The Halls

house of flies

2008-08-21T23:08:22Z

Well, I'm back. it was no big deal. You knock me out like that, and you can pretty much do whatever you want to me, which they pretty much did.
In fact, I can't imagine anything much worse you could do to me, really, that wouldn't leave a mark.

So I came home and slept a few hours, and then felt like a million bucks. My new jets for the savage motorcycle arrived today, so I went out and tore apart the carb and re-jetted it. It now runs a little lean, so I have a little more work to do, but it at least runs. I just need to change the oil and wait for the new battery, and I should be able to ride it again.

i might be wrong

2008-08-20T06:36:50Z

I am listening to an old, but new to me, radiohead song, and I am surprised to find that I like it.
Radiohead has often been regarded as the best mainstream indie band or some such nonsense, but they haven't impressed me much since creep, which they presumably hate.
Summer is over for us. School starts tomorrow, but of course, I'm not able to sleep, so I'm still up.
Currently working on a few projects, one for home, one for work, one a side job, and still sortof trying to work on the thesis.
Coached soccer practice tonite, we have our first game this saturday.
Should be interesting seince we lost one of our best players but gained two others are AWFUL. We really wanted to move up to a higher league, which is where we lost our latest player to, but it didn't work out. I'm going to have to try harder to make that happen for next season.

Tommorrow I have to starve myself all day so I can have a colonoscopy on thursday. wheee!
I think I'm more concerned about starving myself and not being able to play poker and judo tomorrow than the actual procedure.

rocket

2008-08-18T19:11:11Z

Well, we went to omaha last nite to watch def leppard and Billy Idol.
Billy Idol wasn't too bad, the guy is in pretty good shape for being 53. But I guess that's the upside of the cocaine-laden rock-n-roll lifestyle.
Def Leppard was pretty good. It's always more entertaining for me to watch Ann and Misty, rather than the actual band. She turns into a completely different person, it's pretty funny.
I thought I was pretty cool sneaking a camera in, but the sneaky pics I took are all awful since they were all so rushed.
We hung out with several of Ann's friends, and their couple friends. They were all pretty nice and fun, so we had a pretty good time. Only thing I would change would have been to have the show on a saturday instead of a sunday, so I didn't have to go to work the next morning.

crush

2008-08-16T18:01:20Z

CRushed everyone at Pete's poker game last nite. It was one of the most enjoyable times I've had at poker in a while.
It started off quite bad, I would get felted by the nuts when I had the 2nd best possible hand
Me: AJ
Board:9JJ55
Alfred:55

That hurt. Rebuy.
That was the 2nd hand I played.
Then I tried to play ultra tight, and was doing ok, but two more times got felted by weird, non-standard hands. You know, it wasn't like I had AJ and had top pair on the board, only to find out that someone else had pocket kings or similar. It was always something like 56 suited ended up making a flush to beat my flopped two pair.
But....
I hung in there, and was noticing that one drunk guy, Lee, had way too many chips for as reckless as he was playing. So I rebought for a 4th time, and make a point to go after Lee.

Short version, I finally get some cards, and make some $.
HoldEm, pocket aces, double thru Lee.
Stud 8/b: AK down, K up. max bet to the end to make Kings up, double thru Lee
Stud 8/b: AA down, 10down. max bet to the end to make Aces up, double thru Lee
Eventually, I felt Lee, I get all $125 of his and kill the game, ending up $65.

I have a love/hate relationship with poker, and I love it right now.

Peggy Sue

2008-08-15T22:38:17Z

Well, I've nearly resurrected my suzuki savage. It's painted now, and mostly put back together. I filled it with gas, and attempted to jump start it, and it did run, but very poorly.
It's clear that I will need to get a new battery, and probably have to rebuild the carburator. They don't seem to like to sit around for years at a time without running at all.

It will be pretty cool to get that running again, it's a fun little bike.

buried alive

2008-08-12T17:05:08Z

well, I'm like 99% well now. I think I had the freaking flu, again.
So that was fun.

