Monthly Archives: June 2007

Short Week, including a Road Trip

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With July 4th falling on a Wednesday, SWMBO and I are taking off Thursday and Friday as well. We’ll head over to West Virginia on the 4th, and visit one of SWMBO’s retired co-workers and her husband. We’ll eat their barbeque, drink their beer, and spend the night. Then we’ll roll homeward on the 5th, with a possible stopover at Charlestown Races and Slots on the way back. Gotta help the retirement fund somehow.

The balance of the time off will be spent imparting order from the chaos that is now the tbbs-land Linux test lab. SWMBO has been most patient with the computer cases and cables that have been gracing the living area more than she’d like. And I must agree it’s time to get off the schneid in the old test lab.

Not all the drama of the Search for America Tour, but we’re still looking forward to it.

-k-
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The Buddy Lily

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I write from time to time about our son Ryan, who died long before his time as far as SWMBO and I are concerned. We always called him Buddy. Our church had a long-standing custom where congregants could purchase an Easter lily, fill out an “In Memory of ..” form, and have it displayed on the altar for Easter services. The lily was then yours to take home after the late service.

So, after Buddy’s death, we’d buy a lily, dutifully bring it home after the service, and put it beside George the ficus tree 1 whereupon the lily would die in the first week we had it. And not just a turning brown; no, these poor plants would turn black, shrivel to nothing, leaving only a pot full of dirt. As years went by, we repeated this ritual, until I suggested to SWMBO that we couldn’t keep torturing these lilies forever, and proposed that she dig a hole beside the fence out back, plant the lily, and at least give it a fighting chance to survive.

To the results are pictured above, and in spite of the fact that Easter is long gone, this is the time of year these things bloom in Northern Virginia.

Easter or not, when this plant blooms, we think of Buddy.

-k-

This picture posted with the click to embiggen feature, if you’re here at the tbbs site.

1 I name computers; SWMBO names plants.

The New Platform Colophon

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In my unabashed geek glee in seeing my first post from my new laptop appear on the interweb, I neglected to provide linkage to all the items that make up this cool little laptop. So, here goes:

  • The hardware: Toshiba Satellite A135-S4527.
  • The OS: Fedora 7. 1
  • The wireless drivers for the on-board Atheros wireless: MadWiFi. A relatively painless install, with minimal hand-to-laptop combat. The WPA key is installed via a program called wpa_supplicant; I thought that was an apt name.
  • The blog software: BloGTK. Again, easy to use, though I’d prefer a Linux version of ecto only because I’m used to ecto. I’ll learn to drive the BloGTK client in due time.
  • The case: The Brain Bag, from Tom Bihn. Not cheap, but durable, and oh so trendy. This item is on order.

And last but not least, every system deserves a name. My first laptop was named nomad, because it could travel around with me. I’ve christened this one gypsy, indicating far more wanderlust than I probably possess.

-k-

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1 Booted up from first boot off Fedora 7 DVD; no, I never saw the Redmondian flag, and the Winders decalomania has been removed, in favor of a “Powered by RedHat” sticker.

One Year Without the Acidman

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June 26, 2006 was the day I learned of the death of the legendary blogger Rob Smith, the Acidman. I read his blog always, commented a few times, and grew quite fond of the crusty old guy, even though we never met. His blog is still up; it was his wish that it remain so. It is maintained via several volunteers, who reprise Rob’s posts from the archives on nearly a daily basis.

His was one of the few blogs I read not offering full-text RSS feeds; still is. I still subscribe, I still read daily, and have been treated over the last year to posts I’d already read, and to some I never got to whilst trolling his archives. Some of them still move me enough that I want to hit the comment button and add my two cents; the A-Man was famous for replying to commenters vie e-mail.

I think I expressed my thoughts in a comment to an on-line remembrance after his death:

Hmm, my trackback appeared not to track. I’ve not been this sad about losing someone I’ve never met since the death of Dale Earnhardt. Peace and comfort to Rob’s family and friends. Thanks to all those who put this online remembrance together.

My post:

http://www.quietvoice.org/index.php/2006/06/30/up-too-late-on-a-school-night/

–Ken–

I came across another song from Rob, and post it here in his memory.
The original plan was to do this on June 26, but the day job has been taking its toll lately.

Anyhow, enjoy the Acidman’s song:

Still loved, still missed, still read.

-k-

H/T:Da Goddess for the tunage.

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My iPhone

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Strangely, it looks like my old Razr. And it will look exactly like my old Razr until Verizon’s “New after Two” plan kicks in on 1/7/2008. Then the Razr will look like something else altogether. And I won’t have to camp out to effect the transformation.

-k-
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A New Platform

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If you see this, you’re reading my first post from my new Fedora-powered Toshiba Laptop. My old Sony Vaio, at age 8, was getting pretty long of tooth, and short on memory, disk, and everything else that makes a computer a computer.

I got the wireless card working, thanks to the MadWifi folks, and am posting this from my chair in tbbs Command Central.

I hate to follow a long period of blog inactivity with a post about blogging, but that’s all I’ve got right now.

-k-

NASCAR HotPass Driver Lineup

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The car/driver/channel matchups for today’s running of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 from Infineon Raceway in Sonoma CA look like this:

#2-Kurt Busch, 795
#60-Boris Said, 796
#20-Tony Stewart, 797
#7-Robby Gordon, 798
#42-Juan Pablo Montoya, 799

Since this race is on a road course, it’s fitting that Boris Said and Robby Gordon are in the driver lineup. They can both wind their way around road courses pretty well.

-k-
H/T: Jayski
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Who Knew Math was This Simple?

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I was a college math major, specifically a statistics major. I’ve pored over books, wrote on reams of paper, and consumed gallons of coffee in pursuit of mathematical enlightenment. Yet, I never came across something as brilliantly insightful as this, forwarded by my Brown City Michigan interweb jokester buddy:

If I’d grasped this simple concept, I’d have hung around and got my doctorate.

-k-

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RIP, Jim Shoulders

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I haven’t been to a rodeo in years; I used to watch rodeo on TNN, in its pre-Spike TV days, or whatever it is now. I guess my casual rodeo-watching, along with my love of classic country music, made me aware of the name Jim Shoulders. Every time his name was mentioned on the telecasts, it was almost spoken with reverence.

Jim passed away at age 79, and as is my unfortunate custom, I found what a mark he made after his death. He won 16 world championships, and 10 reserve championships. That’s a huge achievement in any sport.

And being a huge fan of rodeo country music, a verse in memory of Jim, from Jerry Jeff Walker:

Now, relax and take a deep breath or two
It’s a one time shot and then you’re through
Hang on, boy, and someday you’ll have fame.
When they open up that gate
The bull takes off like a runaway freight
And you’re a ro-de-o de-o de-o de cowboy
Bordering on the insane.

Jim Shoulders had that fame.

RIP, Jim.
-k-
H/T: Sing365.com for the lyrics.

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