Being Back, Sunday November 30th

Breakfast

2 eggbeater eggs
spoonful of beans
half a bowl of apple/cinnamon oatmeal
one wheat toast with soy butter

Got the oil changed and the fuel system cleaned out in the car first thing this morning. Came home and detailed the car. I got every single mosquito, dragonfly, moth, etc carcass off the front end of my vehicle. I vacuumed every cheerio and rice cake crumb out of the back seat. I even had to shampoo out a chocolate stain from the back seat that carol left in the wake of a 'brownie earthquake' from dairy queen.

Went to the church and arranged a meeting with Knights of Columbus to take the 'Santa' photos at the church this year. They normally sell polaroids @ five bucks a pop. There is so much overhead that they hardly make any money. Apparently, they were cancelling the pics this year for this reason.

I approached the Knight pres. to propose shooting the santa pics digitally. So i have to meet with the council on Tuesday night.

Lunch

Chicken,tomato, onion tacos with rice.
Two flour tortillas
One bowl of cheerios for dessert

Today, we set up the xmas tree. My mother pulled it down from the attic and we put it together. Adolfo iv helped.

Goodbye, and thanks for all the turkey

Thanks for a great weekend.

The Valley Report - day 3, Saturday

Breakfast: Hotel Buffet (free)

eggs, hash browns, pineapple slices, one pancake.

We woke up much later than we really wanted to. We left the echo hotel much later than we realy wanted to. Our original plan had us home, in Houston, at about noon. We left the hotel at around 11:00. We stopped at the nearest HEB and picked up some water and fruit for the trip. Once i got on 281, i realized that i was going to spend that entire BEAUTIFUL day in the car.

We quickly got off 281 and hit 107 to drive by Carol's old house: the house where we looked at each other at her brother's wedding; the house where we were married in her parents bedroom; the house where i fell asleep on the couch after a huge homecooked meal; the house that saw carol drive her car through the living room wall when she was learning to drive.

We drove on a small dirt that ran along side her house, up and down, about four times. I stopped to take photos. I used up one roll of film (120) - it felt like six rolls. (taggart, if i send you the negs, could you scan them for me? on the imacon? - i guess i could also go to carl's place if you couldn't)

HCHM, or the Hidalgo County Historical Museum. Admission: $4 - We went to the newly renovated HCHM. Nice place. Look at some photos

From there: LUNCH

Carne Guisada (Tres Portrillos restarante)

We had lunch with my sisters. By this time, it was 4:30. We left the valley from there. We took the back roads to Elsa, past Delta Lake again. In the distance a black column of smoke stained the sky. I thought immediately of the sugar cane fires that light up the fields around Delta Lake in october. I didn't think sugar cane lasted this far into the 'winter'. As we passed through the other side of the lake the sugar cane fields were still there with their heavy green manes waving in the northern winds (norte�os).

These are the same winds that would blow the smell of rotting cabbage into my dad's new home when i first moved in with him in 1992. What is now a pretty established neighborhood was then a dirt filled lot outside of weslaco next to some fields. At the same time the weather got nice enough to have your doors open, the fields behind us were filled with rotten cabbage.

We made it to Odem, TX before we had to stop at the Dairy Queen. This is the same town (and the same DQ!) that my mother & father would 'make the trade' after the divorce. The exact halfway point from Houston to wherever my dad was was the Dairy Queen in Odem. Lots of weird and somewhat painful memories. I wish they would build a Whataburger in Odem.

The baby ran around charming the pant off everyone in the place for about half an hour. I had a hot dog and a side order of incredible guilt. Luckily, he fell asleep once we got back on the road and it wasn't until we were 10 minutes from the house that he decides to wake up and scream; scream because he was still in this damn carseat; scream cause he couldn't be in his mother's arms.

Home. The feeling is indescribable. I went to bed happy.

Photo Gourd (revisited)

Paul - I finally posted jennifer's wedding with the photogourd template you sent. I'm still encountering a problem, however. When i add an image to the cart, I get a 'missing image' icon on the screen. What is that supposed to be? a thumbnail of the selected image?

also: when i 'send' the order (presumably to myself) that doesn't work either....

Can we try and fix this (or explain to me how to fix it) this weekend?

The Valley Report - day 2, Friday

Breakfast

A huevos rancheros plate from a small mexican restaurant. As you can imagine, this is very, very, very bad for me. It came with a sausage patty. I ate it.

We met my sister's at a small Mexican restaurant off of Closner in Edinburg. Adolfo iv decided to thorw the largest tantrum he's ever thrown. We had taken him out of his chair to walk around after we had finsihed eating. I was talking with my sister's and carol walked around the restaurant with him. He was getting a little too close to a family so she moved him. He went nuts. Totally nuts. He threw himself on the ground and screamed. I was in awe. I had never seen anything like it. Carol took him outside and i took care of the bill. He wasn't very happy getting back in his seat either.

We spent the most of the afternoon at my sister's house. Carol put the boy to sleep and my sister's and i caught up.

We had lunch around 3:

Fish and chips. Another dish that is going to kill me.

We checked into the echo hotel, ordered room service for the kid (grilled cheese and a fruit plate - $9.00)



We hung out in the room all night. Quietly. Lovely Quiet. So far....

They have a wireless network set up here in the lobby of the echo hotel. Sweet!

The Valley Report - day 1, Thursday - Thanksgiving

Fidel now has the same amount of dogs as kids: 4 - and they bark. The first night was restless, the dogs would bark, then stop. Then start, then stop. Then start. Always at exactly the same intervals that i would fall asleep, then wake up. Then fall asleep, then wake up. Then there was the neighbors music...

Carol woke up at 6 a.m. to put the turkey in. Adolfo iv woke up at 8:18 a.m. We came to the living room and watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Breakfast

2 egg beater eggs
1 serving of refried beans
1 serving of carol's potatoes
1 glass of chamomile tea
little bit of oatmeal

Fidel's wife's brothers showed up for breakfast. The most memorable thing today, so far, has been Fidel going outside and plucking a branch of chillitos from his pepper tree and passing it around the table. Carol and the two brothers plucked chili's off the branch and dropped directly into their beans.

nice.

12:45 - We try to get the baby to take a much needed nap. He refuses. The turkey is done. The mashed potatoes are almost done.

3:00 - Thanksgiving Dinner (lunch)

One giant serving of white turkey meat (breast)
One giant serving of mashed potatoes.
One giant serving of stuffing straight from the belly of a cooked turkey.
Six spears of asparagus.
Several heaping spoons of vein clogging gravy
One piece of hot apple pie topped with napolitan ice cream.

The rest of the afternoon was spent just sitting on the couch watching the kids run from one side of the house to the other. And this went on to the evening. Carol ended up renting a couple of movies, but I had seen them all. I think we ended up in bed at around 11 or so.

Midnight

The dogs. Barking. The dogs.

1:00 A.M.

The dogs. Barking.

2:00 A.M.

The dogs. Barking. I move to the living room hoping that the further i get from the back yard the better time i'll have sleeping.

3:00 A.M.

The dogs continue to bark.

4:00 A.M.

The dogs are still barking.

5:00 A.M.

Barking

6:00 A.M.

I can't belive the dogs are still barking.

7:00 A.M.

Barking. I'm trying so desperately to sleeep. I move back to the bedroom since it doesn't matter where i am in the house.

8:00 A.M.

We wake up and tell Carol as politely as I can, "Get me the HELL out of here." We leave Fidel's house promptly at 8:45 for breakfast with my sisters.

The Valley Report - the drive

I got out of the office right after 1 o'clock. The plan was get home, pack the car, pack the baby, get on the road. We got to the house and fell promptly asleep. The baby had just fallen asleep for his nap, carol lay next to him and i was on my mother's la-z-boy. We woke up around 3:45 or so and quickly got out of the house. We were finally on the road at 4:30.

The traffic leaving sugarland was pretty stacked. Things cleared up right at Richmond.

Right outside of Wharton the traffic suddenly began to clump up again. Once we came over the freeway hill we saw a pretty nasty accident. An SUV was overturned in the median (and banged up pretty horrendously too) and a mini-van with it's front end totally crushed in. There were fire trucks and an ambulance already there (there is a hospital nearby) and we saw a couple of stretchers being loaded into them. Luckily there were no blanket covered bodies scattered about. Carol can't handle seeing stuff like that.

The baby was hungry. About 4 miles from the accident site we exited fm 102 @ Wharton and went to the Whataburger, which also happens to be right next to the hospital. We put shoes on the baby and went ahead and had dinner there. It was about a 1/2 hour stop. Which is just about how long we have to keep the baby out of the car so he forgets that he was just in it - this keeps him from having a fit when we try and put him back in the car seat.

This tends to make road trips a lot longer. We did this twice.