Spent all day on my first not too sick day building a deck at my uncle's. It wasn't too hot, and they have a lot of trees in the backyard, so it was realatively shaded.
We also hung out with BJ & Shelly on saturday nite to see their new kid Michal, now that they are back from Poland. Completely out of character, I didn't get any pictures of him. Pretty dumb of me.
Well, I'll see them again soon, I'm sure, and I'll get some then.

Fall soccer is starting now, so practice is tonite. It also means the fall semester is starting, and judo practice will pick up as well.

I'm still fretting about the future of my job, and doing side projects, and supposedly working on my thesis.
Busy, busy.
I did get most of my newly painted motorcycle parts back finally, and they look pretty good, so I put the suzuki bike back together. Of course, since it's sat for two years waiting, the battery is shot. I even had it on a battery tender the whole time, but apparently that's only good few a few months, not a few years.
So hopefully the next post will be about how that's running again.

sick

2008-08-06T22:50:41Z

I feel like crap. I can't figure out if I'm really sick, or it's just because I did not sleep even 10 minutes last nite. I tried Ambien for the first time on monday nite, and it worked, but I felt weird all day yesterday.
Then, when I thought I would be tired, around midnite, I wasn't even a little tired.
So I stayed up until almost 4am, and felt tired, but just tossed and turned for 4 hours. Now I feel like I have the flu or something, but I can't figure out if it's related to the ambien, or if I really caught something.
Either way, I'm very unhappy right now.

back in the saddle

2008-08-04T21:47:11Z

ah ha!
I got the new Ubuntu server running, and forwarding packets as it should. I now have a brand spanking new server (software-wise). It's much more efficient, and is supposed to be easier to maintain. It certainly was much easier to get going initially, just had to educate myself on it's particularities.
Now the whole server is running from an external usb drive, which is not ideal. But it's not much slower than the older version, so that's a good sign. I will ultimately move it to a permanent, internal drive, and then it will be even faster,

holy crap

2008-08-01T17:08:02Z

I can't believe this! This is a horror movie come to life!

Man stabbed and decapitated on Canadian Greyhound bus - Telegraph
A man aboard a Greyhound bus has repeatedly stabbed and then decapitated a fellow passenger.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/....

where is my mind?

2008-08-01T17:01:14Z

Did ya miss me?
I've been actively trying to change the distro of my server to Ubuntu. I'm sick of this gentoo distro. It seemed ok at first, and it helped me learn a lot of the inner workings of linux, but the one thing that it was supposed to do well just broke, so that's about all I can stand of that.
In the meantime, the new ubuntu version of the server is coming up slowly, most notably the part that runs the firewall, and forwards all the webserver packets to the actual webserver. When that doesn't work, you ask my IP for a web page, and nothing happens.
So hopefully that will be going shortly, and then all will be as it was, just running on this new distro.

save your soul

2008-07-23T18:39:50Z

Ann's latest thing is sewing. Ever since I've known her, she has proudly stated "I don't sew"
Now it consumes all her free time, which there isn't much of, as she watches two friends kids now.
Ok, not now, but she will come this fall, which I think is crazy.
But she is watching one kid 2 days a week during the summer.

I have been getting lots of requests for plans in the coming weeks, and my summer if officially fully booked now. This is not good. I was dead set on getting a trip to Ft. Collins, my home away from home, in this summer again, but several things worked against me.
With everyone loving skiing as much as they did, I may just move it to the winter or spring...

OMG!

2008-07-21T18:04:30Z

Well, I am officially getting old. I got 2nd place in the cornhusker state games judo tournament this weekend. I had no business losing to the guy I lost to. Just made a mistake, and paid for it dearly.
Bleh.
I would consider posting the video of me losing just to punish and motivate myself, but it's actually quite boring. I try a throw that doesn't score, and then get pinned. I'm getting mad just thinking about it right now. So I must move on...

