poltr1 | Recent Entries

So, I returned to Epic Loot Games in Centerville for

filkertom's house concert this evening. It was a great show. I got to forget my troubles for a few hours.

During the break between the two sets, I looked around at the games they had available for sale at the store. Naturally, they had a lot of the current edition (4.0?) of the Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks. I used to play D & D in high school. But there were people in the games club that didn't want me involved in their games. Mark, Richard E, and Bob were all juniors, and Richard R was a sophomore. I was a freshman. But Ed, a senior, didn't let that stop him from having me in his D & D game. (Thanks Ed!)

( There was another game I played back then, along with sisters Sharon and Karen, and a few other folks: Cosmic Encounter. )

Current Mood: nostalgic

Back in November, I picked up a Zonet KVM3332 KVM switch at Fry's. It has ports for two systems, USB ports for the keyboard and mouse, and audio inputs. I mostly use it to switch the video input to my monitor.

Since I've bought and installed it, I've been hearing a constant hum and some occasional whistling. It's audio noise that the KVM is generating. And it's getting annoying. I looked online and can't find any explanation for it. Zonet's web site says the unit is discontinued, and nothing about the noise.

(When I bought it, it was an opened box. Maybe this is why the previous owner returned it. Ah well -- you get what you pay for.)

And now that I discovered the hot key to switch input sources -- tap the left Ctrl key twice -- it can be darn convenient when I have the laptop docked and am doing work on both systems.

Is there any way to get rid of these noises? (Besides swapping out the KVM, of course.)

Current Mood: annoyed

Haven't seen very much activity on LJ in the past few weeks -- either posts by other people, or comments to my posts. I know people have been moving away from LJ over the last year or two.

So...where is everybody?

Current Mood: lonely
Current Music: King Crimson, "I Talk To The Wind"

Someone from the Human Rights Campaign just called me to solicit funds. They started off with $100, then $60, then $30. (And each time I said no. After the third "no", I said, "This is the third no. Any further attempt to persuade me will be construed as harassment."

I know this tactic is probably written in their script, but why can't they stop at the first "no"?

I also asked to be put on their do-not-call list, but I got some excuse that that's only for telemarketers. (I checked donotcall.gov and that's true.) Still, I don't want charities calling me and hitting me up for money. What type of fool do they take me to be? I don't give money to charities over the phone, because (1) there's no way to verify who they say they are, and (2) I don't have money to give them. I'm unemployed, and unemployment conversation covers child support, meals, gas, and utilities. Why can't or won't they comprehend this?

I"m also trying to reach two of my former employers from this past year. They won't return my calls or email messages. Why? I've been contacting them for nearly 2 weeks, I need that information from them NOW, and I can't wait for my W-2 or 1099 forms. Do I have to threaten to refer them to my attorney, or state in my reply "The courtesy of a reply is requested"? If they'd be reasonable and return my calls in a timely manner, I wouldn't have to resort to hardball tactics.

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: (in my head) Helen Reddy, "Leave Me Alone"

You know the plush fuzzy dice they sell at auto parts stores? Not exactly my thing -- d6's are way too common. I wanted something that said "gamer": a pair of fuzzy d20s (icosahedrons -- 20-sided dice) for years. And I finally found a pair yesterday at Epic Loot Games in Centerville. Made by toy Vault, they almost resemble spheres, but can be used as d20s. They're hanging on my rear-view mirror now.

They're also available at thinkgeek.com -- Here's a picture.

I would mind having some of the plush Angry Birds. I can lob them at my cubicle mates, if they were into good-natured fun and playing around while getting work done.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Styx, "Borrowed Time"

filkertom posted a question on his LJ: what scientific toys did you have as a kid?

My sister had a microscope. When she was younger, she wanted to go to veterinary school. We couldn't afford it. She ended up going to UB (SUNY at Buffalo) for geography, the University of Wyoming for a masters' degree, and now teaches geography at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, CO (near Denver).

As for me, I had the Radio Shack 10-in-1 electronics kit, and a weather station that I picked up at a garage sale. I also ordered some water test kits from a scientific supply house in Rochester, NY. On a lark, I thought I'd Google them to see if they were still in business, and they are! Ward's Natural Science -- http://www.wardsci.com/. I first heard of them from Chuck, a friend of mine from junior high, who gave me a copy of their catalog.

And then in 1983, I picked up a Minimoog from a teacher in Buffalo for $400. (Not exactly "scientific hardware", but it can be used as such. Ask the folks at the Bob Moog Foundation.)

