Started working on the van today. She's leaking and/or burning oil. I bought it second hand - what a waste that was. Should have used it as a down-payment for a new car. We bought a new Camry anyway - so I'm driving my 3-year old Neon to/from work. The van will become a project vehicle for me. Step one will be finding out where that oil leak is and fixing it. Then I may start to work on the engine - see if I can make her stop burning oil. (of course, I may end up totally destroying the engine in the process ;)

Back to today - I got under her and started cleaning up the gunk from the current leak(s), to be able to find the source. Once I get it all de-gunked, I'll drive her around for a while to see what I can find. It was a good respite from doing my homework, anyway. I needed the break.

I've just read an article on the Internet (found here) regarding how DirecTV has thrown out a large dragnet to catch satellite pirates. Unfortunately, their legal dragnet is catching innocent victims as well. There is one thing that I did not understand in the article. Rod Sosa, an entrepreneur from Texas was one of the innocent people that DirecTV managed to convince to settle out of court for $3,500, merely for owning a piece of equipment that could be used to pirate their signal. In the article, it mentions that Rod had no such intentions, and had not, in fact, stolen any of DirecTV's programming. Yet, he willingly paid their blackmail? In this country, there is a legal system. That legal system is supposed to be designed to protect us from prosecution for crimes of which we are innocent. Granted that it does not always work. However, given that the evidence of proof of theft of service is on the accuser in this instance, what did Rod have to lose except some time off from work? Even at $300/day (a good six-digit salary), Rod could apparently afford to spend as much as 11 full days in court arguing his case. Why do people buckle so easily under the threat of legal action when they are innocent? What ever happened to standing up for what is right? It is very difficult for me to understand why someone would allow themselves to be pushed around and bullied by big business just because they wield some mysterious power called a 'lawsuit'. It's time we stood up for our rights as citizens and stopped being scared little mice. If we continue to allow big business to push us around, they won't stop doing it. 'nuf said....just had to get that off my chest.

Got involved in yet another addiction: This time it's a Virtual Reality World (currently in BETA) called There. If you're interested, visit at www.there.com. You can sign up for the BETA or send me an email and I'll send you a referral (so you get bumped ahead in the list). In the beta, you get 10,000 Therebucks to spend. It's based on XML and a nice VR engine. You can buy stuff, ride a hoverboard/hovercraft/dune buggy, etc.... It's been a very sociable experience, and I think it'll be nice for people who like The Sims, but are looking for more freedom in what they can 'do'. It's a cross between Sims and a MUD (if you know what that is...). Well, anyway, see you There!

Well, Blogger.Com has redesigned their blogging tool. Something else to get used to....but, hey, can't complain - I use their free service. I've been looking through my logs. Recently, I've seen a few hits from people looking for CLEP brain dumps. What's up with that? Have these people never heard of the LIBRARY? Try learning the subject you want to CLEP, and then visit a library for one of the many CLEP study guides that have been published for years. For the most part, these study guides are the same as the tests, just with different specifics in the questions. If you learn the material, you'll do fine. Brain dumps for CLEPs?

We've successfully moved our network, phones, users and office to Vienna, VA. It's been a harrowing few weeks, but we have a few loose ends to tie up and we'll be all done. Tomorrow I hope to tie up most of that stuff. Classes are done - but then started right back up again with Music Appreciation (should fit in great with my piano lessons, no?) and Expository Prose (that's one reason I started the blog anyway, right? To practice writing more?) I have this fear of writing. It's very difficult to get started. Once I do, though, thoughts roll out of my head faster than I can type them.

I've read the new Harry Potter book. One thing that made "The Order of the Phoenix" an interesting read was knowing that someone was going to die in the book. Every time that something started happening to one of the characters, you were saying to yourself, "Is this the one? Did they die?" It added that external expectation into the whole mystery of the book. It took me a few days to gulp down all 870 pages, due to work and all, but I've finished it for a few days now, and I'm ready for the next two already. Kudos to J.K. Rowling. I bought some Bertie Botts Beans and got two chaps I know to try the dirt flavored ones. You'd be surprised how UN-brave grown-ups can be. My son and I ate every flavor in the box between the two of us last summer. It was a fun experiment....gross, but fun....like fart humour! Some of them are positively disgusting, but hell, you just swallow those quicker...

I've been remiss of late to writing in the blog, so I'm just going to brain dump a bunch of random stuff. First of all - Looks like I will have my Associate's Degree this year (Decemeber will be graduation) - one way or the other. I need three more courses, two of which I've signed up for next semester (Music Appreciation and Expository Prose - we're going to be getting artsy). The last must be Database Programming (which I may be able to test out of), or Calculus I (which I may just study for the CLEP and CLEP out of..).

