The Mexican place in town, which is generally pretty good, has undergone some changes. The name of the place changed a few times. Once upon a time it was the Three Amigos, then it became El Mariachi, and recently it became El Agave. I'm not sure of the Three Amigos era, but the menu has stayed pretty much the same through the recent name change, at least as far as listed items go.

Unfortunately in one way it's in sad, and downright perverse, decline. Some scoundrel, some rat-fink, some Schweinhundt has been adding peas to the rice. So far the contamination level has been low enough that it only takes a minute or two to parse through the rice and perform a yuckectomy. But the trend does not bode well. I fear it might end up being as bad as the fried rice at the Chinese place in town: so contaminated with peas that it's not worth bothering with at all. They used to have good pea-free fried rice, too, a long time ago.

Current Mood: disgusted

A couple weeks ago I posted about caffeine as it seemed to be having a rather potent effect. I haven't had caffeine for a some time now, but right now I'm experiencing the same odd altered state.

At breakfast I had a couple cups of decaff and assuming it wasn't a mix-up and really was decaff that suggests something other than caffeine is having an effect. The biggest deviation from the last several days is that I had one cup with a packet of sugar and that I had a muffin with a very sugary frosting. I'd never really noticed the "sugar rush" that I'd heard of, but maybe it was because I had a fairly high sugar intake much of the time. Now that I don't take in much straight sugar, it packs a wallop. It seems I have another reason to look out for sugary things. The feeling isn't bad, but it also isn't something I care much for.

Current Mood: high

That sounds more impressive than "caught an American Staffordshire Terrier " doesn't it? It also sounds a bit more impressive than what actually happened. Here's what happened.

For different reasons jmaynard and I spent much of Saturday in the Twin Cities and we stayed overnight at sistaur's as our (Sistaur's & mine) folks would be visiting for Mother's Day and we'd also deal with our (again, Sistaur's & mine) birthdays, which are today. (No, we're not twins, there's a few years separation.) Sistaur started out walking her dogs not long after I got in the shower. When I was done and dressed, I went out to meet her and walk for a little bit.

We met just a bit after she returned to the block her house is on. A house or two down the block, one her dogs got very hesitant and shied away as this bigger dog appeared. It was loose and had no collar, but it was more curious than aggressive. As she kept her dogs close, Sistaur got out the spare leash she carries as I caught the strange dog. That took only a couple tries and the dog was leashed.

Sistaur took her dogs home while held kept the strange dog back. She figured we'd wind up going to the Humane Society to see if the dog was chipped and if so, get it read. But she also asked a couple people if they knew the dog as we made our way home. The first person didn't, but knew it wasn't her neighbor's. The next person recognized from the next block so we went to the house he said. As we were about to climb the steps to the porch, the owners returned from a walk or looking for the dog and were quite pleased to get their dog back. Someone had evidently had set the dog loose and removed the collar. Evidently the dog was about a year old and had been loose for a day or so.

While the pit bull was strong - it tried to walk me - it was friendly and curious. If I was in any danger, it might have been from being licked to death.

Current Mood: calm

From a Penguicon community post:

Chris Genetti signed up to create our first Furry track.

I'm sure Chris was the major force in this and likely Furry Connection North (the FurCon that took place in the area a week before Penguicon) was significant.

But I can't help but wonder if Orvan appearing last year and this year had just a little bit to do with this.

Current Mood: amused

On Sunday I had some power supply problems with belgian and even after the supply was going again I didn't quite trust it, and the fan was still noisy enough to be an irritant. Monday there was a trip to Computer Renaissance in Mankato and a replacement power supply purchased. Today I made the swap.

The machine is a few years old and was a Wal-Mart mail-order item that I added the RAM and HDD to as the Wal-Mart prices were out of line. One thing they skimped on was the power supply. I'm a bit surprised it lasted this long as if I am reading it right, it's a mere 180 Watt unit. I expected to replace it with a 230 or 250 or 300 Watt device. The cheapest new supply (used weren't much if any cheaper) was the one I bought, and it's 480 Watts. I like efficiency, but I also like power circuitry to "loaf along" rather than be at all strained.

