More than you want to know about Dale

Buffalo Time-Step

2010-01-05T19:13:30Z

Just for reference, a Buffalo Time-Step consists of:

 L        R         R
Flap  Shuffle  Step, lifting LF in sur le cou de pied
a 8     + a      1

L to L   RF      L         R         L
 Flap   Flap   Step    Shuffle  Hop
 + 2     + 3     +        4 +       5

RXBL   L unX     R
Step   Shuffle  Hop
 +      6 +      7

Joseph

2009-12-26T04:38:58Z

I spent my Christmas evening at The Rep watching Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Let me start by saying “wow!” The cast was excellent, especially the woman playing the narrator. The energy was there at the beginning and never let up. I don’t think I’ll find myself singing any of the songs from it, but I’d definitely be interested in watching it again sometime. There’s so much going on I certainly couldn’t catch everything in one sitting. I got my reservation fairly early and so had my favorite seat in the house, C14. That’s the third row from the stage and dead center. The first two rows are actually a bit too close for me, as you have to look up at all the action, and can actually miss things at the back of the stage. If you haven’t seen Joseph yet and can still get tickets, I highly recommend you try to catch it.

Driving

2009-11-18T22:40:25Z

I was filing my nails while driving along Highway 10 and was reminded of yet another law we don’t need on the books: 27-51-1504. Use of a handheld wireless telephone when driving.

Now, I think it’s a really bad idea to try and send or receive messages while driving. That’s not the point. The point is that the legislation is a) too specific, and b) unnecessary.

This law prevents text messaging or email, but does not prevent web-surfing or, for instance, writing blog entries. It also only addresses one behavior, and not others, such as putting on makeup or, say, filing one’s nails.

The reason it’s unnecessary is that we already have “27-51-104. Careless and prohibited driving.” on the books. If a person is doing anything which pulls their attention away from the road, they are already in violation of that law. Was there really a need to add another one?

I realize that legislators are not nearly as concerned about safety as they are about the appearance of “doing something”, but must we have more pointless laws?

This rant has been brought to you by the letters G and N and by the number 17.

Follie Holidays

2009-11-15T00:31:04Z

I spent yesterday evening at the Rep watching “Follie Holidays”. This is their annual presentation by the young people that they have in their summer program. It was quite entertaining. It’s wonderful to see kids learning song and dance and performing. It gives me hope for the arts in Arkansas. They did a wonderful rendition of “I Sing the Body Electric” that actually brought goose bumps to my arms.

It was a very enjoyable evening. The next Rep show is “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. I have a ticket for December 25th. Anyone want to join me?

Losing

2009-11-12T18:51:13Z

Today, for the first time in a couple of months, my Wii told me I was “overweight” rather than “obese”. That is progress, even if only in a small way. I have put myself on a diet of ~1,000 calories per day. Seriously cutting back on my intake is the only I’ve ever successfully lost weight in the past, and it seems to be working again. Now if I can only keep it up for another fifteen pounds or so…

Toothing it

2009-11-09T21:29:06Z

I have now spent more on dentistry care in the past month than in the previous several years. I was having pains in an upper left molar when I went in for my most recent checkup. The dentist examined it and determined I needed a crown. In attempting this simple procedure, it was found that I needed a root canal first. So, off to the endodontist for that procedure. (A small aside, my previous dentist did root canals himself. Having now had one done by a skilled endodontist, I will never let another general dentist attempt one on me, Dr. Penney was *excellent*). Once the root canal had been performed (and paid for), it was back to the dentist for the crown. I now have a temporary and an appointment in two weeks for the permanent crown. Dental insurance is good, but I’m still out of pocket over $1,000 for all this.

Just another expense that I really don’t need at the moment.

Slice it your way

2009-11-08T23:34:03Z

I’m one of those people who read nutrition labels. Okay, that’s not quite true. I *scan* nutrition labels to find out the calorie count. It rarely keeps me from eating something, but at least I know why I’m not losing weight.

Today for lunch I fixed a California Pizza Kitchens pizza. The nutrition label said that one serving was 1/5 of a pizza. One-fifth? Come on now, let’s use something reasonable. I don’t know anyone who slices a pizza into 5 sections (or any multiple thereof). Make it a sixth or a fourth and I’ll at least agree that it’s a reasonable division. Of course, I consider one-half to be a single serving. Back to that whole not-losing-weight thing again.

