The flight home has been really interesting. Due to some severe weather in Dallas I’ve been stuck in Kansas City and won’t be getting home until after 11:00 tonight. The good news is that American is putting us on the next flight, there was room, so at least I’m not having to stay in Kansas City for the night. And the Kansas City airport has free WiFi, unlike Chicago O’Hare, who wanted me to pay for it.
Author Archives: Pat
The End Of EBUS/405
We wrapped up EBUS/405 today and that leaves only one to go, the capstone course. I’m ready to be done with school for a little while. It’s been a long, strange trip, and it’s time to be over. At least until the spring, when I’m planning to start grad school.
Reese’s 4th Birthday
After missing last year’s birthday due to an attack of appendicitis I’m glad to report that I didn’t miss this year’s!
It’s still hard to grasp that Reese is four years old. Time flies.
But, he did really well with the party, made out like a bandit. Lots of Thomas the Train toys and clothes from aunts and uncles, an RC car from his grandfather, and the Power Wheels Harley that I’d ordered last month. One of his uncles assembled it for us (thanks, George, I owe you!) but due to a bad outlet didn’t get a good charge on the battery. So we had to break his heart and tell him that the short initial ride was it for the day.
The Hidden Fortress
On the flight up I got a chance to check out the Mac’s DVD playback capabilities. In a nutshell, they rock! I watched The Hidden Fortress, one of the Kurosawa boxed set 4 Samurai Classics. It’s pretty clear that George Lucas borrowed pretty heavily from the story line when he created Star Wars. The movie is a classic. It doesn’t have the high production values of American movies also shot in 1958, there are some rough edits and shaky cameras, but the story line is great and the actors really bring it to life.
The story follows two peasants, Tahei and Matashichi and their search for some gold. Along the way they run in to Rokurota Makabe, played by Toshiro Mifune, who is protecting Princess Yuki the last noble of the Akizuki clan. The group travels through enemy territory tring to get the princess and her gold to safety, hunted by enemies and the pesants greed.
If you like classic cinema, samurai movies, or Star Wars, check it out because it’s an important part of all of them.
iPod Top 25
Here’s my Top 25 tracks as of today (links got straight to iTunes):
- Big Bad Moon – Joe Satriani
- Hammer to Fall – Queen
- Parental Guidance – Judas Priest
- Jennifer Lost the War – The Offspring
- F**K Authority – Pennywise
- Shame of Life – Butthole Surfers (not in iTunes)
- Clean My Wounds – Corrosion of Conformity
- Can’t Get the Best of Me – Cypress Hill
- The Kilburn High Road – Flogging Molly
- Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Green Day
- Links 2 3 4 – Rammstein
- Just Push Play – Aerosmith
- Song 2 – Blur
- Crazy Bitch – Buckcherry
- Precious Declaration – Collective Soul
- Tremble for My Beloved – Collective Soul
- Run – Collective Soul
- Falling to Pieces – Faith No More
- Seven Deadly Sins – Flogging Molly
- I Stand Along – Jackyl
- Turbo Lover – Judas Priest
- Twisted Transistor – Korn
- The Old School Off the Bright – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
- Gave Up – Nine Inch Nails
- The Sun and the Moon – The Pogues
The Massage Company
The painkillers and muscle relaxers have helped, but I’m still hurting so I decided to try one of the other recommendations the doctor had and went up to The Massage Company to have my back worked on.
This was my first real massage and I went in not knowing what to expect, but Alex set me at ease and really worked my back over. Some of it was approaching too intense, but at the end I don’t have sharp pains when I inhale. My back feels a lot better and I think I’m going to be returning at least monthly to keep my back healthy.
Switching to a Straight Razor
I’m a little fed up with how badly my electric razor has been chewing up my face that I’ve been looking to go back to blades. I’ve been going to a barber shop to get my hair cut for a while now and have had a couple straight razor shaves which, unlike disposables, doesn’t leave me with a raw face and ingrown hairs, so I went over to Classic Shaving and ordered a starter shaving set. It should be in next week so hopefully it’ll work out better than my electric razor has.
Replaced the Old RAM
Well, it didn’t work. There was too much of a speed mismatch and I’ve been seeing a lot of instability including an all out lockup. So back to Fry’s for another pair of the TwinX 1024-3200C2 modules. Now everything’s the same speed, though I did have to manually set the DRAM timings in the BIOS. But Corsair’s got a good forum whith excellent advice, so if you’ve got their memory and need some help, head over to www.asktheramguy.com for help.
Got The Cert
It was problems on GoDaddy’s side. I did the web based registration again this morning and it went right through the first time. I’ve now got a 256 bit SSL cert on the pat-st-jean.com domain. Now I just need to get some content that needs the SSL!
Cheap SSL Certificates
GoDaddy‘s selling chained SSL certificates for less than $20 per year. I’ve been meaning to add one to the www.pat-st-jean.com side of things because I’m going to be doing some more programming and want a secure place to do on-line registration and more. I ordered a 2 year certificate for a total of $36. I’m having a little trouble getting the site to accept the CSR, but it looks like they’re having problems so I’ll try again tomorrow.