It was a true hardware project. I managed to cut myself getting the ATX connector from the old supply disconnected from the motherboard. But the new supply is in and running fine, and quietly. The thing has two fans, but is still rather quiet. While I had thing apart, I also adjust the speed of the CPU fan down a bit so that it is quieter too. It's not silent, but it is much quieter than before.

Current Mood: good

They don't just taste amazingly foul, they're dangerous.

This morning one of belgian's fans got rather loud. It was the power supply fan. It eventually quieted down some, but I could still hear the sounds of the bearings as a low-volume pitch changed back and forth, like a European siren. Eventually I shut things down to get a look at things, decided there wasn't much I could do for a while, so powered belgian back up. Almost.

The lights light up. The fans spin. The CD drive drawer activates. I think the HDD spins up. But there is no video. And there is no *beep*. Crap. I hope it's just the power supply and nothing more. I'm using percheron for now. Not as fast, but Wolvix is with XFCE is lighter than PCLinuxOS with KDE. Fewer (and newer?) fans, too, so it's also quieter. The fonts aren't as nice, alas.

It looks like I get to make a trip to Mankato and Computer Renaissance for a power supply. Hopefully it'll just be one trip and the power supply will be all I need. I know it's been around five years of nearly constant service, so it should be expected, but it's still annoying when it happens.

ADDENDUM: After removing power and working the input voltage setting switch, I tried it again. And belgian came right up. I did discover one of the upgrades "improved" KDE in a manner I had to fix [Control Center | Desktop - Panels - Menus - Start menu style: KDE (instead of the irritating 'KICKOFF' style)]. I don't quite trust the power supply, but I don't need to make the trip to Mankato today now.

Current Mood: annoyed

Or maybe, ACME Delivery: Lessons from Penguicon.

I'm not sure that the ACME ale went as well as it could have. It's not that what happened was bad, as I know some folks drank it, as evidenced by the odd empty bottle I saw in the con suite. It's just that... well, it seemed to not quite hit as well is could have. I recall that at MFF I was rather busy and didn't do a proper Orvan delivery but just took some to the gopher area. I think that if I do anything with it again, I might just check out room parties and pick one. I was tempted to write "most deserving" but that's hard to say, and "most in need" doesn't sound very nice. Right now I'm debating if I'll do that bit at all at RCFM - though if I read one comment right, someone might be disappointed if ACME IPA doesn't show up. I don't have any recipient in mind, and I don't recall any room parties last year. But then last year Jay & I went for the "Booster" level and I spent a fair amount of time at the Booster (and GoH) Appreciation Party. Therefore I wasn't checking out any of the rest of the con in that time. As far as I can tell, RCFM doesn't coordinate and try to block together room parties, but I could be wrong.

Orvan needs some sort of ribbon dispenser. It's just too awkward to deal with ribbons in a pocket with those hooves. Though now that I have the gold-on-black "ACME Customer" ribbons, they can be included with the delivered items or be attached to the parcels next Penguicon. Also, I should only need the black-on-yellow ACME ribbons next time, so they should be right. Or so I thought, I have reason to add another ribbon, which could also cause confusion. I should probably order a lot more than I did this year. This year I was really trying to get rid those defective things. I'm not sure how such a dispenser would work, but I have a while to think of something.

I'm debating if Orvan should have a holstered pocket knife or such. Many folks don't have a knife handy and have to ask to borrow from someone in the vicinity. Such a thing would have to be clearly not a weapon so as to avoid getting peace-bonded and thus have its utility removed. I've also noticed that some folks choose to open a parcel from the bottom. Perhaps I need to split the top label to make it easier to see the top of the box and where to cut.