We drove straight through Victoria. We stopped in Refugio for our second stop at a gas station with a Subway in it. Carol changed adofo iv's diaper (twice). We let adolfo iv roam around the gas station (it was one of those extra big stations) for about 1/2 hour.

I stood outside for a bit after i had re-organized the backseat for carol. I couldn't belive how many people were on the road. This was one of those super gas stations with like 15 pumps; they were ALL full and had cars waiting. There were families stuffed into bug smattered cars. There was a handfull of cars towing other cars (something that is so common here - i couldn't help but think of Carl Deal's explanation: they're smuggling drugs and money in the bumpers of these cars)

We sailed through woodsboro, odem, corpus christi, robstown.....the boy falls asleep at robstown......

I stop for gas at Bishop: a little over $11. The boy stays asleep. We get to Kingsville and start on the 60 miles trek through King's Ranch void. I hardly feel it. We exit Bus. 77 just outside of Raymondville and take the backroads through Delta Lake to get to Elsa. Here, on this set of roads, is where my car is practically slathered with bug bodies. Particularly cool was a lightning bug that lost his shiny butt-juice on my windshield. It was pretty cool. I was sad it only happened once.

The fog was particulary bad.

We got to Edinburg at about 11:30, for a total trip time of exactly 7 hours.

run, turkeys, run!

greetings friends!

gather your loved ones and celebrate your bounty with the slaughter of a dumb, flightless bird. i am in the bustling metropolis of broken arrow OK, with my family and slightly retarded dog. i hope this day finds you all healthy, happy and well fed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now I am in Dallas ... Thanksgiving dinner at my brother's friend's brother's mother's house. Dinner was so good that I hurt myself.

Just rolled in from Oklahoma City. Not an amazing town, but we did meet some great people there; also my brother's band put on a fantastic show. I was so thrilled to hear them at their best- and to see people really responding to music, even dancing!

The band will be putting on a show in Austin at Emos on Sunday night ... Come out if you can!

Also, the pic is what my brother sees when he puts on his ring of power

This is why you can't believe newspapers.

They get so much stuff wrong:

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "and before the DRM gets locked on."

The DRM in inherent to the file. When the file is played QuickTime decodes the file to play it. Johansen's utility uses QuickTime to play the file into an unencoded file instead of sending it to the audio manager.

I think it is pretty interesting that Johansen took this approach. Was he unable to decode the files with brute force? Did he want to avoid that approach for political reasons? I think that one of the unsaid implicit things about Apple's DRM is that it appears to be custom encoded to each customer. This is unlike DVDs, which are all encoded the same (for each region at least). This also makes "DVD Jon's" task more difficult. Essentially he would have to break public key cryptography, which once broken would wreck great harm to commerce in general.

Burned by Burnz

Adolph: By the way, i tried to burn a simple cd with Burnz two days ago and got a 'burn error' of some sort or another. I don't remember the exact error (i should have taken a screen shot of it) and i forgot to mention it to you yesterday. Weird. Have you actually tried to use it yet?

Battle for my veins (day 2)

Breakfast

1 serving oatmeal
1 wheat toast (again, with butter)
1 apple (red delicious)
1 patty turkey sausage
1 10 oz. apple juice (from concentrate 100% juice)

I am charging up the ipod for our trip down to the valley this afternoon. I am waiting for Dr. M to get his last few images to K (my boss). We are just waiting. There is nothing else to do but wait. Just waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

One of the things i hate about going on long car trips is how dirty the car ends up once you've arrived. I hate pulling the little bodies of moths and dragonflies off the grill of my car. I hate having to scrub my windshielf extra hard to get the smushed up bug bodies off.

Gosh, i want to get out of here so bad. So bad. So bad.

My wife is bored at work too. So bored.

So bored.

PC iTunes gets dicked with

QTFairUse, as Johansen dubbed his latest program, does not compromise the actual digital rights management (DRM). What it does, in effect, is intercept the file while it is streaming and before the DRM gets locked on.

Texas Road Maps: Digital Data Download

Digital Data Download
This website has roadmaps in DWG format, which can be opened in Illustrator. The signifigance of this is that if you eally nice map, then use the DWG files here to start from rather than tracing MapQuest Data.

To Shreveport Friday to Sunday

Hey Taggart,
I'm not leaving to Shreveport until Friday and I have the rest of the week off. Give me a shout out when you guys get in town and are free.

Transformative Technologies

Griffin Technology iTrip
I played with Killy's iTrip today, and found it a real wonder. I plugged it into mine and even though I didn't have the station selection software, it still played out of the 87.9 frequency it was set to from Killy's iPod. I played it at my apartment into my stereo and I realized that the iPod and iTrip together weren't all that much larger than a conventional remote control. Essentially, they become an alternative universal remote control in which the music you are playing resides in the remote. Not only can it control what is playing on any radio-capable device, it also brings your 30 gigs of music to play. Flat out amazing.

Last night I found my cassette adapter and remembered to bring it down to the car this afternoon. It was nice to play the iPod through it. I wonder if it was just the different song, or did I hear a qualative difference in bass response and crispness with the cassette adapter? Is it enough to make me avoid the iTrip and plug in the iPod in the dock to stereo at home and the cassette adapter in the car? I wonder how long it will be before someone makes a radio that can be controlled by those unused data bands within FM frequencies. It would be so nice to be able to really remote control every function of a stereo with the iPod.

Thanksgiving plans...

Carol, adolfo iv, and i are leaving for the valley tomorrow afternoon the second that i get off of work. We are planning on coming back around noon on saturday. I'll probably be up for something that evening after i've had a nap. Adolph isn't getting back from his trip to Shreevport, LA till somtime late Sunday.

How long are you going to be in town for Taggart?

Battle for my veins (cont'd)

Lunch

• Turkey & Swiss Sandwich on Whole Wheat Kaiser
• 1 12 oz. Nestea Lemon Iced Tea
• the remainder of my green granny smith apple from breakfast

Tags edited by Adolph

Where are all the girls?

Where can all the girls be?
I have looked for them here and there and everywhere. Where have all the girls gone???

Houston

I am going to drive in to Houston tonight.
Who will be in town Today and Tomorrow and the rest of the week?

Photoshop CS

There are some cool video clips on the NAPP page, that show off some of the new features in CS. Particularly cool is all the cool stuff that the file browser can do now. Why mess with folder actions when you can just use the PSCS file browser to rotate, rename, etc...? Pretty cool stuff.

Is anyone going to buy this?

Beliefs and Lies

Ars Technica: Geeks are not as outnumbered as they believe:

"A recent Pew Research study shows that a surprisingly-high percentage %u2014 31% %u2014 of U.S. residents are technically savvy. Researchers were surprised by the number of geeky people, and by the range in ages amongst those identified as technology-savvy."

In other news, Pew researchers found that a clear majority of people think that they are not fools. They spend a lot of time talking, so they must have lots of wisdom to share!

Speaking of Lunch...

Adolph: I brought the itrip so we could test it out in the car.

The Battle for my Veins

Breakfast:

1 green granny smith apple
1 serving of oatmeal (with honey)
1 'Healthy Choice' egg - kinda like 'Egg Beaters' (surprisingly good)
two pieces of wheat toast (buttered - unfortunately i didn't check the toast before they gave it to me. I chose NOT to take it back. Sinfully delicious.)
One 8 oz. 100% juice orange juice

Yesterday i had lunch with adolph. My friend ate an avacado burger and a batch of beer battered onion rings in front of me while i had a mustard filled chicken breast sandwich. I didn't go away frustrated though. i packed two onion rings in my doggie bag and ate ONLY ONE later that afternoon along with the rest of my sandwich. Delicious.

We have another lunch planned for today,

In other news

Talked to colin yesterday. He had just gotten back to Portland from his grandpa's funeral in texas.

Adolph is wearing Land's End shirts now; pastel colors too. I think we gave him too much hassle about his loud BaRep shirts, particularly the lime green one.

Halo sounds fun, but so does THIS!

Adolph: so how did the update go?

Anyone for Halo?

Halo: "Timberland is an outdoor expansive environment with rolling hills, winding paths, an abundance of trees and a pristine waterfall feeding a meandering stream. This idyll landscape makes an excellent backdrop for maximum carnage!"

New Reserved MySQL Words

MySQL Manual | 2.5.2 Upgrading From Version 3.23 to 4.0: "CHECK, SIGNED, LOCALTIME and LOCALTIMESTAMP are now reserved words. "

Since I have fields named cash, check, and credit, in a webapp, it took me a minute to figure this one out...

10.3 on iBook

I installed 10.3 on the office iBook (clamshell 466 graphite SE) and it works pretty nice. I resized a bunch of images using folder actions--sweet. I am installing the 10.3.1 update right now. 10.3 does look pretty ugly on the old LCD though. It looks washed out an contrasty.

