Happy New Year everyone!

Hoping that everyone has a happy and healthy beginning to 2004!

Feliz A�o Nuevo!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year Y'ALL!!!!



run dmc

Facinating: MP3 Gym

MP3 Gym

iStop Motion?

todd: did you use istop motion to make that little animation?

We Made It!

i have long wondered if we would ever make the coveted 'Fresh Blogs' list, and we have.

this image captures our historic moment of triumph.

let all rejoice and celebrate this red letter day!

so do i.

 here ya go.

who needs iSight?

check this out. I mostly like how well (sort of) it loops.

Ichat

Can Someone please place the

aims' of

Paul.

Dave.

Todd.

and anyone that I cannot think of right now.

Another low tech try

I was thinking that you could accomplish something by placing a small sized flat mirror directly behind the transparency. You would have to play around with the settings tho. If you only had a flatbed scanner w/o the transparency adapter, your scanning options would be limited.

Lazy Sunday

Whoever is reading this i'm sure that it is cloudy, cool, and occasionally rainy. That is the way it has been most of the day here in sugarland.

First thing this morning i had to search the car for a cache of diapers cause we frantically realized there wasn't a diaper in the house. Luckily for adolfo iv, his parents keep a loaded diaper bag in the car: enough, at least, to keep him dry for the rest of the day. I walked outside without shoes and realized quickly that it had rained that night. The car was pebbled with water drops.



Later that afternoon, the sun was out, but not for very long. I took advantage of it tho...



but then all of a sudden, the clouds rolled in. We spent the entire afternoon cleaning the house and playing with the baby...

MAYBE YOU HAVE ALREADY TRIED THIS AMBER.

Take your transpanency and place a white piece of paper behind it, put them on the scanner close the lid and place something real heavy on the lid.



kinda low tech.



I'm sure the nerds on this blog will have technically correct approaches.





HAPPY TO ALL YE CHRISTMAS TO BE YES HAVING!!!!!

Another day off

Adolfo IV slept like a rock after being at adolph's. Didn't wake up at all last night, but he did wake up at 7:30 and slap me in the arm to wake me up.

We got ourselves together pretty quickly cause carol had her xmas spa appointment @ 10 A.M.
Once we dropped off carol, the baby and i headed to whataburger for his favorite breakfast: eggs, potatoes, a patty of sausage and biscuit. We picked it up at the drive-thru and headed straight for adolph's place.

He ate only a couple of bites and explored every corner of adolph's apartment, as he always does. We decided to get him out of the house. We walked along the metrorail tracks and headed towards the fountains near the cancer survivors memorial. We kicked the soccer ball around, we ran through the grass ... we tired him out, totally.

When we made it back to adolph's both of them laid down on his 'bed' and went straight to sleep. It was cute. Unfortunately, i was charging the camera battery the whole time we were out (i'm buying a spare soon, or course.) By the time i got back, it was fully charged; however, he was asleep....

2 1/2 hours later...

We picked up mom and went stright to eat at Jason's Deli. He devoured his lunch and basked in his mom's love. It's always so satisfying to see them together after they haven't seen each other for so long.

A relaxing day at dolph's and the museum

Lunch and a nice overcast day out at the sculpture garden in front of the Glassel School of Art. Waiting for paul to arrive; even brent (from germany) may show up. A nice nice lazy lazy day.

I Installed CS

InDesign has a toolbar now. So, does that make you happy todd?

The file browser in Photoshop is really nice too. I didn't make all that thorough of a check, but i think the automate option now resides in the file browser exclusively.

Today: Halo!

Driving to Shreveport

A picture every five minutes during the drive from Houston to Shreveport. 1.2 meg movie.

Merry Christmas

7:19 A.M. - woke up to my son's smile. Carol took him to grandma's bedroom to wake her up. I took that opportunity to slip a couple of gifts i had been hiding in my sock drawer under the tree. We all opened gifts and emptied our stockings. The baby went straight for the new car, which was recently assembled (1 a.m.) the previous night. He loved it.



Carol was happy with her digital camera



I came away with an armload of new clothes and a couple of cool books.

We had a great breakfast and headed to my sister's house with a carload of presents. Diego really liked his automatic chocolate milk mixer cup, and dezma had a blast with her shopping cart once it was put together.

My sister also made a full breakfast with fresh tortillas.

Then, off to my aunt cynthia's house, where we are now. The baby came away with a toy car. Now, Carol is putting him down to sleep and I am losing energy, fast.

very fast....

Merry Christmas!

congratulations diana

and beautiful gingerbread men!

Gingerbread Man!

I have been spending the last couple of days up Denver with the folks. The whole family is together and we have been having a blast. As usual we had a lot of fun with Gingerbread. Check out this movie (3.3 MB) and witness one of the Mercado Family Christmas traditions!

Low-bandwith stills can be found here.

Also, Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays to All!

The whole damn family is sick

Took the boy to the doctor yesterday. The official diagnosis is croup.

He's got a horrible cough that wakes him up everytime he hacks while he's sleeping. His little body became hot with fever in the middle of the night and we had to struggle to give him medicine. Then, he gagged on one of his coughs right after he had nursed and threw up all over the bed.

Changed all the sheets.

Luckily work was dead. totally dead. the hospital was empty. I was let go at noon...and the xmas break begins.

Scan This

Thanks for all the feedback -- I'll try leaving the scanner lid open first to see if I can save a buck or two. Happy holidays everyone!!

big brains

Diana is the smartest girl in the world.

Upon completion of her first (and hardest) semester of PA school her grades were reported as a perfect 4.0.

i mean, damn, check out the big brain on diana.

Scannerz

I was thinking the easiest thing to do is to leave the lid open, letting the sun light up the transparency. But what do I know? Maybe you could concentrate the powers of the sun with a mirror or a magnifying glass. You could practice "burn the ants" with your scanner head!

Killy, Todd, remember that old hand held SCSI scanner? Whatever happened to that old thing?

Firefight, firefight, firefight!

Once everyone gets back from holiday, we've got to take this guy out.

Signing our names in, o, maybe 12 more months?

I figured i should keep this around in case adolph or i have to sign up.

Quick Reading list for the xmas week

I've picked up a good book recently:

1. Brunelleschi's Dome



Fillippo Brunelleschi was a goldsmith and clockmaker that would essentially re-discover architectural principals used by the ancient romans thereby revolutionizing the then current method of dome building used throughout europe: gothic flying buttresses and wooden centering. The dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore church in Florence was originally conceived by Neri di Fioravanti in the mid 1300's that included a dome that would be the highest vault ever constructed.

At the time of conception, no one really knew how it would be built.

It's been a super-interesting read so far. There is a good amount of history and a lot of recognizable characters that put a lot of other things i've read into perspective (the medici's, donatello, giotto, etc...)

I actually bought it as a xmas gift for my cousin who is going to be travelling in italy soon, but i read the first chapter at Borders and was hooked. Carol found a used copy for about 1/2 the price online at amazon and ordered it for me.

The second book is a Kenzaburo Oe title that i hadn't seen before: Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! (exclamation point included)

It's a father-son/father of the father-father relationship book. Will report when i get into this one.

Adolph is exactly right.

The easiest thing to do would be to get a print made from that slide and then scan it.

Transparency Adapter

A transparency adapter is typically a scanner lid with a light built into it. I think the reason for it is that the transparency is not as reflective as a piece of paper. The light in the lid shines though the transparency and allows the scanner sensor to pick up the full wealth of colors in the transparency.

Hmmmm

Yes, it's a flatbed -- I'm not sure about the transparency adapter -- I'm looking all over the scanner and I don't see anything like that -- is that something I have to buy separately?

Lots of questions

amber: what kind of scanner were you using? was it a flatbed? is there a transparency adapter on it?