While the big huge ACME sack works well for big things, it's not so good for smaller items. Rather than (just) a smaller version, perhaps I need to make, or have made, a pouch. That would allow for smaller items and give Orvan a place to stow odd little items for those who ask him if he has anything for them. Though he might need lots of whatever that might be, once word gets out. This sort of thing is another item I get to think about and be on the lookout for.

And... I need to shed a bunch of pounds. Again, dagnabbit. While I fit into the fursuit well enough, Orvan's belt is rather tight and that needs to be fixed. That's just one of many reasons for me to shed that weight, but it's added to the list.

Several months before Penguicon I contacted matt_arnold about possible ACME deliveries. He was kind enough to put me in contact with etain, Penguicon's Talent Coordinator. She suggested or relayed several ideas to me, which was good as I simply didn't know most folks well enough to come up with really good items for them. There were plans or suggestions for a good number of folks, as can be seen by a look at the parcel pile.

( You got a cookie for what?! )

Current Mood: happy

I've been wanting something to drink that doesn't seem to exist. I expect it does, but I'm just not aware or haven't been recalling it.

When it's cold, it's nice to have something warm or hot. This is covered by coffee, tea, cider, and hot chocolate. When it's warm or hot, something cool or cold is nice. This is covered by fruit juices, soft drinks, milk, iced tea (and now iced coffee), and ice-water. Also, beer and wine are served at least somewhat chilled.

But the only thing I can think of that is served at or around room temperature is hard liquor. And what I want is something that is neither hot nor cold, and is not intoxicating. So far all I can come up with is letting some water, without any ice, stand and warm up for a while. It's not bad. A little lemon or lime juice helps. Water is probably the best thing I can drink: no caffeine, no alcohol, no sugar, no artificial sweeteners, no calories. So I don't really mind that other than the delay of letting it come up to temperature.

But this does have me wondering, are there any drinks (other than hard liquors) that are served at, and considered good at, room temperature?

Current Mood: thirsty

As Orvan explains, the ACME Delivery web site isn't yet updated to include Penguicon 6.0, but that should happen in the next few days. Meanwhile...

One of jmaynard's interviews at ROFLcon was for CBC's Spark. During the interview Kate Raynes-Goldie asked Jay about the some of the furry community listings on his LiveJournal and that lead to him mentioning Orvan. I'm not sure how "semi-famous" (as it was put in the Spark ROFLcon Wrap-up post) Orvan is, but it is neat to see the claim. There is a video of the interview on youtube.

Current Mood: surprised

I've been backing down on caffeine since Penguicon and I think I've been fairly successful though the indicator isn't what I had expected. I had expected that I'd taper off and maybe have a can of Dr Pepper or a cup of coffee if I felt a headache coming on. And then I'd leave it at that.

I went out for breakfast this morning and had coffee. Regular coffee. About three cups. This, it turns out, wasn't what I should have done. I felt fine at the restaurant and for some time after I got home. Then I started feeling a bit odd. I suppose the best way to describe it is "high" as I don't feel bad, but I don't feel right either. I don't have the shakes and I don't feel overly awake or alert. Nor do I feel ill.

I have a few cans of Dr Pepper left and I think they should do for the next couple days. Hopefully then I'll done with caffeine for a while again.

Current Mood: high

I've seen a few posts from folks who said that for one reason or another they will not or might not be at RCFM. Also, I have only one or two fairly firm ideas for ACME delivery stuff at RCFM. This is sort of surprising, in a bad way. I expected I'd have a few ideas or get a few from various folks. I had a lot of suggestions for Penguicon and was able (with help) to make most of them work and so that went rather well.

I don't expect to do as much as I did at MFF and Penguicon, but having only two or three items bugs me some. Why? It feels like I'm not doing enough. On the good side, if Orvan isn't doing deliveries all the time, he has time to do other things, and so do I. But I'd still like to have a bit more. I figure half a dozen deliveries is a reasonable lower limit, and that's not counting any spur of the moment things that can happen when someone says, "Hey, could I get ACME to deliver this?"

