My Substitute Reality -You're just jealous cause the little voices only talk to me-

Saturday October 22, 2005

Love that Frys, sometimes

Filed under: Geek — don @ 10:01 pm

Frys’ Electronics. The place we love to hate. Most of us geeks look forward to their ads because, well, because they have lots of geeky stuff. They also have about the best prices and selection around. You’ve probably been in their stores. They all have themes. The one I go to in Woodland Hills has an Alice in Wonderland theme. The one in Burbank is a space theme complete with a crashed spaceship on the roof. And the stores are BIG. So much stuff to look at. So many questions to ask. And there’s the rub.

If you have a question good luck. It’s not that you can’t find someone to help you. It’s more you can’t find anyone using the brain that day. I suspect there is one brain at Frys and they all take turns using it. I can’t remember ever running into that person but I’ve heard rumors he exists. Just once I would like to actually have a question answered to my satisfaction. Maybe someday.

So last week they had several 1 day sales and a 3 day sale. The first day they had a Notebook computer for $399. I went to look at it and they were sold out. That’s no surprise. The computer did have a Via processor so it wasn’t that good but $399 for a notebook is pretty cheap. The next day they had another 1 day sale and another Notebook. This one was $499 and it had an AMD processor. Not an Intel but pretty good. I went to see if it was any good. The salesman who showed it to me said I wouldn’t be happy with it and I should get the one next to it. That one was $999. I went ahead and got the one for $499. I brought it home and I must say I’m quite happy with it. It’s got the 2600+ AMD(which runs at 1.6 GHz. Why don’t they just call it a 1600?). It’s got a 15″ XGA TFT screen, 40 Gig drive, 10/100 wired LAN, 54 MBs Wireless G LAN, Windows XP, and a CD-RW/DVD. The only thing it’s missing that I wish it had is a serial port. My Garmin GPS has a serial interface. I guess I’ll have to find a serial to usb convertor. I know they sell them.

So now I’ve got a decent notebook. I bought a Compaq 180 MHz notebook about 8 years ago but it’s battery would never hold a charge. I couldn’t really use it unless I plugged it in. Michelle wants it so she can at least have a computer of her own. Maybe I should put Linux on it and give it to her. In a few months she could rule Frys.

Saturday October 15, 2005

Cruise 4 Kids

Filed under: Motorcycle — don @ 6:54 am

I’m going on my first charity motorcycle ride tomorrow. The ride is called Cruise 4 Kids. It starts at a Boeing parking lot, heads up the 405 then over to Pacific Coast Highway. We head inland at Malibu Canyon to the 101 then to CBS studios in Studio City.

The ride is escorted by CHP officers so it’s a non-stop 60 mile trip. I thought about it last year but I had only had my M1 class license for a few weeks and didn’t quite feel comfortable taking that long a ride. This year it’s no big deal. I’ll take my camera and put up some pictures when I get back.

Thursday October 6, 2005

Carlsbad

Filed under: Life — don @ 6:59 am

We’re going to Carlsbad this weekend to see Heather, Mark, and Camden. I’m not sure what there is to do in Carlsbad but we were told to bring swimsuits. I do know it’s close to my favorite restaraunt chain, The Fish Market. It’s the best place to go if you like great fish. I was introduced to it when I used to go to the San Jose area for work back in the late 80’s. My favorite is swordfish but they make a great cioppino. That’s probably what I’ll have since you can get good swordfish many places but good cioppino is hard to find.

Thursday September 29, 2005

Where there’s smoke….

Filed under: Life — don @ 4:01 pm

Yes, there’s fire. I’m sure you’ve heard about our newest fire in SoCal. It started at Topanga Canyon Blvd and the 118(Simi Valley) freeway. I went outside and took a few pictures. This first one is looking due east from our front lawn. Notice how clear the air is. The next one is looking due west where the fire is. Check out my gallery.