Photoshop

Does anyone out there know how to scan an image from a transparency into Photoshop? We tried scanning at 600 dpi in color and it came out very opaque and black. Is there a trick to the configurations, or possibly the method of scanning?

Gotta love FARK.com

Am I the only one. . .

. . . enjoying reading Apple's "Pro" user interview series?

Apple - Pro/Film - Walter Murch: "The other thing is we shot and printed 600,000 feet of film, which is about 113 hours of material. The film is 2 hours 30 minutes long, so that's a 30 or 40 to 1 ratio. The first time we put it all together it was over 5 hours long. So you find more inventive ways to compress the story to find out what can be eliminated that not only doesn’t affect the story, but actually, by its elimination, improves things by putting into juxtaposition things that formerly were not. It was a very complex orchestration, shrinking it by half."

headin' out.

hey everybody, we're going to lubbock!

if there is an uglier name for a town out there please let me know.

merry christmas and all of that. we are planning a trip to houston after christmas some time. details to follow.

Who is making the plunge?

Mac Rumors: Apple Mac Rumors and News You Care About
Non rumor news: Mac OS X 10.3.2, Quicktime 6.5, iTunes 4.2, Battery Update, is anyone installing all of these things? I've heard good feedback about battery update, I don't trust the feedback about 10.3.2 yet, and I'm really wary of Quicktime 6.5 and iTunes 4.2, more out of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality than anything else.

LOTR And The Positronic Brain

Killy, Carol, Adolph and I saw LOTR too last night. Even though some of my favorite scenes from the book didn't make the cut (like the scene where the King of the Nazgul busts in the gate at Minis Tirith exclaiming "heeeeeer's the Witch King" a la the Shinning) I still enjoyed most of the 3.5 hours. I even liked Peter Jackson's additions: like that scene right before the battle for Minis Tirith where the Orc General notices that one of the new orc recruits is scared and so he tells him the story about how he used to be a dentist specializing in Troll Orthodontics and General Goblin Orthondonistry and that he ran a modest practice up in northern Morder until one day a Troll patient woke up too soon from the anaesthesia and bit his hand off, leaving only a misshapen, lumpy stump. I think it is great that Jackson added a scene like that to show that hey, orcs are just these guys you know?

Also, If you were intrigued by the I ROBOT commercial then you may like this book. And if you have some time this Christmas holiday for some more reading I suggest you read the rest of the robot series starting with The Caves Of Steel and ending with The Naked Sun (or maybe even Robots and Empire - but that is only worth it, I think, if you read the Foundation Series ...). Not only are they interesting sci-fi detective stories but they also offer valuable insights into robot culture/behaviour. I definitely see my robotic household assistant in a different light now that I have read these books!

Check out the real thing here.

Oh MY GOD.

Saw the LOTR last night at Midnight....

Took my mind off of EVERYTHING for a good 3.5 hrs.

Saw this commercial.....

I ROBOT NOW

MacDevCenter.com: Elementary Computer Graphics: Drawing with Pixels [Dec. 16, 2003]

MacDevCenter.com: Elementary Computer Graphics: Drawing with Pixels [Dec. 16, 2003]
I don't think it isn't too early to start, Killy.

Baby's first joke

Killito: Knock Knock

Mom: Who's there?

Killito: In the...

Mom: In the who?

Killito: Egg Nog



Mom: In the egg nog?

The Hair Brush Plugin For Photoshop

Has been a boon for digital photographers everywhere.

Beliefs and Lies

Yahoo! News - Cardinal Says U.S. Treated Saddam 'Like a Cow': "despite all the heavy blame he bears"

Yeah, because he isn't going to hell, or some other supernatural punishment meted out conveniently post-mortem by the invisible man, just like all the other tyrants aided and abetted by the Vatican over its time on this earth.

This morning I was thinking, "how is it that Juan Williams thinks he is going to get anything close to the truth asking about intellegence gleaned from Saddam?" Lets see, government official will just spurt out "oh yeah, Juan, Saddam told us . . . , and Saddam told us . . . and as a result our work is nearly done." Does Williams think that government officials are evil villians to his smooth NPR James Bond and they are going to give away their plot?

Egg Nog?

Can anything else besides eggs be nogged?

macosxhints - 10.3: View Expos� animation in slow motion

macosxhints - 10.3: View Expos� animation in slow motion
You know, some things are so obvious that you'd think you would have known them all along, but then someone comes along and reminds you of something you didn't know but fits like a jigsaw puzzle-piece into everything else you knew. In any case, it is really cool to hit , and on completion, hit . So Cool, then hit again and lather, rinse, repeat.

Tagg

I am sorry to hear of your loss Taggart. My Grandfather died just last month. I know it means much to your grandmother to have you there to help her. My family and I will say a prayer for your family.

Hey Killy, Where's your hair?

Seems like you need to ask santa for some rogaine,





SUCKA.

image well test

Spiderman Can!

I invite you to check out this trailer for the next Spiderman movie. It is gauranteed to brighten your day!

Also ImageWell is super neat! Definitely the way to upload images to the blog ... it even puts the html img on the clipboard for you!

100 * G5 * 3.5 gig RAM =

Apple - Pro/Film - John D. Lowry
A hunnert G5's with 3.5 gigs of RAM each. . . .

Prayer

Taggart,
May you and your mother be infused with strength to make it through a sorrowful time.

xtralean.com: Image Well

Image Well
Very well executed application. Paul, you should check this out.

my heart goes out to your family

I am praying for your family and tell your mom I am praying for her to find strength after having gone through that.

Your grandmother is in a better place.

Good luck and lot's of love.

Condolences

Taggart: So sorry to hear about your grandmother and even more sorry that your mother had to see your gran go out that way. I am eternally thankful that my mother just watched my grandmother take her last breath as she was sleeping in a hospital bed. I know my mother wouldn't have been able to handle what your mother went through.

Our prayers go to your grandmother and mother. Be careful driving to the valley and return to us healthy.

Tired

Saturday Night after running the Trail of Lights here in Austin

my Brother called me and told me my Grandamother had just died.

Liz and I packed quickley and drove that night and arrived at 3:30 am.

My Mother was very distraught being the initial witness to my Grandma's heart failure

and having to perform CPR.

We spent the morning making the arrangments.

The funeral is going to be Tuesday morning.

We left the Valley after 6:30 p.m.

it is now 3 to One.

I have a big day of work ahead of me tommorrow and it is my official anniversary.

We are heading back late tomorrow night.

For those of you who pray please say a prayer for my Grandmother, my Mother and my family.

I hope all of you are doing well.

Priceless

I was thinking it was going to be "Being uncouth at every course of the meal . . . Priceless!"

Happy Anniversary this 15th Taggart and Liz!

2 YR Anniversary

Driskell Grill

1st Coarse

Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras & Hot Smoked Bandera Quail 30$

2nd Coarse

Quail Terrine & Wild Mushroom Salad 26$

3rd Coarse

Lamb Chops & Roasted Duck 72$

Bottle of Wine 48$

Creme Brulee & Chocolate Truffle 13$



Pleasure of Writing 223 Dollar Anniversary Dinner to

Mark Knight's House Account PRICELESS!!!!!

nice name guys

boys will be boys



blogPile



sounds like something Adolph would take glee in talking about, in a lowered voice followed by not so discreet chuckling.

nikon capture

Killy i lied to you.

i am a cur, a retch, cad and rake.

it turns out that paul does not, in fact, have a copy of nikon capture.

please forgive my transgression.

Dave's vCard

Anybody have Dave's home address? It is missing on my vCard of him. I guess it would be the same as Mr. Serpa's old address....

Surgery!

Our buddy Dave is having surgery tomorrow. It seems that the organs in his body are being terrorized by a gall-bladder gone rogue. The Doctors have decided that a pemptive strike is the best way to insure Dave's safety. The operation will happen sometime tomorrow morning...

