Button Happy
Button Happy

Got a big, expensive printer with a big green button on the front
Gonna push a lotta buttons 'till the printer does what I want
Got no idea what I'm okayin'
Gonna push now and call IT later

'Cause I'm, Button Happy
Button Happy Every Day

Poll #1452733 Magrathea's Replacement
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

What should I name the successor to Magrathea, my trusty MacBook Pro?

Other suggestions here:

Please note the "Fictional Planets" theme. And at least this time I'm not making drd2be an iWidow. :)

If anyone is curious, the new laptop is just the current 17" MBP, vanilla with no-glare screen. :)

I had something I wanted to write about today, but I'm having a hard time remembering what it was...

Read the Epic of Gilgamesh last night (well, a bit on Tuesday too) and it is fairly interesting. Neat to see where a lot of the high fantasy we've had in the past century or so came from... The grand quest to defeat the beast in the woods, the gods being petty and sending beasts after the hero, only to be defeated. It was also interesting to see a different retelling of Noah. Or at least I presume Utanapishtim is based on the same legends as Noah, since the stories are so similar.

That's about all I can think of... I know there was more I wanted to write about this morning, but I think most of it was from the dream I had at the end of the night, and it's since faded.

On one hand: Awesome video, and a lot of fun if you watch The Guild

On the other: Guild Season 3 XBox Live Exclusive? :(

Hopefully Live Silver gamers can get it... I'm not sure I want to pay a Gold fee as soon as I get my 360... I don't play enough.

So as I'm entering my 9th semester back at Uni, I'm looking over what all I still have left to do. And it honestly scares me.

Everything up until now has been pretty basic and simple... Learn how to use while/for loops to sort an array, and map out simple graphics in a Java pane... Re-teach myself how to do simple integrals and derivatives, and learn how to apply those to multiple variables for things like TNB frames and Gradients...

But now? TPL, where I have to learn 4-5 new programming languages. Humanities I, which looks to cover everything that ever happened, one week per society/culture. And with essay writing, which I always want to go either 50 pages over and run out of time, or half as long as is requested.

And then, to take this stuff out into the real world? Where mistakes can be made? I'm afraid enough of making a mistake on something as simple as a SaMBa server for the house, I can't imagine trying to write some Biotech software for a hospital, or trajectory planning for a rocket/shuttle... And forget engineering a bridge or coaster, that could kill lots of people, not just a few. All if I missed something.

I'd say I need to get into Academia instead, but anymore I fear the High Schools (since they must be all horrible now... Metal detectors and cameras all over my old HS.) and I'd be in my 80's by the time I could get around to getting a PhD for teaching at the College level.

So the band's last show was recorded by the promoter to use for promotions for next year...

I just got our copy.

I've listened to 30 seconds of each song and I'm not sure I'm even going to give it to the rest of the band. It's that bad.

Bleh. :(

Given your choice, preference, nicknames, and such:

1) What would your wartime pseudonym be? (Nom de Guerre)
2) What would your writing pseudonym be? (Nom de Plume)
3) What would your performance pseudonym be? (Nom de Stage?)
4) What would your competitive eating pseudonym be? (Nom de Nom Nom)

I think I'd just use my LJ name for all of the above, though as anyone familiar with my band knows, I already have the opportunity to use a Nom de Stage, and choose not to.

We'll start out with the easy bits:

Wednesday:
Arrived and Registered about 1PM.
Watched last 30-45 minutes of Geekin'
Watched The Gamers: Dorkness Rising

Thursday:
Played a round of The Settlers of Catan
Played a round of Hey, That's My Fish!
Helped out with the smithee_awards' Buttons on the Breezeway.
Played a round of Morton's List
Dinner with the Smith-ka-teers

Friday:
Catan seminar, found out about The Kids of Catan.
Geocaching seminar, found out about the art of Tupperware Hide and Seek.
Dealer Room Spelunking
smithee_awards
Post-Smithees until 3AM

Saturday:
Advanced Dimensional Green Ninja-Educational Preparatory Super-Elementary Fortress 555: The Movie!: The Trilogy! (...or NAMBLA </JonStewart>)
North Market lunch
Dealer Room Spelunking
Dinner with the Smith-ka-teers

All in all, I didn't really get much done in the way of playing this trip, but there were so many mistakes with the events in the book that it's hard to say what actually took place. The Smithees were in Ballroom 3, then the Hyatt Ballroom, then Ballroom 3... The book said 8PM, but it actually started at 7. sgtrocknroll showed up for a Buffy: The Vampire Slayer game, only to find out that it wasn't Buffy in any sense. It was a D&D 4th Ed game with no High-School aged vampire slayers involved.

