Daily Doings at the Line of Death Bar & Grill

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.

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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.

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.

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. )

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? )

(Yes, there are such things. But they are fewer in number than Windows annoyances.)

After installing Ubuntu Linux from the distro CD-R, there are still some things that need to be done. Part of it is due to the omission of proprietary drivers and such. Computer neophytes aren't going to know how to do these tweaks, or want to do them. They want things to work out-of-the-box. And because of that, I can't recommend Ubuntu to those people at this time. Sometimes, with running Ubuntu, you need to DIY (do it yourself).

And starting in 11.04 (Natty Narwhal), the standard GUI has been switched from Gnome to Unity. I hated Unity at first, because it was different from Gnome. But as I use it more, it's not that much different from Gnome. But there are still some things with Unity that I'd like to tweak. This I'll save for a later post.

( Some how-tos for the things I had to tweak. Linux command-line wizardry follows. )

One of my colleagues on Facebook, Michael Buike, compiled a list of restaurants that are offering free food to US veterans on Friday, November 11 -- Veterans' Day. Reprinted with Michael's permission.

As always, bring proof of service and double-check the local restaurant if they are honoring the promotion.

( Here's the list. )

A new laptop -- or a refurbished one -- has been on my wish list for over a year. I ordered one for myself last year around Christmas time, but I sent it back, unopened, as I realized I couldn't afford to keep it. So the only thing I was out was the return shipping costs. Oh well.

A couple weeks ago, I was able to make a good-sized payment on my credit card. I had been looking at a Dell Latitude D620 refurbished laptop on overstock.com. (This one.) I placed my order, and within a week, it was in my hands. I also bought the matching docking station. Now I need to get a second power supply for it, and I'm all set!

A closer look at the machine showed that it was actually a D630. They must have run out of the D620s. So I got a free upgrade. Bonus!

( The specs, what I've done so far, and what I plan to install. And why a refurb? )

It seems that less and less people are on LiveJournal these days, leaving it for the so-called greener pastures of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, et al.

Are blogs passe? To be replaced with quick "sound bites" of a one-sentence or 140-character post?

I know Facebook has a Notes feature. But I hardly use it. Instead, my long, thought-out posts go here on LJ. But I'll admit, most of my recent posts have been on Facebook.

So, what can an LJ user do to preserve his or her posts? infobits posed this question a few days ago.

I know of two such programs, and have used them. It's probably time for me to get current.

LJBook can create a PDF file of your posts, from a specified range of dates to the entire journal, if you so desire.
http://www.ljbook.com/

LJArchive enables you to store an offline copy of your journal for reference and posterity.
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/ljarchive

This past weekend was the annual Ohio Valley Filk Festival in Columbus, Ohio.

Fri 10/21: Took the afternoon off from work so I could arrive at the con at a decent time. Met with jslove, whom I was rooming with foro the weekend. Found the registration table -- they were tucked away in a small room instead of being out in the open. Participated in the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, even though all I had to wear on my head was a baseball cap. Skipped the Pegasus Nominees concert to do some shopping at Micro Center and have dinner at Bravo. Came back to the hotel in time to attend and sit in on harperjen's harp workshop. Then went up to the room and crashed.

St 10/22: Had breakfast with fuzzyvanman, rms_butterfly, pondside, and Douglas in the hotel restaurant. I was still tired, so I went back up to the room to nap for a couple hours. Came back down to set up the gear for my Minimoog Workshop at 4pm. Sat in on gundo's blues workshop and min0taur's jamming workshop, while my instrument was getting warmed up. Then I moved the synth to the center of the room, explained and demonstrated what each of the knobs and switches did, and let people play around. robin_june and a few other folks took their turn. After the workshop was over, I packed up my gear and hung with maedbh7 in the registration room. Went to the Banquet and sat at a table with billroper, catalana, her husband Steve, Juanita, and scifantasy. After the banquet was over, I congratulated cadhla on her Pegasus Award wins, and then went back to the room for another nap. Came back down to listen to 19 Action News play....from a safe distance. Then went back upstairs for the night.

Sun 10/23 Packed up the car and paid my share of the hotel room. Had breakfast again in the hotel restaurant, this time by myself. Then left for home to pick up M. She played computer games all day. Took her home and had dinner at Burger King. It must have taken me 10 minutes to get my sandwich. Next time: Smashburger instead.