Category: Personal

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Personal

Moving Day

Most of the boxes are packed and moved.  The book cases and closets are empty.  Little by little moving day is coming.  After almost seven years in my apartment, it is almost time to leave.

Next Thursday I become a Philadelphia resident.  It has been a great run living in central NJ, with so much going on in the area.   But it’s time for a change, time to learn something new.  So my belongings will move in with my fiancee, with me to follow soon thereafter.

Now all we have to do is sort out who gets which spaces and who gets to hang what on the walls.

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Personal Uncategorized

17 Weeks

CB and I were working some wedding-related topics this weekend when she brought up that the wedding was only four months away.  Four months! Bah! Plenty of time.

Then she said 16 weeks (it’s actually 17), and the panic set in.

It’s amazing how quickly time flies.

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Personal

Art Personality Quiz

I followed up B-Dawg by taking the Art Personality quiz.  My result seemed relatively accurate.

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Personal

Something’s Just Not Right

I spent three days trying to install Windows XP Professional through Service Pack 3 on an old Dell Dimension 4400 that I’ve had lying around the house that I want to pass on to a friend. It’s taken 5 attempts, and I’m still not sure it’s really there.

Attempt 1: Install Windows XP, then Windows XP Service Pack 2. Notice funky screen behavior and warning messages about recovering from a registry backup after reboot. System crashes; rebuild.

Attempt 2: Install Windows XP, the Windows XP Service Pack 2. Notice funky screen behavior and warning messages about recovering from a registry backup after reboot. Press ahead and install Windows XP SP 3. System crashes spectacularly with lsass.exe error messages and black screens. Rebooting does nothing.

Attempt 3: Install Windows XP, then try to go directly to Windows XP SP 3. System denies attempt. Pick up with installing XP SP 2 as seen in attempt 2.

Attempt 4: See attempts 2 & 3.

Attempt 5: Install Windows XP, then install Windows XP Service Pack 1. Aha! System stable. Install Windows XP SP 3. Get lsass.exe error messages and black screen of death. Reboot. System starts up, then crashes. Reboot. System starts up, gives 4 bit color and is missing device drivers. Try to re-install missing device drivers; fails. Reboot. System comes up cleanly. Reboot to see if this is fluke. System comes up cleanly. Still skeptical; reboot again. System comes up cleanly. Check My Computer’s System Properties to see OS version. Windows XP Service Pack 3. Still skeptical, reboot again. Aha! “WIndows – Registry Recovery”. “ONe of the files containing the system’s Registry data had to be recovered by use of a log or alternate copy. The recovery was successful.” Reboot again. System comes up cleanly.

I know it’s Windows XP, but honestly, does this make any sense at all? I didn’t realize we actually had “self-repairing” computer operating systems back in 2002.

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Personal

There are a lot of things…

There are a lot of things I could write about right now. Work, personal life, news, the Olympics, travel plans I’d like to make. But I’m too tired right now, so I’m going to get back to working on other things.

P.S. The server my website is on crashed, and crashed hard sometime Sunday and wasn’t restored until early this morning. Many thanks to the hardworking group at WebIntellects for all their hard work in bringing the site back online.

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Personal

The Olypmics

Okay, I’ll admit it. Some of the events barely qualify as “sports” (badmiton, I’m looking at you). The parade of nations can be hokey, and the quality of coverage is usually poor (queue 3 minutes of actual event footage with 15 minute profiler of teenager from Utah who spent whole life leading up to this moment), but I’m a sucker for the Olypmics. The whole affair usually fascinates me, reminding me in another way that we really do live in a highly interconnected way. The spectacle is often entertaining, and I’ll lament the fact that I’m not able to go this year like I’ve always wanted to.

Of course, I’ve read the background articles, too. On protest restrictions in China. Or air quality. And the pyrotechnics.

Even so, I can assure you my TiVo will be recording away over the next two weeks.

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Personal

Change

This PC to Mac change is big. It’s not necessarily good or bad yet, just big. I will say, though, the dual monitor setup is nice. But the jury’s really out until I get MS Office and a few other programs up and running. Only then will I really be able to judge.

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Personal

The Macbook is in the Building

Ok, I’m officially excited. The new Macbook is downstairs at the mailroom. I’ve made up a list of initial software to get installed to get it up and running.

  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Reader
  • BitTorrent
  • Bloglines Notifier
  • FileZilla
  • FireFox
  • Gmail Notifier
  • Intego VirusBarrier X5
  • JBuilder
  • Mac MP3 Gain
  • MS Office 2008
  • OpenOffice
  • Perian
  • SlingPlayer
  • Stuffit Expander
  • TiVo Desktop

Anything else I should add?

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Personal

Washed Out

Our attempts to see the pirates today ended in a wash out after strong thunderstorms rolled through the area. Way to go nature.

Though the group running the show was good enough to give us complimentary passes to come back another day this season.

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Personal

Off to see the Pirates

Dave, Nicole, Sonia, Erica and I are off to see the Pirates in the morning. Pictures will, of course, follow.