It looks like my desktop computer finally died, after a year and eight months of getting a "Hard drive failure imminent" message every time I booted up. It's cool. Most of the music is on the non-failed drive, even though I can't boot from it. I've pretty much squeezed out my technology budget on my new laptop and steno machine, so I probably won't be buying a new desktop any time soon, but I'll be fine without it for a while. I've been waiting for this to happen, so I'm not too broken up about it.
In other news:
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07:20:38 PM,Saturday 11 October 2008
At first I read that as [Obama's Poll Lead] [Grows Less Than] [A Month Before Vote] rather than [Obama's Poll Lead Grows] [Less Than a Month Before Vote]. That's probably because K. once told me about someone she knew who used to say, "That makes me feel less than!" (it's filed in my brain along with "Non-Violent Communication Facilitated Skillshares", a phrase that invariably makes me want to punch things.) Obviously "Grows less than" is nonstandard, but what about "grows less"? Is it an oxymoron or an acceptable construction?
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(2)
12:12:48 PM,Wednesday 8 October 2008
Apparently I've only read 200 books in the last two years. The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be.
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11:54:27 PM,Tuesday 7 October 2008
Neil's blog is back! Yaaaaay!!!
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(8)
11:37:27 PM,Monday 6 October 2008
stressstressstressstressstressstress.
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01:02:23 PM,Monday 6 October 2008
Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase.
Yeah, feeling better about not having been able to fingerspell that one during the course of the lecture today. Fortunately "hyper xanthine guanine (inaudible)" was enough for me to be able to look up the proper spelling after the fact. Lordy.
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(5)
02:24:12 AM,Saturday 4 October 2008
It was infinitely late at night.
The stars are still out there
but they're all out of light.
Don't worry about me.
I'll be all right.
It's just infinitely late at night.
It's still getting later
and later and later.
I feel like I'm in a falling elevator..._
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02:02:47 AM,Saturday 4 October 2008
(K., singing idly to herself as she edits her pictures)
"If it wasnae for the weavers, wha' would we do?
We wouldnae know nor neither kung fu.
We would be beaten then all to black and blue,
if it wasnae for the wark o' the weavers."
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11:52:43 PM,Tuesday 30 September 2008
So as soon as I pay off my new steno machine (I ordered it about three weeks ago, but it hasn't arrived yet.) I plan to buy a new laptop, since my dear old IBM Thinkpad T30 is slowing down quite a bit, its serial port and one of its two USB ports are shot, and its screen is permanently scarred by its own keyboard. The new Gemini is USB native. No more serial to USB converter! Oh, glee. Also, Bluetooth. And no more pernicious stacking errors. Cannot freaking wait. But anyway, I think a new laptop is in order. This one has really been a gem, so I figure I'll stick with a Thinkpad, even though it's been transfered over to Lenovo. So yesterday I went down to J&R Music World to buy another serial to USB converter to use at MoMA tomorrow, and while I was there I perused the laptop selection. Man, I love that store. So I found a tasty little number for $899 with native Bluetooth and wireless, brand new with XP Pro. Next to it I noticed one at almost three times the price and half the processor speed. Sure, it's two pounds lighter, but the main difference is that it has a 64 GB solid state drive, compared to the 250 GB magnetic hard drive on the other one.
I understand the virtues of solid state: it boots up quickly and it's very durable. But it's so freaking expensive. If quick boot time is a priority, why not have, say, a 4 GB solid state drive to put your OS and any extremely vital files on, and then put in a moderate-sized magnetic drive alongside it to keep all the rest of your data? Is there something I'm missing? When I think about a worst case scenario, I don't worry about losing the entire contents of my hard drive. Most of it is replaceable. What isn't, I've generally backed up. But even if I haven't, if you discount my music collection (55 GB), which is held on multiple drives both for practical reasons and for peace of mind, I'd only mourn at most 1 to 2 gigs out of 130 if the whole thing went kaboom. Is this unusual?
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(10)
09:07:47 PM,Tuesday 30 September 2008
K. is voting no. I am voting yes. Break the tie!
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(9)
08:11:31 PM,Tuesday 30 September 2008
RIP Muxtape.
