Daily Doings at the Line of Death Bar & Grill

While most of my filker friends were up in Toronto for FKO, I spent the weekend at Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, OH (next to Kings Island) with my friends from the USS Bismarck. It was a weekend to just unwind and have some fun. I intentionally left the laptop at home so it would be more of a mini-vacation for me. On Sunday I brought M to the the festivities, and she had a ball at the waterpark.

I've been trying to load more music on my Creative Labs MuVo V100 player that I purchased last year. I plugged it in to a powered USB port and Windows didn't recognize it. Funny. It used to, months ago. Maybe something I installed since then is causing it to fail. So I rebooted with Ubuntu, plugged in the drive, and it recognized it as a 2 Gb media drive. I was able to transfer music files to it rather easily -- cut from an MP3 CD and paste it to the MuVo drive.

This evening, I went to Millennicon just to hang out with my friends from the USS Bismarck. We had dinner together at the adjoining Max & Erma's. I spent some time at the room party hosted by Friends of the Time Lord. I even did some karaoke late at night since there was no filk to be found.

I got to see and chat with folks I haven't seen in a long time -- friends from Starward Bound, the USS Camelot, and other area fen. That felt good. Since I didn't bother with most of the programming, I treated it like a relaxacon.

( Would I go back next year? I'd like to see two things happen first. )

My current desktop computer is 9 years old this month. While it still does most of the things I want it to do, there are some things I want to do but can't because the computer is too slow. Tasks like video editing need more memory, more hard drive space, and more CPU speed than what I currently have to offer (the specs: 384 Mb memory, 40 Gb hard drive space, and a 600 Mhz CPU).
For my next computer, I'm tempted to get a refurbished model. The first reason is that it's cheaper than buying a new PC. The second reason is that most refurbs come with Windows XP or XP Pro, which is what I'd prefer over Vista. Third, I can get just the CPU box. I can still use my old monitor, keyboard, and mouse -- all I need is a KVM switch -- so I don't need to buy these items.

One drawback is that if get either an HP or Dell laptop, I'm stuck with a floppy drive because the outer case is specifically built to accommodate floppy drives. I can't replace it with an N-in-1 card reader. Nor would I be able to add a second CD/DVD drive if I wanted to, since there's no room in the front. That's why I prefer modular cases.

The other alternative is for me to buy a bare-bones system and build it myself from parts I have laying around.

Comments?

I spent the last two Saturdays gathering all -- okay, most -- of the records I would need to complete my taxes. Once again, I used TurboTax. I think this is the 10th year that I used the product. I'll know for certain when I go back through my old software CDs. (I guess I have a rather attractive collection of coasters at this point.)

I wasn't good with the recordkeeping for charitable donations and medical expenses. I don't think I had enough medical expenses to get above the 7.5% threshold, which is what I would have needed in order to claim them as a deduction.

The good news: I'm getting money back from both the Fed and the state(s). The bad news: It's all going directly to overdue child and spousal support. When I was unemployed last year, the state took out money for child support, but it didn't completely cover what I owed. Thus I built up some arrearage that I'm working on paying off.

The gripes I have with TurboTax this year: 1) The Deluxe version, which includes one free state product, retails for $60. That's quite a jump from last year. But it included a free federal e-filing. 2) Additional states -- and I needed one this year -- are $40. They don't mention that up front. 3) State e-filings are $20 apiece. Again, they don't mention that up front. 4) They still don't have a version to run under Linux, so I'm stuck or forced to use Windows (or a Mac) to use this software. Maybe if I figure out how to use Wine, I'd be set. Other than that, I still like the product, and am likely to use it again next year.

So, it's been nearly 2 years since The Ex and I split up. I'm in no hurry to get back into a relationship. But there are a few women in my life that I wouldn't mind dating. And I'm not quite sure how I should approach them with the topic. If I invited them out to dinner, I think they'd accept.

It's not like high school or college anymore, where I was just too strange for the young women around me.

Any advice?

...over the "old standard" wooden pencils. First of all, wooden pencils require a pencil sharpener. Second, if the lead isn't properly centered within the pencil, it makes it easier to break the point off to the side, which often happened to me.

When did I first discover mechanical pencils? I think I was 7, going through my dad's desk drawer. I found a number of pens and pencils, including mechanical pencils. It wasn't until junior high when I really got into mechanical pencils. My first was a gray Scripto with .046" (1.1mm) lead that we sold at the school bookstore. I think I used it for the mechanical drawing unit of industrial arts class. I liked how clean the lines were, and how it wrote. I kept using Scriptos until college, when I discovered real mechanical drafting pencils like the Pentel Graphlet. I tried the 0.5mm lead (and pencil), but I'm a heavy-handed writer, so I kept breaking the lead. I tried the 0.7mm lead and loved it because I didn't break the lead when I wrote. I also tried and loved the 0.9mm lead.

Over the years, I've come across mechanical pencils that I adored -- the one from Skilcraft with the spring-loaded lead (I could press down on the top and the lead would give a little), the Uniball pencil which matched their Roller Micro pens, and the Sanford Logo II (which had similar action to the Skilcraft pencil). Right now my pencil of choice is the Pentel Sharp, either in 0.7mm or 0.9mm varieties, mostly because it's currently available, and therefore replaceable should I lose one. The only way I think I could get a Skilcraft pencil is through the federal government, since they were a preferred vendor to them.

As for lead strength, I use HB strength since it's the most commonly available. It's comprarable to a #2 pencil.

Do you have any favorite pencils?

I'm not sure what frequency they're testing on, but it's apparently beyond my range. Or it's beyond the range of my headphones.

Created by Train Horns

A few weeks ago, I cleaned the downstairs bathroom. Today, I started cleaning the upstairs bathroom, splitting out the stuff into "Likely to use", "Not likely to use" and "R's Stuff" piles (as I did with the downstairs bathroom). R's stuff is going back to R. The stuff I'm likely to use I'll keep. The stuff I'm not likely to use will get sorted out again, into "Keep" and "Don't Keep" piles.

My question is: What can I do with the stuff I'm not likely to use? I don't want to throw them out; that would be wasteful. Would a local homeless shelter be willing to take them, even though some of the bottles have been opened? Are there any other places that would take these personal care items?

This exercise has shown me how much I packrat and overbuy and hoard. I think I have enough toiletries to outfit a small army, or to last me af few years.

Shout-outs: Happy birthday quadrivium and bastardcat!

While watching the Daytona 500 on Sunday, I saw something during one of the commercial breaks that just blew me away: a new trailer for the upcoming Watchmen movie. It used the "Pruit Igoe" music from one of my other all-time favorite movies, Koyaanisqatsi. And it fits!

I am so looking forward to seeing this movie.

Shout-outs: Happy birthday gleepy! Long time no post! (hint hint)