Insignifica

National Novel Writing Month

I'm giving serious thought to participating in National Novel Writing Month, in which participants have from midnight on November 1 until 11:59pm on November 30 to write a novel of 50,000 words (a little over 1600 words a day). I've heard about it in years past, and some friends have tried.

While I think it'd be interesting if nothing else, November is a fairly busy month, with two long driving trips (including a 4 day business trip), many family and friend birthdays, and Thanksgiving. That said, I think this could be a great way to focus on something rather than spending my evenings wandering aimlessly around the internet. It'd also serve to get some ideas, long swirling in my head, out and onto the screen.

Have you participated before? What was it like? If you have (or haven't), do you want to try it this year with me? I know I can do it, I'm just curious how everything would turn out.

Rain, rain, go away...well, it is, but it'll linger for today before moving out totally tomorrow. This weekend's looking to be cool and clear, just about perfect for the Halloween party. I'm very excited about this year's event - we've got 35 or so people coming so far (perhaps upwards of 45), and other people coming are just as excited about it as I am. It's also the first major party at my new house (though we've had groups of 15 there for other things), so it should certainly be awesome. If I know you, and you'd like to attend, Send me an email.

I've finally settled on a costume, and I think it'll get a great reaction. It's been pretty easy to build, I just have to find some good pieces to work with what I've got. I think it'll look great.

--

Lately I've been thinking that video has always been the annoying tag-along baby brother of the internet. You're told it'll be cool to have him there, and he won't bug you too much, but when it comes down to it, the whole process is frustrating and detracts from the otherwise good time. Even with high speed internet connections, video downloads have been slow, poor quality, and not worth the effort.

I think things are starting to change, however. Just in the past couple weeks, videos of Jon Stewert's appearance on Crossfire and Eminem's new anti-Bush video "Mosh" have made the rounds. Just as people used to pass around emails and pictures, videos are finding their way into the public consciousness via the internet. There's always been porn out there, and silly animations, and weird clips, but now video is beginning to have sway as a political element uniquely fitted for download. Hopefully we'll continue to have improvements in quality and speed.

xp dies, linux saves the day

Great, busy weekend, a good time was had by all. Really looking forward to the Halloween party this Saturday.

I'm having computer issues, though. I left my computer plugged in to a socket that got switched off, so in the middle of the night the battery finally gave out, and it shut down. No big deal, this has happened plenty of times before. When I went to turn it back on, however, Windows XP appeared to load, then gave me a popup message saying "lsass.exe error - Object Name Not Found". When the button is clicked, the computer reboots.

While this is similar to the sasser worm issue, my problems don't seem to be virus related. A few google searches have turned up answers ranging from "you're fucked" to "it's a pain in the ass to fix".

Luckily for me, there's a bright side. We really needed the computer on Saturday, so I used my Knoppix bootable CD to get into the computer, and found all my files were still accessible, it was just Windows that was hosed. General consensus seems to be that the only sure-fire way to fix this problem is to run a recovery disk (I have one that came with my OEM WinXP installation), but that destroys all files. I'll see if I can't find another fix, but if it comes down to it, I can back up everything I need and reinstall.

This isn't the first time Knoppix has saved my ass - it's nice to know I can work through even the most unrecoverable errors. I just wish I liked Linux more in general.

request a paper ballot

I didn't realize it, but this discussion at OC Metroblogging alerted me to the fact that all California voters have the right to request a paper ballot (See the California Secretary of State's website with that information here). Until all the nonsense with the electronic/touchscreen voting machines gets worked out, it's important to have a paper trail.

In California, you can also request an absentee ballot until October 26 (even if you've never done it before). The forms are available here (Adobe PDF file). Once you fill out that form, go to http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections_d.htm to find your local elections office.

Remember to vote!

poker weekend recap

Another exciting gambling weekend - this makes three in a row. We had the bachelors party/poker on the 2nd of October, then the poker tournaments on the 6th and 9th, and I went to Pechanga last Saturday, having a free morning.

I went down to compete in their weekly Saturday morning tournament, $12+$3 buy-in no limit. I'd played in it twice before, neither time lasting more than 30 minutes. I played some good hands early and keep my stack, only going all-in once before the end. Out of 218 players I finished 13th, with the top 20 being in the money. They put most of the money in the top spots, however, and ended up only winning a $40 prize though I outlasted 205 others. Still, nice to know I can compete.