He's Doing IT!

California is nice and all ...

But I am heading to Texas anyways. I leave tomorrow and will roll into Austin/San Marcos around the 30th at some uncertain hour. I am hitching a ride with my brother and his band. After playing at Emo's the band is continuing on all the way to east coast and back.

Since I am going to miss yet another Thanksgiving with my family I went to see my grandpa out in Montebello (east of East Los Angeles). We had a great time talking about all sorts of stuff and eating good cheap mexican food (huevos rancheros for a $1.50!). Shortly after he told me The Watermelon Story he fell asleep and I got this drawing done. The next time we all hang out I will try to recount the Watermelon Story. Its a great one.

Also, I got a cellphone 619.379.4770 to help my brother and I keep in touch on projects but my usual luck with computers also extends to wireless communication devices (and toasters apparently) cause the damn thing don't work. Just one more sign telling me to give it all up and move to Mexico

Hasta pronto!

The Shape of Things

I am home.
The stitches have come out.
The Scab fell off on it's own.
So this is the current condition of my nose.

Money Talks

Well MJ may be a child molesting freak, if not just a freak.
But....
I can say I honestly enjoyed Roman Polansky's "The Pianist".
So did the Acadamy of Arts.
and several million other people.
We just had to excuse him for not
swinging by to pick up his Oscar.
For those who dont know.
Roman Polansky has been living in exile
because he slept with a 13 yr old girl.
Neither of the two should be forgiven.
It just really sucks that two really incredible artists
are so *%*^ UP!!!

I know California is nice and all . . .

Hey Paul,

Mark asked me if my friend was ready to help me out for 20 hours a week soon. I'm not certain of the rate or whatever, but you would have full use of my museum side apartment, be working on the premier fundraising bike tour website, etc. Are you at all interested? This is still in the planning stages here, but the way Mark put the question to me sounded as if they are really interested in doing it.

-Adolph

...come on, he just REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY likes kids.

I think liz meant to post that last post to the girls blog, but in response to your post liz, look here.

SCROD?

Do you girls see the ad for fresh SCROD (cod) delivered to your house? Wierd. So my vote is that MJ is a dirty, rotton, guilty, child molesting, pedophile, and it's a good thing he can't buy himself out of this one!
I feel for his kids.
I wish everyone safe and entertaining travels for Thanksgiving! Carolina, we'll miss you guys in houston-we'll be there for tues pm - sat am. Maybe we'll cross paths?!
My friend recomended the book: Girls Poker Night . It sounds like chick flick meets book-so it sounds fun. I'll give a review soon after I finish my metaphysical healing book.
DaVinci is my favorite all time dead dude-I can't wait to read that book too! So many books, so little time.

News

This is the latest from dthree. Because we seek to be fair and balanced you might check out this article by a commentator with a different spin...

Also, thanks again for all your help getting www.sdfahrenheit.com launched. The RSS feed is here

Paul, Colin, check this out:

Kurt Wenner - Gallery of Work
Baroque influenced street chalk art.

The Most IT Garbage You'll Read In One Sitting:

Straight talk on adaptive computing | CNET News.com: ". . . the shift is that the IT department's goals are being inextricably linked to the business strategy and processes."

inDesign : Pretty Okay

well, i am torn on the inDesign issue. while i do not really LIKE using it ID 2.0 is not a bad program

but it ain't quark.

all of the printers i have worked with (except one in san antonio) accepted inDesign files. it has lots of great features, like transparency, and can do everything QXP does, more or less. i am not crazy about their type style set up and some other minor quirks.

overall, it gets the job done.

this is a really, really great addition. if everyone sends me money for chairjockey (ahem) i'll buy it. good stuff.

Ars Technica: InDesign Review

Ars Technica: InDesign Review - Page 2 - (11/2003): "Cope with the shame of using a new program by making it look more like the one you're cheating on"

Killy, are you digging InDesign at work? Todd, are service bureaus accepting it?

Dolled Up Jewelry

Dolled Up Jewelry
Houda is doing some e-commerce!

From: "h. khalid"
Date: Wed Nov 19, 2003 1:23:14 AM US/Central
Subject: Jewelry!

If you're interested in purchasing inexpensive and unique gifts for the 

holidays, open the attachment to view a few pieces of my handmade jewelry. 

You can also visit my website at www.geocities.com/dolled_up_jewelry.com

Love,

Houda

I'm wiping the little tears from my eyes

Yes, for the $40 lost. But really, for the sad killy story. That is so sad killy. Will you be well enough to eat thanksgiving dinner? How much weight have you lost? Starving? Man, I really wish I could give you a big hug right now. So, is that a new room in hell? Sounds like it to me. Please, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy, or that guy that lost $40 on the slot machines. When you're poor-you equate every dollar into something really worth while that you can't really afford-like sushi dinner, or a few good CDs, or payment to the hospital for sewing up your husband's face, or groceries, or a nice trip...together, or that much more contribution toward a really nice camera for my aspiring photographer-anything. Of course if he had won, I would have been singing his praises. I'm actually on probation from complaining about anything Taggart does-He can do know wrong.....until that scab heals-then it's on!

neiderwhomper

To all you bloggers,

tinkle tinkle poop poop.
do a dance and smack your head,
if you fall then get back up,
and with your girl get into bed,
make some fun and jump about,
tinkle tinkle poop poop.

Nice, Very Nice: Burnz

Burnz

I like how the developer sells the product based on "you can do it for free but if you value your time at minimum wage level, this pays for itself in 18 burns."

Da-Hoe?

Your job comes with $40 dollars gambling money? Or was that a self-imposed limit? I hear the dealers at the blackjack tables are nicer to you when you lose than slot machines: they laugh as you walk away from the table.

Tahoe

When I left Austin on Sunday the temp said 85 degrees.
The thermometer says it's only 34 degrees here but it feels much colder than that.
The shoot is going on without much of a hitch.
My Face is healing.......the itching.
I had a limit of 40 dollars that I dont have to lose.
That I lost.
Damn those slot machines they were laughing at me.

Moire Pistol

Yeah, I see they also ran into the same problem I had: if you reduce an image with "scan lines," you wind up with larger and smaller lines due to a Moire Pattern. It didn't make any sense to me at the time because you'd think that everything would reduce evenly. This isn't the case. More awful Moire Patterns are evident when people scan in line screen images from magazines and whatnot. The software that overcomes this uses stochastic proccesing, maybe? I forget the name of it.

Scan lines in photoshop

I saw this and thought of you, adolph, and the scan lines you put on your ms150 graphic. Pretty neat.

Mac Rumors: Dual 1.8GHz PowerMac Released

One of the things that I really like about MacRumors is that they don't "new window" link to other websites. This is a prime interface annoyance to me. Most of the time I command shift click in Safari to get a new tab behind the window, but in the times I just want to click through, I don't want to have to drag the link into the address bar because somebody things their website is the most important on the planet and should remain in an open wondow.
Mac Rumors: Dual 1.8GHz PowerMac Released

20 inch iMac

Wow!
Thats a pretty big chunck of change for a G4, but this is going to make the original 15 look even more tiny.

Why People Leave LA

No, not that LA...

Yahoo! News - Southern Drawls Confuse La. Phone System

You'd think that they'd deploy a system that says "...press or say..." like everywhere else.

In other news, I've returned from Miami, where I only left the conference for a night-time rendezvous in beachside hammock with Amber and five digit dinners with lots of raw oysters and stone crab and big fatty steak. Unfortunately, the brunch salmon on the final day got to me and I spent my free Saturday in the bed and by the toilet of a somewhat expensive South Beach hotel instead of sight-seeing. I still feel yuck today, and I attribute most of it to being knocked off food for less than a day or so. I'm completely food-dependant, an addict if you will, and can't imagine several days without real food, like Killy has faced. At least I still have enough energy to hustle to the bathroom!

I did all these neg scans on my HP desktop scanner. Not very good, for output but fine for web viewing.

I just noticed that my last two posts were 'posted' backwards....how do you guys read this thing? do you scroll down to the last recognizable post and then read back up? or do you read the most recent and then scroll down?

Diagnosis: Starvation!?

The last couple of days have been somewhat better. My mouth isn't so sore in the mornings and my breath isn't so bad. I've treid to ween myself off of vicodin since the extraction. I now take about 400 mg of Ibuprofin (motrin) instead.

I got a phone call from my doctor with the results of my blood tests on friday afternoon. I had gone in for a true doctor visit on wednesday. According to my labs i was clinically going through starvation. I was aghast. Starving?, i asked. Yeah, are you eating?, she returned. By the time she had called me i had shoved a filet o' fish down my gullet.

That didn't go down very well. It upset my fragile stomach for the rest of the afternoon. I don't remember if i ate anything else. My mouth was still really sensitive.