The ideal item to deliver is inexpensive (easy to buy if need be), small (easy to haul across several states), and appreciated or found amusing by the recipient.

So since I am wondering who will be at RCFM and what more Orvan might do, here's a poll:

Poll #1177720
Open to: All, results viewable to: None

RCFM?

At RCFM, ACME should deliver _____________.

It should be delivered to ____________.

Additional comment space:

Current Mood: curious

Orvan has a short post about Penguicon, but will say more once he has the photo gallery in place on the ACME Delivery web site. That could be a week or two. I'll likely have a few more things to say when the photos are up as well. In the meantime, here's my text version of things.

( This is for me. You might find it lengthy and dull. )

Current Mood: tired

InsaneJournal experienced a rather lengthy outage in the day day or two, but it wasn't a complete mystery. There is a Twitter InsaneJournal account that kept folks informed of what was going on. The news wasn't always good. In fact it looked rather bleak for a while. In the end there was no data loss and things were fully restored.

The reaction? There have a been a couple folks complaining that they should get additional time, and maybe they will get it, I don't know. I don't run the site. But those folks got replies (from fellow users, not admins) that pretty much told them to shape up. Someone even went so far as to create and announce a new community (or asylum if you prefer that designation) "no comp needed." The idea is people could join that sort of like signing a petition to say they do not expect any addition paid time or other goodies for the downtime.

This shows how much people appreciate being informed, even when the news isn't always good. That there has always been very open and spin-free communication from IJ certainly doesn't hurt.

Current Mood: impressed

Over a year ago, in late February or early March, jmaynard and I switched almost all the lights in the house to compact fluorescent. Now that it's been over a year with them, I've realized that the reliability claims seem to be true.

In the past year we've replaced two CFLs. One was a case of "infant mortality" where the circuitry failed immediately when first switched on. This was covered under warranty, almost. A replacement bulb was sent, but not in the same style. When we informed the company of that issue they sent another bulb, but it was the same style as they had sent and not the one we wanted. So that was the one bulb we bought a replacement for.

Another bulb failed a month or two later, and was replaced with one of the bulbs that had been sent. Since then we've had no problems.

Had we still been using incandescents I expect I would have replaced two or three bulbs in the office light fixture in the last year.

I don't expect incandescent lights to ever completely disappear as there are places that I really wouldn't want a fluorescent light, such as in an oven. But the idea of using incandescents for general lighting seems a rather quaint notion to me now.

Current Mood: pleased

One thing Apple got right about Mac OS X is the Software Update. It alerts the user to updates when they are available and lets them be installed on the user's schedule without too much fuss. Except for QuickTime.

I have updated QuickTime at least three times now (in a surprisingly short time, I wonder how many holes are in the thing). Software Update alerts me and offers to take care of it. I have yet to see it do that with QuickTime. I don't know what's special (in the short bus sense) about QuickTime and Software Update but they earn on F on "getting along." The alert shows up, the offer is made, my password is asked for (and supplied) and almost immediately up pops a message that there was an error and the bad package trashed. I acknowledge the message... and software update suggests I do what just failed. If I do, the loop goes on and on.

I can update QuickTime, to Software Update's satisfaction, by downloading it with a browser and dealing with it manually. So I've done that. But it's really annoying to see a tool consistently fail on a situation that is common. perhaps Software Update needs an update? Right now I'd like at least one of two things regarding this: (1) Software Update to work as intended even with QuickTime. (2) QuickTime to be good enough to be version-stable for several months.

Both would be ideal. Just item 1 would be less hassle. I could settle for just item 2, if I only had to deal with once or maybe twice a year. I'm not sure if this is the third or fourth time this year QuickTime has needed updating. Is it in permanent beta?

