Double Twist

I spent the morning trying to get double twist setup on my work comp. This lead to some issue's b/c of the firewall at z office. After bit of Google searching I found a not so well publicised thread in the forum that says how you can get around the annoying "Installation Aborted" issue.

Check it out if your having problems getting Doubletwist to install

Band Name of the Day

Adebisi Shank. I mean come on, who didn't love Oz?

A quick hit

Let me just say that I am against fake solutions like this, and I fully expect FearLessVKto weigh in the not so distant future. Unless of course she's busy actually living her life and all.

Song Of The Day

My cup runnith over today. Not only a great band name of the day, but a great song title of the day.

"...And then she look'd down and saw miniature houses and miniature people and inside the miniature people were miniature hearts pumping blood through miniature veins (her mouth was watery and wet)"

This song is by Giraffes? Giraffes! who are actually rather awesome. I suggest them to all.

Band Name of the Day

Ladies and gentlemen, I now take great pleasure in presenting you with today's over the top band name of the day.

Drum Roll Please.

And So I watch You From Afar

I am currently listening to this band for the first time ever and they seem fine. Nothing bad nothing amazing so far. Pretty droning and what not, but dear God that name is terrible. I am curious why even go with that name. Why not just call yourself, I steal your lint out of your dryer when your not looking, or I plan to hide your bones in my basement one day? I am sure there is some sort allusion in the name, but I have no clue what it is.

However if you like the Battles, or Ox's, Botch, or other such polyrhythmic bands, give them a listen.

Why I find Apple Annoying

Let me begin by saying I really don't care that much about Apple one way or the other. My friends love to try and get me riled up about various subjects*, but I honestly don't really give a damn about Apple computers. If you need a new computer and you are willing to pay a premium price, go for it. I think there OS is better then the last few M$ OS's I have used, but I walk a different path then both of those.

With all that said, I really get pissed when I see Steve Jobs say shit like this, "It's like we said on the iPad, if you see a stylus, they blew it. In multitasking, if you see a task manager... they blew it. Users shouldn't ever have to think about it."

So let's think about both of these ideas, the first one is where I get my most anger. The second is just silly.

Let's take the second first. Task Killers. Steve...it's been a while since I used a MAC, but I am damn near certain that OS X has a way to kill tasks. Does that mean that you blew it on your flag ship OS? Now, maybe you don't have a task killer proper, but I seriously doubt you went through the effort of making it impossible to run kill -9 from the shell**. So let me know when you get that right, and I'll buy your expensive and beautiful hardware.

The first thought really chaps my ass though. It just seems to be another case of Jobs just pushing his own agenda on style. Look I understand that a stylus is annoying when you have to use it for everything you're doing, but is it really that hard to imagine how a stylus could be super useful? Let's go with two quick examples.

1) Students: Maybe just maybe students would like to be able to download lecture notes, and annotate them directly on their light weight and portable tablet in class. That way you are reading the notes and making your own notes at the same time. That's right kids, all your thoughts about the subject in one handy place. Yeah...that would be blowing it Steve.

2) People who have to go to presentations all the time: Now this a broad category I know, but let's spit ball a couple of ways this could be awesome. How about an app that let's everyone connect to a site where a presentation is being given, and various people can annotate a presentation as it's happening. You can either work on your own copy or you could have a shared copy that everyone is writing ideas down on. Yeah...that would suck. I much prefer the meeting notes that often make little to no sense and are hard to correlate back to what was actually happening.

Since going green is all the rage, wouldn't be it be great to be able to go to a
meeting, and instead of getting tons of handouts everyone gets their on copy of
the hand out on their tablet that they can mark up any way the wish? Companies it
crap like that up.

Again, I believe over all Apple is a solid company. They are not (in general) my cup of tea, but I can see why people like them. However when Jobs says bullshit like this it drives nuts. Maybe...just maybe Steve, there are many people out there with different needs then your own, and maybe just maybe a more open approach would allow you to increase your market share even more. Or maybe you're simply not interested in that sort of thing. Your call.




*usually with a good bit of success.

**For those who are not into the Unix, kill -9 is how you cause any process to end on a *nix OS. OS X is built off FreeBSD, which in turn is similar to Unix. Got all that?

*** A solid argument can be made that it is in fact his job to push his agenda

Song Of The Day

I'd Rather Dance to a Pynchon Novel. The song is by the oh so wonderful Kids Explode. They recently called it a day as a band, but in their fairly short time they put a some very solid records. They are one the bands most responsible for my dipping a toe back into record buying.