My first REAL meal came on saturday afternoon. I ate oatmeal in the morning, and tried a full day of activities: we got the baby ready, left the house for the mall, then to target, and other miscellaneous activities.

Our first stop was the mall. After about 1/2 hour i nearly collapsed from exhaustion/hunger. I walked out of there using the stroller to hold me up. I came back to the house and put a tuna sandwich in my belly and a glass of apple juice. I felt dizzy and lightheaded - like i had eaten a ten course meal. I collapsed in the bed and slept for about two hours. I felt a little better afterward and we tried again.

Target, this time. 1/2 hour in there and i began to feel weak again. Carol was adamant about getting me a full meal. She asked me what i wanted: mexican food. We stopped at a small mexican place where i got a full plate of green chicken enchiladas w/ all the trimmings.

With each bite i got dizzy and lightheaded again, but kept eating. I just powered it in. I got through all the beans, rice and ONE enchilada. I felt as full as i'd ever been. We walked the full feeling off at half price books (right next door) and then home for a full fledged nap.

At the end of the evening...my breath didn't smell so bad. Like fresh beans, maybe...

Sunday: Fresh Breath

Fresh Breath! even in the morning...at least, comparatively.

Most of the sores have subsided. The bites i had been giving the right side of my mouth are still a little sensitive as is the empty hole left by my wisdom tooth.

We woke up and went to house of pies. I had a plate of bacon and eggs with eggbeaters rather than eggs and left most of the bacon. The hash browns were buttery and good and had just the right amount of 'crisp' (something the avalon diner just can't get right.)

Came home and processed the four rolls of black and white film i have accumulated here at the house. adolfo iv slept peacefully and carol read The DaVinci Code, which, by the way, carol is flying through. She loves it. We went to Borders after breakfast so she could look at some DaVinci paintings up close.

Processing film is a relatively simple process here at my mother's house. The fridge has a 'chilled water' outlet in it. At this time of year, the water comes out at EXACTLY 68�

Believe it.

Two 120 rolls of junk and two 35mm rolls of a day i spent at the beach with adolfo iv, adolph and amber, and another of....i don't remember. i'll scan some and get back with you...

We are so thirsty for some kind of foundation

Mr. Bodacious: "''Progressive ideas are just a machine for ruining art,'' Currin said late one fall afternoon, sitting in his living room. ''I believe in the old idea of technique. I believe you need it if you're going to have magic and genius and masterpieces. No one would question the value of technique in any other field. No one would say that a tennis player would be better if only he could stop hitting the ball.''
"

Governator 3

Well I just watched Terminator 3 which as you all know stars the new Governor of California (He is to be sworn in today).

Since the horrible, horrible Matrix 3 was still fresh in my mind the 3rd Terminator movie did not seem so bad by comparison. I actually thought that the story was OK, if badly delivered.

Compared to other number 3's it ranks pretty good well.

For example, it was better than SuperMan III, but worse than Godfather III.
It was better than Planet of the Apes III, but worse than Star Wars III (by that I mean Return of the Jedi).
It was certainly better than Phantasm III, Batman III, Rambo III and the third Herbie Goes Bananas movie but it was not as good as Rocky III or Indian Jones III.
Of course it does not compare to some great number 3's like Red or The Ten Commandments III

Periocronitis and the day without straws

update:

i went to the dentist where i discovered i had a condition called periocronitis. with this condition, the skin surrounding an exposed wisdom tooth is pinched beneath another tooth.

the gingivo-stomatitis aggravated the skin around my wisdom tooth with a lesion, that in turn was pinched between another tooth, then, it swelled because of the pinching which, in turn, led to an aggrivation of the gingivo-stomatitis.....

and so on and so on.....

so what happened this morning was an extraction of my upper wisdom tooth to keep from pinching the bottom skin, therby facilitating the healing process. i'm already on antibiotics, so that's should help too.

and of course, my precious, vicodin for pain.

Now that i've had a tooth extracted, i can't drink anything through a straw or i'll break the clot that forms in the spot where my tooth once was. I guess i'll have to be spoon fed a smoothie.

UUHHMMMM........

sorry did I say 65 gigs........????

?!

65 Gigs? I mean, come on...

Call me Impressed.

My Brother just installed Itunes for PC on his box.
I am now able to share his 65+ gigs of music on mine.
As soon as we installed it we enabled sharing and BAM
that was it.
Pretty Damn Cool

Did anybody listen to

Fresh Air's story about journalist Lutz Kleveman's book about the battle over oil reserves in the Caspian Sea?

His new book is The New Great Game. The book is about the battle over the world's largest reserve of untapped oil and gas resources, located in the Caspian Sea and surrounding Central Asian republics. The oil alone is said to be worth $4 trillion. Kleveman claims that the United States, China, Russia and Iran are now engaged in a power struggle for control of the region's vast reserves and pipeline routes. Lutz Kleveman was born in Germany and studied at the London School of Economics. He has reported from war zones in the Balkans, Asia and the Middle East for the Daily Telegraph, Newsweek, CNN, The Independent, Der Spiegel and Die Zeit.

New problem...Tooth Abcess

I went to the doctor this morning. She look all around my mouth. I've got sores all right. Can't got back to work this week. I'm stuck at home.

but also...

"the 'sore' on your right is a tooth abcess, you need to get a dentist to look at that!"

AUURRRGH! so i have an appt with a dentist (walkable distance from my mother's house) tomorrow morning at 10 a.m.

my head is swimming with pain and hunger. I've made a small list of the things i want to eat when i get better:

bowl of frosted flakes
carol's morning potatoes
carol's morning eggs
carol's salsa
carol's breakfast tacos
carol's speciallly made hot dogs just for me
a filet o' fish, french fries and a soda
a cinnabon
a big bowl of pad thai
a slice of pizza
a piece of toast
a frullati chicken breast sandwich from the first colony mall food court
a bowl of chili from quiznos

(more to come....)

Neato Burrito

Everyone is doing it....

Taggart, if it makes you feel any better, even movie star's wives beat them.

Little did i know...

Todd, i should apologize, i thought it was you who jinxed me as Job.

tuesday night....

i sat around the house with sores in my mouth all day. the pain of it is so all-consuming and frustrating that i can hardly think of anything else.

i took as little medicine as possible; although, i'm about to pop another two vicodin to try and make my night a little more manageable. When carol got home, she took me to Smoothie King for a smoothie. I had forgotten that those things existed. Bless them...

I have another dr's appt tomorrow at 10 a.m. where, hopefully, i'll get an extension to my work leave. My sores aren't getting any better and having to pop vicodin all day at work doesn't sound pleasant, even though some may disagree.

The new Job? Please don't jinx me todd. The last thing i need are all my crops to die and house to burn down.

but speaking of new Jobs, Paul is coming into town on the 24(?) to begin an illustrious career with piston design?!

Church Sign Generator

Holy Crap!

It IS amazing, and so easy to use!

As a matter of fact, once i finished using The Amazing Uploader Thing i had to...well, i better let the picture do the talking.

this post was made using genuine, made-by-hand PaulWare™ including Paper Lantern and The Amazing Uploader Thing.

Activision!!!!!

Sucks to be a P.C. user.
Activation is Adobe's new pirating
software. On a windows based computer after installation of Adobe's software and putting serial in you must either "Activate" the software; i.e. Photoshop, by calling adobe or doing said activation online.
Wow.
My dilema is a bit different. Manana I am going to a store to buy Photo CS.
Why? Well I have to spend money. Why? because Canon Sucks HARD!!!.
My Canon S40 takes Raw digital files.
When I bought it the software that came with didnt have ANY OSX ware on it.
So I SURFED my way over to Canon's website and downloaded a OSX compatable utility called simply "FILE VIEWER" not the best ever but it worked for conversions to tiffs.
Not needing the software that came with I kept it just the same just in case.
Almost a year later (two weeks ago) I give in and just throw it away.
Now I am running .3 and well I figured that I would just waltz on over to Canon's Website
and download it again.
WRONG!!! NOW you need the origanal C.D. to install the software.
I called customer service....they said I was Shit out of FREE luck.
But I could BUY some for 35$.!!!!!!!!!!!!
So I figured I would spend 50$ for the Photoshop RAW plugin so I could edit the RAW files in their natural state and convert them if need be.
WRONG.
Since CS now automatically supports RAW files (I checked the specs the S40 is supported)
they have discontinued the ware.
So here I am.
Activision is not on the Mac version of CS.
I have been wondering about becoming semi legal.
Carl has voiced his support.
Mark has as well.
Here I go.

Yahoo! News - Soros's Deep Pockets vs. Bush

Yahoo! News - Soros's Deep Pockets vs. Bush

The Tramp

Mordern Times are a comin'.
December 12th at the MFA.