Busy

2009-09-26T15:27:00Z

I’ve actually had things to do for a few days. Thursday night was, of course, choir rehearsal. Last night I had dinner and saw a movie with Lesley since I hadn’t seen her in forever and I owed her sushi. Tonight I’m going to a birthday party for someone I’ve never met, but invited me because I’m in Suzi’s book. Tomorrow is kickball, so I’m going to exhaust myself there, and Monday night I’ll be setting up to record the kickcast. Oh yes, Tuesday I have a dentist appointment and Wednesday night I have a ticket to the Rep. Wow, an entire week with *something* going on every day. That’s not been my norm lately.

Now if I only had a job that I needed to fit things in around.

Behind the curve

2009-09-06T00:44:27Z

Sometimes I’m on the leading edge of technology, other times I’m well behind. I decided today that I wanted to start looking for benchmarks and geocaches again. I go through spurts where I’m in the mood to go find things. :)

It was only as I was considering this that I realized that my iPhone was an excellent geocaching device. And, of course, geocaching.com had already written a very nice application for just that purpose. I downloaded it and headed out for a late-afternoon drive. While the phone is certainly not the best GPS receiver out there, it’s not bad, and the convenience of having the web browser and GPSr together in one device mostly makes up for the lack of accuracy. I found four of the six caches I visited today. It was fun to get out of the house and go wandering around looking for things again.

Reading list

2009-08-29T01:23:56Z

So I haven’t been good about posting my reading list. It’s been over a year now (May 2008) since I updated. So, here is what I’ve read since that time:

