watchmen

2009-07-31 | #based on a book #Blu Ray #Movies

This movie was LONG. 3 hours, and most of the time it’s pacing was perfect. Except when it wasn’t. I had decided to start this movie at 11pm, so I finished it around 2am and I was pretty sleepy. This movie has a lot going on, and I probably would have felt very lost if I had not read the graphic novel (okay, okay, “comic book”). Now, I read that almost 3 years ago (I flipped between that and a Reg Exp book during a very boring LANDesk training class), and from what I remember, the movie is nearly identical to the comic.


david gilmour a night to remember

2009-07-21 | #a night to remember #Blu Ray #david gilmour #Featured #Music

Let’s get this out of the way: My favorite band is Pink Floyd, and Sir David Gilmour’s guitar work still gives me goose-bumps. There will be little criticism of this concert, in fact, there will be only high praise. With once exception, there was a TERRIBLE audio delay on the concert disc. That really annoyed me, mostly since I pay very close attention to how he plays the guitar. The show itself was good, it wasn’t the typical Pink Floyd production (no large circular projections screen, crazy laser lights and flying pigs), it was very basic.


the shed

2009-07-19 | #Caralyne #General #Owen

This title sounds like a horror movie title. We ordered a large 8x12 shed, and oh goody, it arrived on possibly the hottest weekend this month. When Michele went to get lunch, she reported that her car said it was 105, but then cooled off to 101. I really don’t think I have ever worked that long, and that hard in heat like this. I had my Step Dad (Jim… I mean, Mike) today, and my Father in Law (Curt) yesterday and today.


zfs updated in freebsd 7 2

2009-07-18 | #FreeBSD #Geekyness #ZFS

FreeBSD 7.x has been using version 6 of ZFS, and originally only 8.0 was going to have the newly updated ZFS version: 13. Last week the core team MFC’d (Merge From Current) the ZFS updates to 7.2, so I cvsup’d and re-build my server’s kernel and world ( with a simple “make buildworld && make buildkernel && make installworld && make installkernel ), rebooted, and now I have the latest ZFS version running:


the half life of timofey berezin pu 239

2009-06-23 | #based on a book #Movies

This movie was released here in the US, though HBO, as Pu-239. It is based on a short story with the above title. Poor Timofey, he works as an engineer in some type of reactor. There was an accident, and he was exposed to 1000 REMs in a few minutes. They read this from his Dosimeter which I though was cool. This isn’t about his half-life, but the very painful last two days of his life while he tries to obtain enough money for his family to live on.


while my guitar gently weeps

2009-06-14 | #Geekyness #guitar repair #Jackson JS20

Over the past year I’ve had a slight resurgence in playing the guitar. Owen likes music, especially the guitar, and I’ve threatened a few times to dust off the electric guitar and really make some noise. After listening to a substantial amount of Pink Floyd, I got the urge (after 10 years of not playing) to pull everything down and get it all set up. I then hit a very unfortunate snag with my old Jackson JS20, the nut had chipped.


alaskan vacation part 2 the cruise day 89 tracy arm fjord

2009-06-03 | #Alaska #Caralyne #Family #Owen

I felt cheated today, I had to rush out of the room at 8am to see the iceberg that we were scheduled to see at 11am. I have had to wake up at 7 or so everyday, and the night before I was adamant (with myself anyway, I didn’t express this to anyone else) that I was going to sleep in, this is after all a vacation. Captain Rick had a different plan, and announced on the PA system at 8 that we were about to depart from the iceberg and head to Victora, BC, after another two days at sea.


alaskan vacation part 2 the cruise day 67 juneau and skagway

2009-06-02 | #Alaska #Caralyne #Family #Owen

Both Juneau and Skagway are tourist towns. the main streets are lined with cheap jewelry stores and gift shops hocking Ammolite stones and the Ulu cutting tool. This “knife” must be incredibly cheap to manufacture, or the cruise ship got a great deal on a bulk purchase. The did a demo of using it, and while the chief hypes it up with how easy it is to chop an onion, the way he holds the blade, by one of the sharp tips itself, seems pretty dangerous.


alaskan vacation part 2 the cruise day 45 at sea

2009-06-01 | #Caralyne #Family #Owen

Our ship is named “Rhapsody of the Seas”, and I can’t stop re-wording it as Rapture of the Seas, which would be more appropriate for these two days at sea. Most people we came with got sea sick, Michele got sick from the food. I didn’t get sea sick, that part of swaying back and forth doesn’t bother me, I did jog on a treadmill during some pretty choppy waters and that was interesting :) I was also listening to a funny podcast, so I was jogging, balancing, and laughing all at once.


alaskan vacation part 1 the drive day 3 seattle

2009-05-31 | #Caralyne #Family #Owen #Seattle

The previous night I was lucky enough to get out for a jog :) and Portland is pretty nice, that is until I hit a truck stop type of road (which is odd, I guess I just naturally find myself in this places). I made a full circle back to the hotel at that point anyway, so the jog was shorter than I had wanted (and I ended up adding 30 minutes to the total on a treadmill that night), but it was nice to get out and see some of Portland and not get completely lost.