Omong other musical "toys", I'd still like to get a Tektronix oscilloscope, for demos and for use as a way-cool stage prop. (But the price? Hundreds if not thousands of dollars? Sheesh.)

Current Mood: blah

Earlier today,

khaosworks posted a note to his Facebook which had links to three articles in Escapist Magazine about the past, present, and future of Dungeons & Dragons, also known as D&D.

This brought back some fond -- and not-so-fond -- memories. I first cut my teeth on the original D&D, back in 1978 -- high school for me. We had spirit-master copies of the original three rule books. There was a nice article in the Courier-Express about the wargame store in town, The Articles Of War. But the rest of the folks in the war games club in high school didn't want me in their group or their games. So I found other people to game with.

Then in 1979, basic D&D came out, in the box with the blue book and some cheap polyhedra dice. (The edges and points on those dice wore and chipped quickly.) And I remember riding the bus to Ulbrich's (a bookseller and office supply store) in University Plaza one Friday night in the fall of 1979 to buy the first edition AD&D rulebooks (which I still have). I never bought the AD&D 2nd Edition rulebooks, or any books from subsequent versions. Nor did I play any of the later versions.

I also started getting into Game Designers' Workshop's space-based RPG, Traveller. I bought whatever rule books I could find. But I never found anyone to play with. So the rule books sat around, unopened.

The collector in me would like to complete the set of rulebooks I have. But that's something that's low priority right now. I found some lists on Wikipedia that I can use to inventory what I have, and what I need to get to fill in my gaps.

What I'd rather have is the original D&D rulebooks and supplements in electronic format. If they're PDF files on either a CD or DVD, they'd be much lighter to carry and much easier to transport and store. I'd also like to get back issues of The Dragon magazine, the original Traveller rulebooks, and back issues of the Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society. I know the Traveller stuff is available from Far Future Enterprises. But the early D&D stuff? Unknown.

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Music: Synergy, "Delta Two"

I'm feeling angry and irritable, as I often am. And I really shouldn't be, because of the superstition "how I am on New Years' Day will reflect upon how I am the rest of the year". But I am.

Maybe I just need to just shut up and eat something.

Or I just need to spend some time figuring out what sets me off, why I get this way, and why I stay seething in my own juices for long periods of time.

Current Mood: grumpy

Years ago, around Christmas time, my uncle Yano -- that's short for Sebastiano, and he was a good friend of my parents, hence the title of "uncle" -- would make an appetizer out of marinated octopus ("polpi" in Italian). I think he used olive oil, lemon juice, and some spices. I remember it being a little tough to eat, but it was delicious.

Not many cultures eat octopus. As far as I know, it's eaten by folks from southern Italy, Greece, Spain, and Japan. (Sushi bars have sliced octopus, which they call "tako".)

I've had the recipe for years -- or what I think is the recipe -- and I want to make it for myself. The problem is, where do I find octopus? None of the seafood markets around here (Kroger, Meijer, Cub Foods) keep it in stock. And whatever octopus they sell in Detroit gets tossed onto the ice at Red Wings games. (It commemorates their 1952 winning of the Stanley Cup in 8 games. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_the_Octopus for more info.)

I'm considering a trip to Jungle Jim's in Fairfield sometime next week. I'd go today, but I'm a little short of cash.

Current Mood: hungry

It's been a busy week for me, which is good. My friend Scott had two computer projects for me to work on.

The first project was to resurrect his old Compaq Presario 1200 laptop computer. It wouldn't power on. I downloaded the maintance manual, took apart the laptop, replaced the CMOS battery (which was under the modem card), and.......nothing.

The second project was to get rid of a nasty computer virus on his desktop computer. It even masqueraded as a virus scanning program that didn't report the originating company, but prompted you to buy a full version from them. (It was called XP Antispyware 2012. Details here.) Not previously knowing this, I downloaded the latest version of the AVG Rescue CD, burned it to a CD-R, and ran it. I then found that the administrator password had been reset, so I resorted to the trusty System Rescue CD to clear the password. And to add insult to injury, .exe files wouldn't run because the association between .exe files and the command(s) to run them had been hosed as well. I found a Microsoft FixIt program to correct this, but because the fix was itself an .exe file, it wouldn't run. (Duh!) I found a list of registry fixes at www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm, and downloaded and ran the one for .exe files. Success! When I left earlier this evening, MalwareBytes was running a scan.

