Operation: Mindcrime II

I got to see Queensrÿche‘s Operation: Mindcrime II performance at Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie tonight. It was an awesome show with both the original Mindcrime and the new Mindcrime II sets performed plus a couple song encore afterwards.

They used a lot of the video from the original Mindcrime performance along with a new stage show and lots of backing vocals courtesy of Pamela Moore who also reprised her role as Mary.

I scored a killer seat about 14 rows back from the stage and got some great views of the performance. The theater seems like it’d be a great venue for musical acts and I’m looking forward to seeing some more shows there.

The Ayes of Texas

A little bit of book fluff, don’t take it too seriously like some of the whack jobs reviewing it at Amazon did.

It’s an inventive tale of an alternate universe in which the Soviets have almost dominated the world, except that the newly independent Republic of Texas has something to say about that.

Don’t go looking for a deep, intellectual read here, but if you want to enjoy yourself, go find a copy of The Ayes of Texas and have some fun.

New Home Page

I’ve spent the weekend working on a complete redesign of the pat-st-jean.com home page using iWeb. The layout tools and templates are great, but the HTML still needed a bunch of editing to get it all working the way I wanted. If Apple were to add the ability to edit the navigation menus and to create secondary navigation menus it would really be a first class product. As it is, I had to rename some files, edit them to remove spaces from filenames, and use two different “sites” in order to get the secondary navigation working. But it’s done, and thanks to mod_rewrite, there shouldn’t be any interruption with regards to old filenames vs. new ones. I’m watching the logs to make sure of that and have caught one missed file so far.

My Diploma Arrived

I got home from running some errands to find my diplomas sitting at the door. I ordered an extra one, and it was a good thing that I did. The “official” copy is in a nice black binding and I’d hate to take it out for framing. So the second copy is going to go to Michael’s tomorrow to get framed.

It’s a relief that it’s all really done now. It’s been a long, strange trip, but now I can get on with the Masters degree…

It’s Official, I’m a College Graduate

I was working on my application for UTA and decided to check on the status of my application for graduation at Phoenix. Well, it turns out that it is official now. I don’t know when the diploma will show up, but I requested the transcript be sent to UTA so at least that part’s out of the way. Now I’ve got to get ENMU‘s transcript, the letters of recommendation, and the GMAT scores done.

Building a NAS Box

In the aftermath of the road trip it became clear that I’m running out of storage space. I’ve got 4 gigabytes of RAW images taken on this trip and the potential for much, much more. So I started looking around at stuff like Buffalo’s Terastation, but the price really turned me off. So I picked up a motherboard with 5 SATA ports, CPU, RAM, and 4 500G SATA drives for about $400 less than a Terastation. The NAS box has been built and I’m now configuring it. It looks like after the RAID and filesystem overhead I’m going to end up with about 1.4 terabytes of usable storage.

Road Trip Day 10

I set out at around 8:45 in the morning, heading south for home. The threatening skies finally let loose in Kansas City and I got rained on all the way to Topeka. The rain gear held up well and I was completely dry by the time I got out from under the clouds.

Today’s ride was really just a straight shot home, with no real sightseeing or stops, other than lunch and gas.

I pulled in to the garage at around 6:30 in the evening, having ridden around 560 miles today, with Motley Crue’s Home Sweet Home playing on the XM. A fitting end to a great trip.

All in all I rode about 3100 miles in 10 days and passed through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma on the way.

Road Trip Day 9

The rain arrived overnight, and I’m really glad that I went in on a cabin because I’m about done with tent camping in the rain. We had a few more stragglers arrive today, but for the most part everyone’s here. Because of the rain I again passed up the trip to the factory. I’ve already been on the tour once and really don’t like crowds all that much anyways.

The rain cleared out in the afternoon, just in time for Sam’s excellent brisket and the raffle and auction. I won a Nallin polo and a baseball cap in the raffle and a braided steel rear brake line. Unfortunately I can’t use the brake line because it’s for a 2000 model only, so if anyone with a 2000 Sportster wants one, pick up one for a 1997 and I’ll pay shipping both ways.

I’ve decided to do the last leg, the trip home, in one day instead of two, so I’m calling it a night early so that I’ll be rested tomorrow.