Acevedo, Mario	The Undead Kama Sutra
Aguirre, Ann	Blue Diablo: A Corine Solomon Novel
Aguirre, Ann	Grimspace
Aguirre, Ann	Wanderlust (Sirantha Jax, Book 2)
Archer, Alex	Eternal Journey (Rogue Angel)
Archer, Alex	Forbidden City (Rogue Angel, Book 5)
Archer, Alex	Gabriel’s Horn (Rogue Angel, Book 13)
Archer, Alex	God of Thunder (Rogue Angel, Book 7)
Archer, Alex	Polar Quest (Rogue Angel)
Archer, Alex	Provenance (Rogue Angel, Book 11)
Archer, Alex	Sacrifice (Rogue Angel)
Archer, Alex	Secret of the Slaves (Rogue Angel, Book 8)
Archer, Alex	Seeker’s Curse (Rogue Angel)
Archer, Alex	Serpent’s Kiss (Rogue Angel, Book 10)
Archer, Alex	Swordsman’s Legacy (Rogue Angel)
Archer, Alex	The Chosen (Rogue Angel, Book 4)
Archer, Alex	The Golden Elephant (Rogue Angel)
Archer, Alex	The Lost Scrolls (Rogue Angel, Book 6)
Archer, Alex	The Soul Stealer (Rogue Angel, Book 12)
Archer, Alex	The Spider Stone (Rogue Angel, Book 3)
Archer, Alex	Warrior Spirit (Rogue Angel, Book 9)
Armstrong, Kelley	No Humans Involved (Women of the Otherworld, Book 7)
Armstrong, Kelley	Personal Demon (Women of the Otherworld, Book 8)
Asaro, Catherine	The Ruby Dice
Asprin, Robert	Myth-Chief (Myth Books)
Benson, Amber	Death’s Daughter
Bishop, Anne	Tangled Webs: A Black Jewels Novel
Braun, Lilian Jackson	The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers (Cat Who…)
Briggs, Patricia	Cry Wolf (Alpha and Omega, Book 1)
Briggs, Patricia	When Demons Walk
Caine, Rachel	Gale Force (Weather Warden, Book 7)
Carey, Jacqueline	Kushiel’s Justice (Kushiel’s Legacy)
Carey, Jacqueline	Kushiel’s Mercy
Carr, John Dickson	The Three Coffins
Chance, Karen	Claimed by Shadow (Cassandra Palmer, Book 2)
Chance, Karen	Curse the Dawn (Cassandra Palmer, Book 4)
Chance, Karen	Embrace the Night (Cassandra Palmer Series, Book 3)
Chance, Karen	Midnight’s Daughter (Dorina Basarab, Dhampir, Book 1)
Clark, Carol Higgins	Zapped (Regan Reilly Mysteries, No. 11)
Czerneda, Julie E.	Ages of Wonder
Daniels, Casey	Night of the Loving Dead (Pepper Martin Mysteries, No. 4)
David, Peter	Darkness of the Light (The Hidden Earth Chronicles)
David, Peter	One Knight Only (Knight Life)
Davidson, MaryJanice	Fish Out of Water (Fred the Mermaid, Book 3)
Davidson, MaryJanice	Swimming without a Net (Fred the Mermaid, Book 2)
Dickson, Carter	He Wouldn't Kill Patience
Dickson, Carter	Night at the Mocking Widow
Dickson, Carter	The Gilded Man
Douglas, Carole Nelson	Brimstone Kiss (Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator) (Delilah Street; Paranormal Investigator)
Douglas, Carole Nelson	Cat in a Hot Pink Pursuit: A Midnight Louie Mystery (Midnight Louie Mysteries)
Douglas, Carole Nelson	Cat in a Sapphire Slipper: A Midnight Louie Mystery (Midnight Louie Mysteries)
Douglas, Carole Nelson	Dancing With Werewolves: Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator (Delilah Street; Paranormal Investigator)
Eddings, David	Belgarath the Sorcerer
Eddings, David	Castle of Wizardry (The Belgariad, Book 4)
Eddings, David	Enchanters’ End Game (The Belgariad, Book 5)
Eddings, David	Magician’s Gambit (The Belgariad, Book 3)
Eddings, David	Pawn of Prophecy (The Belgariad)
Eddings, David	Queen of Sorcery (The Belgariad, Book 2)
Evanovich, Janet	Fearless Fourteen (Stephanie Plum Novels)
Evanovich, Janet	Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum, No. 13)
Evanovich, Janet	The Grand Finale
Feist, Raymond E.	Flight of the Nighthawks (The Darkwar Saga, Book 1)
Feist, Raymond E.	Wrath of a Mad God: Book Three of the Darkwar Saga
Flint, Eric	1634: The Bavarian Crisis (Ring of Fire)
Flint, Eric	Ring of Fire II (v. 2)
Foster, Alan Dean	Exceptions to Reality: Stories
Fox, Angie	The Accidental Demon Slayer
Friesner, Esther	Witch Way to the Mall
Frost, Jeaniene	One Foot in the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 2)
Gaiman, Neil	Anansi Boys
Grafton, Sue	T is for Trespass (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries)
Greenberg, Martin H.	Catopolis
Greenberg, Martin H.	The Dimension Next Door
Greenberg, Martin H.	The Future We Wish We Had
Harris, Charlaine	A Bone to Pick (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, Book 2)
Harris, Charlaine	All Together Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 7)
Harris, Charlaine	An Ice Cold Grave (Harper Connelly Mysteries, No. 3)