DIY vs. ASP

One of the things we are evaluating at work is going to an ASP (Application Service Provider, or outsourcing it to someone else) model for our online e-commerce activity rather than DIY (Do It Yourself, AKA Adolph makes it up as he goes, doesn't do a bad job of it, and saves the bacon now and then). One of the large disadvantages of the ASP is that the transaction costs are high: 5 to 6%. Our own effort costs us 2.5% and some of Adolph's effort. Our effort doesn't has as many bells and whistles, but those could be added.

The significance of the additional 2.5 - 3.5% is that most of our fundraising comes from events and an increasing amount of that activity is online and would be subject to the ASP transaction percentage. If we are an "83 cents on the dollar goes to our mission" organization, would the additional 2.5 - 3.5% mean we are an "80 cents on the dollar organization?" Would the bells and whistles grow something faster than its natural rate of growth? Would it be worth growing if we were a less dollar efficient organization per fundraising dollar?

If it makes you feel better.

If it makes you feel any better
I have been asked who punched me at least 5 times today.
You will recover and you will have lost some of that "baby" fat.
Carol has the abililty to remind Kilito that she had the experience and discomfort of giving
birth to him later on in life
and you too will be able to describe your pain when Adolfo wrecks daddy's car.
I will always till my dying days have this scar on my face....
to remind me that if I can tolerate this pain
without the slightest bit of real anger or remorse
(but just a little pretending for pity)
that is how much I love Liz.
See ya soon and I hope you recover soon.

The Road to Recovery?

Tuesday

No change in the sores in my mouth. I woke up every hour last night. I finally got out of the bed at five, my mouth throbbing with pain. I couldn't open it, i couldn't close it; my mouth just hangs there dry like a burnt out house.

I tried to drink water - painful.
I went to the bathroom to rinse out and moisten my mouth. Slowly, very slowly. I fell asleep with my head down on the kitchen table again. I took my fourth antibiotic pill (on schedule) and another vicodin. I wiped my mouth with more kanka and went back to the bed at around 6 a.m.

I woke up at 7 as my mother was leaving with Barbara and the baby to take barb to school. She had left me some oatmel in a small bowl. I tried to eat it while she was away. My mother makes oatmeal the way i love it: kinda lumpy. There's no real chewing involved, but there is some mashing that has to be done before you can comfortably swallow her oatmeal. I couldn't do it. Impossible. Too painful. I almost threw the bowl, i was so frustrated.

Angry. Frustrated. How long am i going to live with this....

re: Panther `Bug' And Uploading Big Blog Unfriendly Images

Do you ever want to share some fotos on the blog, but lack the time, patience, software, know how, energy, computer, desire or opposable thumbs necessary to resize your images so that they are of a blog friendly file size and dimension?

Well if you answered "yes" then I have the solution for you!

Thats right, the Amazing Uploader Thing now features a Thumbnail Generator. Now you can upload all those high res jpegs of that something that you saw that one time!

Enjoy!

This offer of enjoyment is not valid in the states of Nebraska, Wyoming or Florida. The creator of the Amazing Uploader Thing drank too much coffee. Women in their fourth trimester should avoid using the Amazing Image Uploader. Also the Amazing Uploader Thing won't work with GIFs or TIFF's or any other image format ending in F whether it be capitalized or not.

Also Killy, I have experienced the problem that you described on several computers running Jaguar (the blue-mac, dave's box, my ibook and the pink-mac) so I don't think it is a Panther specific bug. It is really, really annoying when it happens.

Panther 'bug'

I seem to have come across something rather weird that has infected my computer for the last few days, and i wonder if anyone else has experienced this:

There are occasions when my modem icon on my bar across the top will continually scroll "disconnecting...." when doing so. There is nothing i can do short of restarting to remedy it. I've tried to relaunch the finder; i've tried opening internet connect to maybe cancel the disconnect, but it doesn't work, at all. It scolls "disconnecting..." where my modem icon is. I can do anything else, but i can't do ANYTHING with the modem.

It does it under these circumstances:

1. I close my laptop lid without disconnecting first.

2. From time to time, the modem 'unexpectedly hangs up' soon after it's connected. Many times i have to try and connect several times before i get a good connection. From time to time, it will 'disconnect' as part of this routine. the scrolling 'disconnecting...' will not go away....

This is really annoying cause i have to restart my computer every time this happens. i've looked at macintouch, but didn't find anything in their reader reports. has anyone else seen this anywhere else? adolph, have you experienced this? (i'm sure you haven't since you use an airport station...)

Killy Love & the PRECIOUS

So if i get addicted to vicodin you think i could do a shoot for versace? If i get addicted to vicodin but pull some good photographs while on it, can i stay on it? I think a good drug addiction might be just what the 'dr. ordered.'

Be Care with the PRECIOUS

Know what Bret Farve, Courtney Love, Rush Limbaugh, Matthew Perry, and Cindy McCain, John McCain's wife have in common.
Vicodin addiction.
Be carefull dude.
Seriously.
Last time I had a root canal they gave me a script.
Seriously I began to scare myself with them.
Love ya dude Be Careful.

Chocolate shakes and the PRECIOUS

However bad for me they may be at this stage, i managed to suck a small one down with my eyes rolling back in my head from pure guilty pleasure.

luckily, i do not have fever.

meds: 9 p.m. - antibiotic. kanka. vicatin. so in about 45 mins i'm gonna talk to god.

Chaosmint :: Articles

Chaosmint :: Articles

Keyword Script

I'm working on a new project that will first be implemented in Perl and then I plan to port it to ASP so it will run on our chapter website ( http://www.nmss.org/txh ). I am writing this to get Paul's advice and to outline the functions for myself.

Project: Keyword Application
Keyword application will be a single file that stores the application and data necessary for the execution and maintenance of a keyword based url redirection system. The idea is that instead of entering in a long URL, we want to point people to our chapter website "and enter keyword: foo." The user will go to the chapter website and then enter "foo" in a simple form. The form submits the keyword to the keyword application and the user is redirected to the desired URL. Additionally, the keyword application should be able to intelligently deal with mistyped keywords and the internal users' needs for keyword addition, correction and maintenance.

1. If keyword.pl is the recipient of a keyword lookup form action:
   1. It should look up the url for that keyword.
   2. If there is a URL matching that keyword, then issue a redirect to the URL,
   3. else display message of none matching and display a list of valid keywords.
2. If keyword.pl does not receive a form action:
   1. It should display a new keyword and URL form and
   2. display a list of current keywords with links to delete and update each.
3. If keyword.pl receives a new form action:
   1. It should add the new keyword and url to the file and
   2. display the URL form and list of current keywords.
4. If keyword.pl receives a delete url:
   1. It should delete the selected keyword and URL and
   2. display the URL form and list of current keywords.
5. If keyword.pl receives an update url:
   1. It should display an update form with the selected keyword and URL information in it.
6. If keyword.pl receives an update form action:
   1. It should update that keyword/URL with the keyword and URL in the update form and
   2. display the URL form and list of current keywords.

I just tried to eat a banana....

Impossible. I couldn't get the small bite down my throat, even with my mouth numbed.

accidents wiiiilll happen

Last night after a marvelous day spent with Elizabeth, she is so busy rarely do we get to spend whole days together; we were going to go to Mark's house for dinner watch a movie, and drink some wine.
We usually bring Bodi, our dog, along to play with Mark's dog Milo. We both walked around the back of the car to load the pooch, Liz opened the back hatch, and I realized that my matte board, and matte cutter were laying down in the back.
It all happened so quickly.
Bodi usually takes a running start and leaps into the back, He loves car rides.
I realized that if he jumped in my nice museum board matte boards would be ruined by his weight creasing them.
"no,no,no,no!!!" I rushed forward to halt the Bodi.
With cat like reflexes Liz slammed the back hatch.
We are thinking that because she just got back from working out at the gym she was a little more pumped up than usual.
Well as I came forward and the hatch came down....it came down on MY FACE.
I was thrown to the ground......sprawled out flat.
I recovered pretty quickly/
Liz found my glasses which were violently knocked off my face.
My glasses were fine and at first inspection (my own using my hands) my head seemed to be fine.
Liz was a little shocked and I declared "I am all right, no blood." A little shaken myself.
Liz voiced her disagreement. She demanded that stay still while she got a towel.
So I felt my nose and felt the blood, coming out the TOP of my nose, not the bottom where it is supposed to.
I jumped up and ran to the bathroom ignoring her orders and saw the enormous tear running across the bridge of my nose. You could open and close the wound by pressing up along the bridge of my nose.
I declared that stitches were in order and ran back to the car where liz met me with cotton balls and a towel.
We arrived at St. David's emergency room. Signed in and waited for 2 hrs before the physician attended my nose.
Dr. Szkrybalo at first was a little tense, he was having a rough night, nobody was happy and were dissatisfied with the E.R.'s service.
Liz began telling him that next semester she would be doing a clinical in this very E.R. because she is a U.T. nursing student and things began to ease up.
While he quilted my face I asked how long he had been practicing.
13 yrs as a E.R. doctor.
He started as an Army doctor.
The worst thing he had ever seen has a shark attack while he was stationed in Somalia, Mogadishu.
The shark took the hip and leg off a twenty year old soldier swimming in the ocean when he wasnt supposed too.
He died.
Six stitches later I was done.
Over 500 dollars of damage for my uninsured ass.
Made it home a little before midnight after we stopped by Mark's to pick up a valume to help me sleep.
Today I feel fine with little or no pain.
The stitches come out in five days and I will post another picture of what that looks like.