Also, I am posting this from the Kraftsmen Bakery on Montrose. Here there 3 wireless networks to chose from!

Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: If Filmmakers Were Web Designers II

Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: If Filmmakers Were Web Designers II
I read this thinking, if filmmakers were web designers then the web would probably have big text that scrolls off into space....

Bjork Concert Videos

BJORK CONCERT FLASH, cool.

My Morning Commute

I velcro-ed the iSight to the sun screen of the Beetle today, and caputured my morning commute.

My favorite

My favorite bad word emerged from meagan and my banter. If i remember correctly, that day she had greeted me with a particularly mean insult. i can't remember it exactly but it was mean. as i was leaving the apt (on burleson) later that day i hugged her and whispered in her ear: clitless whore.

she was devastated.

adolph: what the hell is dromedary's sun?

All the bad words I can think of test

Fuck fuck fuckity fuck shit damn dam SCO bitch dromedary's sun.

Nope, seems like Blogger doesn't filter anything.

Fights and design

My sister, barbara, got suspended at school for getting into a fight. It really wasn't much of a fight, just some pushing around and punches at the air. No one was hurt, but two mother's were smokin' mad, especially mine!

I was joking with barbara and did a search for a black eye (she doesn't have one) and came across this site that i think todd might like.

GREETINGS PHOTOGRAPHERS AT LARGE, and anyone else who has info

My darling brother, Miguel, aka Mike, (I think all of you met him) is considering starting a little business in Lockport. He asks this question...



Now that I have time, I want to look at info on shutter speed,

aperture, etc. Do you know any books or web sites on this?



So I asked him this...

What kind of computer do you have at home? A DELL

Have you considered Digital photography? YES

What type of business are you thinking of starting up? Portraits & portfolios

Do you already have a camera? If so, what kind is it? A digital camera. Kodak.



I don't know what other questions to ask him but I thought this might be helpful.

Can you gentlemen post your ideas on the Blog when you have some time?

Thanks!



Taggart.

I am impressed at how valiant you were in protecting your tender wife. I am sorry that you had to live through such a harrowing experience...that's pretty freaky stuff.

Be careful.

Pachanga?

Anyone heading to karl's pachanga this weekend?

Also, this is creepy.

Now THAT'S bad

Breakfast

one bowl of Fiber One.
one banana

Taggart and Liz Get out of there. I wouldn't waste a single day. Leave.

Had both a dentist and dr. appt today. My teeth are in dire need of cleaning, filling, building-up, and capping. I've got appt's spanned throughout the beginning months of 2004. My physical went well. No lumps, bumps, or otherwise obvious signs of disease. I might have some sort of allergy cause my nose is a little swollen (and i just thought it was big!) My next appt in two months will be an update on my cholesterol.

Ho Bat!

Plagued by troublesome 'women of the evening' or inebriated frat-boys?

You need the Ho Bat!

Constructed (in mexico) of all-American hardwoods the Ho Bat is compact enough to wield effectively in hallways and living rooms, yet sturdy enough to bring a maddened hooker under control in short order!

Order yours Today!

not a real product, please do not attempt to order

Armagetron

This game is so bad-ass. So simple, yet so fun, think of it like competition Tetris on speed.

LightCycles

Not spending eneogh time in front of a computer? Then check out Armagetron, the super fun Tron LightCycle game!
Adolph and I tried it out over a LAN last night and had a blast.

Hooker Blaster!

 

(This post is satire; it does not condone violence against anyone, including but not limited to sex workers, alleged crack addicts or obviously drunk white college students; nor does it imply a besmirchment of community-based policing or direct action.)

i know what i am getting taggart...

for christmas.

jeez tag, that's screwed up. there must be somewhere else you can live for a similar price that does not involve so much wildlife.

on the plus side; you are getting valuable experience in dealing with random, chaotic events in a cool, detached manner.

i am pretty sure that two police reports will earn you a 'get out of my lease free' card.

and rabid crack 'ho's running amuk in the living room is far more stressful than raccoon carcasses, i promise.

Interview Story

Guy gets job offers from Amazon and Microsoft.

That is Awful Taggart

Reactions from around the world:

"If you don't feed them, they won't come around, you know?"

"That's what happens when Metro comes to your neighborhood. . ."

"Tell your brother to get less psycho girlfriends!"

"White college kids, huh? Maaan, that is a fucked up 'hood."

"At least it isn't a flea infested racoon under your house . . ."

616 St John.

Twice Since I have lived at 616 I have had to call the cops.

The first time was in August.

At 3 am I heard footsteps on my front porch.

I get up go outside.

There are three drunk white college kids sitting on my front porch.

WHAT THE FUCK.

I tell them that I am going to count to three and that they had better get the

fuck off my porch.

I made it to two and then they saw my brother and tore ass out of there.

Tonight.

Liz and I are watching Two Towers and then we hear screaming.

not screaming in a Nosgul kind of in the distance but

on my front porch front door opening screaming running through my house.

Then at the door of my bedroom banging screaming doorknob turning

screaming leap out of my bed stopping big fat crack whore from

coming into my fucking room.

Crack whore screaming that a man is chasing her with a gun.

ME screaming get the fuck out of my house.

HEART pounding woman pounding on my door.

She runs into my brothers room (how fun is that).

.......................................................................

I dont know what she has drugs gun knife I was just barracading the door.

Once I heard that she went into my brothers room I ran out grabed the phone

passed it to liz and 911 started to happen.

She convinces my brother to call 911

Lock Liz and I in the bathroom.

Bang on the front door of the Police.

Strung out Crack whore is hallucinating.

Police intervention.

I am getting out of this place

CS Fun

"I think audioblogging would be cool if you could like make fart noises on it," says me.

"You better get AppleCare . . ." says Paul.

So I got CS in today and haven't done anything but install it, as I've been in meetings. I was thinking it would have been cool to take "box opening" pictures, but I didn't bring the camera today. So this post is confirmation that CS is here, it installed and I haven't opened up anything yet.

Adobe CS Pro

Dec 9, 2003

5:12 A.M.

HOUSTON, TX, US

OUT FOR DELIVERY



5:05 A.M.

HOUSTON, TX, US

ARRIVAL SCAN



2:45 A.M.

HOUSTON, TX, US

DEPARTURE SCAN



1:58 A.M.

HOUSTON, TX, US

ARRIVAL SCAN



Dec 8, 2003

9:39 P.M.

MESQUITE, TX, US

DEPARTURE SCAN



3:30 P.M.

MESQUITE, TX, US

ORIGIN SCAN



Dec 5, 2003

5:20 A.M.

US



BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

Whoah, almost here....

Funny

I think this is funny

shoot today

Took pictures of Sara Sharp today.

She plays at Momo's every Monday. or something.

Adobe CS Pro

Dec 08, 2003 �

03:30:30 PM �

MESQUITE TX US �

ORIGIN SCAN �



Dec 05, 2003 �

05:20:03 AM �

US �

BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED �



Dec 04, 2003 �

07:47:29 AM �

Campbellsville KY USA �

SHIPPED

Getting closer....

Powerbook G4 15in Alum Take-Apart

Powerbook G4 15in Alum Take-Apart
Interesting, the PB G4 15" has two fans...

46th & Ramsey (off of Burnet) Close to Central Market

There is a garage apartment behind my bosses House.

I think rent is 550$ a month.....

I will place post pictures of it later this afternoon.

Room For Rent in Austin

A friend of mine just got a job at Saint Edwards Hospital and will be moving to Austin at the end of December. She will be looking for an apartment/room to rent. Anybody know of anybody who needs a roommate ? Anybody know of any nice/cheap/clean place opening up to rent? Lemmee know what you can!