I mostly enjoy the title because I can't make it through Pynchon novels, and I don't dance. So I imagine whatever it is someone wants you do do that is worse then dancing to a Pynchon novel must be pure hell.

Might I Schill for someone else for a moment?

I know, I know I keep swearing in public how I hate music and such, and while that is clearly tounge and cheek, I do find it a very hard subject to talk about with most people. With all that said, can I maybe...just maybe implore you to go and give Damezumari a chance?

See I am not convinced that they are going to be the cup of tea that most of my friends would enjoy*, but I spend an unhealthy amount of time listening to them on the internets, and they have just made their entire catalog available for download. This makes me over the moon happy. Not because it's for free download**, but because their records are very very difficult to track down and they don't tour. Also they sound like some nice fellows who put some thought into what they are doing, and you can't really ask for much more then that.

What's that, you want to know my favorite songs by the band? Sure I can do that.

Gravity is a Choice
Second Chance
A Bitter Means to a Bitter End
The Mark on the Wall
Becoming Instead of Just Being.

Those are just a few of the bands many many great songs. So yeah, if you enjoy it great. If not...well OK, that's fair.

*I like a good Rooibos fruit infused tea or a nice mint tea should you want to buy me some.

**Truth be told every time I look at a record distro I look for their stuff, and would be more then happy to pay full price for all of it.

Song of the Day

That's right kids, it's only 8:20 in the morning cst, and we already have the song of the day.

"Flattery is a Bunch of Fucking Bullshit" by Daughters.

I don't actually like Daughters very much. They are super fast and tech in a way in which that I am not interested. However, I did go out to eat at a Chinese buffet with them once long ago. They were super nice, and I believe either my friend Becky had a thing for one of the guitar players or one of the guitar players had a thing for my friend Becky.

By the way, isn't the phrase, "He has a thing for her" a little disturbing. I mean what exactly is the thing?

On Gasoline

A quick story that appears to have a happy ending.

Tuesday on my way home from work I decided to swing by the ole gas station and fill up the tank. Now, despite knowing that I can get away with using the 86 octain gas, I opt for 93. It's just something I have always done. It made the Camry run great for all those years after all. Well it seems the 40 dollars I put in my tank isn't exactly what one would call fuel so much as water.*

So, armed with my new tank of water I proceeded to drive 3.3 miles down the road, at which point the water simply wasn't enough to make the ole Volvo go. I really thought my car was efficent, but I suppose it ain't no hybrid... So I am now stuck in the left turn lane on the corner of Houston Levee and Macon.

I get my car towed to the dealership. I am feeling pretty ok at this moment because I am proud of myself for having gotten the extended warranty. Hey did you know that extended warranties don't cover putting bad fuel in your car? True story.

The next day I get a ride over to the gas station, at which point I find out that many other folks have ended up with this same problem. Luckily the guy who owns the station is a nice enough fellow, and he claimed that they would cover all of my expenses**. So I leave somewhat secure in the knowledge that I am going be getting my money back. Then the ole Volvo dealership calls to inform me that my car is going to cost about 1400 dollars to fix.

If you heard a loud sound about 11:45 AM on Wednesday Feb 10th, that was my heart flying into my throat. Luckily I was able to come up with cash to get my car out of the shop.

Here is the really really crazy part, a mere three days after putting the bad gas in my car, my car is completely fixed and I have already been payed back by the gas stations insurance company. Who says large chain corparations are bad***?

It seems that if I had used the 86 I would have gotten actual fuel. Only the 93 and the 89 had a problem.

**Note: I didn't really believe the guy at the time, because...well...I am the kind of guy who randomly ends up with a tank full of water. Things don't always go as planned is what I am saying.


***I do that's who. Though this time they worked in my favor

Quick Question

Has there ever been a major pro bike race where someone said, "It's totally cool to just sit at the back of the peloton." What do athletes even say crap like this, "It's really important to be in the lead group."

My first complaint about my bank

Normally I am 100% in love with Bank of America. Well...at least as much as one can be in love with their bank anyways. With that said they have finally done something I find to be rather dumb.

I never had a credit card until last year. I always avoided them. I knew a great many people who racked up tons of credit card debt, and created large size holes they had to climb out of. In the interest of not being down said hole I never got one.

Well a bit over a year ago I decided to cave in and finally get one for emergency and what not. I decided to go with Bank of America because they already had my savings and checking accounts. Also I love their online banking. Well since I had never established decent credit they forced me to get a secure card. Fine no worries, I can accept that. So I spent a year on a secure card doing whatever I wanted with it and pay it off every month.

