Intergalactic House of Paisley

Missed the Random 10+ last week due to attending SoonerCon, which was a fine old time indeed. Hope to post more fully on the subject soon. And there won't be one this week, as the whole family is about to hop in the car and head to Eureka Springs for an actual vacation!

There's another reason, however, for the lack of tunes: the video card in my desktop machine went fan up, and so I do not currently have access to iTunes and its many wonders. A new card is already on the way, thanks to the eBay-fu of Rohanna, so by this time next week we should be back in business.

And I am so happy I have my iPad, which is how I am communicating to you today. Typing all this on my phone would have been difficult at best.

So happy Independence Day everyone. Try not to lose any body parts whilst blowing shit up.

As some of you know, I have been in the market for a new(er) computer for some time. I have been working on a Mac G4 Dual 450MHz since 2003. It has been a good machine, but is no longer able to use most of the current software, much less the more recent iterations of the OS.

So, when Rohanna got a nice bonus from work, she used her Ebay fu to find me a better machine. There were a number of near misses, but last week she came to the stairs to let me know I had finally won! A Mac Pro 2008 8-core desktop with 6Gb of RAM was shortly to be mine! Huzzah! Excessive exclamation point use! Leventy!

Then it began. First, the FedEx ground people tried to deliver it Wednesday, but after I had reluctantly gone to work. When I called about picking it up, I was informed Ground didn't work like that so much, and the best bet was to have it delivered Saturday. OK, fine, I can wait a few more days. That allowed me to get a 2TB hard drive to put in it. And wait. And wait.

Saturday morning I rose at 7.30a, and did my usual morning things (cup of tea, read the paper, check the interwebs, etc). At 9.30 I went downstairs to do some cleaning, and shortly thereafter, I looked up to see the FedEx truck pulling up. A quick signature later, and it was mine!

I hauled the 40+ lbs of computer upstairs, pulled it from its original box, and set it up. It had a pristine version of Snow Leopard (the newest OS, until this summer), so I went through the basic setup for it. At one point I went to check something on the web, and it told me I wasn't connected. Silly me, I had failed to plug in the Ethernet cable. But wait, I thought, this baby should have an Airport card, and I should be able to connect to our wireless router!

And that's when it really went wrong. No Airport card (which turned out to be optional on the machine I thought I bought). And no Bluetooth, which the box said was standard. I went to the "About this Mac" screen, and my worst fears were confirmed. This was not a 2008 dual 2.8GHz machine, but the original dual 2.66GHz first iteration Mac Pro, from 2006. Not happy.

We contacted the seller, who was quite apologetic (he's got a perfect record on Ebay), is willing to either a) refund us an amount to be determined if I decide to keep it, or 2) take it back, full refund, he pays shipping.

I am torn. On the one hand, it's not the machine I wanted, and being the earliest of the Mac Pro models, most likely to become obsolete.

On the other hand, IT's RIGHT HERE IN THE BELFRY! And a metric shitload faster than what I am typing this on.

Depending on how much he's willing to refund, I am leaning towards sending it back. I am not looking forward to another round of bidding wars on Ebay, though. It took several weeks to get this one.

Gaaaaaaaaah.

1) Toe of Doom™: Hasn't gotten any better, so I saw the doc on the 6th. Because I Can Has Insuranz!!!!!, he took the extra time to give me a quick once over, including the ever-popular (amongst doctors, at least) Cough and Grope with a side of Roll Up Your Arm and Bend Over, along with standard blood tests and x-rays of the accursed (if not recursive) foot. Also got scrip for triple round of Augmentin. die, infection, die!

Blood work came back fine (no gout, diabetes or other things to make one drink more), but the x-rays seemed to show some damage to the toe bone, so Monday I had an MRI. Concensus: definite damage, possible bone infection. So Tuesday I see a podiatrist. they keep talking about "debriding." Now I'm not going to claim my marriage(s) is/are perfect, but this does seem a bit extreme. On the other hand, if they amputate, it will keep me out of the army.