Although the poker tournament was my reason for going, it wasn't the biggest part of the trip. I got to the casino at 9am for the 10am tournament, bought my ticket, then went back upstairs and sat at the $5 Let it Ride table. A friendly group of 4 of us were playing, and the limit was low, so a good time would be had regardless of winning or losing. On the forth hand in, however, losing wouldn't be a problem. I was dealt down a 4-4-3, but since I needed 10s or better to win, I pulled back my first bet. First dealer card over was a 4, so I stayed at that point, and was blown away when another 4 came up, giving me Quads, and a 50-1 return on my $10 bet. I was also playing the sucker $1 bonus, earning me an additional $100 for a total of $600. I tipped $25 (was that a good amount?), played a while longer, then went to the poker tournament. A good time was certainly had.

photo hosting?

Does anyone have any suggestions for free photo hosting services? I like the idea of Snapfish.com and Shutterfly.com, but I don't like that people viewing your pictures have to sign up to see them. Any other hosting services out there that you like/use?

here comes Halloween

Now that house things are pretty well contained (there's a lot to do, but we now have a normal-looking, livable home), my thoughts are turning to my upcoming Halloween party. Last year's event was very good even though it was thrown together quickly (I wasn't planning on having it, initially). The year before was also very good - the only bad one was 2001's event, because the hall was too big for the attendance we had (I blame terrorists).

This year I've got a whole new location to work with (my new home) and it's got a lot of potential. Our space is large (especially with furniture moved), we've got an upstairs, a back yard, and a high ceiling in the stairwell. I'm a bit concerned about only having two weeks left, however. I'm sure, though, that it'll come together nicely in the end.

If I know you, and you'd like to attend, send me an email, and we'll see what we can do. If you have any suggestions for what you'd like to see at the party, leave a comment - I'd love to know what everyone wants/expects.

Happy birthday to Gary, who, I believe, is the last of our group of friends to turn 26. Have a great one!

replay repairs

Last year I purchased a Replay TV (like a Tivo, but a different company). The whole process was interesting, mostly because I ended up not wanting it, then loved it once I had it, and the whole not paying for it thing didn't seem to matter to the folks at the company. (links to the old posts here, here, here, and here.

Anyway, it "died" a few months back (February or March), I was working on other things, so didn't bother to get it fixed (much to the dismay of my girlfriend, who uses it more than I do). I was iffy about calling Replay for an RMA to send it back, as I never really paid for it. So I didn't. We were in the process of moving before I thought about it again, and I told myself I'd bother with it later.

Later was yesterday, when I got it out of the closet to plug it in and see if the problem had fixed itself. Alas, it hadn't, so I returned online to see if I could diagnose the issue. It came down to a lot of advice on rebooting (which hadn't, and didn't work), and that the Hard Drive might be bad. Since it was well over the year warranty period, I decided to take action myself, and opened up my Replay.

The Replay TV uses a standard computer hard drive and custom parts, meaning you can replace the HD (with a larger one), and as long as you transferred the software, it would work the same. I removed the Replay's hard drive and attached it to my computer. It recognized it was there (even know its name), but I couldn't get the computer to give me access. The Sourceforge software used to reimage the drive couldn't find it either. Maybe it was my interface, but I was starting to believe the HD was dead, as was not uncommon with these units.

At one point I ran across a post on Planet Replay saying that while the warranty on the Replay might be out, the HD might still have one from Maxtor. Alas, mine expired last October. Props to Maxtor for having an easy to use site for checking if your equipment is under warranty, though.

I'm pretty confident that I can get new HD and put a Replay image on it to get the whole system working again. The HD replacement is easy, and the imaging seems pretty straight forward. This also means that I get greatly increase the storage space on my unit, from the 40 hours it has now to 150 or so hours (you get about 1 hour from each gig of space on the drive). If after some more tinkering with the old HD tonight doesn't give good results, I'll be buying a new drive tomorrow.

prior meetings

"The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight." - Dick Cheney, October 5th, 2004 VP Debate. They also met at least one other time.

Not to mention that as President of the Senate, it's Cheney's job to officially meet all the Senators...