After that, Ann and I went out for my cousin's 30th birthday to what I can only assume is the oldest bar in the whole freaking town. Yet they had karaoke. So it was like being in a legionnaire lounge with a karaoke machine. Weird.
Karaoke is a funny thing. It brings out some of the weirdest, most desperate for attention people I've ever seen. We saw one woman, sitting at the bar by herself, yet she would sing, and would sing her heart out.
I don't know, do people think it's a snapshot of what stardom could be in that scenario?
I could have a good time with it, if it was a big group of people I knew. Not me, in a bar by myself, singing to strangers.
So I'd never done it before, and it was fun, since our group comprised some 60% of the bar.

Today I'm amazed by this video. I'm sure no one else will be very impressed, but I think this is very cool.

Right?!?!

love buzz

2008-07-18T17:24:41Z

I'm in a conference call right now. Very dry.
"how can we be more effective in engineering?"
at the end of the day, it's always, "work harder"

I have the cornhusker state games judo tournament tomorrow, and I didn't get any sleep last nite thinking about it, so I'm already dreading trying to sleep tonite. I don't sleep well before tournaments, because all I do is envision matches. Past matches, potential future matches, even other people's matches.
Then we're going out with some friends to drink and sing karoke, of all things. I can't wait to see how that turns out.

oops, I did it again

2008-07-15T23:40:22Z

Work here is crazy. I have no idea what kind of future this place has.
We shut down two whole remote offices last month, and I'm not sure things are getting any better.
Even if I question their long term future, there is all kinds of work right now, I'm insisting that we hire two more guys here in lincoln to get this all done.

But I'm still in backup plan mode now.
I've been involved in one startup for the last 6 months, making a product for long term revenue.

Today I just got notice of another contract I want real bad, but I'm going to have to filter that work through a different startup for there are no competition issues.

I'm still actively working on my thesis, although that hit the bottom of the priority list, it's been preceded by yet another product that I want to make on my own.

Did I mention my full-time job?
I also need to re-grout my shower.

Anyone want to help?

The funny/sad part of all this, is that it seems like a ton of work, yet none of them (apart from my full time job) are actually paying any money, yet. So it's all a giant crapshoot, but it something goes toes up or takes off, I don't know if it's even possible to have my fingers in more pies than I already do.

only god knows why

2008-07-14T17:52:48Z

well, the weekend was pretty fun for me, right up til the end, anyway.
Friday, I played some cards, but not well. But I lost the bare minimum, and had a decent time.
Saturday, we watched Karsyn, my niece. She's getting to be pretty fun now, so we all had a good time playing with her.

Sunday, we sucked supremely once again in our softball game, and now that misery is over.
I don't hate softball, I actually enjoy playing, but I hate losing. Thus, I hate team sports, because too often the reason we lose has nothing to do with me. Sadly, I am not that great at softball either, so I'm not entirely blameless either.
Whatever, I'm just not a good "team player".

Then I talked with my parents as I usually do on sunday nites.
My dad is doing great now, he's going back to work today (part time).
But I remember telling him when we first found out that it was efectively a one year prison sentence.
Do your time, and one year later, you should be able to return your current life.
This was not too far from how it went, although it's clearly easier for me to summarize it in such simplistic terms, because I did not have to go through the daily suffering. But at least now, it does seem that he is fully recovered, and we are all optimistic that cancer will not be an issue for him now.
Then my mom told me that my 51 year old cousin, Elmer, has just been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. I'm so ignorant, I never thought lung cancer was an issue for someone who didn't smoke (which he didn't).
This is about the most stand up guy I've known. This is absolutely devastating, as the it was my uncle ron who just died from lung cancer 7 years ago. Elmer is married to my cousin Jeanie. Ron was her dad, so this is just the worst possible scenerio for her.
And right now, there is absolutely nothing that I can do.
If there is one thing I seem to be reminded of more often than anything else, is that life is fleeting, and you better do the things you want now before you can't.
My friend Chad once said, and I believe this more than ever, "they should take every dollar that is currently being spent on ED drugs and the like, and put that into cancer research. There is no other disease that steals more people in the worst possible way than cancer."
I would agree.