Best news: foot started really hurting bad yesterday, and this afternoon called the doc for another scrip of Vicoprofen[1]. They called back at 5p to say they had called it in, and I was able to pick it up at Costco earlier this evening. Nom nom. And even better, two refills! I love my doctor.

2) Ro's computer: It gave her the BSOD last Saturday, and after multiple intercessions by her company IT dept, Obi-Karl Foss and others, it currrently resides at Best Buy, which happens to be an Asus warranty repair provider. Worst case, she might have to buy a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, because including an install disk (as opposed to a recovery disk) with a brand new computer doesn't happen with PCs. WTF?

Interesting data point: Ro brought her work laptop home to check email, etc, and after plugging in her monitor, wireless keyboard/mouse dongle and a router, it BSOD'd. Is there a USB-centric virus/trojan out there anyone has heard of?

3) My keyboard/mouse: still with the same crap. Must unplug the mouse every 3-5 minutes to keep it actually working. Almost ready to re-install Tiger and see what happens (see, MAcs come with the full operating system on a disk for such situations. This really should have been a "Mac/PC" commercial).

UPDATE OF NO IMPORTANCE: The "Noises in My Head" entry was supposed to read: Nom Nom Nom Bow Wow Wow, I Want Candy. Apparently using code in the details is not allowed. Bah and humbug.

But the point remains: Myant Myant Aye = nom nom.


[1] Like vicodin, but with ibuprofen rather than that evil acetomeinaphen, and 50% more vico!

Last night I was busily doing a variety of things, including working on the computer. As I went to click on a download, nothing happened. I clicked again, same thing. I then scrolled up to the menus, and they did not respond, nor did the dock. I tried everything, with no result. So no computer for moi. Very disturbing. Started to hurt.

This morning, I borrowed Rohanna's wireless keyboard and mouse, and everything worked fine. So I took the dead mouse with me* to MicroCenter. While they had the same keyboard/mouse combo I had (for $70), the nice kid who w3as busily stocking the mouse aisle** told me that they didn't have the same mouse available separately, and that whatever mouse I bought would not work with the wireless dongle (oh, fuck it, make your own joke) I had. The annoying thing was that none of the available mice had the set up I had before, to wit: three buttons on the left side, all programmable. Very disappointing. So I wound up with the only Kensington mouse with any extra buttons they had. Obviously, it works. Good thing, too.

I confused everyone by showing up at work today long enough to grab the Tiger disk and come back to work on Dragonet's dead borrowed laptop. When I ran disk utility, it gave me a message of "Invalid* Sibling Link," which I then googled. Desperate as I was, I delved ino the madness of Terminal, and tried some of the suggestions I found on various Mac fora. Alas, they did not work.

Fireguarder (who has friends in a tech dept.), has offered to take the recalcitrant laptop in to see if they can ressurrect it, or at least get the data off the hard drive. We shall see what transpires. If anyone out there has other suggestions based on this info that I might be able to try, feel free to let me know.


* "Invalid" as in "not the thing we were looking for," as opposed to "so ill as to be bedridden," in case anyone was wondering. Though I suppose the whole phrase could be used on one of those "Who's the Daddy?" episodes of "Maury."

Dinner is Dragonet's apple pie with crumble topping, and several slices of "Hoop Aged" cheddar cheese which, according to the label is made from "RGBH Free Amish Milk." It's very tasty, and reminds how it's nice, while driving in the country, to occasionally see the herds of Amish women grazing in the fields, and reflect on the fact that they will, due to the Amish rejection of technology, be lovingly hand-milked to provide the main ingredient for fine products like this cheese.

And to go with this fine repast, a new beer. Ballast Point's Big Eye India Pale Ale is intensely-hopped, without being as powerful as some IPAs (they use only American Centennial hops, which may make the difference). Well rounded, excellent floral notes, with a nice crisp finish, it goes well with the pie and the cheese. I got it at Metcalf Discount Liquors at 91st and Metcalf this afternoon, along with several other beers I have not seen elsewhere in town. I'll have to try and get by there more often.