Will Somebody Please Chop Off My Head

My Gosh The Last Samurai was one long, horrible movie. I mean, there were a few neat looking samurai sword flashing fight scenes, and a ninja attack, and a couple of big battles, but the director makes you pay dearly for these brief moments by dragging you through a story of unparalled lousiness.Thank god I only had a straw and a stick of gum handy during the ordeal or I would have ritually disemboweled myself. Surely the pain of slicing my guts open and feeling them spill out into my hands and then onto the theatre floor and then stepping on them and seeing the bloody mess mix with dropped popcorn and spilled soda would have been less than the agony of watching this film. And the ending! My Lord, the ending was so excrutiatingly, mind-boggingly bad that only my incredible tolerance for pain, and amazing physical endurance kept me from slipping into blessed unconsciousness. Even thinking about it now makes me want to wretch.

Ready,Set,Go! for Mac OS X

Ready,Set,Go!
Too bad it is too late to stop shipment of Adobe CS . . . not.

Interesting Writeup about iTunes Music Store encryption

Chaosmint :: QTFairUse, MyTunes, and Protected AAC Explained

Cancer

Congrats!!!!

Does this mean that if I have a tumor in the middle of my chest you

can remove it.???

Come home!

Adolph: how long are you going to be out of town?

Dr. G's poster of mediastinal lesions won the magnu cum laude award at RSNA!

Canasta Blasta!

Does anybody know how to play or want to learn how to play Canasta? It is a really fun group card game that requires the usual bit of luck and a tad bit of strategy and brain power as well. I think we should try it out the next time we all get together! My family (on my mother's side) used to play it a bunch when I was growing up. Most of the games ended peaceably enough, but every once in a while tea-cups and saucers got thrown around, but that has mostly to do with the egg-nog and/or white-russians that accompanied the holiday games more than anything about the game itself...

PB 12" Proc Speed Discrepancy

macosxhints - Display your CPU's true speed:

"I ran Xbench on CPU test only and after several dozen tries, got an average of about 98.3 (It varies slightly). I than shutdown my powerbook, and reset the PMU. When I started it back up and logged into my special account and did a sysctl hw.cpufrequency test again, this time it said my CPU was running at 866MHz. Much better. I then ran Xbench again, and guess what. I got the EXACT same scores. Somewhere around 98.3. So, what does this tell me? sysctl doesn't tell you anything. Ignore it."

I'm glad some people are reasonably empirical.

breakfast (?)

two cigarettes
6 cups of coffee

Mary Jane & Ted Leo

Breakfast:

1 banana
1 egg beater egg
1 wheat toast
12 oz apple juice

I got to mary janes at about 8:15. I tried to stop by my old place to see if eric was around, but he was teaching. It was like travelling to another life seeing the old place; passing by taggart's old place; knowing that todd & little 'D' used to live just on the other side of cecil's...sigh.

They didn't let us in for about half an hour. A handful of us waited outside.

Two bands were up before ted leo: spame an orange and the joggers (from portland). I wondered if Colin knew about this band.

Orange had a Ben Folds flavor. I say that cause a piano was the lead instrument. Played maybe 6 or 7 songs. Eric called right as they were finishing up. He decided to join me once he got back into town from his teaching gig in league city.

The joggers were allright. It was loud and mary janes was small. Eric showed up about halfway through their set.



Ted Leo started off his set solo. He belted out a tune i hadn't heard before. The band joined him and played Where have all the rude boys gone? Most of the tunes were off of Hearts of Oak. He played one tune off the first album i had heard of his (don't know the name of it.)

I was able to take a bunch of video! Here is one of his final tunes; something i hadn't heard before. It's a little big, but i think we've all got fast lines.

Food

Man, you guys eat A LOT of food in the morning!! How do you boys stay so thin eating the way you do? Here's what I have for breakfast:



1 bowl of high-fiber cereal



OR



1 bowl of oatmeal with a banana and some dried cranberries



OR



1 low-carb milkshake with a spoonful of peanut butter



OR



scrambled eggs, toast, and an espresso

Narnia Next

Thanks to the huge success of LOTR production is moving forward on a live-action version of The Chronicles of Narnia. Production will be based out of, you guessed it, New Zealand and will employ much of the LOTR crew.

Also, checkout this article over at Salon.com on the relationship between C.S Lewis and ol' J.R.R.

Failure!

I tried a couple of times to install Panther on Dave's box (G4 450 640) ... only to have the install hang on the "Preparing Installation" phase. I upgraded his OS to 10.2.8 and tried again only to have the exact same problem!

The Great Binder

I know that everyone has been wondering about my breakfasts so here is a rundown:

• 1 serving of Twist Donut - Because they are so tasty and I feel that they fill me up


• 1 serving of Banana - Because of the Potassium and because they are mild


• 2 servings of (string) Cheese - Because cheese is The Great Binder


• 1 serving of Grapefruit - For the refreshing juice of goodness, and the Vitamin C.


• Total Cost: $1.29

Nikon - D70 Press Release

I guess this is designed to compete with that Cannon digital Rebel I saw on TV the other day...

?

Why were Killy's words Ill-Advised?

If everything worked out okay then THAT would mean they were WISE.

php.ini

The php.ini file is much more user friendly in the 10.3 distro--it actually has a findable one! Key trick is to sudo cp php.ini-dist php.ini, edit the php.ini and restart Apache.
CVS :: CVS Checkout of php.ini-dist (revision 1.201)

John Taylor Gatto

John Taylor Gatto Website:

"Our official assumptions about the nature of modern childhood are dead wrong. Children allowed to take responsibility and given a serious part in the larger world are always superior to those merely permitted to play and be passive. At the age of twelve, Admiral Farragut got his first command. I was in fifth grade when I learned of this. Had Farragut gone to my school he would have been in seventh."

Sometimes I realize that I haven't been sharing my reading list; mostly this is because I don't really think about it as a reading list.

Funny you should mention....

I was just thinking about Mr. Green this morning. I was in the shower thinking of how bad a haircut i got last time.

I miss the time i spent in the chair at the bus station.

adolph ill-wisdom?

10.3 On

I updated today. It was incredibly stupid. I wanted to install GRASS, which needs an X windowing system and found that Apple's X11 needs 10.3. Oh, how I hate upgrade dependencies! Killy's words of ill-wisdom echoed in my head, "Just do the upgrade option and don't worry about it..." So I upgraded and everything seemed to work out fine. It even kept my MySQL installation and databases; it even kept my ColdFusion on Tomcat installation. Very nice considering that I threw caution to the wind and forgot to back that stuff up. So here I am this evening at Kaveh Kanes ready to voice chat with you guys!

Killy, Mr. Green says Hi.

Keeping Track of Stuff

I've been following the slow-moving SCO v. IBM suit for some time now. One of the really incredible things is how many records are kept in the world. I read this stuff and think, "Who thinks to keep track of this stuff?" Okay, I've been known to keep stuff (no longer is there a film can of clippings in my desk drawer though), but where do people keep this stuff and how do they keep it for so long?

you mean....?

you mean like firebombing the house of the arresting officer?

all kidding aside, stories like these really disturb me. i think if something like that ever happened to me, i would really go off the deep end. i have too much anger inside of me...

Police Brutality

I think that the only way for stuff like this to stop is for the people affected to directly affect the lives of the people doing the arresting.

Check out:

These beautiful fotos

I was a Halberdier!

If anyone hasn't noticed, in the slide show of my thanksgiving weekend there is a photo of me (right after the Mammoth) wearing a replica of a Spanish breastplate and holding onto a 'Halberd'. The photo is a little far away so i'm including a closer photo of the tip of this thing.



There were also the muskets that the conquistadores used. Those things had a slow burning fuse that had to be lit with every shot. I wonder how fast you could get off a couple of shots?

