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** -- previously read
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Wednesday, October 31, 2001
Damn, gas prices around here were at about $1.08 for over a week, and then when I need to fill up, they jump back to $1.19. DAMN.
Just for the holiday: Halloween Buddy Icons for AIM
I just saw the scariest Halloween show I've ever witnessed -- a special Halloween edition of "Martha Stewart's Living."
Monday, October 29, 2001
I went to the costume store over the weekend and found an item called "Econo-Wizard" -- basically a simple point wizard hat. Thus my halloween costume will be "Econo-Wizard" with the point being to assemble a decent outfit while spending as little cash as possible. We'll see how it goes.
Thursday, October 25, 2001
LONGitude Capsules
Maybe they should have named their website www.pleaseFDAsueme.com. Anyways, check out the FAQ under "How long should I take...?" Monday, October 22, 2001
We had a busy weekend.
Friday is normally a day off for me, but I made the long drive out to Mt. Clemens for the viewing at the funeral home for my grandmother. She looked very nice -- the years in the funeral home had wasted her away, it seemed -- and I was able to see how my Mom and other family members were doing. I spent most of the afternoon there, then drove home to meet up with Julie and get some dinner. A couple of hours after that, I ran out of juice and Jules put me to bed. Saturday we had to get up even earlier than the day before for the funeral itself. It was a somber affair, and pallbaering duty was a weird experience for me. My grandmother is in there, my mind kept screaming, as we walked the casket into the chapel at the cemetery, and again as it was placed into the vault, which was then lowered into the ground. However, when all was said and done, I felt like I'd said my goodbyes and was at peace. The family gathered for lunch later, and I was able to catch up with a few people I hadn't seen in almost fifteen years. It's unfortunate that it took what happened to bring us together, but I guess that's the way life works. After that, looking the break the mood, Jules and I checked out a large shopping mall I used to go to as a kid, as well as stopping out at Blake's Cider Mill in Armada. (Home of Dick Endberg, fyi.) Good weekend, lots of stuff in there -- just tiring. Wednesday, October 17, 2001
My grandmother, Mildred Champine, died last night. She was 90 years old.
It's sad, but I'm not feeling totally wrecked by the passing. Maybe it's because she'd been sickly for a long time now, and I guess I'd just accepted in my mind that I'd get a phone call someday telling me what had happened. In fact, one of the worse feelings of the whole thing is seeing the sadness that my mother is feeling. I last saw her on her 90th birthday. I stopped by the nursing home to talk to her and give her a card, and while she was small and frail and hard of hearing, she still knew what was going on. "You got married," she said. Things had been such that she was not able to come out to Ann Arbor for the ceremony, but my mom had shown her pictures. We talked for only about ten minutes before she insisted that I take her to the cafeteria so she could eat, and so I did, and left her in peace. She was my personal example of the stubbornness and strength of character of those Americans who survived the Depression and both World Wars. She's in a better place now, and she will be missed. Saturday, October 13, 2001
Finally got Julie's laptop up to speed again, without the help of Dell (even tho it was their drivers that were broken). Mad props go out to Dan H. for his assistance.
William Shatner explains "mysterious noise" on "Star Trek" video Thursday, October 11, 2001
Wednesday, October 10, 2001
Sunday, October 07, 2001
If the crap with Julie's laptop wasn't bad enough, my work machine keeps getting infected with Nimda.
I'm not dumb enough to open strange attachments or go to weird websites where the infector might be loading, so at this point I can only guess that file sharing is to blame. Especially when the infected files that flood the drive are all names of bands or songs. Makes me think some knucklehead got infected and their Aimster/mp3 file names are being shanghaied and put on my machine. If it wasn't for the fact that this new machine is top of the line, I'd ask for ZombieLover back. Tuesday, October 02, 2001
Last night Jules and I went to buy a new bed.
What ended up frustrating me was that I was rejected by Art Van for credit, for a bed that I could have paid for outright with a check, a credit card, or money from my savings account. What caused this to happen? I'll be the first to admit that I was not very good with my finances while I was in school -- I had almost all of my school paid with student loans and I had to max a few credit cards during that time. But that was at the very least six years ago, and for the last four years I've had a steady income while paying off 90% of the card debt that I had as well as being consistent on paying the student loan debt. However, for that tough period of time between 93 and 97 it looks like I'm damned to be looked at as a credit risk. It doesn't seem terribly fair, but I guess all I can do is keep my good record going while waiting for that supposed 7-year window to go by. I just pray that when it comes time for Julie and I to arrange for our mortgage that this past doesn't come back to haunt me.
My wife, the lovely Julie, got a laptop loaded with WinME just as that Os was rolling out, and she's had nothing but difficulties with it. Which is unfortunate, because my other experiences with ME have been positive.
Anyways, a Dell tech installed a new motherboard and the thing hasn't worked right since, choking on one specific file on startup. I love Dell -- I think they're the best of the current venders and have had great response from all of their departments -- but no one on their end can come up with a solution, and no one on their end is willing to go to the lengths needed to alleviate the problems (either fix it, supply a new OS, or a new laptop.) Everything I could think to throw at it has been tried with no luck, save a couple of not-exactly-the-situation-fixes from Microsoft's Online Knowledgebase. It's frustrating, cause I'm supposedly the technologist. Speaking of frustration, I have a story about credit rejection, but I don't want to think about it anymore tonight. Maybe tomorrow. Monday, October 01, 2001
Hey, tomorrow is one full year of the eXcerpts blog. Technically things began in late August but it was not until October that Blogger got involved.
Just got a note from ESPN.com tech support thanking me for identifying a problem with one of their live radio feeds. Booyaka!
This Modern World
One of the things that bugs me about this new America we live in is some of the disturbing consequences of the newfound Patriotism drive. I've read some articles about reporters being fired for making critical comments about the way the President is conducting affairs, and have seen firsthand the disapproving looks on the face of that idiot Brit Hume as he noted that academics at universities were actually presenting evidence that US policy may have played a part in September 11. Regardless of how you feel, either way, the reason we should be taking such pride in those flags we fly is that we can feel critical of the President, or the direction of the country. I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said (I paraphrase)"I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." |