And now I have a sty. A sty in my eye. Oh my. I can’t remember how old I was the last time I had a large sty but I do remember I was a kid and my folks took me to an eye doctor to have it fixed. I remember the eye doctor was a terrible man who put a needle in my eye that was about the size of a telephone pole. I remember asking my mom if I was going to get a shot and her saying “no, you don’t need a shot.” She was probably right as shots are given with needles that are closer to the size of a pencil.

Ok, so the needle didn’t actually go into my eye, it just went into the corner. Considering all my brother Daryl went through with his eye when he was a kid I was probably a real big baby. That’s ok, I was the baby after all.

So now I’m dealing with this sty and I’m sure it’s getting better with the heat packs. I thought about going to the doctor but most of the advice on the internet says to just use heat and if it doesn’t go away in a few days THEN go see the doctor.

I’m pretty sure my dreams tonight will include telephone poles and mad doctors.

Tuesday September 13, 2005

Barbie’s Car

Filed under: Cars,Work — don @ 7:25 pm

I’ve been thinking about how dangerous it is to ride a bike when it’s raining. Especially a bike that has 140 horsepower. I’ve also been thinking about how uncomforatable it is to be soaked. With those 2 things in mind I started looking for a small car to drive the 28 miles to and from work that got good gas mileage. I’ve got a Ford F-150 but it doesn’t know how to pass a gas station.

Last week I started looking in earnest for a wet weather car and yesterday I found it. It’s a 1991 Mazda Miata. It’s not fast but it is kinda fun and it will keep me dry. It seems to be in pretty good condition for a 15 year old car. We’ll see how it goes.

Saturday September 10, 2005

Another music meme

Filed under: Nothing — don @ 11:27 pm

A music meme I found on “A Small Victory“. I decided it would be fun. I graduated in 1972. And yes, I chose 2 songs as my favorite. It’s my blog and I decided I couldn’t decide.

1. Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function here and get the list of 100 most popular songs of that year
2. Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate and underline your favorite. Do nothing to the ones you don’t remember (or don’t care about).

1. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Roberta Flack
2. Alone Again (Naturally), Gilbert O’Sullivan
3. American Pie, Don McLean
4. Without You, Nilsson
5. Candy Man, Sammy Davis Jr.
6. I Gotcha, Joe Tex
7. Lean On Me, Bill Withers
8. Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me, Mac Davis
9. Brand New Key, Melanie
10. Daddy Dont You Walk So Fast, Wayne Newton Hated it and loved it. Bleh!
11. Let’s Stay Together, Al Green
12. Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl), Looking Glass
13. Oh Girl, Chi-Lites
14. Nice To Be With You, Gallery
15. My Ding-A-Ling, Chuck Berry
16. If Loving You Is Wrong I Don’t Want To Be Right, Luther Ingram
17. Heart Of Gold, Neil Young
18. Betcha By Golly, Wow, Stylistics
19. I’ll Take You There, Staple Singers
20. Ben, Michael Jackson
21. The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Robert John
22. Outa-space, Billy Preston
23. Slippin’ Into Darkness, War
24. Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress), Hollies
25. How Do You Do, Mouth and MacNeal
27. Song Sung Blue, Neil Diamond
28. A Horse With No Name, America
28. Popcorn, Hot Butter
29. Everybody Plays The Fool, Main Ingredient
30. Precious And Few, Climax
31. Last Night I Didn’t Get To Sleep At All, 5th Dimension
32. Nights In White Satin, Moody Blues
33. Go All The Way, Raspberries
34. Too Late To Turn Back Now, Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose
35. Back Stabbers, O’Jays
36. Down By The Lazy River, Osmonds
37. Sunshine, Jonathan Edwards
38. Starting All Over Again, Mel and Tim
39. Day Atter Day, Badfinger
40. Rocket Man, Elton John
41. Rockin’ Robin, Michael Jackson
42. Beautiful Sunday, Daniel Boone
43. Scorpio, Dennis Coffey and The Detroit Guitar Band
44. Morning Has Broken, Cat Stevens
45. The City Of New Orleans, Arlo Guthrie
46. Garden Party, Rick Nelson
47. I Can See Clearly Now, Johnny Nash
48. Burning Love, Elvis Presley
49. Clean Up Woman, Betty Wright
50. Hold Your Head Up, Argent
51. Jungle Fever, Chakachas
52. Everything I Own, Bread
53. In The Rain, Dramatics
54. Look What You Done For Me, Al Green
55. The Happiest Girl In The Whole U.S.A., Donna Fargo
56. Bang A Gong (Get It On), T. Rex
57. Mother And Child Reunion, Paul Simon
58. Where Is The Love, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway
59. I’m Still In Love With You, Al Green
60. Layla, Derek and The Dominos
61. Day Dreaming, Aretha Franklin
62. The Way Of Love, Cher
63. Black And White, Three Dog Night
64. Sylvia’s Mother, Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show
65. Hurting Each Other, Carpenters
66. Coconut, Nilsson
68. Puppy Love, Donny Osmond
69. You Don’t Mess Around With Jim, Jim Croce
70. Hot Rod Lincoln, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
71. A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done, Sonny and Cher
72. Joy, Apollo 100
73. Anticipation, Carly Simon
74. Never Been To Spain, Three Dog Night
75. Kiss An Angel Good Morning, Charlie Pride
76. School’s Out, Alice Cooper
77. Saturday In The Park, Chicago
78. Drowning In The Sea Of Love, Joe Simon
79. Use Me, Bill Withers
80. Family Affair, Sly and The Family Stone
81. Troglodyte, Jimmy Castor Bunch
82. The Witch Queen Of New Orleans, Redbone
83. Freddie’s Dead, Curtis Mayfield
84. Power Of Love, Joe Simon
85. Ain’t Understanding Mellow, Jerry Butler and Brenda Lee Eager
86. Taxi, Harry Chapin
87. Don’t Say You Don’t Rememeer, Beverly Bremers
87. Sealed With A Kiss, Bobby Vinton
88. I Saw The Light, Todd Rundgren
89. Motorcycle Mama, Sailcat
90. Day By Day, Godspell Soundtrack
91. Roundabout, Yes
92. Doctor My Eyes, Jackson Browne
93. I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing, New Seekers
94. Vincent / Castles In The Air, Don Mclean
95. Baby Let Me Take You (In My Arms), Detroit Emeralds
96. Speak To The Sky, Rick Springfield
97. I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing, Hillside Singers
98. Walking In The Rain With The One I Love, Love Unlimited
99. Good Foot, Pt. 1, James Brown
100. Pop That Thang, Isley Bros.

New Kenosha Stuff

Filed under: Life,Personal — don @ 1:17 pm

I put some new pictures from Google Earth and our GPS info from the Kenosha trip into the gallery.

The Blame Game

Filed under: Politics — don @ 12:31 am

Bush was 100% to blame! The mayor of New Orleans didn’t have a plan! The governer should be recalled for ineptitude! Michael Brown needs to be fired!

This is the new game in the US. Liberals blame Bush and Brown. Conservatives blame Nagin and Blanco. I blame Mother Nature. Hurricane Katrina was the worst disaster the US has ever had in terms of square miles devastated. 9/11 was very bad but it was also very localized. I saw a report tonight that Katrina devastated 70,000 square miles. California is about 158,000 square miles so that would be almost half of our state. That’s a VERY large area.

When you watch the fingers being pointed it’s interesting. I’m pretty sure all of the above people were somewhat culpable. I just find it amazing that either side can actually say the other is totally at fault but that’s what I’m seeing on the liberal blogs and I’m guessing the conservative blogs are doing the same thing. For once I’m not going to say it’s all the democrat’s fault. I believe this disaster was so large and so unprecedented that nobody was prepared to handle it. Not the local government and not the federal government.

I would love to see the blame game stop and see people focus on the real problem. Helping the victims of this disaster. There will be plenty of time for the bickering later.

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