Techie Stuff

Well, it seems I was able to fix my computer problems. My desktop is now working. In fact, it has been on without freezing for over 24 hours. The CD/DVD-ROM drive is functioning. IIS (the Microsoft web server) is running without any problems, even with mysql, Frontpage Extensions (though they appear to be worthless—I’ll probably remove them) and PHP. Now I just need to decide what I want to do with the machine.

Don’t tell Comcast. I think they have rules about running servers on their network.

Tempus Fugit

Tempus quickly fugit, yet things seem to take so long. Tempus fugit except when you’re waiting. I’ll be thirty in four years. It sounds so far away, but four years from now four years ago will be just like yesterday. I know what I want now, for the most part (but the specifics remain undefined). How do I get there?

Tempus is running out.

You may find that you are extremely indecisive today, dear Pisces, and can’t seem to find solutions that you can live with. Realize that you don’t need to finalize anything right now. In fact, use this day to simply lay low and gather data. People may seem insensitive and erratic. Don’t sweat it. You have a great deal of warmth and passion to share with others. You may find that a strong, unpredictable force is affecting your emotions.

Echo… Echo… Echo…

This place really empties out quicky on Fridays. Yet I am still here. I’m here not because I have massive amounts of work to get done before I leave for the weekend, but because I just don’t want to go. The regular work week here contains 37.5 hours instead of the usual 40, which I guess is just another justification for lower salaries. In any case, today has just been an empty day.

Beware: Meta Blog Entry

Mat has an interesting point here: Thanks to bloggers, Star Wars Episode II will have more reviews written about it than any movie that has come before it. If we’re talking about only reviews written by Bloggers, then the point is definitely valid. While Episode II certainly has had a great acceleration of reviews (so many in so short a time), does it really match the amount of reviews that have been made of movies that have been around for decades? Although Star Wars defined the term blockbuster, a movie such as All About Eve has been around for 50 years and it’s probably safe to say it’s been seen and reviewed more than a movie that came out yesterday.

Two Truths And A Lie

Here I am, following the crowd again. What follows below are two truths and one lie. See if you can identify.

1. My first real kiss was with Athena.
2. I have my wisdom teeth stored in a box.
3. I started cracking my knuckles when I was ten.

Well it should be pretty easy for people who know me, but there you go.

Nothing But Star Wars

Just like millions of other people, I saw Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones last night (or early this morning). And now I’m at work but a little sleepy. Anyway, the movie was great. Sure, there were little annoyances like Natalie Portman’s (lack of) acting skills and the general flat dialogue throughout, but on the whole, it was most satisfying.

Somebody, before seeing the movie, had posted a list of things Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Jedi Master Mace Windu, might say in the movie, true to the actor’s characters in other films. One of the funniest parts for me was one scene where Windu shows up and gives a typical Jackson line. I smiled.

Now I’m looking forward to Episode III… and I hate waiting. Maybe if we’re lucky George Lucas will decide to finish the saga with the concluding trilogy.

We’re A Happy (Royal) Family

This is positively fascinating. According to geneology research and mathematics, the common ancestor of the entire world alive today lived not as long ago as one would think. Also, all people with European ancestors living today are probably decendants of royalty.

The article continues, saying that in one thousand years from now, people alive today will be ancestors either of no one or of the entire human race. “You can ask whether everyone in the Western world is descended from Charlemagne, and the answer is yes, we’re all descended from Charlemagne. But can you prove it? That’s the game of genealogy.”

I’m not saying that I’m believing everything the article says, but it is very interesting, and I’d like to read into it further. My geneology has been traced only as far back as the seventeenth century through my father and his Russian ancestors on his mother’s side.

Now For Something Sort Of Different

As a break from my usual posting nonsense, here is some different nonsense.

Visitors here often have strange ways of discovering this website. Through the most advanced technology available today, we are now able to look inside their minds in order to discover exactly what they were hoping to find as they clicked on a link pointing here. This is what we discovered:

Though technically redundant, there might be one or two Haikus of Nature Scenes buried in my archives (which are on the right-hand side of the page). If you’re looking for laser tag places in Lawrenceville, NJ you should go to Laser Park. Many a good day was spent there. Well, just two. I might know a thing or two about Jamie Sale going on vacation but I’m certainly not going to tell you. By far, visitors searching for Simpson porn have outnumbered all other readers. Sometimes they’re searching for Lisa Simpson Porn which is just downright scary. And for the last time, that was not a picture of me participating in Thong Thursday at [insert the name of random bar here].

The Truth Revealed

It may have been when I was in college, or possibly not too much time after I graduated. My father had been taking care of my kitty, Ace, since my brother and I were no longer at home and my mother moved to California. You see, my father isn’t exactly fond of cats, or any pet for that matter. Well, Frodo, the other cat, had died a few years prior due to kitty cancer. It was all very sad.

One day, my father emailed me to tell me that Ace, depressed after Frodo’s untimely death years hence, had run away. He told my brother and I that he looked for him every night for several days, and just as myseriously he returned about a week later. Okay, I thought. Cats generally know how to find their way home.

A few weeks later, Ace ran away again. While looking for him, my dad heard a weak meow coming from the sewers. He determined that the cat was stuck underground.

My father’s pretty resourceful, and his training and experience as an environmental engineer led him to the conclusion that if he went several hundred yards away, to the point where the sewer opens up, he would be able to call Ace, and possibly the cat would move towards the familiar voice.

Well, that was the plan, but suffice it to say it didn’t work despite numerous attempts. Ace was never to be seen or heard again.

Well, that was the story. A few months ago I was eating dinner with my father, his girlfriend and her two kids. Somehow we got on the subject of pets—probably due to the hatred between my father and his girlfriend’s dog—and she (the girlfriend, not the dog) referred to the fact that my father, no friend of pets, put Ace to sleep and misled my brother and me. She must have been under the impression that by now, he would have fessed up to it, but up until that point, it was still my belief that the story my father told was true. I guess it doesn’t surprise me thinking about the reality of it years later.