Picture from February, 2001. This entry shamelessly stolen from Gary.

poker this weekend

I wouldn't say I've had a weird couple of days, but it's certainly been eventful. After staying up too late on Monday, I'd planned to go to bed at a decent hour last night. I'd been playing poker online, and had to play a certain number of hands to get my bonus deposit. I'd lost over the weekend, so redeposited to play the rest. I was way up, so I kept playing, and when I saw a tournament starting at 10:30, I was sure it would be done (or at least, I would) by 12:30 or 1am, so I jumped in. It was a qualifier for a larger tourney this Saturday - your $9 buy-in goes toward a prize pool in which the top players get a free entry in the $200 entry Saturday event. Four hours later I was still in the running, ultimately finishing 4th out of 180, and gaining a spot in Saturday's tournament. It's by far the best I've done in any of the online Party Poker tournaments I've played.

All this time, I was playing at a $2/$4 table, going back and forth between the two games. I ended up $75 up there ($25 up, if you count this weekend's losses), so all in all I won about $300 worth of poker related goodness last night. Of course, now I'm tired. But I've got a chance to play in "real" high stakes event on Saturday night, with $200,000 guaranteed in prizes. Not bad for a $9 buy-in.

let them eat cake

Gary posted the following, and I find it to be exactly how the Republicans think and operate:

1 - Bush proposes new plan for free cake for all citizens.
2 - Senators Kerry and Edwards vote for the plan.
3 - Bush then gives cake only to the extremely wealthy and Halliburton.
4 - Kerry and Edwards vote against renewing the free cake bill.
5 - Bush-Cheney claim that Kerry-Edwards wants to take away your cake.

Replace "cake" with "Tax Cuts" or a host of other things, and it works the same way.

home makeover

It's still weird to me being a home owner, knowing that I can pretty much do whatever I'd like to my home. I've considered all of the following, some more seriously than others:

3 month backlog on autopsies in MI?

There's a sick and sad story at CNN about a church janitor's tapes showing child molestation. That's horrible, but the weird part of the story is at the end:

An autopsy on Darow's body would likely not take place for two to three months, the medical examiner's office said.

What the hell is that about?

moving wrap-up, bachelor party

Had a great weekend settling into our new place, and celebrating on Saturday - played some D&D (i'm a human rogue!), watched the Angels (and Dodgers) claim division titles, then played poker and cruised to a casino for Adam's bachelor party. Even though Pechenga was as busy as I'd ever seen a casino, I do believe a good time was had by all.

Now, a few weeks off. While we're not unpacked, we are moved, so everything can pretty much be done at our own pace now. The wood flooring is just about all installed (we'll be working on the trim tonight), and it looks awesome. It wasn't as hard to do on our own as we thought it might be, and it was well worth the $800 we saved. My office is still full of boxes, the kitchen needs unpacking, the bathrooms need tile and the bedroom has an entertainment center smack in the middle, but other than that, we're done moving =).

happy october

Chris left a note yesterday and made a good point - I've pretty much been missing online. We've been really really busy with moving, and we're finally totally out of our old place, and totally in the new (with boxes all around). Our flooring is mostly done (and should be done tonight), and tomorrow we'll be having a lot of people over, so I'm sure a lot of things will get put away. I think within a week or two it'll pretty much be in normal, livable condition.

I missed the debates for the most part last night - we were out to dinner. I'm happy with what I'm hearing, though - Kerry looked good, Bush didn't. For those out there that are still undecided, I hope this swayed some people over. The elitist in me, however, wonders if the party really wants the votes of someone who can't decide between these two. The realist is happy for every vote we get.

Southern California is up for an exciting weekend of baseball. The Angels and Athletics are tied for first place, with three games left - with each other. The team that wins two gets to go on, the other gets to go home. For those a bit further north, the Dodgers will likely clench a playoff spot this weekend - they just need to win one game against San Francisco. If the Giants do manage to sweep the boys in blue, there'll be a one game playoff. It looks good for Los Angeles. The whole situation brings us closer to my mother's dream of an Angels-Dodgers World Series. Could be, could be...

Chris also wanted some good links. Wil's just finished another series of posts on a recent Vegas trip (and his poker exploits). Check out the first one here, and read through them in order. Wil tells a great story, and I'm really looking forward to doing some playing of my own this weekend.

It's October. That's exciting! My Halloween party is coming up way too soon, some good friends are getting married, and others (the other Chris just got engaged. Combine that with mine (and others) recent home purchases, and it's been a very "grown up" year for my friends and me.