Prosthetically Hip

My 2008 resolution to read a bunch of books was a miserable, fiery failure. To my credit, I did destroy my knee (the drugs did not allow me to read), buy a house, get a dog, work _alot_, play kickball, and buy a Wii. I did really enjoy the books I managed to read, I just didn’t have the time - which was the whole point of the exercise, really.

I think in 2009, I’ll work on something else: exercise (i.e. doing more), and drinking less (i.e. far less shots). We got the Fit for the Wii, and I really do enjoy it - I’ve just fallen off the wagon. Monday will see me up 30 minutes earlier to hop back on. On the general fitness front, I’m doing so-so. I ran probably 4 miles last night at the VooDoo Hash, so chalk one up for the exercise. Afterward, I added two shots of whiskey to the copious amounts of beer, so take a point away.

On the upside of the whiskey addition, I was apparently quite amusing when I got home. There was dog walking, bed hogging, passing out on the floor with the dog, and eventual vomiting. Go me.

*Alternate title: </2008><2009>

I ran across this quote this morning, and thought I’d share.

I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.

Abraham Lincoln
Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois
September 18, 1858

I wonder what our first presidents would say about our president-elect. Much has changed in the past 150 years, and if it were possible it would be interesting to hear what they’d say then and compare it to what their views would be today.

Bea’s Mom couldn’t have known the full extent of what she was doing when she bought a Wii. Classic case of good intentions gone awry.

I spent a good part of the evening tonight doing two things: reading Neil Stephenson’s Anathem while compiling software packages in the background, and playing the following on the Wii: Dr. Mario, Mario Kart, and Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels.

Holy Crap. Part of my right arm is sore from the Duels, but damn is it fun - it’s your traditional Mortal Kombat / Street Fighter style, but in a less 2d environment, and you lightsaber movements are controlled by your wiimote. The wiimote even makes the lightsaber sounds we nerds (and regular people, too) love. And I have to hand it to Nintendo, this is the funniest commercial I’ve seen in a while.

Mario Kart is terribly fun too - and when Bea’s 3 year old sister comes over, she can even play it (about as well as one would expect, but hey - she’s 3).

As for Dr. Mario, need I say more! Wii friends, buy it! it’s 8 damn dollars! Drop me a line, we’ll play online!

If you have a Wii and want my console code, drop me a comment here, and I’ll send it to the email you enter in the appropriate comment field. Jonah, I’m lookin’ at you!

Last night was another fun campaign of Left 4 Dead with M.Roman (Demotros), W.Curry (Squillis), and Curry’s brother (BaczandeR). We ran through the Death Toll campaign in just under and hour and a half, and luckily everyone had a voice setup going, so we could talk throughout. This morning I even went so far as to create a group for those of us who play together, and named it Left 4 Yo Moms. Helllllooooooo fifth grade!

Anyways, the kicker of last night’s game was a bit of ‘life imitating art’ at the very very end of the campaign. Three of us are on the rescue boat, ready to head out to sea and safety and Roman was making his way, fighting through the horde of zombies. We are of course, laying down cover fire to make it easier for him - this is a team effort, right?

Well, tell that to Curry - he apparently dealt Roman a crippling blow by shooting him ( at that point, you’re firing wildly, it happens ). Usually, you’d just take some damage, but when your health is low enough, you’ll end up lying on the ground, incapacitated but still able to shoot. I’m sure we would have gone back to get him, had we the chance - the boat just took off.

The funny part is that Rooster Teeth - the madmen behind Red vs. Blue - apparently had foreseen this outcome, and gave us this:

I got a call (well, a text, really) this morning, prompting me to hurriedly run out of my house and head to the office. My linux server, the workhorse, the reliable one, was apparently offline. Suck.

I get there, and while it is powered up, it is absolutely unresponsive. Might as well had been off. So, I powercycle it, and up it boots. Unfortunately on the front of the case is a orange blinky light. As it turns out, one of the two Ghostbusters-esque power supplies (PSU) (hooray, redundancy!) is dead. Boo, hiss.

Because there are two PSUs in the rig, it just pulls all the power from the other, good, PSU. That’s all fine and dandy, unless there is a power hiccup.

“But wait!”, I hear you cry, “What about UPSes? Don’t you have battery backups?” Very good point, young reader. I indeed do have UPSes. Two APC Smart UPS 1000s, to be exact. And to be extra redundant, one PSU from each server is connected to each battery, instead of each server getting its own dedicated battery. This way, if a UPS fails during an outage, one battery can still provide power to both servers.

Back to the power hiccup. Apparently, one of the UPSes died recently. Not a biggie, right? That’s why I mixed the power sources. Normally, it would not be a big deal, unless THE REMAINING GOOD PSU IS PLUGGED INTO THE BAD UPS!