Being Back, Sunday November 30th

Breakfast

2 eggbeater eggs
spoonful of beans
half a bowl of apple/cinnamon oatmeal
one wheat toast with soy butter

Got the oil changed and the fuel system cleaned out in the car first thing this morning. Came home and detailed the car. I got every single mosquito, dragonfly, moth, etc carcass off the front end of my vehicle. I vacuumed every cheerio and rice cake crumb out of the back seat. I even had to shampoo out a chocolate stain from the back seat that carol left in the wake of a 'brownie earthquake' from dairy queen.

Went to the church and arranged a meeting with Knights of Columbus to take the 'Santa' photos at the church this year. They normally sell polaroids @ five bucks a pop. There is so much overhead that they hardly make any money. Apparently, they were cancelling the pics this year for this reason.

I approached the Knight pres. to propose shooting the santa pics digitally. So i have to meet with the council on Tuesday night.

Lunch

Chicken,tomato, onion tacos with rice.
Two flour tortillas
One bowl of cheerios for dessert

Today, we set up the xmas tree. My mother pulled it down from the attic and we put it together. Adolfo iv helped.

Goodbye, and thanks for all the turkey

Thanks for a great weekend.

The Valley Report - day 3, Saturday

Breakfast: Hotel Buffet (free)

eggs, hash browns, pineapple slices, one pancake.

We woke up much later than we really wanted to. We left the echo hotel much later than we realy wanted to. Our original plan had us home, in Houston, at about noon. We left the hotel at around 11:00. We stopped at the nearest HEB and picked up some water and fruit for the trip. Once i got on 281, i realized that i was going to spend that entire BEAUTIFUL day in the car.

We quickly got off 281 and hit 107 to drive by Carol's old house: the house where we looked at each other at her brother's wedding; the house where we were married in her parents bedroom; the house where i fell asleep on the couch after a huge homecooked meal; the house that saw carol drive her car through the living room wall when she was learning to drive.

We drove on a small dirt that ran along side her house, up and down, about four times. I stopped to take photos. I used up one roll of film (120) - it felt like six rolls. (taggart, if i send you the negs, could you scan them for me? on the imacon? - i guess i could also go to carl's place if you couldn't)

HCHM, or the Hidalgo County Historical Museum. Admission: $4 - We went to the newly renovated HCHM. Nice place. Look at some photos

From there: LUNCH

Carne Guisada (Tres Portrillos restarante)

We had lunch with my sisters. By this time, it was 4:30. We left the valley from there. We took the back roads to Elsa, past Delta Lake again. In the distance a black column of smoke stained the sky. I thought immediately of the sugar cane fires that light up the fields around Delta Lake in october. I didn't think sugar cane lasted this far into the 'winter'. As we passed through the other side of the lake the sugar cane fields were still there with their heavy green manes waving in the northern winds (norte�os).

These are the same winds that would blow the smell of rotting cabbage into my dad's new home when i first moved in with him in 1992. What is now a pretty established neighborhood was then a dirt filled lot outside of weslaco next to some fields. At the same time the weather got nice enough to have your doors open, the fields behind us were filled with rotten cabbage.

We made it to Odem, TX before we had to stop at the Dairy Queen. This is the same town (and the same DQ!) that my mother & father would 'make the trade' after the divorce. The exact halfway point from Houston to wherever my dad was was the Dairy Queen in Odem. Lots of weird and somewhat painful memories. I wish they would build a Whataburger in Odem.

The baby ran around charming the pant off everyone in the place for about half an hour. I had a hot dog and a side order of incredible guilt. Luckily, he fell asleep once we got back on the road and it wasn't until we were 10 minutes from the house that he decides to wake up and scream; scream because he was still in this damn carseat; scream cause he couldn't be in his mother's arms.

Home. The feeling is indescribable. I went to bed happy.

Photo Gourd (revisited)

Paul - I finally posted jennifer's wedding with the photogourd template you sent. I'm still encountering a problem, however. When i add an image to the cart, I get a 'missing image' icon on the screen. What is that supposed to be? a thumbnail of the selected image?

also: when i 'send' the order (presumably to myself) that doesn't work either....

Can we try and fix this (or explain to me how to fix it) this weekend?

The Valley Report - the drive

I got out of the office right after 1 o'clock. The plan was get home, pack the car, pack the baby, get on the road. We got to the house and fell promptly asleep. The baby had just fallen asleep for his nap, carol lay next to him and i was on my mother's la-z-boy. We woke up around 3:45 or so and quickly got out of the house. We were finally on the road at 4:30.

The traffic leaving sugarland was pretty stacked. Things cleared up right at Richmond.

Right outside of Wharton the traffic suddenly began to clump up again. Once we came over the freeway hill we saw a pretty nasty accident. An SUV was overturned in the median (and banged up pretty horrendously too) and a mini-van with it's front end totally crushed in. There were fire trucks and an ambulance already there (there is a hospital nearby) and we saw a couple of stretchers being loaded into them. Luckily there were no blanket covered bodies scattered about. Carol can't handle seeing stuff like that.

The baby was hungry. About 4 miles from the accident site we exited fm 102 @ Wharton and went to the Whataburger, which also happens to be right next to the hospital. We put shoes on the baby and went ahead and had dinner there. It was about a 1/2 hour stop. Which is just about how long we have to keep the baby out of the car so he forgets that he was just in it - this keeps him from having a fit when we try and put him back in the car seat.

This tends to make road trips a lot longer. We did this twice.

We drove straight through Victoria. We stopped in Refugio for our second stop at a gas station with a Subway in it. Carol changed adofo iv's diaper (twice). We let adolfo iv roam around the gas station (it was one of those extra big stations) for about 1/2 hour.

I stood outside for a bit after i had re-organized the backseat for carol. I couldn't belive how many people were on the road. This was one of those super gas stations with like 15 pumps; they were ALL full and had cars waiting. There were families stuffed into bug smattered cars. There was a handfull of cars towing other cars (something that is so common here - i couldn't help but think of Carl Deal's explanation: they're smuggling drugs and money in the bumpers of these cars)

We sailed through woodsboro, odem, corpus christi, robstown.....the boy falls asleep at robstown......

I stop for gas at Bishop: a little over $11. The boy stays asleep. We get to Kingsville and start on the 60 miles trek through King's Ranch void. I hardly feel it. We exit Bus. 77 just outside of Raymondville and take the backroads through Delta Lake to get to Elsa. Here, on this set of roads, is where my car is practically slathered with bug bodies. Particularly cool was a lightning bug that lost his shiny butt-juice on my windshield. It was pretty cool. I was sad it only happened once.

The fog was particulary bad.

We got to Edinburg at about 11:30, for a total trip time of exactly 7 hours.

The Valley Report - day 1, Thursday - Thanksgiving

Fidel now has the same amount of dogs as kids: 4 - and they bark. The first night was restless, the dogs would bark, then stop. Then start, then stop. Then start. Always at exactly the same intervals that i would fall asleep, then wake up. Then fall asleep, then wake up. Then there was the neighbors music...

Carol woke up at 6 a.m. to put the turkey in. Adolfo iv woke up at 8:18 a.m. We came to the living room and watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Breakfast

2 egg beater eggs
1 serving of refried beans
1 serving of carol's potatoes
1 glass of chamomile tea
little bit of oatmeal

Fidel's wife's brothers showed up for breakfast. The most memorable thing today, so far, has been Fidel going outside and plucking a branch of chillitos from his pepper tree and passing it around the table. Carol and the two brothers plucked chili's off the branch and dropped directly into their beans.

nice.

12:45 - We try to get the baby to take a much needed nap. He refuses. The turkey is done. The mashed potatoes are almost done.

3:00 - Thanksgiving Dinner (lunch)

One giant serving of white turkey meat (breast)
One giant serving of mashed potatoes.
One giant serving of stuffing straight from the belly of a cooked turkey.
Six spears of asparagus.
Several heaping spoons of vein clogging gravy
One piece of hot apple pie topped with napolitan ice cream.

