Troubleshooting
Been busy troubleshooting stuff all day. At work, I'm trying to get my head around the organization of things that I haven't really had a chance to poke around with before, and it's a little frustrating. I think I've finally gotten it figured out. At home, Lisa called this morning saying that the Tivo was frozen. I did a bit of research during lunch and hopefully figured out a possible solution (turned out I fat-fingered something when hacking it way back when, as well as turned off another thing without realizing it). Hopefully that'll work too.
All this leads to a slow day on The D's.com. Not much to say anyways. We won our men's league game last night. Not much exciting there. We've got one more game next week before our big tournament starts next Friday morning. Very exciting, and I think we're ready for it. I think it will come down to whether our vice and skip can step up and play well.
Odd, not much else to say, so I guess I'll get back to work. Go figure.
Free, or nearly free stuff
Simply awesome deal from DirecTV running right now for existing customers. Follow the directions posted in this FatWallet thread. You basically log in to your DirecTV.com account, then under the "My equipment window" click on "Add or replace receiver" link. Then type in DVR4ME in the offer code box on the right hand side.It will then show the refurb Tivo with dual tuner offer for only $14.95. It's really a free Tivo, since the $15 covers shipping. No rebates, no joke. I got a second Tivo for our house, and it doesn't cost me any extra per month, since we were already paying the $5 for a second receiver. I can't wait to get my grubby little hands on it to hack it too!
From Chipotle, everyone's favorite burrito place, if you buy a gift card for your Valentine from January 31-February 11, bring back your receipt on February 12, 13, or 14 and get a FREE burrito. Gift cards start at $5.
Some Work, Some Play
Another good busy weekend. I got a ton of stuff done around the house, but also had time to get out of the house and have some fun too.
On Saturday morning, Ellie and I went to art class. You can read about that debacle on her page. Afterwards, we stopped by the library to pick up a book for me to read, and one for Ellie too. They were working on the roof at the library, and there was a god-awful smell permeating the place, so we got out of there as quick as we could. Ellie picked out "Truck Duck", and I got both The Rule of Four and Cell, the new one by Stephen King. I had reserved Cell when I found out it was coming out, and last time I had checked, it was still in transit. Apparently they called while I was at art class to tell me it had arrived, and luckily the librarian noticed that it was there when I went to check out. A nice surprise! I'm already 130 pages into the 350 page book, and it's pretty good so far. Rule of Four will have to wait a little while.
The rest of Saturday was spent home improving. I finished the new screen door installation, which was mainly getting the air piston thingies installed. The door doesn't open quite as wide as I'd like, but it looks great. I also put up some insulation in the basement, hoping to muffle the sounds from the TV coming up through the floor into the bedroom. On Sunday I got started tiling the ceiling, which is one of the last steps in the never-ending basement remodel.
On Saturday night, we headed out to Pat Troy's pub for some music by Danny O'Flaherty. You may remember he's the guy who had his New Orleans pub destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's going to ever come back, but it was a good excuse to drink some Guinness and listen to some music. Ellie had fun too, and was entertaining the people around us as much as the singer was.
We headed to the curling club on Sunday for some pickup curling. It was a fun game, and my vice made two great shots in the last end that allowed me to come up and tie the game at the end. He had only been curling for 3 weeks and made some good shots. I've got dibs on him for future games. We left it tied since the DC Olympics crowd was coming in with a camera crew from Fox 5 to tape a segment. I'll have to find out when they're running it, because I think they got a shot of the rings that showed how I tied the score. They seemed like a good crowd, hopefully it gets our club some good publicity for the upcoming Olympics. If it's anything like the last one, it's going to be very crowded over the next few weeks!
Greg Ostertag Suspended
Greg Ostertag was suspended for one game for conduct detrimental to the team, after he missed practice, apparently upset about his playing time in the Jazz' loss to the SuperSonics on Wednesday.
Seriously now. You're Greg Fuckin Ostertag. You're a career 4.7 points per game, 5.6 rebounds per game guy. You're making $4 million this year (and inexplicably made nearly $9 million last year). The only reason you're still in the league is because you're 7'2" tall. Shut up, take your money and be happy with whatever playing time you get.