Scott wants to re-install a firewall program to prevent this from ever happening again. He head been using ZoneAlarm 2006, but the software sabotaged itself by corrupting a necessary file. I advised him to set a restore point before installing, in case he needs to roll back. In case that doesn't work, what good and robust firewall programs for Windows XP are out there?

Current Mood: accomplished

Last Thursday, I sent out my annual greeting "cards". For family members and friends with young children, I send out a picture of M, and my annual newsletter, reporting the major events in my life. For everyone else, I send out the newsletter only. A total of 52 envelopes (pictures and newsletters, newsletters only, and pictures only) were sent out this year.

Last year, my tracking spreadsheet crashed, and the file became corrupted. So this year, I decided to simplify the spreadsheet and the scoring system I use. I use these scores to determine who receives cards next year, and who gets dropped from my list. The scoring algorithm I use is as follows:
* If I send a card to someone and I receive a card from them, they get 1 point.
* If I don't send a card to someone and I receive a card from them, they get 0.5 point. (Example: The magnetic calendar I get from my insurance agent, or a note from my realtor.)
* If I don't send a card to someone and I don't receive a card from them, they get 0 points.
* If I send a card to someone and I don't receive a card from them, they get -1 point.
I then sum up the scores from the past 5 years. If someone's cumulative score is too low (usually below -2), I'll drop them from my list. (But there are exceptions to that hard and fast rule. For example: A few of my relatives don't send out cards. But I keep them in the loop, because they're my relatives, and this is the only time in the year I have any contact with them.)

I've often thought: Wouldn't it be easier to send out holiday greetings via email? It would, but to me, it seems rather trite and tacky to do so. Plus I would be violating the copyright on the photo if I was to do this with my daughter's pictures. Scott at the MotoPhoto in Centerville has done great work taking M's picture over the years, and I don't want to deprive him of potential income.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: The Late Show with David Letterman

Yesterday was Christmas Eve. I had M over. I gave her her gifts -- a new copy of Battleship (she lost the pieces for the game I got her last year), and two DVDs. And she spent the day playing her computer games. When she plays, she gets so engrossed that she loses track of time and forgets to eat. This has become a sore point for R. She expects me to be a responsible adult and feed her when she's here. I would, but when I offer her food, she says she's not hungry. It's not like I'm intentionally trying to starve her, and I'm not going to force-feed her.

And today was Christmas Day. I slept in, since R had other plans for M today. The camcorder is either broken or the charger is missing, so I didn't get to videotape her opening presents this year. Went to UU services this morning. Then went home and took a nap. Then I went back to the UU fellowship for a potluck Christmas dinner. There were about 40 of us there. My green bean casserole went over well. The cranberry relish -- not so well. I still have plenty.
And now I'm just chilling out at home, watching football, and snuggling with Marcus, who's laying next to me. Happiness is a warm kitty.

I didn't get any gifts, other than cash. I didn't get any coal, either. Most of my "presents" I bought for myself -- a replacement teaspoon for my silverware set, an external hard drive enclosure, a teacup with a built-in strainer. And I'm OK with that. For me, the Christmas season is no longer about the materialism. I don't need or want a wide-screen TV, a Lexus with a bow on it, or jewelry, despite what the TV commercials are pushing and hawking. The stories of people getting into fistfights over sneakers or taking food from other people's shopping carts only reinforces my cynicism of the holiday.

It's also not about the getting any more. It's the giving. Like the time a few days ago I helped an elderly lady pay for her groceries when she bought more than what she could pay for, and was struggling to decide what to keep and what to put back. And it is the season of rebirth. To quote a minister friend of mine from Indiana, who paraphrased St. Augustine: "What good is it if I celebrate the birth of Jesus year after year, but don’t allow the Christ to be born through me?" Catholic dogma didn't teach me that there is a divine spark within each of us. I had to learn that on my own. I need to recognize and honor that divine spark within me, and within others.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: NFL Sunday Night Football

It appears that many of my LJ-friends are migrating to Dreamwidth, for various reasons. I've hemmed and hawed about doing the same. And this morning, I finally bit the bullet and created a Dreamwidth account.

If you know me via LiveJournal or Facebook, please feel free to send me an invite to your circle.

Current Mood: awake
Crossposts: http://poltr1.livejournal.com/544987.html

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Provide clean, drinkable water to everyone in the world. How many diseases are spread by drinking non-potable water? Noted inventor Dean Kamen is working this problem as well with his Slingshot water purifier.

A recent XKCD cartoon showed the creation dates of the 20 most popular Christmas songs, based on airplay. Most of them were first released in the 1950s. And the caption makes the observation that the baby boomers are trying to recapture the Christmases of their youth.