My own, My only, My PRECIOUS....

Monday

The vicatin is nice, but he kanka is nicer. 20% Benzocaine does the trick. I woke up this morning at five unable to sleep again, after an hour of tossing and turning. I sleep in 1 1/2 long fits. It wasn't a goood night last night either.

I ended up loaded my mouth up with kanka and falling asleep with my head on the kitchen table. It turns out that resting my forehead on my arm and sleeping is very comfortable for my mouth, cause it just hangs there. I did droll all over the table though.

My mother came to the kitchen at 6 a.m. and covered me with a blanket. She sent me back to bed soon after. She wiped the entire table with a clorox solution.

I had chicken and rice soup broth for breakfast, and a glass of water. I went back to sleep around 10:30 with a vicatin in my stomach.

I just woke up to the feeling of my mouth again. I wiped my mouth with more kanka, scanned it and started typing...

p.s. for the record, MY pc at work has 1GB of RAM.

Breast Milk - The Wonder Drug

I tell you, I swear up and down by breast feeding. Not only did my little boy fight and beat this horrible disease that my husband now suffers from so terribly, but I never got it.
Not yet anyway. I will be surprised if I do. We all sleep in the same bed with my poor sick husband, but I haven't gotten sick.
Thank God.
What would happen if I did though?
Don't even want to think about it.

Amber

What is your email address???

any offers

Mac OS X 10.3: The Definitive Review

Mac OS X 10.3 Panther (11/2003)
Arstechnica has been putting out fantastic in-depth reviews of Mac OS X every year. It is nice to read about 10.3.

Photoshop Performance tests with 512MB to 8GB of RAM in PowerMac G5

Photoshop Performance tests with 512MB to 8GB of RAM in PowerMac G5
Wow. 8GB of RAM. That is insane. My last computer came with a 10GB hard drive. I've never even touched a computer with 1GB RAM.

Testing the Impression

I'm thinking that sometime next week I'll test out the Impression to iPod backup by installing 10.3 on the iBook at the office and then restoring the backup onto the newly clean iBook. The only thing I have on there is a MySQL database, which is easily backed up. I should work on a chron job to get that regularly backed up and zipped to a SMB share. The prize fulfillment stuff on that computer is kind of business important, and the hard drive is kind of noisy, I worry about it. What would I do if the HD in that iBook went down? Maybe get an external firewire bootable?

Cron job script:

• mysqlexport ...foo
• gzip...foo
• Curl...foo

Nothing too eleborate

Amber,
The purchasing stuff online adds a level of elaborate-ness known as e-commerce. There are a few different routes you can go in that:

1. Use a third party broker like iSpot. This is the least hassle for you. They handle the e-commerce mechanisms, payment processing, send you a check periodically.
   • Pro: You focus on making art and a little bit of marketing, they handle things like getting a digital certificate, banking, accounting, shipping/fulfillment (maybe).
   • Con: You lose margin to their costs, you lose a bit of control, while you can point to your work on their site or maybe even have editorial content there, your customers may see something else they prefer.
2. DIY e-commerce shopping cart, third party payment processing would give you control over your own shopping cart system and push purchasers to an intermediary secure webpage for payment. If you go with something like PayPal.com, then you don't have to have a merchant account with a bank, but you lose more to transaction costs. If you go with something like Verisign's PayFlow Link you have to have a merchant account, which seems like it is easier to get now-a-days.
   • Pro: Lower transaction costs, you control your product/website, you don't have to get a digital certificate for secure payment processing.
   • Con: better transaction costs that going third party, but not as good as your own stuff. Your purchasers will go through a third party for the payment part.
3. Total DIY probably only makes sense if you are a business worried about branding, wanting to keep control over every step of the process, etc. In this scenario you have to purchase a digital certificate from Verisign or Thawte (a Verisign company). A digital certificate is a special key file that locks the encryption between a user's computer and the server so that anyone eavesdropping on the conversation between the user and the server just sees gobledy-gook. You can actually generate a digital certificate on your Mac, however, Verisign and Thawte provide "signing" services: Web Browsers look for a special bit to the certificate that means that it was okayed by Verisign or Thawte. There are other services, but none as accepted as those two.
   • Pro: You control each step of the process depending on nothing other than your website; you probably get the best rates depending on volume.
   • Con: You have to set up each step of the process. And spend a few hundred on the digital certificate, and worry about having a Dun's number to do business, and get a merchant account, etc.

The long road to Diagnosis: Gingivitis-Stomatitis

This is a combination of infections affecting my tounge and the gums. Severe infections (which I unfortunately am saddled with) cause small painful ulcers on the gums, tonsils, foul breath, and bleeding gums. This may be accompanied by fever.

I got this from my son, who i had taken the dr. on tuesday of last week, he had some sores in his mouth that were bothering him. The dr. blamed it on a virus, signed us out and shipped us back home. Those are the worst dr. visits, when the doctor can't even do anything for you. It's on those days when the doctors might as well be your kooky witch doctor uncle or that hippie aunt, who swears by a tequila mouthwash for cold sores.

Well, adolfo thrived that week. Carol noticed that he wasn't eating as ferociously as he normally does, which was prolly in part to the discomfort in his mouth. I was fine, until

Thursday

I woke up feeling feverish, but not physically hot. Just really strange. Thinking back, i can't remember when I felt the first sores in my mouth. I continued with my day, more because i had to, than because i wanted to. Carol was in Raleigh, NC for the night and was flying back in that evening. I got to work and sat with a resident for four hours attaching arrows to radiological images for a Dr. G's RSNA poster. 70 images with arrows on each one. It was gruesome. I was dizzy the whole time, and even though i know my office was cool i was sweating.

We took a break at 10:15. I ran immediately to the nearest nurses station and had my
temperature taken: 98.7. Normal.

(Diana/Liz: is there a name for feeling feverish, but not actually having a fever?)

I sat back in my office somehow made it through placing arrows. By that time, i knew i was not going to last much longer. I told my boss that i was going to go home early and made all the necessary arrangements. I left the hospital, took the bus to the car (i park the car near the museum and take the bus in when carol is gone), and drove directly home. I napped for an hour and a half and then loaded up the baby and got on the tollroad at 6 headed for the airport. I made it there right at 7:30, when carol's flight was supposed to have arrived. I was sweating in the car. My head was pounding. Luckily, the baby was asleep peacefully in his carseat.

Carol didn't show up till 8:30. My head was pounding and since adolfo iv hadn't seen his mom in a day he cried, the whole way home. I was bent over in pain. Fitful sleep. This first night i am restless. My mouth is swollen and dry with sores, i am drinking water all night. My body is aching with every movement.

Friday

I am too sick to get out of the bed. Carol stays home from work cause the baby is not feeling too well either. I am pumping myself full of tylenol, water, and soups. My fever is a constant 100 all day. My sores are beginning to freak me out.

This is the day when every medicine in the cabinet comes out. I am using orajel to sooth my sores; i am taking tylenol and motrin; to get some rest, my mother buys me a new bottle of nyquil. I take it all.

The final blow: i mouthwash with a cupful of Tres Generaciones Tequila. It was smooth and it helped me sleep.

Saturday

The fever broke this night. My side of the bed was wet with sweat. My sleep was interrupted by applications of orajel and glasses of water taken into my body as if i had never had water before. I drank it over the sink slowly (it was becoming harder and harder to swallow comfortably.)

The sores in my mouth were more bothersome. I rinsed and gargled with salt water. This seemed to help. I stayed in bed most of the day, doped up on motrin and tylenol. It was official: i could no longer 'eat'. All i could do was drink. Somehow, in my sickly stupor, i was convinced it couldn't get worse and i would feel better on sunday.

Sunday

I woke up at 3 a.m. coughing. I could feel new sores in my throat. There had been an explosion of sores in my mouth. My mouth was swollen with sores, my saliva tasted like blood. My breath could melt glass.

I put on my jeans, and told my wife i was driving myself to the emergency room. She stayed with the baby. My mother wouldn't let me go alone. She drove me to methodist hospital in sugarland. She put the windows down because she couldn't stand the smell of my breath.