Harris, Charlaine	Dead Over Heels (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, Book 5)
Harris, Charlaine	From Dead to Worse (Southern Vampire Mysteries, No. 8)
Harris, Charlaine	Last Scene Alive (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, No. 7)
Harris, Charlaine	Real Murders (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, Book 1)
Harris, Charlaine	Sweet and Deadly
Harris, Charlaine	The Julius House (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, Book 4)
Harris, Charlaine	Three Bedrooms, One Corpse (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, Book 3)
Harrison, Kim	A Fistful of Charms (The Hollows, Book 4)
Harrison, Kim	Dates From Hell
Harrison, Kim	Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, Book 1)
Harrison, Kim	Every Which Way But Dead (The Hollows, Book 3)
Harrison, Kim	For a Few Demons More (The Hollows, Book 5)
Harrison, Kim	Hotter Than Hell
Harrison, Kim	The Good, the Bad, and the Undead (The Hollows, Book 2)
Hess, Joan	Mummy Dearest: A Claire Malloy Mystery (Claire Malloy Mysteries)
Hess, Joan	Poisoned Pins (Claire Malloy Mysteries, No. 8)
Hines, Jim C.	The Stepsister Scheme (PRINCESS NOVELS)
Hoffman, Nina Kiriki	A Fistful Of Sky
Howell, Morgan	A Woman Worth Ten Coppers
Huff, Tanya	The Heart of Valor: A Confederation Novel (Confederation)
James, P. D.	An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
Kenner, Julie	Demons Are Forever: Confessions of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom (Kate Connor, Demon Hunter)
Lackey, Mercedes	By Slanderous Tongues (The Doubled Edge, Book 3)
Lackey, Mercedes	Reserved for the Cat (Elemental Masters, Book 5)
Lackey, Mercedes	The Phoenix Endangered (The Enduring Flame)
Lackey, Mercedes	The Phoenix Unchained (Enduring Flame, Book 1)
Lavene, Joyce and Jim	Pretty Poison (A Peggy Lee Garden Mystery)
Lavene, Joyce and Jim	Wicked Weaves: A Renaissance Faire Mystery
Little, Denise	Enchantment Place
Little, Denise	Witch High
Llywelyn, Morgan	Lion of Ireland (Celtic World of Morgan Llywelyn)
McCaffrey, Anne	Deluge: Book Three of The Twins of Petaybee
Mccaffrey, Anne	Dragon Harper (Dragonriders of Pern, The)
McCaffrey, Anne	Maelstrom: Book Two of The Twins of Petaybee
Mccaffrey, Anne	Third Watch: Acorna’s Children
Michener, James A.	Chesapeake
Moon, Elizabeth	Victory Conditions (Vatta’s War)
Moore, Moira J.	Heroes Adrift
Norton, Andre	THE JARGOON PARD
Nye, Jody Lynn	An Unexpected Apprentice
Pettersson, Vicki	City of Souls (Sign of the Zodiac, Book 4)
Pettersson, Vicki	The Touch of Twilight (Sign of the Zodiac, Book 3)
Pratchett, Terry	Making Money (Discworld Novels)
Pratt, T.A.	Poison Sleep (Marla Mason, Book 2)
Radford, Irene	Guardian of the Balance (Merlin’s Descendants, Vol. 1)
Ringo, John	A Hymn Before Battle (Posleen War Series #1)
Ringo, John	Cally’s War (Posleen War Series #5)
Ringo, John	Gust Front (Posleen War Series #2)
Ringo, John	Hell’s Faire (Posleen War Series #4)
Ringo, John	When the Devil Dances (Posleen War Series #3)
Roberson, Jennifer	Sword-Dancer (Tiger and Del)
Roberts, Nora	Blood Brothers (Sign of Seven Trilogy, Book 1)
Roberts, Nora	The Hollow (Sign of Seven Trilogy, Book 2)
Roberts, Nora	The Pagan Stone: The Sign of Seven Trilogy
Saintcrow, Lilith	Hunter’s Prayer (Jill Kismet)
Saintcrow, Lilith	Night Shift (Jill Kismet Novels)
Scott, Tim	Outrageous Fortune
Shearin, Lisa	The Trouble with Demons (Raine Benares, Book 3)
Sinclair, Linnea	Shades of Dark
Stasheff, Christopher	Saint Vidicon To The Rescue
Sweeney, Leann	A Wedding to Die For (Yellow Rose Mysteries)
Sweeney, Leann	Dead Giveaway (Yellow Rose Mysteries)
Sweeney, Leann	Pick Your Poison (Yellow Rose Mysteries)
Sweeney, Leann	Pushing Up Bluebonnets (Yellow Rose Mysteries)
Sweeney, Leann	Shoot from the Lip (Yellow Rose Mystery)
Sweeney, Leann	The Cat, The Quilt and The Corpse: A Cats in Trouble Mystery
Vaughn, Carrie	Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand (Kitty Norville, Book 5)
Vaughn, Carrie	Kitty Raises Hell (Kitty Norville, Book 6)
Viehl, S.L.	Omega Games: A Stardoc Novel
Watt-Evans, Lawrence	The Ninth Talisman (Annals of the Chosen, Vol. 2)
Watt-Evans, Lawrence	The Wizard Lord (The Annals of the Chosen, Book 1)
Weber, David	1634: The Baltic War (The Ring of Fire)
Wright, Susan	A Pound of Flesh (Roc Fantasy)