Oh, and totally off topic, my new monitor has both VGA and DVI capability, as does my video card. Is there a reason to use DVI, I ask my horde of fans and admirers? Pray, enlighten me.

After the Czar won Wed. night's beer re-creation of WWI (see previous entry), I had a reasonable night's sleep, and after a leisurly morning, Dragonet and I headed to Lawrence to have Thanksgiving at her Mom's. Sister Sally was there, as was our nephew Dan and his mother, Laurie (first wife of D's older brother). Much good food was consumed, bad football was desultorily watched (I shouldn't have whipped that Johnson* out, obviously), and we headed back with Dan in the back seat to take him to his car, which he had left in the outskirts of Westport the previous evening after a long night of partying (he said he got home at 6a). He knew which street the car was on, but no one was quite sure where that street fit into the matrix of the area. Eventually it was found, and we came back home. Once Rohanna returned from her family's festivities, she and I discussed the idea of going to see Bob Reeder at O'Dowd's in Zona Rosa, and getting into their early Black Friday activities. We looked at the options, and decided to stay home. A bit later, she said that there had been a live news remote from Zona Rosa, and people had started lining up at noon.

Ro and I decided instead to take part in the looting this morning, so we got up at 6a and made our way to Best Buy, where I acquired a 19" Acer LCD widescreen monitor, to replace my current CRT, which had developed a nasty habit of randomly dimming and brightening. Also picked up "Boo," the latest Was/Not Was album (their first in 20 years). Then we did a quick run through the soon to be defunct Circuit City to no great purpose, and followed that with a stop at The Olde Timey Barn of Pottery, or something like that. Ro got some carpet for her bedroom. At that point, it was still not yet 9a, and I suggested we run through Cargo Largo, which is a freight salvage place full of strange and entertaining items of all kinds, most at quite low prices. Since they were taking 20% off all purchases, Ro agreed. Multiple miscellaneous items later, we headed home, and after a brief rest, headed back out for lunch and more shopping.

The China Star Buffet at 95th & Metcalf was reasonablypriced, if a bit bland in its selections, but it was across the street from Microcenter. On the way there, Dragonet mentioned that she could use a monitor, as well, to help with her work. I pointed out that if we found a better deal for me, she could have the Acer. I got a new Kensington wireless keyboard and mouse combo, and Dragonet found a new headphone set with microphone. I went looking for Ro, and found her pointing to a Sceptre 24" lcd, which was on sale for less than half the list price. With tears in my eyes, I waved goodbye to the Acer and reluctantly accepted the larger monitor. We decided that was enough shopping, and returned home. A couple of hours of cleaning, rearranging and cable swapping (not a euphemism), I am looking at this huge display in wonder. The keyboard is going to take a bit of getting used to, but I'm sure I'll adapt. And now, selections in celebration of crossing the 14K plateau in tunes.


1) Recapturing, TrianguliZona

2) differentown_final (no idea who did this, .59 of weirdness)

3) Keep Your Distance, Richard Thompson

4) Dance To Your Daddy, Colin Meloy

5) We're Having All The Fun, Fun Boy Three

6) Popcorn, Sparky's Magic Piano

7) 3 Is Better Than 4, The Dials

8) Dr. Luther's Assistant, Elvis Costello & the Attractions (Live At Leicester 10-22-77)

9) She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, The Beatles [Abbey Road (Ebbets)]

10) Into the Sun, King Black Acid

And some seconds, for all the trytophans out there:

11) I Could Be Dreaming, Belle & Sebastian

12) Vegetarian Restaurant, Aberfeldy

13) Everybody Hurts, Amanda Palmer & Cormac Bride


Tomorrow is the Lobsterfestapaloozathon, with the added bonus of watching the KU-MU game while enduring Ralphie's heckling. Sunday is blessedly devoid of activity more strenuous than watching feetsball. Hope everyone had a good Turkey day, and may you all have a great weekend.


* Calvin, wide receiver for Detroit, of course. What did you think I meant?