New subject: Usenet and Google - I must once again say that the Usenet archive on Google is a lifesaving device. If you don't already know - Try groups.google.com and type in some identifying search terms from a problem you can't solve. It's FANTASTIC - just found the solution to Outlook giving me an 'Operation Failed' message. I'm running WindowsXP, and had opened Outlook in a remote session earlier today - I opened Processes on Task Manager, and there was a hidden Outlook running still in the background - closed it and fixed the error....I love being able to look at problems other people have had and seeing the solution just SITTING there....it's great. - Jeffrey Harrow publishes The Harrow Technology Report. In it - Jeff said "It's not what you know, but how quickly you can find what you need to know" - that is so true. The Internet sure has changed how things are done - no longer do I spend hours on bizarre problems - the answers are right there. Go read his newsletter - it's great. I've been reading it for years.

New subject: Pepsi's Win a Billion Sweepstakes - backed by Berkshire "Where else you gonna get a billion dollars?" Hathaway. Amazing - This is just A BUTTLOAD of cash - I've got 8 entries so far. Also, I think I read somewhere that the final numbers are to be randomly picked by a monkey on their TV show special....if it matches the code for the final contestant, they'll win. Let me just ask, can TV get any stupider? I mean, yeah, I want to win a Billion Dollars, but does it have to be televised, and does it have to be done so - what's the word?! - Fox-TV-like? Maybe the special will be aired on Fox. If it's true, it just goes to show the level of intellect that the average American TV viewer has....:sigh:

New subject: The new series of Monk! The TV show on USA Network about an obsessive-compulsive detective. I LOVE this show. If you haven't seen it from last season (It wasn't as well publicized), you've got to catch it. The season premiere is tomorrow and it may bring me back to watching TV on a steady basis again, like I used to watch the X-Files each week religiously. Especially if you're a Columbo fan, this series will be for you!

Speaking of TV - I have a TV capture card (ATI TV Wonder VE, if you care) and just bought some software for it called Showshifter. The software works great - and I've been using it every day of the 15-day trial period, to record shows to my hard drive for viewing and writing to VCD. Using the TitanTV Electronic Program Guide, and searching for shows I want, I've been able to find and record shows I've wanted to watch, including an episode or two of Monk. If you have a TV capture card, you should check out this software - you can even get the professional edition of the DivX codec with it for good capture quality.

Well, out of breath for now....talk later....Rich

Compaq makes racks for their servers - but you can put other stuff in them. For this, they make shelves. Recently, we inherited a gaggle of racks (5) and one shelf. The shelf did not have a part number, but we wanted more. So, I called Compaq. I talked w/Tech support, Customer Service, the routing center, the sales team, and a variety of other people. I estimate that I spoke with 10 different people - 4 of which claimed to be actually able to help me. After a variety of dead-end calls, part numbers that did not exist, part numbers that are not in the sales' teams systems (yes, multiple sales teams..), and 4 hours all told on the phone, I called Dell.
Dell makes server racks and shelves for their racks. They're compatible with the racks I have. Their shelves fit fine - how do I know? They sent me one to test out. It fits just fine. Total time on phone with Dell representative (reached on first phone call, I might add) - 20 minutes TOPS. Guess who's getting my vote for ordering these shelves?

Found another collection of O. Henry's works in a used book store today. Book was c. 1957 or so, and contains some publications that I had never read before. Included were some letters of his, written to friends and colleagues. Some of them were very amusing, and his writing style was even consistent in his humorous asides to his friends. For those of you who are not aware, O. Henry has always been my favorite writer. His most famous stories are the staples of high school English teachers, "The Ransom of Red Chief" and "The Gift of the Magi" having been force-feed literature in more than one of my own educational endeavours. If anyone could inspire me to write, this short-story author would certainly be the man. Again, one of those things that I can say 'someday' to, like so many other desires cut off by the expectation of the Grim Reaper's edged blade. There is never enough time....

Why Matrix: Reloaded was a bad movie - let me count the ways:

1. Fight Scenes: Boring, trite, rehashed - In the first movie, Neo learns how to 'see' the matrix and change it. Yet, he continues to use kung-fu moves from the 60s and 70s to beat up the bad guys. In one fight scene, he's taking on what appears to be a hundred bad guys, and instead of using his 'superpowers', he's relying on moves that even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wouldn't use in their movies. The fight scenes are contrived. Some of them happen for no reason. In one part of the movie, they use a fight to 'make sure' that Neo is who he says he is - what was that?
   