But the weekend is almost over, and other than wanting to stick around later than sgtrocknroll wants to in order to hit the Art Gallery and see if I won a Mayfair drawing in the Dealer's Room, I got to hit most of what I wanted to that was listed in the schedule. But based on the game selection this year, I would say I should be able to just run pre-printed Hero and D&D 3rd Ed modules and have nearly-full tables. Most of the games seem to be Call of Cthulu or Gurps or the same 2-3 Shadowrun games over and over. There is the occasional odd system, but definitely bent towards the horror or D&D-but-more-complex-or-at-least-just-different-dice genres.

And the album is one step closer... I have the artwork for the front cover done, and explosiverain should have the disc and the artwork for the inside cover done or very close. If I get the order in tomorrow night, we should have the disc by the 8th, so long as there is no shipping mistakes. Cutting it a little close for taste, but it works.

So, here I am in Columbus again!

Grabbed my badge and booked it back to the hotel room to relax for a while and go through the catalogue. But the whole floor layout is all wonky due to new construction... A Tornado scare last year has people walking through a temporary bridge (yeah, that's safer...) to get from the food court to the convention center because the all-glass breezeway is "unsafe" and being remodeled. (Never mind that there are sections of the temporary bridge that give enough I worry about its safety at as busy a 'con as this.)

If anyone else is here for the 'con, drop me a reply (screened) and I'll get you contact info so we can arrange gaming and free time and such.

So this summer is rapidly becoming as unproductive as last year's. The garage has become uncleaned and a garage sale has been unplanned. My camera is unfunctional, so my short is still going unfilmed. And if the slowness at work is not undone, trips after the one for the 4th of July may go untaken.

But while it may be unproductive, it is certainly unstressing. The album is unstuck and sounding good. I'm slowly becoming unindebted, and moved to a new cell company that leaves me unencumbered with a Verizon contract.

So, for those not uninterested, what do you want to know about?

( Meme! )

Redshirt as 3rd Place? Really?

Not that anyone cares, but:

( B'z Checklist )

Dear Eric,

What can a little sister say about her big brother? So many things to say and no more time to say them. You taught me how to tie my shoes, ride a bike, TP a house. You told me that when I started to lose my teeth that if I touched the ones growing in they'd turn to gold. I avoided touching them like the plague. You were such an amazing brother. For all the wrong turns you took, the mistakes you made, you never let it get in the way of your love for your family. We were always close when we were younger, but over the past two years our relationship had really blossomed and you told me that I was your best friend. My last gift from you on Christmas was a card where you told me that I was your very best friend. I wanted you to know that you were my best friend too. I stare at my phone waiting for you to text me. Saying, "R U at work?" or "When will u be off?". You knew that I always had time for you. I was so proud of you when you admitted yourself into rehab and started to get your life together. No, that's not just it, I was always proud of you. From the day I was born you dubbed yourself my protector. From bullies to stalkers, you wanted to handle and take care of them all for me. I'm happy that my last memories of you were ones laughing and having a good time. I'm happy that the last thing I said to you was that I loved you. Our blood runs deep and the kind of connection I had with you, big brother, is irreplaceable. When we hung out we could always make each other laugh so hard that my cheeks would hurt. I'll miss that laugh, because it always made me feel at ease. You had an addictive personality, people couldn't help but like you. I can't fathom a life without you there. I can't comprehend not having you to run to when I have big news and for you to be just as excited as I am. For you to be there if the big news turns into bad news and make a joke but also have a shoulder there for me to lean on if the giggles didn't work. I know that you cherished me and I know that you knew that I cherished you. Like you would say, "At least I left a pretty corpse." You certainly lived a lot of life in 25 years, more than most people do in 55 or more. I will tell stories of you until the day I am laying on my death bed. I'll miss you so deeply, so wholly, and keep that place in my heart that's claimed as yours safe and sound. Only the good die young and the rest are left with a sour bereavement of what was or could have been.

With all the love in the universe,
Your little sis,
Heather

drd2be has had a migraine since Sunday afternoon.

I take the morning off of work to take her to the doctor. She still has a migraine at noon so I login to the webmail at work and shoot off an e-mail to our HR and our CEO letting them know that I'm going to stay at home in case she needs taken to the ER and will telecommute for the remainder of my shift.

