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Why I bother keeping a computer around is beyond me. It’s not that I’m technophobic or could make do with an abacus, a typewriter and a deck of cards, but bad luck seems to surround me any time I go to do something on a home computer. I get the new hard drive, I drop in WinXP, turn the beast on and what do I get? Some arcane error message that no one has ever seen before. It’s like I summon error messages from Microsoft’s version of the Necronomicon. Warning: INF file beelzebub.sin is missing or corrupt. Opening trans-dimensional gateway to Hell. Maybe if I take on Max Von Sydow’s priestly character from the Exorcist when I start it up: "The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you!" With my luck, it’s worth a shot. If FAQs and downloads don’t work, holy water and crucifixes might. Same too with hardware. I used to go to those computer shows that are usually held in some cold, musty convention center on the outskirts of New Brunswick or Edison or some other northerly city-state. You know the type of show, the ones frequented by gelatinous, pasty skinned guys who speak about themselves in third person because they really are their respective Everquest characters. Anyhow, I used to go to get all sorts of items (CD drives, mice, programs, et al). The reason I stopped going? Well, besides getting within olfactory range of some of the unwashed masses of
And since we’re talking about the endless battle with machines and man, it is me or does the second Matrix movie just suck? I finally rented it the other day and, frankly, I’m not all that impressed. Granted I only have gotten up to the playground fight scene (where half of Manhattan turns into Agent Smith and plays "dog pile on the rabbit" with Neo). Still, I get the sense that everyone from Keanu to the CGI folks was just trying way too hard to impress themselves. First off, I don’t care if Mr. Reeves does Wagner’s four opera long "Ring of the Niebeling", I still see the clueless surfer dude from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Something about his facial features always has my mind’s eye seeing him say, "Whoa, dude!" regardless of what he’s being cast in. So, points off there already.
When the first movie came out, the fight scenes were new and fresh. Crisp choreography, tight camera angles, smart use of props and actors. Sure, you knew they were using cable harnesses to do all the jumping around and such. But the choreography was smooth and it looked natural in some odd way (that slow-mo shot of the dojo with Morpheus and Neo comes to mind). In this one, it looks as if we’re treated to the first week of the Flying Wallenda’s Acrobat School. You can almost watch some of the actors reach for the cables to steady themselves. And the props don’t help this. I watched that pipe from the playground fight this morning (things you do when you’re tired…). It goes from a solid pipe whacking Agent Smiths around like cheap piñatas to having it bend like a foam pool noodle when he uses it for more gymnastic attacks. Did Nerf sponsor the fight scene? It sure felt like it.
I’ll reserve the rest of my judgement on the film until I finish it or until another poorly done shot rolls across the screen. Right now I have to type out a referral letter for my nephew. He’s aiming to go to Princeton (smart lad). He’s got no major picked out at the moment, so I have to talk about his street smarts and academic curiosity. He’s lucky I’m blessed with a good sense of PR spin, a big thesaurus, and loads of bull.
posted by: Jiggsy at 10/28/03 13:29 |
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Awesome night, truly awesome.
Kate tried to help with the dancing portion, bless her. Drinking usually at least limbers me up enough to happily wiggle like some sort of crippled duck, but I was doing the driving last night and was tired from the week so I reduced myself to a single pint of Bass. Thus, it was me dancing like a jointless robot and she (lubricated with gin and tonic) swaying and shaking like a tree in a storm. If you're ever betting on an Indiana Jones style drinking contest between a giant Tibetan man and a whisper thin woman and you find out the woman is a school teacher, put your money on the teacher. I don't know what it is about dealing with kids all day (although I can think of some ideas) but the school teachers I know can put the drinks back like tap water. Makes me wonder how sober they are in class and just exactly what do they keep in that locked lower drawer of their desks. Something for you parents to ask about at the next teacher conference.
Well, I should have the computer at home back up soon. At least the work time Gestapo will no longer be wise to this blog when that comes to (viva la revolucion!). It seems the hard drive heads ended up magnetizing together and then wouldn’t spool up. Luckily, I’m on good terms with the IT guys here (I speak Geek, although not fluently). One of them took it home, smacked it around with a screwdriver (despite all our technological advancements, sometimes violence is still the only way to get things done) and got it running again. He dumped the drive onto his home server (I envision his house with the glowing red eye of HAL 9000 in each room) and will burn anything useful to CDs. The charge: nothing more than a fresh box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts (which I gave him only in gratitude, otherwise it would have been free). Even so, I went ahead and bought a new 120G drive from
NewEgg along with Windows XP. I bought the machine in the sad two week window when Dell was shipping out Windows ME and conflicts started soon after. Not that ME was necessarily bad, but it worked best only if you never modified ANYTHING. EVER. After discussing it with many techies, XP was the way to go. Not at Best Buy’s $300 for a box that would be recycling fodder by next week, heavens no. $140 from New Egg for the disk and a tiny manual, happily making it’s way from LA to here sometime next week.posted by: Jiggsy at 10/24/03 11:06 |
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Cripes, it's COLD! Not that I mind (winter is the season for me, and today's weather only reminds me of what's coming soon) but this constant cycling of warm and cold weather is driving me nuts. It's like God's kids keep squabbling over what temperature to leave the thermostat set to. One minute you're wearing t-shirts and making plans to fire up the grill, the next you're digging out your wool coat and leaving the unraked leaves to the hands of fate. They'll be under snow soon enough anyhow. Pass the schnapps and the remote.
