RandomFailure

I bought a new iMac G5 this evening. Yea! Now I only have to wait 3-4 weeks to get it. And get a new printer. And upgrade all my software (going to a new OS (from 9.2 to 10.3) will do that to you). But since my current machine has served me quite well over the last six years, I’m more than overdue. I really couldn’t justify to myself to spending an additional $1500 or more to go for the higher-powered G5 dual processor-based tower plus monitor. The biggest problem is likely to be what I’m going to do with the old equipment. Anybody want it? Send me an e-mail (link to your right).

Plus, I’m finally getting an iPod, which should be here next week. But I can’t use it yet, because I can’t hook it up to my current computer.

Apparently, Kevin Smith hasn’t gotten tired of Jay and Silent Bob after all. Maybe making movies with the talentless J. Ho convinced him of that. Anyway, a sequel to Clerks is supposedly going to happen (see the article). Or read Kevin Smith’s words directly. If you don’t know why this is good news, get your lazy ass to the video store and rent this and see for yourself. (You can turn off the computer any time after reading this.)

Don’t be alarmed by the sudden change of the appearance of this blog. I decided to pick another default template to use, and will hopefully be getting around to learning enough CSS to be able to customize it a little. I was getting really tired of the right-justified link column. And yes, I know I need to add more links; I’m just too lazy to do it right now.

As opposed to my healthy obsession, a Mango-A-Go-Go juice from Jamba Juice. On a 90° day like today, it tastes oh so good.

The unhealthy obsession is this little joystick you can connect to your TV from Jakks TV Games. These things (there are several) include some of the arcade classics. Today, I bought a Namco one, which includes Ms. Pac Man, Galaxian, and Pole Position, among others. If you’re an old-school gamer like me, this is a lot of fun. And on sale at Target this week for $16. The only drawback to these things is that they’re designed for right-handed people. So if you’re a lefty, like me, be prepared for some difficult maneuvering.

What an unbelievable clusterfuck of a computing evening this has turned out to be. First, my computer kept crashing, and crashing, and crashing. (You get the idea.) I’m not sure which of these rather trite sayings would be more appropriate here:

1. My computer crashed more often than Stevie Wonder driving drunk downhill during an ice storm.

or

2. I rebooted more than a whorehouse full of cowboys.

And on top of that, when I finally stopped the crashes, Blogger went ape-shit nutzoid on me. Published the previous post over 40 times! I had to go in and delete each one, one at a time (no mass deletions)! It took almost as long to clean up the mess as it did to write the previous post!

And then I noticed that the e-mail post link wasn’t showing. So I had to go in and modify the code in the template (not for the squeamish).

Finally, after looking at this blog for the umpteenth time, I realize that I’m not all that wild about the template. So I think I’m going to choose a new one. Stay tuned. (I know I could write my own, but my CSS skills aren’t even remotely close to being able to do so.)

Collect the set!

• These posts will now have an icon link (a little envelope with an arrow at the bottom of the post) which will allow you to send a link to the post to others who might enjoy this stuff.
• I’m finally recovering from vacation last week. Yes, I know it’s odd to have to recover from a vacation, but trying to get caught up on all the mundane domestic stuff (laundry, mail, paying bills) took until Wednesday.

  Oh, I went to Colorado for vacation to visit some friends, do some hiking, and generally relax. I did see a rattlesnake while hiking, and took a few pictures which I’ll get around to posting eventually. But it wasn’t until after I returned that I realized I should have taken a movie of the rattlesnake with my digital camera. That way you could have heard it, since I didn’t get close enough to see it all that well without digitally zooming the picture to maximum, and hearing it was much more creepy than just seeing it sit there coiled up.

• And to top that off, I was scheduled for jury duty this morning. So I show up on time, and manage to get lucky. More people were called than were needed, and since I hadn’t checked in, I had the option of being excused and having it count as a day served. Of course, I took this option, but went to work instead of goofing off. If you’re a lawyer with a billable hour requirement, you’d understand. Let’s just say it’s better than having to work weekends to make up hours.
• We’re #91! According to Sports Illustrated (sorry, but I can’t find a link to the article), Duke football is listed as the #91 of out 117 Division I-A football programs in the country. Sure beats being #117!
• Fairly old (since I don’t regularly read Wired News), but still interesting (I read about it in the July 2004 Macworld). If you’ve ever played one of those classic text adventure games (and if you have, you are pretty much by definition a geek/long time computer user like me, since they were superseded a long time ago), you can now play them via AOL Instant Messenger. Send an IM to: InfocomBot, InfocomBot2, or InfocomBot3. You can then select a game to play, and go from there. Warning: these are highly addictive and can chew up insane amounts of your time. If you want to read about the guy responsible for this, click here. If you want to rehash the past, check an unofficial Infocom site or a second unofficial site. If you’ve never played one of these games, do yourself a favor and at least check it out.

Yeah, I know. I was a bit surprised myself when I saw the headline of the article. (I don’t know how long this link will be valid, or if the bastards at Knight Ridder, who own the Philadelphia Inquirer, will make you register (for free) to get access to this article.)

In short, the article mentions several Hollywood-types who are Republicans. The most serendipitous ones are Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears. Imagine the brain-fest if those two ever meet the President! One Dennis Miller reference would likely have are three of them confused for days on end. [A brief aside, when DM was on The Left, I was a huge fan. But now, listening to him makes me physically ill. Bastard.]

Well, it’s good for me that I had a good Saturday, especially since it was my birthday.

Because Sunday was rather lousy. Mostly due to my horrible run, the worst I’ve had in a long time. It was an ambitious 15 miler, run at about 7:30 to 7:45 per mile pace, with the middle 1/3 to be run at around 6:30 per mile pace. Everything went well until around mile 7, where I was anticipating the water fountain to be. Alas, midsummer maintenance had deprived me of the water that I sort of desperately needed at that point. Despite the lack of water, I decided to continue on.

Then my legs went dead. Stone cold numb. I could run, but I really couldn’t feel my legs. I don’t know why. I wasn’t partying too much on Saturday night (shared a bottle of wine over dinner and stayed up too late watching part of a bad movie), so I don’t know what happened.

And then, to top it off, as I’m approaching mile 13 (at least, I think it was mile 13, things were kinda fuzzy at that point), I saw someone I used to date. Running with her new boyfriend. And he looked like a real goober.

I guess things could have been worse. I could have been hit by a bus or been shot.

I’m likely not the only person to be bringing this up today, but the latest Bushism is a doozy.

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

Well, it’s nice to know that knowledge of the English language is not a requirement for being President. Now if only they’d repeal that “native born” portion of the law, there’d be nothing preventing us from having President Schwarzenegger.