The year is up and I am informed that I am no longer required to have a secured card, and that I will be getting my money back. Sweet action is my thought. So I check my checking account balance to see if the money is there (it's not). I then glance at my credit card balance to see if they have applied it there (they have not). I decided that maybe it's just going to take a few days. Well two weeks have now gone by. I ponder if a banking error has occurred.

I decided to call up the ole Bank of America and find out what's going on. What happens next was a bit amazing. It seems that Bank of America mailed me a check, and that's why it was taking so long. Here's my question, if I am already a checking account holder (and savings account holder) with you, why in the hell would you mail me a check? They have the technology to just move money in b/w accounts. I know this b/c I use it. The kind person on the phone tells me that if I had called them up and said I would have prefered a direct transfer, they could have just done that. However, since I didn't call they didn't know. To which I said, why would I ever assume you wouldn't just do that? To which he responded, "That's a good question and I don't know."

Bank of America, you are normally for the win. This time though, you are for the fail.

On Bikes (again)

My friend Anthony has a great blog about his travels around the world studying bicycle cultures. I find it truly amazing that he gets to spend a year doing such a cool and admirable goal. I don't say lucky b/c I know that kid busts his ass, and works hard to do things like this. I just felt like more people should be pointed in his blogs direction.

One quick thought on one of his recent posts. It seems in the city of Memphis we travel an average of 26 miles by car a day. Now, I have not read all of this report, but I gotta say only traveling 26 miles a day in this city is not a very hard* thing to accomplish in my humble opinion. Now I am sure, that is part of his point, but I question how we are ever going to drop that number when the largest employer in the city has offices that are no where near the city center.

*I usually shatter this number with ease and style.

Every God Damn Day of My Life

Oh, and it's not just e-mail. It is ever aspect of my life.

My Favorite Political Thing of The Day

Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown had this lovely little tid bit to say today, "He (President Obama) should stay away and let Martha and I discuss the issues one on one. The machine is coming out of the woodwork to get her elected. They're bringing in outsiders, and we don't need them."

What I love about this quote is that it shows that he knows that if Obama shows up in the liberal North East it will help, and that it also some how screams of xenophobia. Really the quote is an all around win that a world class gymnist would be proud of.

It's the little things that you notice

It's when you wake up in the middle of the night b/c you suffer from insomnia (which is most likely really sleep apnea) and you look to the spot where your dog should be and she isn't.

It's when you wake up in the morning, and you go into your standard routine and you say, without even opening your eyes, "Hey wanna go outside?" Only to realize your talking to yourself.

You then try and remember if you got drunk the night before and simply forgot her outside again.

It's knowing that you have been drunk for days, but in fact she isn't outside. At least not outside your house.

It's when you're out with friends all day, and you think to yourself, "Oh I need to get home so I can...do nothing...do nothing at all. I have no reason to hurry home."

It's when you're at work and realize you could get a lot done if you stayed the extra hour, but know you can't because you need to let...no one out. You have no one at home needing to go out.

It's when you go to the grocery store for the first time, and you see the pet food isle and I think to yourself, "Do I need dog food?" Then the harsh reality of the word 'No.' sets in.

It's looking at your floor every few minutes to see that her dog bed is still there with the last dog biscuit you ever gave her.

The biscuit is still there because you realized that she was too weak to even eat it.

It's when you still walk past her food bowl every single time you go into the kitchen.

It's her toys still randomly being around the house because you simply can't bring yourself to pick the damn things up.

It's knowing you need to return the kennel you have had on loan for so many damn years now that you can't even remember*, but some how you're not able to do that.

Finally it's going to the mail box, opening it up and seeing a letter from the Vet who had to put your dog to sleep. Reading the sappy religious quote on the front, and knowing that God still gives you little comfort because you can't shut down your brain enough to buy into it.** Then opening the card to see hand written notes to you (from both Vets) and knowing that you don't have the strength to read them. So you throw it in your car so that you can continue pretending it never happened.

And the hardest moment of all is walking into the now painfully empty home.

*Thanks Patrick, I'll get it back to you soon.


**Not saying you have to be dumb to believe in God. I am saying there are things that I think and know that make it damn near impossible for me. Though I have been wrong about things in the past. Well...once anyways, but it turned out later I was right.

Album Title of the Day

Today's entry comes from Bear vs Shark. I think like the band ok, but more research is required. The albumn title is "Right Now You're in the Best of Hands, and if Something isn't Quite Right, Your Doctor will Know in a Hurry."