Current Mood: annoyed

I found I could see the spinning figure going around counterclockwise (as viewed from above) by looking at the image upside down. Then I still see clockwise rotation, but it's flipped. As long I keep looking as I move to right the orientation the counterclockwise rotation holds. But if anything causes a switch to clockwise, clockwise it stays.

I mentioned in reply that I had a look at the individual frames and there was a background frame and deviations. Behind the cut is a modified version, with the background frame removed. This one I can see going counterclockwise without any twisting around.

( No background )

Current Music: The Time Warp

In getting a few ACME items ready for Penguicon I had to print a few things. But I've had rotten luck with getting CUPS to do more than print a test page, so I wound using the PowerBook for that. After a while that began to gnaw at me. OS X has what I consider to be a few deficiencies or at least unnecessary goofinesses, so I went to see if I could get belgian to print.

To my surprise, CUPS seemed to have found all the printers that are available. Getting hopeful, I opened AbiWord and tried to print something. Success! But that was on a Deskjet. No such luck with the Laserjet. CUPS said it was successful. The lights on the printer blinked. And... nothing prints. I tried printing a test page and that worked. Strange. Getting suspicious (or desperate?) I tried printing from OpenOffice. That worked. But I still couldn't print to the Laserjet from AbiWord. I could print to .pdf and then have KGhostView print that.

This is annoying, but less annoying than not being able to print at all from belgian. What, beyond massive size, does OpenOffice have that AbiWord does not? It looked like my choice was to use the oversized and annoyingly slow to open OpenOffice or do a silly work-around with AbiWord.

Even stranger, this morning I tried again and I can print to the Laser printer directly from AbiWord now. I like that it's working, but I'd really like to know what changed overnight. Things that mysteriously don't work, then mysteriously start working bother me. How do I know it won't mysteriously stop working again?

EDIT: My concern was justified. AbiWord isn't printing to the Laserjet now.

Current Mood: discontent
Current Music: Bugs Bunny And Tweety Show Theme

Have a look at the animated gif (the one that isn't an ad) on this page and see which way the figures seems to go around.

( Don't look here until after you've looked there, thanks. )

Current Music: S-100 Bus - Frank Hayes

ladyniniane will appreciate this:

Once upon a time I worked at a post office, nights. This is when trucks come in, mail gets unloaded, sorted, loaded, and the trucks leave. Naturally there is a lot of activity when the morning is one of a delivery day, Monday through Saturday, as local mail is processed outbound and inbound and then thing are made ready for the local area. But Sunday mornings tend to be slow. Fewer trucks in, fewer going out, no local delivery except for express.

I liked working on the loading dock, despite the lack of air conditioning. It had a few advantages. One was that a supervisor that even USPS wasn't stupid enough to reward with a day shift tended not to go out on the dock very much. Another was that when you unloaded a truck, or loaded a truck, you had an end that could be seen getting closer and there was some feeling of accomplishment when that bit was done. Things changed, even if only a little bit. Working on a sorting belt inside there was no end other than the clock. Things seemed to stay the same.

So Sunday mornings I'd often be on the dock without anyone else around but the (acting) dock supervisor. Sundays had a minimal crew and regular supervisors were normally not around, having the day (or night) off. There was almost always a radio playing, which helped some. Since the thing was also a tape player I asked if I could bring in a tape, since I was about the only one around anyway. This was quickly agreed to and I made up a tape.

I included some Animaniacs tunes, some Big Band Swing, and some Classical. When I brought the tape in, the (acting) dock supervisor asked what was on it and I told him. The Animaniacs and Swing didn't get much reaction but when I said "Classical" I got the reaction, "Awww, not classical!" and I quickly explained I did not mean opera. That helped a bit, but he was still leery.