The rest of the afternoon was spent just sitting on the couch watching the kids run from one side of the house to the other. And this went on to the evening. Carol ended up renting a couple of movies, but I had seen them all. I think we ended up in bed at around 11 or so.

Midnight

The dogs. Barking. The dogs.

1:00 A.M.

The dogs. Barking.

2:00 A.M.

The dogs. Barking. I move to the living room hoping that the further i get from the back yard the better time i'll have sleeping.

3:00 A.M.

The dogs continue to bark.

4:00 A.M.

The dogs are still barking.

5:00 A.M.

Barking

6:00 A.M.

I can't belive the dogs are still barking.

7:00 A.M.

Barking. I'm trying so desperately to sleeep. I move back to the bedroom since it doesn't matter where i am in the house.

8:00 A.M.

We wake up and tell Carol as politely as I can, "Get me the HELL out of here." We leave Fidel's house promptly at 8:45 for breakfast with my sisters.

The Valley Report - day 2, Friday

Breakfast

A huevos rancheros plate from a small mexican restaurant. As you can imagine, this is very, very, very bad for me. It came with a sausage patty. I ate it.

We met my sister's at a small Mexican restaurant off of Closner in Edinburg. Adolfo iv decided to thorw the largest tantrum he's ever thrown. We had taken him out of his chair to walk around after we had finsihed eating. I was talking with my sister's and carol walked around the restaurant with him. He was getting a little too close to a family so she moved him. He went nuts. Totally nuts. He threw himself on the ground and screamed. I was in awe. I had never seen anything like it. Carol took him outside and i took care of the bill. He wasn't very happy getting back in his seat either.

We spent the most of the afternoon at my sister's house. Carol put the boy to sleep and my sister's and i caught up.

We had lunch around 3:

Fish and chips. Another dish that is going to kill me.

We checked into the echo hotel, ordered room service for the kid (grilled cheese and a fruit plate - $9.00)



We hung out in the room all night. Quietly. Lovely Quiet. So far....

They have a wireless network set up here in the lobby of the echo hotel. Sweet!

run, turkeys, run!

greetings friends!



gather your loved ones and celebrate your bounty with the slaughter of a dumb, flightless bird. i am in the bustling metropolis of broken arrow OK, with my family and slightly retarded dog. i hope this day finds you all healthy, happy and well fed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now I am in Dallas ... Thanksgiving dinner at my brother's friend's brother's mother's house. Dinner was so good that I hurt myself.

Just rolled in from Oklahoma City. Not an amazing town, but we did meet some great people there; also my brother's band put on a fantastic show. I was so thrilled to hear them at their best- and to see people really responding to music, even dancing!

The band will be putting on a show in Austin at Emos on Sunday night ... Come out if you can!

Also, the pic is what my brother sees when he puts on his ring of power

This is why you can't believe newspapers.

They get so much stuff wrong:

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "and before the DRM gets locked on."

The DRM in inherent to the file. When the file is played QuickTime decodes the file to play it. Johansen's utility uses QuickTime to play the file into an unencoded file instead of sending it to the audio manager.

I think it is pretty interesting that Johansen took this approach. Was he unable to decode the files with brute force? Did he want to avoid that approach for political reasons? I think that one of the unsaid implicit things about Apple's DRM is that it appears to be custom encoded to each customer. This is unlike DVDs, which are all encoded the same (for each region at least). This also makes "DVD Jon's" task more difficult. Essentially he would have to break public key cryptography, which once broken would wreck great harm to commerce in general.

Burned by Burnz

Adolph: By the way, i tried to burn a simple cd with Burnz two days ago and got a 'burn error' of some sort or another. I don't remember the exact error (i should have taken a screen shot of it) and i forgot to mention it to you yesterday. Weird. Have you actually tried to use it yet?

Battle for my veins (day 2)

Breakfast

1 serving oatmeal
1 wheat toast (again, with butter)
1 apple (red delicious)
1 patty turkey sausage
1 10 oz. apple juice (from concentrate 100% juice)

I am charging up the ipod for our trip down to the valley this afternoon. I am waiting for Dr. M to get his last few images to K (my boss). We are just waiting. There is nothing else to do but wait. Just waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

One of the things i hate about going on long car trips is how dirty the car ends up once you've arrived. I hate pulling the little bodies of moths and dragonflies off the grill of my car. I hate having to scrub my windshielf extra hard to get the smushed up bug bodies off.

Gosh, i want to get out of here so bad. So bad. So bad.

My wife is bored at work too. So bored.

So bored.

PC iTunes gets dicked with

QTFairUse, as Johansen dubbed his latest program, does not compromise the actual digital rights management (DRM). What it does, in effect, is intercept the file while it is streaming and before the DRM gets locked on.

Texas Road Maps: Digital Data Download

Digital Data Download
This website has roadmaps in DWG format, which can be opened in Illustrator. The signifigance of this is that if you eally nice map, then use the DWG files here to start from rather than tracing MapQuest Data.

To Shreveport Friday to Sunday

Hey Taggart,
I'm not leaving to Shreveport until Friday and I have the rest of the week off. Give me a shout out when you guys get in town and are free.

Transformative Technologies

Griffin Technology iTrip
I played with Killy's iTrip today, and found it a real wonder. I plugged it into mine and even though I didn't have the station selection software, it still played out of the 87.9 frequency it was set to from Killy's iPod. I played it at my apartment into my stereo and I realized that the iPod and iTrip together weren't all that much larger than a conventional remote control. Essentially, they become an alternative universal remote control in which the music you are playing resides in the remote. Not only can it control what is playing on any radio-capable device, it also brings your 30 gigs of music to play. Flat out amazing.

Last night I found my cassette adapter and remembered to bring it down to the car this afternoon. It was nice to play the iPod through it. I wonder if it was just the different song, or did I hear a qualative difference in bass response and crispness with the cassette adapter? Is it enough to make me avoid the iTrip and plug in the iPod in the dock to stereo at home and the cassette adapter in the car? I wonder how long it will be before someone makes a radio that can be controlled by those unused data bands within FM frequencies. It would be so nice to be able to really remote control every function of a stereo with the iPod.

Thanksgiving plans...

Carol, adolfo iv, and i are leaving for the valley tomorrow afternoon the second that i get off of work. We are planning on coming back around noon on saturday. I'll probably be up for something that evening after i've had a nap. Adolph isn't getting back from his trip to Shreevport, LA till somtime late Sunday.

How long are you going to be in town for Taggart?

Battle for my veins (cont'd)

Lunch

• Turkey & Swiss Sandwich on Whole Wheat Kaiser
• 1 12 oz. Nestea Lemon Iced Tea
• the remainder of my green granny smith apple from breakfast

Tags edited by Adolph

Where are all the girls?

Where can all the girls be?

I have looked for them here and there and everywhere. Where have all the girls gone???

Houston

I am going to drive in to Houston tonight.

Who will be in town Today and Tomorrow and the rest of the week?

Photoshop CS

There are some cool video clips on the NAPP page, that show off some of the new features in CS. Particularly cool is all the cool stuff that the file browser can do now. Why mess with folder actions when you can just use the PSCS file browser to rotate, rename, etc...? Pretty cool stuff.

Is anyone going to buy this?

Beliefs and Lies

Ars Technica: Geeks are not as outnumbered as they believe:

"A recent Pew Research study shows that a surprisingly-high percentage %u2014 31% %u2014 of U.S. residents are technically savvy. Researchers were surprised by the number of geeky people, and by the range in ages amongst those identified as technology-savvy."

In other news, Pew researchers found that a clear majority of people think that they are not fools. They spend a lot of time talking, so they must have lots of wisdom to share!

Speaking of Lunch...

Adolph: I brought the itrip so we could test it out in the car.

