The past few days, I have been so thirsty. I try to drink lots of water, but sometimes I am just too busy. Eventually I end up in front of the fridge, filling a glass with water. That is when my thirst is unbearable, and I can’t even wait for the glass to be filled. I end up quickly drinking a quarter glass-full, then continue filling up the glass again. That feeling of thirst is so awful and peculiar. Not only do I feel parched in my mouth, but my whole body feels like it is just drained. I can deal with hunger a whole lot better than thirst. Whenever I am standing at the fridge in this situation, I can’t help but think that dying from thirst would be the most terrible way to go.
One totally convenient thing in Vista is the way that it handles copying files. Specifically, if you are copying a file to a location that already has a file with the same name, Vista will ask you if you want to either “Copy and Replace” the file, “Don’t copy” the file, or “Copy, but keep both files”. You can also of course select Cancel. But the huge change is that there is now a checkbox that asks if you want use the same choice for the rest of the files pending copy (and it lets you know how many files are in conflict). This is so convenient for me when I am copying photos between camera and computer, or from computer to computer. For instance, I will copy several days’ worth of photos to the computer. But then I keep on taking photos with the camera for the next few days, without ever deleting the previous photos. When I next copy the pics from the camera to the computer, I can just select all of them, then select copy, and then choose the “Skip files” option with checkbox to do the same to the remaining files. In Windows XP, you had the option to Skip a file, but you couldn’t tell XP to do the same action for all duplicates in that batch. I actually searched (albeit not too hard) for a utility that would do this. So it was a pleasant surprise when I saw the new, improved Copy File dialog box pop up in Vista. All-in-all, Vista is a really nice OS. I am enjoying it quite a bit.
It’s time to figure out what baseball games to go to this year. Living in Austin, we have a few options on which clubs to go see. First, there’s the local Minor League team, the Round Rock Express who play at the Dell Diamond. The field is nice, and it’s pretty close. Prices are a little high, though, especially for food. But they do have (or at least used to have) dollar hot dog and dollar beer nights once a week. The other two options are to make the 3hr hour drives to either Houston to catch the Astros, or Arlington to catch the Rangers. Last year Mikey (my ballgame pal) and I went up to Arlington to see the Angels play the Rangers. They year before, we went to Houston to see the Dodgers. This year, the Dodgers are in Houston from June 30 - July 3 which is Monday - Thursday. I think I will have to take a half day off to catch my team. But also this year, the Yankees will play in Houston for an Inter league series. I really want to see the Yanks play. The game is sold out, except for standing-room only space, and seats in the upper decks are $50 a piece. I think we’ll go for it, though. The series is on the weekend, so a Saturday night game looks good. Time to pull out the credit card!
Ever bought clothes that fit kind of funny? I bought some t-shirts from Old Navy yesterday, and when I put one on, it felt weird, like I had put it on backwards or something. The area around my shoulder blades seemed too tight, and there were little puffed up parts on the shoulders, as if they were left on a hanger or something. I turned the shirt around to see if there was a new style of putting the labels in the front, but nope, that felt even more strange. I even looked to see if there was an “Irregular” tag inside. Maybe I just have to wear these a while?
I’ve been reading (an enjoying) Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Manor Reviews and I like the way he names his computers. His newest is a Macbook Air which he named Khaos, the Greek goddess of air. It got me wanting to give names to my computers, of which I have three: my new HP desktop, my Dell laptop running Ubuntu, and my iBook. Long ago (mid 90’s) I named my mac that I had at work. I can’t remember what it was with 100% certainty, but I think it’s name was “Death Star”.
I like the names from Greek and Roman mythology a lot. I have decided to name the iBook “Echo”, but I don’t know what to name the other two. I am thinking maybe Medusa, Nemesis, or something along those lines. I just can’t decide. But it will certainly be more interesting that “Barron-Vista” and “Barron-Ubuntu”.
A busy, tiring, but fun weekend for us! On Friday night we had dinner at our friends’ house. We had lots of vino, crackers and cheese and then Chris bbq’d chicken and steaks. I had some duck-flavored tofu “meat”, which was pretty good. Tasted like a Chinese tofu dish. The kids watched some Wallace & Grommit vids while the adults enjoyed the great Austin evening weather out on the patio. It was lots of fun. We got home around 9:30pm, and put the kids to bed, then I spent the night setting up my new computer. I finally hit the sack around 2am.
Saturday morning, we went down to Sunset Valley Farmers Market to load up on veggies and visit with Kayo and Take. We ate some great bento too! Then we went up to the Toyota dealership to look at new cars. I am retiring my Sentra and taking the Odyssey, while Mariko gets to drive a new Prius. We have one on order, so we can get the exact color and options she wants. I bet right after we take ownership of the car, the 2009 model with Li-on batteries and 100mpg will be announced. :(
After coming back from the dealership, we just hung out and did a little yardwork. In the evening, I worked on my old computer, trying to turn it into a media rig and hook it up to our LCD tv. But, I kept on running into problems, such as USB mouse not being recognized (I tried two different mice). Because of this, I couldn’t install the drivers for the new wireless network card I bought. Stupid installer program needs a mouse to click it! I got so frustrated, I just gave up.