Fish update
The fish are still alive! They haven't died from unbalanced chemical levels, the new tank, or out of fright from Ellie scaring them, so that's pretty good. I tested the water last night and everything was within reasonable levels. The tricky part comes tonight when, if everything still looks good, we get to feed them for the first time. Yes, that's right, they haven't been fed yet. Apparently they do fine without food for a little while, but if you feed them too much too soon, they will poop and pee all over the place, causing the ammonia levels to rise to toxic levels. If you are careful about it, helpful bacteria will take root in the tank and they'll convert the ammonia into nitrites (I think another kind of bacteria will eventually convert the nitrites into nitrates, but my eyes glaze over at that point in the explanation).
At any rate, the important thing is that no fishies have gone belly up, yet. We'll see how they handle the food and the weekend.
The Sparrow review
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
My review
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The most appropriate word I can come up with do describe this book is "haunting." That may sound like a negative way to put it, but the book is quite an achievement.
If an extra-terrestrial signal was discovered, who would be the first people to go explore the origin of the signal? The Jesuits, natch. They've always been at the forefront of exploration, converting the heathen natives. These Jesuits don't go with the aim of converting anyone, but to discover what else God has made. And they find it, with unbelievable consequences.
A good science fiction story has to tell the story without letting the science part of it get in the way. That's why stories like Battlestar Galactica and Lost are so successful, because it's about the characters and their stories, not about the space shootouts or weird monsters. This book manages that balance, and you care about the people that head to the newly discovered planet. It even manages the issue of religion well too. In fact, it's a major plotline that drives the main character. In the end, I might end up giving this 5 stars, but I'm going with 4 right now, just because I was really depressed by the ending. Since the book is a mix of flashbacks and current events, you know it's not going to end well, but it ended up going beyond even what I expected.
Next up is The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell, unless my library gets its copy of Cell, the new one by Stephen King before that.
Free Beer Robot!
What will those crazy Japanese brewers think of next? How about aBeer Pouring Robot? And they're giving them away! Apparently part of a promotion, you collect 36 stickers, and you're entered into the contest. The robot holds 6 beers and 2 mugs. Pressing the button will make the robot pour the perfect beer every time. Now if I could just get one that makes sure he's fully stocked at all times...
Gambling? Prepare to be Shot!
I'm with Ed and Radley on this one. I read the Post story this morning, and I still am baffled as to why the cops had their guns drawn, intentionally or not. Beware, home poker players everywhere! You could be next on the vice hit list!
Update: More information from today's Post. It's still unknown why the gun fired "accidentally," but the concensus of the supposed experts they interviewed seemed to be that it would be hard to unintentionally fire the gun in question, a .45 caliber. One would hope that a 17 year veteran wouldn't be negligent enough to do this, but the facts just aren't clear yet. As one expert said, "your finger shouldn't be on the trigger unless you're preparing to shoot someone."
Four Things
OK, fine Shane. I'll do one of your little memes. But I'm NOT tagging anyone else (is it still a meme if I strand it?). If someone reads this and decides to do it on their own, fine, but it's their own choice. So here we go.
Four jobs I’ve had in my life
- Computer programmer for EDS/AMS/CACI/the government
- Intern for Exporters Insurance
- Cashier/monkey at Wendy's. And I'd still eat there
- Paperboy, which everyone should have to do at least once
Four movies I can watch over and over
- Memento
- The Godfather
- The Empire Strikes Back
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Four places I have lived
- New York City (da Bronx)
- Paris, France
- Waterloo, Belgium
- Vienna... Virginia
Four TV shows I love to watch
- Lost
- CSI (the original only)
- Battlestar Galactica
- The Simpsons
Four places I have been on vacation
- Disney World
- Sorrento, Italy
- Hong Kong
- Bali, Indonesia
Four of my favourite dishes
- Lasagna
- Wienerschnitzel
- Anything Thai
- Burritos
Four websites I visit daily
Four places I would rather be right now
- On a sailboat
- Curling
- Sorrento
- Home playing with Ellie and Lisa
Put DC in the Olympics
Interesting idea from a new web site. Since Puerto Rico, Guam and the like are allowed to field their own Olympic teams, why not DC? Yes, we'll overlook the fact that DC residents can already be on the US team. The point is, the sport they picked as their showcase is curling! They came to our open house a while back, and fell in love with it, like a lot of people do. Of course, qualifying isn't all that easy, as you have to earn points by placing well in the World Championships for three years. But again, we'll overlook that part, and give props to the exposure. Good luck to them!
Books
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GSI Outdoors JavaGrind