I came to being either after the Baby Boomer era, or between the Boomers and Generation X. And what holiday songs do I fondly remember? The ones from the Christmas holiday specials that were developed and aired in the 1960s -- A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

( And then it hit me. )

Current Mood: somber
Current Music: The Singing Dogs, "Jingle Bells" and the Vince Guaraldi Trio, "Christmas Time Is Here"

Believe it or not, I like to go shopping at some stores -- computer/technology stores, book stores, office supply stores, record/music stores. Most of the time, the clerks leave me alone and let me shop. I'm fine with that. If I need help, I'll ask someone.

Recently, I've noticed that some stores now have a "greet the customer as soon as they come in the door" policy. While it's nice that they have that and acknowledge me as a customer, I would hope they'd wait at least 30 seconds before they offer to help. Example: The OfficeMax in Miamisburg. The last two times I walked in the store, one of their clerks (I belive his name is Eric) practically pounced on me about 10 seconds after walking through the door. I want to say, "Leave me alone! I'm perfectly capable of finding what I want by myself, thank you."

Maybe they're bored and looking for something to do. Or it's their policy to do what they do. But I get a small thrill out of finding stuff by myself. I don't want to share any part of that victory with a store clerk.

There are two ways I shop. One is the "blitzkrieg" approach -- go in with a short list, find what I want, and check out. The other is a more leisurely approach, when I have more time. I'll go without a list. I'll look around, browse, see things that I think I can use, and go home with them. And I'll often linger in stores when I do this.

And why do I go out to shop? I'm bored at home. It gives me something to do. But I try not to abuse the retailers by going in their store and not buying anything, I'll usually make a "courtesy purchase" of $5 or less.

Current Music: Jonn Serrie, "Dawn Trader"

Many years ago, in my college days, I was exposed to the Usenet, a store-and-forward bulletin board system that ran on computers running Unix. Machines would call each other and transmit the day's posts. The groups were named and partitioned by subject matter. Needless to say, I spent many hours reading the Usenet news, or netnews for short. I'm quite sure my grades suffered as a result of my addiction to netnews. It wasn't fun quitting "cold turkey" after May 1988. But it was the right thing to do, and I haven't looked back.

I saved all the articles from the Star Trek and Doctor Who news groups onto a reel of magnetic tape, in groups of 50 articles. I just went to the spool directory, typed "more * > filename", and compressed the omnibus file.

( The remaining steps. )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Tangerine Dream, "Tangram Sedt 1"

Slept in until about 10am. Then went to the local Bob Evans for breakfast. (Yeah, I could have stayed at home and made my own, but the kitchen needs to be cleaned out and cleaned up.)

Picked up M after breakfast. She spent the day playing computer games, and asking me for help with geography and math questions.

( And here's what else I did. )

Current Mood: accomplished

Christmas is only 19 days away as I write this.

Every year, it's such a big and long buildup to The Big Day. And then December 26th comes along, and it's business as usual. "Peace On Earth, Good Will Toward Men" gets tossed out with the gift wrap. Such a letdown.

I'm supposed to feel happiness and joy this time of year. I don't. And I refuse the "fake it 'till you make it" approach. I"m not going to put on or paint on a smile when I don't feel like smiling.,

( So why am I so unhappy this time of year? )

So, what can I do to cope? I'm open to suggestions.

Current Mood: meh

How many of you have a personal mission statement? How many out there have answers to "Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here? Where are you going?"

The subject line of this post states my current mission statement. (Yes, it changes over time. At one time it was "I create a world where people live the tenets of their faith, not through the words they quote or labels they apply to themselves.")

( So, what does a world of honesty look like? And why would I want one? )

Current Mood: meh

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Daily Doings at the Line of Death Bar & Grill

(A Virtual Tavern)

Recent Entries

The games I used to play: Cosmic Encounter......

Technical problem of the day....

Is there anybody out there?

Some days I hate the phone.....

My kind of fuzzy dice.....

Science toys.....

Yeah, I used to game. It's been a while. though....

Starting the year off angry and irritable.....

In search of Polpi, part 1.....

Stomping out computer viruses....

This year's greeting cards.....

Having myself a merry little Christmas.......

Well, here I am.

Writer's Block: B.Y.O.B. Holidays

Chasing the ghosts of Christmases Past.....

The shopping experience....or is it retail therapy?

Finally finished a long-standing project.......

Busy day today....

With every year, it's harder for me to feel the joy........

"I create a world of honesty by modeling honest, authentic behavior."