hearse.

A productive saturday

  • Feb. 21st, 2009 at 1:49 PM
animated black mage
Well, its going to be a busy and productive saturday. In some ways it has been already. As its the weekend closest to the Day of First Tako (this will be the 5th anniversary for Juli and I), we're heading out to banff for a bit of relaxation later. We've got reservations at Ticino's, and will spend a bit of time at das hotsprings. We were thinking about doing an overnight out there, but we're both so burnt out that we wanted to avoid the extra stress.

Got the car taken in today for service, and went for breakfast at The Coup on 17th. Pretty damn tasty place, for vegetarian grub. I think Juli's found a new favourite breakfast place. I'll admit, the green olive/onion/feta frittata I had... quite tasty. I might do a review of that and Ticino's up for Ultimate Foodie.

After that, waiting for the car to be done, we went past megatunes... and decided to walk in, on a whim. Lo and behold they actually have a gothic/industrial section. A small one, but they have it. I picked up the latest System Syn cd.... and whilst glancing on the shelf, I saw they had Pigface's Glitch/Son of a Glitch.... on dvd.... on sale. I didn't even realize it was /out/ on DVD.

Can you say YOIIIIIIIINK!? I knew you could. I figure if they're actually going to take the effort to actually separate the industrial stuff out, least I can do is support that.

Tags:

X-edge

  • Feb. 18th, 2009 at 11:39 AM
animated black mage
I was trolling through some upcoming game releases, and came across something called "X-Edge". Grid style RPG for PS3, coming to the US...yada yada yada...

Playable Characters: Etona/Etna from Disgaea... along with a Prinny. Nice to see a little coverage outside the Disgaea universe (I'm giving D3 another shot. I can wrap my head around this. I know I can)

A few from the Atelier series (which I admit I know nothing about)

Oh, and Morrigan, Felicia, Lilith, and Dimitri from Darkstalkers.

*needle-skipping-on-record-sound*

Wait...what?






Its got that retro look to it, which I don't mind.

And it gets released in North America in late march.

If a game like that can get released here... is it still hoping against hope to have a next-gen Super Robot Wars ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Robot_Wars ) game in NA eventually?

That's probably getting my hopes up.

Pinzgauer

  • Feb. 17th, 2009 at 9:02 AM
animated black mage
Picked this idea up from [info]fearsclave. As some of you may know, I've got a love of highly functional ugly vehicles.

And this is ugly as sin.

http://www.outbackpinzgauers.com/

4x4 or 6x6 models, significant off-road capability... and an air-cooled inline 4 cyl that doesn't need much maintenance.

Yeah, for 30 grand, there's a number of 4x4 options out there... but that's just damn cool.

Free to good home

  • Feb. 12th, 2009 at 6:58 PM
animated black mage
1 D-link DWA-642 PCMCIA wireless adapter for a notebook. (802.11N/G/B)

I don't need it anymore. Tested as working before I junked my old laptop, but given as-is. If someone from outside calgary wants it, we can talk shipping.