THREE HOURS LATER, HR informs me that I will not be paid for my efforts, as I was not given permission in advance to telecommute. At this point, were I to go to work, I would be able to work for 1 hour.

During the three hours:

• Cleaned up and revised our nightly cleanup script to clean temp files out of roaming profiles and changed it from a cron job to a crontab job that runs after each shift.


• Modified Apt Sources list on main server to draw from Debian 4.0 so we are not forced to upgrade to Debian 5


• Ran an Apt upgrade on the main server to bring various libraries up to current and apply security patches.


• Processed all of my e-mail as it came in, including sending several things that needed to be available as hardcopy to my printer at work.


• Monitored the trouble ticket software throughout the duration.


• Walked my assistant through an RMA of a premise wiring box that needed exchanged.

Not a TON of work, but given that I had to set up the remote printer and some other things to be able to work from home in the first place, not horrible either. But I did all of it and unless the CEO overrides HR (which I am 90% sure he will), then I did all of it for free.

Keep in mind, our CEO, Operations Manager, 3/4 of Sales, and our HR/QA Manager's assistant all telecommute. I'm the one who is responsible for the VPN, setting up the laptops appropriately, etc.

EDIT: Okay, after meeting with the CEO, I am going to get paid. I am not allowed to telecommute in the future, however. He doesn't think I can fix anything from remote, for some reason.

(And just think, that's fan-made.)

A pair of my friends like to watch Metal Mania on VH1 Classic and rate how "Metal" the videos are. This involves each video starting at a perfect 10, and points (full only) being deducted for things such as overly pretty lead singer, pianist being featured on-camera, etc. Spinal Tap videos all rate a superlative 11 by default, and having a member from Brimfield, OH gets an automatic 1-point deduction. (The penalty for throwing our band out of town, or something.)

So this morning I was thinking about how my own Metal Points™ system would work, and realized that there was an entire subcategory of Metal in my mind that I had no name for... Until it hit me. Or rather, I almost hit an old 60's van that wasn't very well taken care of. Rust™.

Now, what qualifies as Rust™? Any song or musical element in the genre of Metal that I feel degrades MY overall enjoyment of the genre. This includes, but is not limited to, screaming, guitar parts that make my ears hurt because everyone is playing full chords on identical Marshalls with 0 mid-range, and gargling hot asphalt.

Now, just as the rules for Rufus & Twitch's Metal Points™ change from time to time to suit Rufus' whims, my rules are not hard and fast. There are times that gargling asphalt works. See Marco Hietala in Nightwish, or even Disturbed's David Draiman. They find appropriate points (usually) to break out a tar and gravel mouthwash and are able to still hit notes that are pleasant to the ear while simultaneously sounding like their vocal cords have been paved.

So, until I find a better term, anything Metal that does not strike me as pleasing or a reasonable difference in opinion is Rust™.

EDIT: Wrong -tucky...

So winter break is over and I am back in class... Both classes were taken because of theoretical ease (Intro to Logic should be simple after Discrete Math, which is just Intro to Logic and basic Set Theory crammed into one, and last time Software Engineering was taught, the entire grade was one book report.) but both classes are looking to be a bit more difficult. (80 pages to read by tomorrow and I read about 40 pages/hour, less if it's really dry like my Software Eng. book is supposed to be.) However, my Logic prof gets bonus points:

"I'm on loan from YSU, so I don't have an office. Therefore, here is my home number. If you get my daughter or my wife, do not hang up. If you call on Tuesday between 8 and 9, hang up or lose 10 points off your grade. Can anyone tell me why?"

(Squeaky, quiet voice from the front row) "House?"

"That's right. House is the only time during the week where I have an hour of zero distractions. Spoil my Hugh Laurie time, and you spoil your own grade."

---

Other than that, things are just dry and boring all around... Not much done around the house, nothing done on personal projects, though the new web/email server for the band should be up soon.

Here is the list of all of the providers that are showing "June 9", or as some providers decided to list it... "9 June". (International Title? I dunno...)

Armstrong

Bend

Blue Ridge

Cameron Communications

Charter

Cincinnati Bell

Click

Community Television Company

DISH Network (DVRs connected to broadband required.)

Guadalupe Valley

HTC Conway SC-Telco

INS

Iowa Network Services

Massillon

MUS Fiber Net

OneSource

Puerto Rico Telephone Company

RCN

San Bruno Municipal Cable

Verizon