A psuedo-update

2009-08-27T01:22:57Z

I want to write something. I’m not sure what to write, or even if I *should* be writing, but I want to write.

I’m still alive, still healthy, still looking for a job, and going slightly further into debt every month. I’m playing kickball again this fall, and trying to have a good time on Sundays. I’m spending much of my time at home, and actually relaxing a bit. This is the longest unstructured period I’ve had since I started kindergarten at the age of five.

I’m reading an incredible number of books, and watching more television than I have in years (recorded, not on-air). I have not managed to lose any weight, but I haven’t gained either so that’s good.

There’s not much exciting happening in the world of Dale, but I need to start writing more just because I can.

Lost art vs. lore

2009-08-02T00:24:13Z

Mark is in Las Vegas at DefCon at the moment. He called me to say that they have a display of older systems made by Digital. One of the systems had a front panel, and he asked me why one would use such a thing. I explained about writing and debugging programs by depositing and examining memory locations, single-stepping through a program and examining registers, etc. I mentioned that front-panel programming was a lost art. He disagreed with me and said that it had passed into the realm of “lore”, in that people only know of the existence of front panels by hearsay, and many people, even in the computer industry, don’t even have that level of knowledge.

I realized that he was right. I’m actually among the youngest of the people who used front-panels professionally. Most of the serious users are retired and/or dead by now.

When I started programming as a student, it was on punched cards. By my first employment, all programming was done on CRT terminals. Cards persisted for several more years as a data-entry medium, but generally not for programming. I have also watched magnetic tapes change from a data-storage medium into a backup medium, and may be around to see them phased out altogether in favor of big, cheap disks.

So what else in computers has passed completely into lore? Using drum storage as main memory comes to mind. It was before my time, and I’ve never even seen a machine that used it. Plugboard programming is another. I have seen machines that used plugboards, but I never had a chance to work with one. My first home computer could punch and read paper tape to store programs. Again, I am among the youngest to be able to say that. Of course, there was the entire generation of computers prior to the stored-program model, Eniac for instance, that had passed into lore before I ever punched my first card.

It makes me wonder what is cutting-edge today that will not merely be considered quaint in fifty years, but will be completely forgotten.

The new phone books are here!

2009-07-01T16:59:03Z

The new phone books are here!

Today’s mail contained the Downey edition of my local telephone directory. The Windstream version is smaller and covers fewer communities.

I found it interesting that the Downey book has a numerical cross-reference, so if I have a number I can look up the name! It’s also amusing that for a directory that covers most of two counties, that cross reference is only 13 pages.

Tower of Trivia

2009-06-27T21:42:18Z

For those who don’t know, I tend to acquire Trivial Pursuit sets, though I don’t get to play as often as I would like. Having just been given a new one, I now have:

Standard form factor sets:

Genus
Genus III
Genus IV
Genus 5
25th Anniversary
Best of Genus
All American
The 1960’s
The Vintage Years (1920’s – 1950’s)
Disney – Animated Picture

Full sets, other form factors:

20th Anniversary
90’s

Supplemental card sets:

Genus II
All-Star Sports
Baby Boomer
RPM
Know-It-All
Way and Victory
Welcome to America
1980’s
Family (Disney)

Deluxe playing piece set

Anyone want to come over for a game?

Success Vision

2009-06-27T14:55:30Z

Sometime last year I changed the prescription on my glasses. On the recommendation of my son, I stopped in at Success Vision on Financial Center Parkway to have new glasses made. I was quite pleased with both their service and their prices. About 3 months ago, I managed to crush my glasses, seriously bending the frames but not damaging the lenses. I carried in the pieces and they fixed them free of charge. On Thursday I carried them in again because one of the screws they had put in hadn’t held. I was told that the frames were not repairable, and the no longer carried that frame. I was then told to pick out another set of frames and the glasses would be replaced free of charge! I was flabbergasted. I have progressive lenses which aren’t cheap. If I hadn’t already been recommending their services to my friends, I certainly would now.

So, if you live in central Arkansas and wear glasses, you owe it to yourself to try Success Vision when you next need glasses.

Oh, and it’s also one-hour service.

Tommy

2009-06-18T04:42:46Z

I went to the Rep this evening to see Tommy. It was a thoroughly enjoyable performance. I had forgotten just how much I like some of the music in that show. I came home and headed for my albums to drop the soundtrack on the turntable. I was quite displeased to not be able to find it. That probably explains why I haven’t listened to it in years. I will be replacing it (sadly not on vinyl) very soon.

Back to the performance — I thought it was very nicely done. The staging was innovative and kept things moving along nicely. The costumes were fun, and the dance numbers were quite enjoyable. The closest I have to a complaint is that I would have preferred a bit more vocal on some of the numbers. I think that may be an oddity of my hearing, though. For some reason I tend to hear instruments better than voices, and it’s rather annoying.

The Cattle Exchange

2009-06-17T18:36:40Z

I just had an encounter with a profession I thought was extinct — door-to-door-salesmen. Two men in a truck with a freezer in the back just drove up to my house to try and sell me frozen meat. They had a nicely printed brochure for “The Cattle Exchange” listing meat prices and contact information. After telling them that I wasn’t going to buy any today, I was told I could order from their website or call. The man then asked me for the brochure back. As I came back into the house I wondered how he thought I was going to order if I didn’t have information. I *think* I remembered the URL correctly, but there is no site there. A bit of research seems to indicate that they are a rather shady business. There can’t be much legitimate profit doing door-to-door meat sales in rural Arkansas during the day.