The Battle for my Veins

Breakfast:

1 green granny smith apple
1 serving of oatmeal (with honey)
1 'Healthy Choice' egg - kinda like 'Egg Beaters' (surprisingly good)
two pieces of wheat toast (buttered - unfortunately i didn't check the toast before they gave it to me. I chose NOT to take it back. Sinfully delicious.)
One 8 oz. 100% juice orange juice

Yesterday i had lunch with adolph. My friend ate an avacado burger and a batch of beer battered onion rings in front of me while i had a mustard filled chicken breast sandwich. I didn't go away frustrated though. i packed two onion rings in my doggie bag and ate ONLY ONE later that afternoon along with the rest of my sandwich. Delicious.

We have another lunch planned for today,

In other news

Talked to colin yesterday. He had just gotten back to Portland from his grandpa's funeral in texas.

Adolph is wearing Land's End shirts now; pastel colors too. I think we gave him too much hassle about his loud BaRep shirts, particularly the lime green one.

Halo sounds fun, but so does THIS!

Adolph: so how did the update go?

Anyone for Halo?

Halo: "Timberland is an outdoor expansive environment with rolling hills, winding paths, an abundance of trees and a pristine waterfall feeding a meandering stream. This idyll landscape makes an excellent backdrop for maximum carnage!"

New Reserved MySQL Words

MySQL Manual | 2.5.2 Upgrading From Version 3.23 to 4.0: "CHECK, SIGNED, LOCALTIME and LOCALTIMESTAMP are now reserved words. "

Since I have fields named cash, check, and credit, in a webapp, it took me a minute to figure this one out...

10.3 on iBook

I installed 10.3 on the office iBook (clamshell 466 graphite SE) and it works pretty nice. I resized a bunch of images using folder actions--sweet. I am installing the 10.3.1 update right now. 10.3 does look pretty ugly on the old LCD though. It looks washed out an contrasty.

He's Doing IT!

California is nice and all ...

But I am heading to Texas anyways. I leave tomorrow and will roll into Austin/San Marcos around the 30th at some uncertain hour. I am hitching a ride with my brother and his band. After playing at Emo's the band is continuing on all the way to east coast and back.

Since I am going to miss yet another Thanksgiving with my family I went to see my grandpa out in Montebello (east of East Los Angeles). We had a great time talking about all sorts of stuff and eating good cheap mexican food (huevos rancheros for a $1.50!). Shortly after he told me The Watermelon Story he fell asleep and I got this drawing done. The next time we all hang out I will try to recount the Watermelon Story. Its a great one.

Also, I got a cellphone 619.379.4770 to help my brother and I keep in touch on projects but my usual luck with computers also extends to wireless communication devices (and toasters apparently) cause the damn thing don't work. Just one more sign telling me to give it all up and move to Mexico

Hasta pronto!

The Shape of Things

I am home.

The stitches have come out.

The Scab fell off on it's own.

So this is the current condition of my nose.

Money Talks

Well MJ may be a child molesting freak, if not just a freak.

But....

I can say I honestly enjoyed Roman Polansky's "The Pianist".

So did the Acadamy of Arts.

and several million other people.

We just had to excuse him for not

swinging by to pick up his Oscar.

For those who dont know.

Roman Polansky has been living in exile

because he slept with a 13 yr old girl.

Neither of the two should be forgiven.

It just really sucks that two really incredible artists

are so *%*^ UP!!!

I know California is nice and all . . .

Hey Paul,



Mark asked me if my friend was ready to help me out for 20 hours a week soon. I'm not certain of the rate or whatever, but you would have full use of my museum side apartment, be working on the premier fundraising bike tour website, etc. Are you at all interested? This is still in the planning stages here, but the way Mark put the question to me sounded as if they are really interested in doing it.



-Adolph

...come on, he just REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY likes kids.

I think liz meant to post that last post to the girls blog, but in response to your post liz, look here.

SCROD?

Do you girls see the ad for fresh SCROD (cod) delivered to your house? Wierd. So my vote is that MJ is a dirty, rotton, guilty, child molesting, pedophile, and it's a good thing he can't buy himself out of this one!

I feel for his kids.

I wish everyone safe and entertaining travels for Thanksgiving! Carolina, we'll miss you guys in houston-we'll be there for tues pm - sat am. Maybe we'll cross paths?!

My friend recomended the book: Girls Poker Night . It sounds like chick flick meets book-so it sounds fun. I'll give a review soon after I finish my metaphysical healing book.

DaVinci is my favorite all time dead dude-I can't wait to read that book too! So many books, so little time.

News

This is the latest from dthree. Because we seek to be fair and balanced you might check out this article by a commentator with a different spin...

Also, thanks again for all your help getting www.sdfahrenheit.com launched. The RSS feed is here

Paul, Colin, check this out:

Kurt Wenner - Gallery of Work
Baroque influenced street chalk art.

The Most IT Garbage You'll Read In One Sitting:

Straight talk on adaptive computing | CNET News.com: ". . . the shift is that the IT department's goals are being inextricably linked to the business strategy and processes."

inDesign : Pretty Okay

well, i am torn on the inDesign issue. while i do not really LIKE using it ID 2.0 is not a bad program

but it ain't quark.

all of the printers i have worked with (except one in san antonio) accepted inDesign files. it has lots of great features, like transparency, and can do everything QXP does, more or less. i am not crazy about their type style set up and some other minor quirks.

overall, it gets the job done.

this is a really, really great addition. if everyone sends me money for chairjockey (ahem) i'll buy it. good stuff.

Ars Technica: InDesign Review

Ars Technica: InDesign Review - Page 2 - (11/2003): "Cope with the shame of using a new program by making it look more like the one you're cheating on"

Killy, are you digging InDesign at work? Todd, are service bureaus accepting it?

Dolled Up Jewelry

Dolled Up Jewelry
Houda is doing some e-commerce!

From: "h. khalid"

Date: Wed Nov 19, 2003 1:23:14 AM US/Central

Subject: Jewelry!

If you're interested in purchasing inexpensive and unique gifts for the 

holidays, open the attachment to view a few pieces of my handmade jewelry. 

You can also visit my website at www.geocities.com/dolled_up_jewelry.com

Love,

Houda

I'm wiping the little tears from my eyes

Yes, for the $40 lost. But really, for the sad killy story. That is so sad killy. Will you be well enough to eat thanksgiving dinner? How much weight have you lost? Starving? Man, I really wish I could give you a big hug right now. So, is that a new room in hell? Sounds like it to me. Please, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy, or that guy that lost $40 on the slot machines. When you're poor-you equate every dollar into something really worth while that you can't really afford-like sushi dinner, or a few good CDs, or payment to the hospital for sewing up your husband's face, or groceries, or a nice trip...together, or that much more contribution toward a really nice camera for my aspiring photographer-anything. Of course if he had won, I would have been singing his praises. I'm actually on probation from complaining about anything Taggart does-He can do know wrong.....until that scab heals-then it's on!

neiderwhomper

To all you bloggers,



tinkle tinkle poop poop.

do a dance and smack your head,

if you fall then get back up,

and with your girl get into bed,

make some fun and jump about,

tinkle tinkle poop poop.

Nice, Very Nice: Burnz

Burnz


I like how the developer sells the product based on "you can do it for free but if you value your time at minimum wage level, this pays for itself in 18 burns."

Da-Hoe?

Your job comes with $40 dollars gambling money? Or was that a self-imposed limit? I hear the dealers at the blackjack tables are nicer to you when you lose than slot machines: they laugh as you walk away from the table.

Tahoe

When I left Austin on Sunday the temp said 85 degrees.

The thermometer says it's only 34 degrees here but it feels much colder than that.

The shoot is going on without much of a hitch.

My Face is healing.......the itching.

I had a limit of 40 dollars that I dont have to lose.

That I lost.

Damn those slot machines they were laughing at me.