Sunday was yardwork day. I dug out a bunch of grass in the front and planted some kind of shrub (I forget the name), then laid down the mulch over that little bed and also finished mulching the other side of the front yard. In the back, I weeded a bunch and started digging out the grass for a new veggie garden. I did about half so far. My back was aching so much, and I had no power. Could hardly pick myself up! The cul-de-sac neighbors are ordering dirt this week, so I put in an order for 1 cu. yard. It should arrive Thursday, so I guess Saturday will be another tough day for me.
Last night after dinner I was so tired that I crashed out right after getting the kids ready for bed. Today my body is a little sore, but much better than I thought it would be.
My new computer is in town! It’s on the truck out for delivery. Tonight I will probably be up pretty late setting it up and doing all the things that need to be done. It’s been a long time since I bought a new computer, but I think the process of transferring stuff to the new machine should go pretty easy. As for applications, I don’t have to install too much. Here’s my list:
Adobe CS3
Premiere Elements
Firefox
Thunderbird
uTorrent
WSFTP
Miro
iTunes
Mozy
VLC Media Player
Skype
Pidgin
Nero
As for documents, music, and photos, I have that all ready to go on the external hard drive. I use an IMAP server for my email, so syncing my mail will be easy. My Firefox favorites have been exported and attached to an email for quick import (I do this at least once a month). It should all go smoothly. The only wrinkle is that I will have to set up iTunes from scratch, including ratings and podcasts. But, that can’t be helped since that data was lost. Lastly, I hope I don’t get bad karma for not going with Dell!
My peripherals shouldn’t be a problem to setup. Drivers should be readily available for our scanner and printer. And I am assuming that file sharing should be a snap. The external hard drives should just plug right in. The computer comes with a wireless mouse and keyboard, which is pretty cool. I don’t really need the wireless keyboard since I use a keyboard drawer, but the mouse might be nice. I just hope it has the same amount of buttons (or more) as my current Logitech.
One thing I have been wondering about is where I should keep my data. I am leaning towards going with the Microsoft-preferred method and putting everything in the My Documents folder (and the appropriate subfolders). I used to put everything in a “Data” directory on a separate drive, and just use the c: drive for Windows and program files, but I am rethinking that now. The new computer comes with a 400GB drive, which should be plenty for everything. If I use it exclusively for program files, I will have a lot of unused space. I could repartition it and reinstall Windows, but I’d rather not go thru all that. I will eventually get another internal drive, since they are pretty cheap, and then I still have my external hard disks. I think I am going to use the externals exclusively as backups.
The new computer comes with Windows Vista installed, which I was not too thrilled about initially. I have heard so many bad things about Vista, but at least it comes with Vista Home Premium, and not the basic version. Now I am actually looking forward to using Vista. The computer should be beefy enough to run it smoothly, and SP1 should be here any day. If Vista is truly an OS that is lacking, I have confidence that Microsoft will keep improving it. I heard that XP won’t be supported for very much longer, so a switch to Vista is probably not a bad thing.
Next, I need to decide what to do with my old computer. As I mentioned before, I am leaning towards Ubuntu and a file server. But really, what would be the point of that, other than I could keep it running to serve files and I can turn off my new computer. Or I can just use my new computer as the file server and set the old computer as a media center. One idea is to hook it up via DVI-HDMI to the TV in the family room and use it to watch dorama. I’d just have to add a wireless card to it, and maybe use that wireless keyboard/mouse from the new computer. I guess I need to do some research on home media software for Ubuntu to make the UI look nice and slick. How fun!
Back in the mid 90’s, my brother Kevin got me a Dodgers home jersey for my birthday. I still have not gotten a number or name on this one, but I think I have decided now. When I first got the jersey, I thought about putting the name Modesi (Raul) on it, since he was my favorite player at the time. I’m glad I didn’t, however, since he turned out to be a bust. I decided I would go back to a player from the past. I thought about Robinson and Drysdale, who were Dodger greats, but ultimately passed on them since they were from an era that was before my time. It would be more meaningful if I chose a player who played for the Dodgers when I was growing up. My short list was comprised of Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Pedro Guerrero, and Manny Mota. Today I finally decided on #11, Manny Mota. Reading his Wikipedia entry, I happened upon this:
“As one of the all-time great pinch hitters and a Los Angeles staple in the 1970s, Mota was referenced in a joke in the movie Airplane! As we hear Ted Striker’s inner-dialogue echo in his mind, it resembles a stadium public address and we hear him think “Pinch hitting for Pedro Borbon… Manny Mota… Mota… Mota...” Curiously, Mota and Borbon never actually played on the same team.”