As the night went on the tape played through. One truck driver commented, when the Big Band stuff was playing, "It's about time you got some good music around here." And later the classical stuff started. And the dock supervisor looked at me, "Hey, that's cartoon music!" It was both. If I recall right, he caught on sometime while Rossini was playing.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Variety Speak - Animaniacs

I haven't tried to join the military and been rejected. That's "Fandom's Favorite Fursuit Fracas" which seems rather a pompous claim. I am not sure it's the favorite or if it is just the default, there not being any other such. Last year someone came up with the idea to have a bunch of fursuits "face off" against each other on line in what amounts to a popularity contest. Supposedly there was a performance aspect to it, but it really seems to come down to a popularity contest with "Oh, I know that person" or "I know that suit maker" or even "I think that one is prettier." and such. So I have been merrily ignoring the whole thing, as it didn't seem to have much point.

A few nights ago Draconis IM-ed me asking if I minded if he nominated Orvan for this. I replied that I found the whole thing rather silly and pointless, but I wouldn't stop him. He replied that if nothing else at least it would be some publicity, which I do concede. I'm unsure if it's good way to get it, but there is that "as long as they spell the name right" comment. This has caused some trouble as the name submitted was "Orvan the Ox" and not "Orvan Ox" so an entry on WikiFur had to be corrected to point to Orvan's entry rather than the "there is no entry for..." page. I'm not sure if even "Orvan Ox' would have worked as the entry is "Orvan_Ox" as I recall.

I think crssafox pretty much sums it up even if I have not done nearly as much. Sure, I could have declined and I did consider it. But realistically I do not expect to win (there's nothing to win, anyway) and so I'm looking at it as a publicity stunt and nothing more.

I am not asking for your, or anyone else's, vote, nor will I be asking. I will also not be voting in this. What you do is up to you. If you follow this, you might let me know when it's over, or over for me (and Orvan). Thank you. Now, if you'll kindly excuse me, I have some stuff to do to get ready for Penguicon.

Current Mood: weird

Most Sundays jmaynard and I go out for breakfast and one fellow who works at the restaurant takes his family to Disney World every year This morning I just happened to ask him, "What's up, Doc?" and he pointed out that was a Warner Bros. thing and he was more a Disney type. Thinking the incident over a bit, a question came to me: Is there any popular phrase that makes Disney or a Disney character immediately come to mind?

For Warner Brothers there are a few phrases: "What's up, Doc?" "Th-th-that's all, folks!" "Of course you know, this means war." and even "I tawt I taw a puddy-tat. I did. I did taw a puddy-tat!"

But all I can think of for Disney are musical items such as, "When You Wish Upon A Star" or the derogatory usage of Mickey Mouse to describe a (I am trying not to say 'goofy') screwy system.

Am I overlooking something? Is there some character quotation that is fairly common that instantly brings a Disney character to mind?

Current Mood: curious

I was surprised a couple nights ago when bronxelf_ag001 IMed me, asking if we got Comedy Central and saying that Jay was on South Park. jmaynard didn't know anything of this, but I did manage to find Comedy Central on the local cable system, just in time to see a brawl where various internet sensations were killed off. The Tron Guy was done in by a panda.

We now have a tape of the episode, and we both watched as that episode aired again last night so we've now seen it in full. Jay has posted about it. As the bit at the opening of show says, the voices are "impersonated... badly." I've suggested to Jay that he might want to record some, though not all, of the lines as if he was doing ADR and let people compare.

As for the show itself, I think it just confirmed that, other than this appearance, I am not really missing anything by not watching it. Annoyingly, some fragments of the dialog and irritating voicing has been stuck in my mind as a bit of an earworm. That, fortunately, is fading.

And no, I am not looking to get or make a panda fursuit.

Current Mood: surprised

Those two links I posted yesterday? They do not go to Rick Astley videos. In fact, they do not go to videos at all.

It seemed many, many folks were doing the Rickroll crap, so I decided to admit to it and then not do it.

With the excess of the Rickroll that happened across the net yesterday, I can only hope that it now finally seen for the lameness that it has always been. The most amusing thing even referring to it was Wil Wheaton's comment that he hoped something would "...storm the Internets like Mahir Rickrolling a LOLCat."