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(2)
06:15:46 PM,Thursday 25 September 2008
"Seeing elevated sugars" came out "Siegel serrated sugars". Oy.
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01:06:41 AM,Thursday 25 September 2008
My favorite picture of Domino and me together. Photo by K.
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12:38:12 PM,Wednesday 24 September 2008
Domino, one of K.'s cats, was put to sleep today. She was 18, she didn't seem to be suffering (it was sudden total renal failure; three days ago she stopped eating, but before that she seemed as spry as ever), and she died purring in the lap of K.'s mom, her favorite human on earth. K.'s dad was there too. K. and I will be going over to her place tonight to hug her mom and scruffle Domino's brother Willow. She was a beautiful, sweet little beast, and I'm so glad I knew her these last four years.
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(5)
06:03:25 PM,Monday 22 September 2008
Japes for Owre Tymes combines the Middle English delights of Chaucer Hath a Blog with the inanity of syndicated comics, to brilliant effect.
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(1)
09:16:10 AM,Monday 22 September 2008
You know what's kind of a tricky phrase to fingerspell?
Polymorphonuclear neutrophil.
Yeah, I'm CARTing for a Pharmacy student this semester. It's really damn fun and also terrifying.
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04:17:43 PM,Friday 19 September 2008
Spontaneous picture meme.
The rules:
Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair...just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with your picture
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(3)
03:32:16 PM,Thursday 18 September 2008
Good news and bad news on the habit front. Good news: today for the first time I got all 15 fingerspelling words correct on "fast" without replaying any of them. Also got all 15 vocabulary words right, but I've done that before; it's much easier, since they're multiple choice. Bad news: last Friday I did my ASL practice in between classes, went out for a lovely dinner with Leonard and Sumana for her birthday, went home, and promptly crashed out in bed before doing my other three things. First red mark since July 3rd. Oh well. I won't quit, no matter how ugly the little carbuncular bastard looks on my lovely green and yellow calendar.
Also, Richard Wright, my favorite member of my formerly favorite band, died today. In his memory, I will repost verbatim something I wrote on alt.music.pink-floyd back in 1996. Go easy on me; I was 15.
"In the 2-odd years I've been passionately lurking on this n/g, therehave been ups and downs...and I would say it's particularly slumpy at the moment.
The same-old "Rog-Dave-And-Their-Respective-Choice-Of-Toothpaste-Brands-Childrens'-Names-3rd-Grade-Teacher-And-Which-Was-Ultimately-Supreme-As-Opposed-To-The-Scum-Sucking-Alternative" debate is as rude, repetetive and promiscuous as ever, the level of spam is rising, the Publius posts are few, scrawny, and pretty desperate, and it's just not like the good old days, is it? (`:
This is a plea to the Parody Patrol, fist-fight bookies, and ROIO connoisseurs to return and brighten up the place. I'd say even ASCII
art is a better use of bandwith than:
"Dave Sucks"--"No, Rog Sucks"--"No, Dave Sucks"--"No, Rog sucks"--"No,
Rog and Dave both suck, Syd rocks"--"Who's he?"--"You suck!" "No, you
suck!" <yawn, groan, moan, yawn>
The Much-Coveted _Flying Pig Award_ ought to go to Mark Brown and
Terje Kleven for the Pink Drink recipe (mmmm...) and Floyd Riddle
posts, and I do wish there was more...
Here's my contribution,
A Marginally Easy Pink Floyd Puzzle [tm]
Find the general connection between all pairs of songs listed below,
and the specific connection between each of them
Apples and Oranges, Have a Cigar, In the Flesh.
Julia Dream, Flaming, A Pillow of Winds
Julia Dream, Mother
Point Me at the Sky, Breathe
Free Four, One of My Turns
San Tropez, Nobody Home
Cymbaline, Dogs
See Emily Play, High Hopes
I'm sure there's more...do add on!
[`:|#|
oompahpah"
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(1)
03:31:05 PM,Monday 15 September 2008
MAY LUCIFER BRAND YOUR FOREHEADS WITH AN APOSTROPHE IN HADES!
Things are a bit stressful, but not at all hopeless. Irons in the fire. Flargh.
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03:55:23 PM,Friday 12 September 2008