I was there for four hours: two in the waiting room and two in the exam room. Everyone who looked in my mouth was visibly shocked (two nurses and one doctor.)

I was prescribed comfort medicine, since this childhood disease is caused by a virus: 20 vicatin pills, 20 antibiotic to prevent secondary infection of the sores, and a substance called 'magic mouthwash' to deaden my mouth. I also got doctor's orders to stay home from work for three days this week because i am extremely contagious.

(my biggest question is if this one of those diseases that will 'bounce back and forth'???)

So i've been in and out of conciousness all day today, with no REAL relief. I'll let everyone know how things go these next few days.

M1-A1 Destroyed

StrategyPage.com - Gallery
Pretty amazing stuff. I'm not certain if the turret blew off or if the entire thing was blown upside down and they pulled the hull off the turret. In the shots where you can see the turret, the interior seems pretty intact. Since it is physically improbable that the ammunition cooked of and blew the turret off, my guess is that the loader and TC were the KIA, the gunner the WIA and the driver the survivor.

In the details: lots of fluid around the tank means that nothing caught on fire per say, just diesel and hydraulic fluid everywhere; a kevlar helmet on the ground near one of the skirts, the front few skirts are made of incredibly heavy armor, it takes and enormous hit to take them off like that; no tracks, did they take them off before they flipped the hull back over? It may have been easier to pull them off when it was upside down than when it was right-side up; the damage to the suspension was probably mostly from the mines and partly from rolling it back over. In an image of the hull, you can see the door next to the turret ring open and the gun tube cleaning pipes partly out. I had forgotten about that stuff on that side. On the other side of the turret ring is the NBC system.

Seeing the hull without a turret reminded me of cruising around the country north of El Paso thinking that it would be really cool to have an M1 without the turret. It isn't a slow feeling vehicle, but without the weight of the turret it would make a real fun off road vehicle. You could put in some seats and maybe a sun-shade of some sort in place of the turret and have a nice camper. The back deck is large and flat and stays warm from engine heat for a long time.

Flash Gallery, First Impressions, Computer Questions

Flash Gallery

Because I needed to brush up on my ActionScript but mostly because I have zero social life I re-worked my online Flash gallery. To maximize how tedious the whole project would be I decided to do everything programatically and not draw anything on the stage...

It was a total pain in the arse but I think it turned out well...

Both the flash gallery and the html version are fed data from the same xml document- which makes updating them both super easiy!

Now if I only had some new paintings to add...

First Impressions

I would like to applaud Adolph for not calling this post "First Impressions". Such a resistance to wordplay is admirable.

Also, I think that everybody should follow Adolph's lead and think about how their data-backup processs/practices. My brother suffered a disaster yesterday when his harddrive failed while he was in the process of transferring files to an image to make a DVD backup.

He lost 4 years worth of music! And I don't mean mp3s ... I mean his own creative work...

Re:Computer Questions

Amber, I would follow Adolph's excellent advice and register the domain name as soon as possible. I would forgo, however, the trip to the Apple store in search of software/advice. Rather, I think you should consult with Todd about getting a great looking, updateable web gallery up and running. He is a professional and can provide you with all the services and/or advice you might need!

Gracias

Thanks for all the great info, Adolph! Basically, we just want a few paragraphs of text, about 10-20 images, maybe a few links, perhaps a way to purchase prints and custom pieces on-line -- nothing too elaborate, really -- I'll look into registering the domain name and go to the apple store to see what they recommend in terms of software. Muchas gracias!!

Those are beautiful images, Paul.

Some Pics

Here are some fotos that I was unable to share earlier because I had lost the cable to my camera...

This is a shot of the St. Louis Arch. I think that this monument is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The story about how it was built is pretty interesting too.

This is a shot of what the sky looked like in the morning the first day of the Great San Diego Fire of 2003. Now you can see why I had so much hope that extraterrestials were attacking the Earth and that I could embark on my plan to unite the nations of the world under an Earth Government headed by me or a puppet leader of my choosing.

First Backup Using Impression

I just did my first backup using Impression. It was my documents folder, about 4.5 gigs worth of material. It went to the iPod and took a little less than 2 hours. I'm still working out how I wan't to get this done. What gets archived to dvd, what gets incrementally backed up to cd or iPod....?

iSpot is pretty interesting

iSpot.com
has a pretty wide variety of pricing parameters. Put an illustration in your shopping cart and then click calculate price.

Re: Computer Questions

Amber,

• Domain Name: To get anthonyfreda.com you must register anthonyfreda.com with a domain name registrar. The biggest (and not the cheapest) of these is verisign.com. Most domain name registrars also offer web site hosting or at least domain name parking, where you can reserve a domain name before you get hosting set up. One thing to be on the look out for: some registrars actually register the domain name in their name and then you rent it from them. While any domain name has a periodic fee attached, getting locked into a renting arraignment will limit your flexibility long-term.
• Web Site Hosting: Web site hosting generically describes the wide variety of services available to store your website and send web pages to people who request them. In evaluating web site hosts, you first have to decide if you want:
  • Co-location: where you own the computer and rent a space in a datacenter with power and a network connection. You pay for bandwidth too. Probably not what you are looking for.
  • Dedicated Hosting: where they own the computer and you rent it from them and pay for bandwidth too. They take care of computer maintenance and backups. Nobody else's website is on the computer. Probably overkill for you.
  • Shared Hosting: where you are renting usage on a computer that is shared with other people (which is invisible to you and to your website visitors). More affordable than dedicated hosting, they take care of computer maintenance and backups. This is probably what you want.
  • DIY Hosting: where you buy an internet connection and a computer and have the domain name point at it. This is funner, but probably not what you are looking for.
  To evaluate hosts you will be looking for:
  • Reliability
  • Space How much stuff can you put on the server? If you are putting up a lot of Anthony's work, then you may need additional space.
  • Bandwidth describes how many web pages/images can your web site host serve up. What is the maximum traffic you think you will have? Is that less than a standard hosting plan? What does additional bandwidth cost from a hosting company?
  • Database/Scripting Access depending on how you build your site, you may need access to a database back end or a scripting language. In part, the web site development will pick your host because most hosts do not support unlimited languages. At its most basic you are looking at Microsoft's ASP (Active Server Pages) or a Unix host with Perl, PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocesor). Either can also run languages like JSP (Java Server Pages) or CFM (Coldfusion Markup).
  • Cost most expensive may not be more reliable or offer as many goodies
  • Other features such as email hosting, backups, etc.
• Web Site Development: How does a web site get built? You probably want something a little more elaborate than some text files. What is the purpose of the web site? Is it simply an Internet brochure? Does Anthony also want to use it as a tool for clients to download art? Once you get some theoretical questions out of the way and figure out what you want to do, the web site developer outlines functional requirements for the web site and analyzes whether off-the-shelf software can be used or if you should invest in custom software. The balance between the choices can be described as "no need to reinvent the wheel" vs. "can't put a square peg in a round hole." Other key considerations along with web site function are navigation, graphics, and initial content.

Hey Killy, No Matrix Posts Yet?

The Matrix Revolutions (2003): Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski

Nevermind the token women or coloreds....

... Full Speed Ahead! President Bush Signs Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003
From L to R, The Nazgul (photo courtesy White House)

Computer Questions

Hey guys, I actually have some computer questions for once, and I thought instead of taking the subway all the way to the Soho Apple store, I could just ask ya'll, instead. Anthony and I want to set up a website for his artwork -- we want to set up an easily identifiable page, somethlink like "anthonyfreda.com" -- and then we need to build the site.

1st: How do we reserve a specific domain name?

2nd: How do we build the site on our own? We need something very user-friendly because we really don't know a lot about html, etc.

Right now, he's using a very expensive host site that sets up the page for him completely, but he has very little creative control and he's grouped with a lot of other artists, so we really want to have something that we can change whenever we want, add new images, text, links, etc, and also that is easy for clients to remember when they want to see his work on the web. Any ideas?

Re: Geek Out

I would love to get some AOE action in. How we gonna host? I can play from a broadband connection up until around 2a.m Texas time ... but I cann'ae host a game...

Or I could spend the evening drinking budwesier and reading DH Lawrence.

Although I would have much rather have gamed

Or bowled, for that matter

Or played boggle

Time to Geek Out

Amber's in Dallas for meetings. Anyone up for some AOE or GR this evening?

267 Titles

There are 267 Titles for people in the new NMSS Enterprise Database. A lot of them are "WTF" titles, but 267 included nontheless. Ironically, even though they contain a number of obscure military titles (i.e. SPEC5M), it doesn't contain the current standards (i.e. SSG instead of SSGT).

I love colophons

macboy.com: Ballmer's iPod - Production Notes

New Hitchiker's Guide Radio Production

Looks like a movie may be in the works as well...