2. Laurence Fishburne:Sigh - sorry, dude - your career is over after this one. Between the too-obvious hamming up of his lines, metre and tone, and the extremely POOR speaking abilities demonstrated at the 'Sermon on the Mount', Larry has lost his cool. Literally. By the end of the movie, you'll think of him as just a whiny hanger-on for Neo - just extra baggage to carry around. His acting was sub-par, and he really could have used some of those 'special' effects to beef up his voice for his pre-orgy-party speech.
   
3. Sex:Does anyone remember Quantum Leap? It was a great concept - could have been a Sci-Fi KILLER show - then they added sex, and the show became BAD - really bad. In a sci-fi flick, sexual tension is expected and desired. Sex itself ruins the show, always. Let me repeat myself - If you are making a science fiction movie or TV show - do not, under any circumstance, allow the director to show people having sex. And, if you do have to, make it short, very short. It seemed like a half hour before the scene was over. And make sure it doesn't look like a kid making love to his mother....speaking of which....
   
4. Carrie-Ann Moss:Did I get that spelling right? Boy did she get old fast. Love interest? My god, she looks old enough to have birthed Neo. She's not sexy. Even the leather outfit didn't help. Not one bit. ewww, take it off...
   
5. Discovery:This is what makes a science fiction film great. Unfortunately, Matrix:Reloaded didn't have any. Nothing new - sorry, but it's just same ole, same ole. We wanted to see Neo using all of his superpowers in this flick, but all he could do was fly real fast. Total lack of imagination on the writer's part. I blame them completely for the letdown.
   

That's just my opinion. I was disappointed. The Matrix was a great movie. Should have just loaded it once, though.

My blog has hit a bit of a dry spell. I haven't been writing because I've been busy, or because I've forgotten about my blog. Seems fear is a factor, the more I realize that people may read. I've not wanted to put anything in my blog that might seem off-color, or any part of the 'evil Rich'. Nobody reads the blog anyway, so I don't know what that's all about. I've given some thought to whether the blog is about me, or about the things that I do or find interesting, and that question brings about a weird answer. Are these two things not one and the same? I am what I do. We all are what we do. That is what makes each of us unique, our perspectives, our experiences. Some of the stuff that's UP, first.
Just finished Term 2 at Limestone College. Signed up for 6 more credits on Term 3 - I am on a ROLL.
Jon Davis, a prior associate of mine, has just had a BEAUTIFUL baby. Congratulations, man, and welcome to fatherhood, responsibility and all that.
People continue to send me forwarded emails of emotional or uplifting emails.....sigh. If you were going to write someone a letter, would you open the envelope, stuff in a newpaper clipping, and then just mail it, without adding any personal comment? I can understand wanting to share something with someone, but it seems that that is all some people do is forward stuff all day. Between the corn and the horrible net jokes that I've seen countless times over the years, please note that your FORWARDED sentimental/crap joke email will not be read. It will follow the Spam into the Spam folder.
Cloudmark's SpamNet BETA is over, and now they're charging for their software. We beta testers get to keep our beta copies forever, though. It's a shame they couldn't find a free business model. Their software works great.
I went and purchased a few small toys this past month. First of which was a Lexar JumpDrive - the USB memory stick that holds 128MB of files. The great thing about this is how Windows XP Pro handles it. I put a CD or two of my music on it, and just plug it in to whichever computer I'm at. Windows XP just pops up Media Player and starts playing all the songs stored on it.
I also purchased MIDI cables for hooking up my keyboard. I've recorded a few MIDIs, but I'm not quite used to performing yet. I get nervous and flub all over the place. I'll put a few on the site when I get better at it.
ttfn

Second semester is out at Limestone. New semester begins on Monday. I signed up for two classes again - but they may not have processed one of them. Will have to follow up on Monday. We've been doing preparation work for moving out to Merrifield. We got a Meridian One phone system, and I've been learning that system. Trying to make sure that everyone has a good game plan and target job when we get there. We'll be merging IT people with other departments, including acquisitions from last year, and I want to make sure that I can get everyone assigned duties, and take care of stuff from a supervisorial standpoint (target job objectives with measurable results..etc..). Anyways, just have had a lot on my mind lately, and have been working hard, so I haven't had time to write.
Bought a USB memory stick, the Lexmark 128MB one - it's nice. I've already used it to copy my homework folders for next semester to, so I'll be able to have my work with me at the library, or even at the office at lunch.