Moire Pistol

Yeah, I see they also ran into the same problem I had: if you reduce an image with "scan lines," you wind up with larger and smaller lines due to a Moire Pattern. It didn't make any sense to me at the time because you'd think that everything would reduce evenly. This isn't the case. More awful Moire Patterns are evident when people scan in line screen images from magazines and whatnot. The software that overcomes this uses stochastic proccesing, maybe? I forget the name of it.

Scan lines in photoshop

I saw this and thought of you, adolph, and the scan lines you put on your ms150 graphic. Pretty neat.

Mac Rumors: Dual 1.8GHz PowerMac Released

One of the things that I really like about MacRumors is that they don't "new window" link to other websites. This is a prime interface annoyance to me. Most of the time I command shift click in Safari to get a new tab behind the window, but in the times I just want to click through, I don't want to have to drag the link into the address bar because somebody things their website is the most important on the planet and should remain in an open wondow.
Mac Rumors: Dual 1.8GHz PowerMac Released

20 inch iMac

Wow!
Thats a pretty big chunck of change for a G4, but this is going to make the original 15 look even more tiny.

Why People Leave LA

No, not that LA...


Yahoo! News - Southern Drawls Confuse La. Phone System


You'd think that they'd deploy a system that says "...press or say..." like everywhere else.

In other news, I've returned from Miami, where I only left the conference for a night-time rendezvous in beachside hammock with Amber and five digit dinners with lots of raw oysters and stone crab and big fatty steak. Unfortunately, the brunch salmon on the final day got to me and I spent my free Saturday in the bed and by the toilet of a somewhat expensive South Beach hotel instead of sight-seeing. I still feel yuck today, and I attribute most of it to being knocked off food for less than a day or so. I'm completely food-dependant, an addict if you will, and can't imagine several days without real food, like Killy has faced. At least I still have enough energy to hustle to the bathroom!

I did all these neg scans on my HP desktop scanner. Not very good, for output but fine for web viewing.

I just noticed that my last two posts were 'posted' backwards....how do you guys read this thing? do you scroll down to the last recognizable post and then read back up? or do you read the most recent and then scroll down?

Sunday: Fresh Breath

Fresh Breath! even in the morning...at least, comparatively.

Most of the sores have subsided. The bites i had been giving the right side of my mouth are still a little sensitive as is the empty hole left by my wisdom tooth.

We woke up and went to house of pies. I had a plate of bacon and eggs with eggbeaters rather than eggs and left most of the bacon. The hash browns were buttery and good and had just the right amount of 'crisp' (something the avalon diner just can't get right.)

Came home and processed the four rolls of black and white film i have accumulated here at the house. adolfo iv slept peacefully and carol read The DaVinci Code, which, by the way, carol is flying through. She loves it. We went to Borders after breakfast so she could look at some DaVinci paintings up close.

Processing film is a relatively simple process here at my mother's house. The fridge has a 'chilled water' outlet in it. At this time of year, the water comes out at EXACTLY 68�

Believe it.

Two 120 rolls of junk and two 35mm rolls of a day i spent at the beach with adolfo iv, adolph and amber, and another of....i don't remember. i'll scan some and get back with you...

Diagnosis: Starvation!?

The last couple of days have been somewhat better. My mouth isn't so sore in the mornings and my breath isn't so bad. I've treid to ween myself off of vicodin since the extraction. I now take about 400 mg of Ibuprofin (motrin) instead.

I got a phone call from my doctor with the results of my blood tests on friday afternoon. I had gone in for a true doctor visit on wednesday. According to my labs i was clinically going through starvation. I was aghast. Starving?, i asked. Yeah, are you eating?, she returned. By the time she had called me i had shoved a filet o' fish down my gullet.

That didn't go down very well. It upset my fragile stomach for the rest of the afternoon. I don't remember if i ate anything else. My mouth was still really sensitive.

My first REAL meal came on saturday afternoon. I ate oatmeal in the morning, and tried a full day of activities: we got the baby ready, left the house for the mall, then to target, and other miscellaneous activities.

Our first stop was the mall. After about 1/2 hour i nearly collapsed from exhaustion/hunger. I walked out of there using the stroller to hold me up. I came back to the house and put a tuna sandwich in my belly and a glass of apple juice. I felt dizzy and lightheaded - like i had eaten a ten course meal. I collapsed in the bed and slept for about two hours. I felt a little better afterward and we tried again.

Target, this time. 1/2 hour in there and i began to feel weak again. Carol was adamant about getting me a full meal. She asked me what i wanted: mexican food. We stopped at a small mexican place where i got a full plate of green chicken enchiladas w/ all the trimmings.

With each bite i got dizzy and lightheaded again, but kept eating. I just powered it in. I got through all the beans, rice and ONE enchilada. I felt as full as i'd ever been. We walked the full feeling off at half price books (right next door) and then home for a full fledged nap.

At the end of the evening...my breath didn't smell so bad. Like fresh beans, maybe...

We are so thirsty for some kind of foundation

Mr. Bodacious: "''Progressive ideas are just a machine for ruining art,'' Currin said late one fall afternoon, sitting in his living room. ''I believe in the old idea of technique. I believe you need it if you're going to have magic and genius and masterpieces. No one would question the value of technique in any other field. No one would say that a tennis player would be better if only he could stop hitting the ball.''

"

Governator 3

Well I just watched Terminator 3 which as you all know stars the new Governor of California (He is to be sworn in today).

Since the horrible, horrible Matrix 3 was still fresh in my mind the 3rd Terminator movie did not seem so bad by comparison. I actually thought that the story was OK, if badly delivered.

Compared to other number 3's it ranks pretty good well.

For example, it was better than SuperMan III, but worse than Godfather III.
It was better than Planet of the Apes III, but worse than Star Wars III (by that I mean Return of the Jedi).
It was certainly better than Phantasm III, Batman III, Rambo III and the third Herbie Goes Bananas movie but it was not as good as Rocky III or Indian Jones III.
Of course it does not compare to some great number 3's like Red or The Ten Commandments III

Periocronitis and the day without straws

update:

i went to the dentist where i discovered i had a condition called periocronitis. with this condition, the skin surrounding an exposed wisdom tooth is pinched beneath another tooth.

the gingivo-stomatitis aggravated the skin around my wisdom tooth with a lesion, that in turn was pinched between another tooth, then, it swelled because of the pinching which, in turn, led to an aggrivation of the gingivo-stomatitis.....

and so on and so on.....

so what happened this morning was an extraction of my upper wisdom tooth to keep from pinching the bottom skin, therby facilitating the healing process. i'm already on antibiotics, so that's should help too.

and of course, my precious, vicodin for pain.

Now that i've had a tooth extracted, i can't drink anything through a straw or i'll break the clot that forms in the spot where my tooth once was. I guess i'll have to be spoon fed a smoothie.

UUHHMMMM........

sorry did I say 65 gigs........????

?!

65 Gigs? I mean, come on...

Call me Impressed.

My Brother just installed Itunes for PC on his box.

I am now able to share his 65+ gigs of music on mine.

As soon as we installed it we enabled sharing and BAM

that was it.

Pretty Damn Cool

Did anybody listen to

Fresh Air's story about journalist Lutz Kleveman's book about the battle over oil reserves in the Caspian Sea?

His new book is The New Great Game. The book is about the battle over the world's largest reserve of untapped oil and gas resources, located in the Caspian Sea and surrounding Central Asian republics. The oil alone is said to be worth $4 trillion. Kleveman claims that the United States, China, Russia and Iran are now engaged in a power struggle for control of the region's vast reserves and pipeline routes. Lutz Kleveman was born in Germany and studied at the London School of Economics. He has reported from war zones in the Balkans, Asia and the Middle East for the Daily Telegraph, Newsweek, CNN, The Independent, Der Spiegel and Die Zeit.