Yeah. So, in the interest of visual simplicity, the setup is below:
GREEN = Power, battery backup.
ORANGE = Power, no battery backup.
RED = Dead

IT”S FUCKING SNOWING IN NOLA!

This was a phrase I uttered numerous times tonight, usually after a big fat guy vomited all over me. This would, of course, get him shot.

I spent some quality time as Orangelo™ ( as Louis, the black guy ) with Squillis™ ( as Zoey, the chick ) and PCounts™ ( as Bill, the old guy ) playing Left 4 Dead, a new zombie-apocalypse first person shooter.

Let me just say, it was fun as Hell. Before playing, my only knowledge about this game was based on this video - needless to say, I was instantly sold. Paul and I went through most of the No Mercy campaign and Squillis met us up partway through. Unfortunately, Paul disappeared at the start of the final level (presumably due to interwebs issues), leaving Squillis and I to finish the campaign.

The game, while playable in single player mode, is so much more fun in co-op. Computer players will fill in the role of the missing ’survivors’ (in our case tonight, Francis) if needed. Unfortunately, neither of my friends had a working microphone setup, and mine was at best hacked together. Still, they could hear me, and react accordingly (if desired).

Hopefully next game, all will be good. Will be nice to hear the rest of the team.

The problem, I believe, resides with OSX. L4D is a Steam/Valve product. While it is generally awesome, it does not have native OSX/Linux clients. I was playing on my pc, Paul was on a Mac (using BootCamp), and I don’t know about Squillis’ setup. I do know that I’ve been trying to get it to work properly with my MacBook via Codeweavers Crossover Games, and while the main menu screen runs flawlessly, the rendering of the actual game play is downright horrendous.

I guess it is all for the best though. It would be nice to go over to someones apartment and play in the same room though. I’ll keep plugging away at it as I get time.

Well, things are a bit up and maybe down today, despite my mild hangover.

For the definite up, my pay cut will be $5k, not $10k. Definitely makes me feel a bit better. I was feeling better about the $10k the other day, as new work with new clients was developing. I am very excited about the project, and this is where we get to the maybe down bit.

Depending on how some things play out, the gig may be canceled. I hope it works out, as I think it would be a fun project, and would pay for my new furnace/condenser and the Home Depot debt.

Cross you fingers for me, internets.

Oh, and WHO DAT!

This past Saturday found myself and ~240 other people running, biking, and canoeing all through our great city. Well, not all through - the closest we got to uptown was Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar, but close enough.

It was the final of a 7 race series called “Racing to N’Awlins”, put on by Gulf Coast Adventure Racing . Adventure racing is simiar to a triathlon, except fun. We bike (mountain only), run, and canoe. It isn’t bike 25 miles, then run 8, then paddle 5. It’s mixed up. Do a little running, then biking, then a challenge to find the next checkpoint, then bike to the canoe, then run, etc. etc. etc. I guess I’d have to say that hashing is to a marathon as adventure racing is to a triathlon.

I did it with my friends Scott and Meghan/Orleans Perish/Sazerac Attack last year and had an absolute blast. We mixed it up this year. Team Broken Racket had 3 coed teams of 3 this year, and we basically all rode/paddled/ran as one team. While it did slow us down as a whole, it was still fun. Since we had three teams, and I more or less ‘captained’ (ie registered/prepaid for the three of us), I got to name our ’subteam’.

What did I come up with? Broken Racket’s Galactic Monkey Squadron. Yeaahhhhh…

Anyways, here are all nine of us, doing the ‘ant walk’ for a challenge outside of the Audubon Insectarium on Canal:

More photos available here.

Bea and I sat down and did rough math on monthly income/expenses. We hadn’t done this yet, and considering that my pay cut takes effect in January, it was time.

‘09 will be interesting. And that’s not just for us - it seems to be a general consensus amongst those I talk to it about. Like the not-so-long-ago continually rising gas prices, it think it will actually be a good thing.

“Good thing you ass? You know how much money it takes to fill up my car and how often and blah blah blah?” I hear you say. Yes, I think events/times like these are good. It forces a re-evaluation that you usually only talk about doing. I saw and heard of more people riding their bikes, carpooling, or *gasp* using public transportation during that gas price increase than I had in a while. People actually planning out and condensing multiple trips into one. Not only that, there’s been a big push for more fuel-efficient and green technology.

Let’s face it kids, the world could use more regular (and higher) doses of personal responsibility, forethought, and actual analytical/critical thinking.

This is still unfortunate for us though, as there is still work needing to be done on the house, and furniture/molding/insulation/etc. to be bought. And it all needs to be paid for somehow. The warchest for the Alocasian Holocaust™ runs low right now. The upside is that it costs nothing to keep the yard covered with visqueen. Priorities, priorities.

Well, I guess this is the perfect time to say ‘back to work’, so adios.