Scanning, scanning

2009-06-13T20:58:08Z

If anyone is interested in the early life of Dale, there is now an amazing amount of trivia available on Flickr.

Certified mail

2009-06-13T14:48:50Z

It’s rare that good news comes via certified mail. It’s almost always something you don’t want to see. Yesterday, however, that was not the case. I received a letter from UALR that stated that I was able to maintain health coverage as a retiree. I was somewhat worried about the possibility of contract jobs, as they don’t have insurance, and COBRA only lasts 18 months. This gives me the ability to maintain insurance at reasonable rates indefinitely. Of course, it’s really only useful if I’m living in Arkansas, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Now I’m wondering if they will consider me a retiree for other functions…

Picturing myself

2009-06-11T14:30:08Z

I’ve taken on a new personal project — a self-portrait every day for a year. I’ve seen others do it, and it has the potential to be interesting. I’m sometimes bad at keeping up with projects requiring constant input, so we shall see what happens.

I thought about starting out with something interesting, arty, and provocative, but decided that if my first photo was excellent, I would be discouraged on those days I didn’t feel like producing a masterpiece. Thus, my first picture is rather bland and uninspired. I have nowhere to go but up.

Movies in the Park

2009-06-04T03:23:02Z

Yesterday evening and this morning I was excited about going to the opening night of Movies in the Park. Early this afternoon when the rain rolled in and I started getting a headache I pretty much decided I was going to stay home. Around 4:00 when the sun came out and my headace went away at almost exactly the same time I decided it was a sign. I took a shower, got dressed, and headed into downtown. I wasn’t sure exactly where it was, so I parked and started walking around. While I was looking for the amphitheatre, Mark called. He volunteered to look up a map for me and discovered that the opening night show had been canceled due to weather. Ah well, I stopped by Home Depot on the way back home to pick up a few items on my “next time I’m in town” list, so the trip wasn’t a total waste. That will teach me to not check my Facebook mail before leaving the house.

Watching television

2009-06-03T16:53:04Z

I wanted to do something simple. I wanted to easily watch shows from Hulu.com on my HDTV. I have three ways to get a signal to the set: a Roku player, my Playstation 3, and the laptop, all via HDMI. The Roku is, of course, not an option since it only supports Netflix and Amazon. The PS3 sort of works. I can start playing, but if I pause the program for more than a few seconds it locks up, requiring a reboot. The laptop plays video beautifully, but if I’m driving the television fullscreen, I can’t do anything else. Any attempt to switch to another program drops the video back into a window.

So, I thought I would try another alternative — install Linux on the PS3 and use that. I followed all the steps for installation last night, but then was sidetracked. I discovered that I could load a Super Nintendo emulator and convince the SixAxis controller to act like a Nintendo controller. It wasn’t long before I was merrily playing Super Mario World and Yoshi’s Cookie on my PS3. Life was good.

Finally this morning I got back around to loading up Hulu in the browser. I was then told that I needed to load a flash player and was directed to the Adobe site. There I learned that their player isn’t compiled for PPC, only X86. So, I now have another way to *not* watch videos on my television.

Dreaming

2009-06-02T10:53:04Z

I just awoke from an odd dream where I was fixing Honeywell JCL (technically control cards, since JCL is an IBM term). The scary part was that I actually remember some of that, and I haven’t touched it in about twenty years.

It’s almost time to party

2009-05-29T02:22:14Z

I made a plan early this year to have eight parties at my house that roughly coincided with the solar calendar. I wasn’t truly trying to track the sun, but the intervals worked out nicely. The next is scheduled for June 20th. If you are reading this and haven’t received an invitation, consider yourself invited. You can visit http://dale-miller.com/party to find out the details. If you are coming, please let me know so I can plan food/drink/etc.

The weekend so far

2009-05-25T03:40:19Z

I have spent most of today with a headache. Nothing I do seems to make it go away. Otherwise, my weekend has been okay. I volunteered to work a beverage tent at Riverfest last night. It was mainly an excuse to get myself out of the house, but it’s kind of fun. The crowds are a bit much, but I occasionally just like to sit on the sidelines and people-watch. As a result of getting out, I stayed up far too late, slept in this morning, and haven’t done anything worthwhile so far today except bemoan my aching head.

I really need to go to the grocery store because I’m just about out of things I want to eat. I’m not a big fan of driving in the rain when I don’t have to, so I’ll probably make do until tomorrow. Also, the thought of driving eighteen miles (each way) just to have variety doesn’t appeal to me right now. That is one disadvantage to living in the middle of nowhere.