Interesting Flash Interface: camerafinder

camerafinder
I think this is a good example of how Flash can do something completely different and more useful than html.

Scoop: Robert Byrd: A High Price for a Hollow Victory

Scoop: Robert Byrd: A High Price for a Hollow Victory

Girls Unite

Hear ye!
Here ye!
See this and all shall be anointed!
Thank you boys. We will take what we need from here and leave what we don't need.
Meanwhile, remember, we still love you!

No! The sandal, follow the sandal...

Todd: you mean, you guys don't axe the shipping and handling if they order $20 or more of photography?

follow the gourd

YES! please continue to develop the gourd, you are making great progress. because i am a silly man, with very little common sense, i overlooked one very important facet in my half-baked paypal implementation; shipping and handling. easy stuff, flat rate of $2.50 per order.

sheesh, i gotta stop screwing up.

Another night alone...

Carol is leaving for Raleigh, NC for the evening. She'll arrive around 10 or so, sleep, wake up, go to her training class, and come back thursday night.

This leaves me alone with adolfo tonight. We'll prolly take another trip to the library tonight so he can tire himself out, and i can check out some books for him. I don't think it will be too bad this time. He goes to sleep pretty well, and as long as he feels someone next to him in bed, he'll stay zonked out.

My political compass points

and the people that share them:

I AM NELSON MANDELA!

what dopey loaded questions!

The Political Compass

If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations.

And when did you stop beating your wife?

According to PoliticalCompass.org

Also, I took the Star Wars Version of the test and came up between "Gweedo" and "Average Storm Trooper". However accurate the results, I feel that some of the questions were poorly posed. Take this one, for example:

Lazy dirty Jawas will never be able to advance themselves economically and socially on Tatooine unless they take the kuzoos out of their mouths and start speaking Common Galactic.

I Strongly Agree
I Agree
I Disagree
I Strongly Disagree
or:

When the rebellion suceeded in overthrowing the Empire and all of the Imperial Navy's officers were rounded up and either blasted, fed to the Sarlacc or simply hung, it was wrong to summarily execute the Imperial Fashion Designers because they really did do a fine job, especially with the Imperial Snowtrooper uniform which I might add were designed and produced en route to the ice world of Hoth because previous intelligence indicated that the Rebel base was actually in a Temperate zone.

I Strongly Agree
I Agree
I Disagree
I Strongly Disagree

PABLO - PhotoGourd

I love it!
Please continue to work on this. I really want to be able to quit my job soon and this will be so helpful in helping me get to that point.
I didn't have too much time to explore the gourd, but what Killy has shown me and as of the last update, it sounds like what I, as a consumer, would like this thing to do.
So when you click 'continue shopping' will it remember what page you were on?
Jenwed has 18 pages, it would be a hassle for me to be taken back to home instead of to page 14 or whatever.
I LOVE IT!

Thanks Paul!

Yes!

Paul i think photo gourd is worthwhile and should be tweaked a little more. Were you able to apply the 'gourd' to the wedding template i sent you?

By the way, i had figured you had gotten the paper lantern from the illustrator symbols menu, but where did you get the gourd? did you draw it?

Photo Gourd v1.2

It finally dawned on me to insert php into the Photoshop Templates. This is the result.

Note that the page "remembers" which items you have added to your cart and cleverly marks those items as "added".

Also, on the Cart Page you can now update all items in the cart at once.

Also, as of the last version you are able to purchase via Paypal.

Thanks again to everyone for the feedback.

Also, what is the verdict? Should I put anymore effort into this thing or not?

Talking to the Dr.

I went to see my favorite radiologist first thing this morning. The wound on my nose is superficial, according to him. If it was fractured it would be blue, and even if the bony part of my nose had a hairline fracture, nothing could REALLY be done. "Why submit yourself to the radiation?" he asked.

He prescribed a band-aid across the nose if my glasses were making me uncomfortable.

Then, he proceeded to tell me about his trip back home: Tehran, Iran. He had gone to attend several conferences at the hospitals in his home country. He had requested that i reprint some older conference posters so he could take and share, but he got so busy he never came to pick them up.

He was surprised to see a plethora of other American doctors there. He talked with them to discover that they were very suprised. "About what?" he asked them.

"The country is so advanced," they responded.

"They thought Iran was a desert Lebanon-type country with everyone sitting on camels and drinking its milk," he laughed. And he talked about the various conferences he attended and how beautiful his home country was.

Al Franken @ DNC

DNC: Kicking Ass: "During the 2000 campaign, when Bush said he was against 'nation building,' I didn't realize he meant only our nation."

The Genie is amazing!

Re: Photo Gourd 1.1

Paul,
I was at the shopping cart page and emptied it.

Gender Genie says Paul's last entryis :

Words: 169

     

(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)



      Female Score: 178

     Male Score: 495

           



The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

Photo Gourd v1.1

Backup Software

What are you guys using to make backups and archives?

• Impression, a backup utility for Mac
• Apple's Backup
• Dantz Retrospect
• Carbon Copy Cloner
• Others ???

Any other options I'm missing?

Purchase Interface Topic (Not Important)

One of the things I am interested in as far as order processing systems go is how they handle multiples of the same item. The below image, I think illustrates the problem of containing multiples within the product table. The interface just displays the state of the table: a multiple of single line items of the same thing. Instead of the interface saying, okay, we have x number of this type at this size, it says, this line on the database says this number of this type and this size and this line of the database says . . . and so on and so on. This is good because the interface is flexible: a user can either use the count box to increment up the number of pictures ordered or just click on the "add print" button. Additionally, the user is able to add a different type or size of the same print (in two steps). However, if the user uses this for the former rather than for the latter, the user has to count up the number of items manually. Further, if the product fulfillment table looks like the interface, it would be more difficult to generate sales statistics.

Why PayPal?

Is this for PaulF's business? If he has a merchant account, then Payflow Link is a simple way to get payment processing.

a gourd of considerable weight

wow paul, now i know why you cursed me. i did not know that you had been developing something. you're really working that CSS stuff too, huh?

you will never guess who called me last night as i read 'jarhead' like a man possessed. it turns out that the silence on mark's part was caused by business travel and dental surgery. details to follow.

there is one reason why i prefer the paypal option; instant payment. i am not sure whether we will require payment up front, or ship photos on faith, but either way it's gonna be a check. the former will likely test the patience of today's youth, the latter will test their moral fiber. and, as multiple music industry lawsuits have let me know, the youth of today have none. i heard brittany spears had to buy a used private plane due to revenue lost to donwloaders.

the poor dear.

Error When Shooping Cart Empty

It is better if the shopping card puts you back into some sort of purchase selection mode if it is empty.:
Photo Gourd v1.0: "Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/pmercado/public_html/scratch/test/cart.php on line 31


Photo Gourd

Your Photo Gourd is empty!!!
"

Introducing: Photo Gourd v1.0

Add to Cart Confirm Order

Recieve Email

Thanks to a great idea from Todd I was able to come up with this last night. Check out the functionality and let me know if it is worth pursuing.

Please note that I have tried to make it as flexible as possible so there are test options like "glossy/mat" that can easily be customized or removed.

Also, I have not yet put form checking in for the address fields on the order form.

Also, the Photoshop Template I used is here.

A painful story

Adolfo iv and i were sitting on the bed and i was showing him how to play with a toy we had bought for him a while ago, but he was still too little to really 'use'. I'm sure we all had one: the six circular blocks that you would hammer into a base with six just slightly smaller circles cut into it. This comes with a small, but effective, wooden mallet.

I hammered a couple of the blocks down and handed it off to killito. He weakly hammered at the toy without much effect. I showed him again. and again. and again. We played for a few minutes together. He would laugh when i would pound at the blocks, and smile at me. It was a long string of picture perfect moments.

We continued to play, eventually with me holding his hands, hammering lightly at the toy. He took the hammer in his hands and played a bit with himself. I had taken off my glasses, cause i didn't want him to swipe at them as he so often does.

I rubbed my eyes from not having my glasses on. When i pulled my hands down off my face, he was looking at me. He smiled really big and......

CRACK!!!!!!

right across the bridge of my nose. NO! BABY NO! it hurt so bad i was crying. He stuck out his bottom lip like he was going to cry, but i took him in my arms (for both our comfort) and explained to him that hitting the toy was ok, but not daddy.



oh gosh. so i've got this little painful swelling on my nose. it's only slightly uncomfortable to put my glasses on.

More from DThree!

Check out the latest from our favorite political commentator. Please send feedback to dfernandeziii@yahoo.com .

Be Lazy . . . Code Responsibly

Paul may be interested in this:
Gus Mueller notes about BBEdit developer.

useless panther info

so, it turns out that panther allows you to mute your iSub from the keyboard.

you did not used to be able to do that.

this post was created using paper lantern