But there are benefits to this weather, not the least of which is apples. The Missus and I took a short ride out to Eastmont Orchards this Past Sunday for our annual apple picking weekend. We don't always end up at the same orchard, but we try to pick apples every year. This was our first run to Eastmont and probably not the last. If you get the chance to go picking, do it. First off, apples from the tree taste worlds better than anything you'll find in the produce section. Even ones you might know (Golden Delicious, Fuji, Rome) taste like a completely different beast than what you get in the store. And new types, too. I just finished a Arkansas Black while typing this (I never heard of it either). Skin as dark as a plum, crunch like you're snapping a tree in half, and just the perfect blend of sugar sweetness, wine-like dryness, and a little lemony tang. Definitely going back for more of these. We only grabbed a sample bag of the new ones and then loaded a full bag of Winesaps (the Missus' favorite and becoming one of mine, too). Twenty two pounds of apples for a little under twenty bucks. Plus one Arkansas Black in my coat pocket for a sample back in the car. Yes, I know I'm going to Hell for stealing, but just about everyone else there was sampling the goods and not even so much as a scowl from the staff for it.
SOCIAL NIGHT! SOCIAL NIGHT! We were never much of the bar scene type when we were single, so this makes tonight extra special. The place is called Harry's Roadhouse in Asbury Park. The band tonight: DeSol. If Carlos Santana started a garage band, this would be it. Equal parts solid rock, latin snap and very catchy lyrics (even if most of them are in Spanish). Junior at work has already seen them and is hawking them like a concert promoter. Granted, their drummer used to work here, so that doesn't hurt people's desire to go. If everyone he invited shows up, we should have the place to ourselves. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. Now to head home for some dinner and a quick nap.
posted by: Jiggsy at 10/23/03 16:41 |
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My foist ethereal possession! Yes, I finally broke down and got myself a blog. Some will say I waited until the blog bandwagon was overloaded enough to avail the need of jumping on, other will cry of my cheapness, but I finally got one, so quit yer crabbin'. Since this is my first post, I'll regale you with tales of the wet sack of biochemistry that is me.
Born to traveling gypsies in the south of France... oh sorry, wrong personality coming through. New Jersey born, raised, educated and mutated here, although I hail from a part of the state that was almost exclusively farmland when I grew up. True that there are some pretty cruel jokes about the Garden (Apartment) State, but much like the hazardous waste we're famous for, the place gets under your skin and doesn't wash off easily.
I'm a 30 something guy (although much closer to twenty somethings in that age spectrum), married with a wife and a four legged kid named Maggie (no, not a mutation due to groundwater contamination, but a year old Lab mix). I live near the shore, far enough away to miss most of the traffic in the summer but close enough that we can go without making it look like anEverest expedition. We're new home owners, not that the house is new, but it does make for some...interesting weekends. Although I have a good electrical background (I come from a family of electricians), carpentry, plumbing, painting, sheetrock, etc. skills are being learned at an exponential rate. Still, I wouldn't trade the house in for the steaming hole of an apartment in a steaming hole of a beach town we lived in before. Thanks, but you can keep all the drunken Bennies and feral cats.
Although my hearing is starting to go (it's genetics, but I trade off by having excellent eyesight) I have a deep fascination with music. I know most people like music, but I really only started listening to music in my late teens. And that was with 50's do wop when everyone else was clamoring for U2 and INXS (and they wonder why no one can spell now!). I've since caught up and pretty much have secretly vowed to not get caught in an audio eddy current like so many other folks (i.e. if you listen to "lite" rock, even vaguely like Kenny G or Michael Bolton, chances are you're in an eddy). To that end, I can and do listen to just about any music imaginable. Miles Davis, Korn, Morphine (you left us much too soon, Mr. Sandman), Zeppelin, G. Love, John Lee Hooker, Bobby Hughes Experience, Hank Williams Sr. (I owe that to a college prof) and a long list of many others. Other than rap (nothing personal, but how many times can you talk about slapping your ho and being the baddest m-f'er on the block and still make it sound original?) and said lite rock, if it plays sounds and has some recognizable rhythm I'll lend it an ear. Or two.
I work in a mid-sized engineering firm, although I'm not an engineer (I just wear nice ties like them). I am an "enivronmental planner," which roughly translates into "pay me enough and I'll shovel sand against the tide." Originally it meant mapping out wetlands (in case you were curious, no one in my office has found any dead mob guys. Yet.). Now I work with something called Geographic Information Systems, or GIS for short. In a pistachio shell, GIS lets you create maps and put reams of data behind anything on that map. If you were looking at a map of your town, GIS would let you get info on schools, fastest driving routes, nearby utilities, population, recreation areas, ZIP codes, anything you could think of. Sure beats a black dot and a name. In two words: bitchin' stuff. If you want to know more about GIS, go here.
Kinda surprised at how much I cranked out during a lunch hour and still only barely scratched the surface. My computer at home is down at the moment (the hard drive bought the farm), so I'm reduced to cranking out my blather on my lunch break. Hopefully, I'll be able to add to this at home once I get things back up and running. Until tomorrow then.
posted by: Jiggsy at 10/22/03 11:44 |
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