Monday, April 23, 2007

Greatest invention ever...

So I have spoken in the past about how wonderful the Tivo personal DVR is. I have extolled its greatness for recording shows that we watch on a regular basis. I have used the Tivo to go back and check out an interesting commercial, paused it to let the dog out, and really use the thing to replay games I am watching, for highlights. Tivo is greatness.

Today, it got better. I ordered a upgraded hard drive for our main unit. We would run out of space after 2 weeks of sitcoms and hour long dramas, and I quadrupled the space this morning. It actually was not very difficult, and I had it finished in about 20 minutes, but I also work on computer hardware for a living

So tonight, I will be watching the Stars. I will then transfer Heros from the bedroom to watch in here. I wont be deleting anything any time soon either.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Fuuuuuudge

So Thursday I had yet another procedure on my back. The pain, well it was quite present. My buddy Greg drove me to the doctor and then back home, stopping on the way for some food and beer. We had been hanging out on the patio for most of the evening, drinking and generally catching up. We each had our laptops out, being drunk geeks for the most part. My macbook pro, 7 months old, was starting to run low on juice, so I figured I would take it into the kitchen right off the patio, and plug it in.

Foggy from the beer, I set it on the island, plug it in and start to walk away. As I turned around, hearing a faint "ssssssssssss" I saw what can only be described as a walking laptop. You see, under the mac, the mail from that afternoon was sitting piled up. One of those shiney magazine like circulars was sitting under the mac, and was providing just enough to allow the thing to slide.

Of course having had said back procedure a few hours before, I could not leap for it. I could not dive towards the ground, I could only yell "shit" as it bashed into the floor. There was a sickening thud, and as I gingerly reached to pick it up, said a small prayer to the computer gods. I opened the screen saw no cracks (usually at least 500 to fix) and sighed in relief. I mean it was still running.


That is where the reality set in. One of the worst things you can do is drop a hard drive, only thing worse, have it be running. All of the Ipods that fail? Usually dropped or beaten to death because someone runs with it. So for the past 4 days I have been trying to find a way to recover my stuff.


Yes I had a back up. However, when I was working quickly to back up again overnight right after the fall, I hastily deleted my only good backup to make room for the new one.

Uh huh, yeah, your local computer guy, that does this for a living, screwed himself pretty good.

Its just stuff, and most of it can be replaced. I am going to attempt to recover the drive bit by bit, but I dont have much hope. So if you see me sitting in a corner, cursing hardwood floors and the effect on Macintosh computers, well you know I was not successful.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Easter Eggs

An Easter scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Shadoe Stevens.



We are recovering from a late Saturday night. We met several of the Amigos for a night at Studio Movie Grill in Arlington. We saw a 10:30 showing of Grindhouse, the new twin feature from movie geniuses Rodriguez and Tarintino. I am going to be the first to tell you, if you liked “Snakes on a Plane” even a little bit, you will love this movie. If you love 70’s bad cinema, you will love this movie. If laughing at the almost absurd concepts of horror schlock, zombie flicks, and cheerleader lesbian prison movies, entertains you, you will love this movie.


We have had digital cable for a few months now. My favorite things to watch? Discovery Health. Especially when I see something that makes me say “Eww what the Fu@k!!!!” Of course I am also digging on all of the home improvement-let me clean your house you dirty slobs-and look what I made out of these egg shells- type of stuff.


The back saga continues. The bulging, probably herniated disc in my lower back is still letting everyone know that it will not calm down, especially me. I have been living on pain killers and muscle relaxers for so long now, it’s a way of life. Im sure your saying, “well Ninjamunkey, how did you make it through a 3 hour movie?” That is easy, pain killer before, and a bucket of 5 domestics during.


This is my favorite time of year. The new grass is growing in over the dirt I dumped in the front yard to level out, so it looks less like a grave, and more like a actual yard. The flowers are blooming, baseball is on the TV pretty much 18 hours a day, and in Texas, it was 87 degrees last weekend, and 40 today. Oh yeah, and it snowed yesterday. HUH? It was 38 degrees last night at game time for the second game of the season. Global Warming is doing a number on us.


Speaking of baseball, this year there are many stories. It’s the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking into the majors. I had a hard time believing that the actual year was 1947, as there were still 20 years left in the segregation of the South. Hell the small town I grew up in is still divided ethnically by blacks on one side of the tracks and whites on the other in 2007.

Another story this year is Bonds and his homerun chase. Of course when he started playing, his head was human sized, and now with the help of steroids, he looks like a Rio De Janeiro float. When he passes Hank Aaron this year, will anyone notice? Will he be celebrated, or will it be an asterisk notated record for everyone else like it will be for me. I honestly hope he has some sort of freak career ending injury this year, like he is running across the outfield after warm ups, and a vindictive groundhog trips him, breaking his leg. Of course I am kinda cruel like that.