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New Laptop and Bellingham

Posted on May 22, 2006 | Filed Under Friends, Nerding Out, Vacation

Woo! On Thursday i finally got my new work laptop! Fortunately, it seems to be working just fine. Unfortunately, I didn’t get it working until just now.

On Thursday, I came down with what I think was a mild flu. At 2PM, I had to go home and spend 24 hours in that trance-like state that only dry-heaves and a fever seem to bring on :/. To pass the time, I got Windows XP going (it was pre-installed) and spent five-or-so hours repartitioning the hard-drive so i could install linux. Near the end of those five-or-so hours I realized that the Ubuntu 5.10 CD came with ntfsresize, which lets you resize those crafty NTFS volumes before resizing the partition. I shrunk the Windows XP partition from 55GB to just under 10GB, which should give me plenty of room for now. Windows continues to boot just fine from this new partition after a forced run of chkdsk (think ‘fsck’ for windows) to verify that everything’s OK. This is a big improvement over the last time that I attempted to do a dual-booting system with XP about 2 years ago; resizing NTFS volumes was basically impossible with FLOSS programs. To finish off, I tried installing Ubuntu 5.10, but various things didn’t seem to work, especially X.

On Friday I was on the upswing and decided to go to BJF after a bit of convincing by Luke. I left the laptop here and got a ride from Luke along with jen, Loranda (Luke’s sister), and Orlando (Loranda’s fiance). I wouldn’t have had any time or network connectivity anyway, it turns out. Overall, it was a great trip. Lots of juggling, some good shows (a renegade show on Friday night and the public show on Saturday), and lots of fun people to meet and hang out with. Sleeping in a rigged-together barn in the middle of a swamp is quite the experience ;). I think that maybe Luke cought whatever I had on Thursday, though; we had to leave a little early on Sunday because he wasn’t feeling well. Luke, if you’re reading this: I’m sorry if i got you sick, but you’re the one who dragged me with you :P. Either way, I’m really glad I went. I started doing 4-ball and won in a raffle these really neat micro-suede “G-Ballz” beanbag-style juggling balls — they’ve inspired me to try to learn a 5-ball pattern as soon as possible ;).

Got back home on Sunday at around 4 or 5-ish. Had some real food (after an “interesting” breakfast at the farm) and settled in. Made four CD coasters trying to burn the latest Ubuntu 6.x beta release, then decided that the whole stack of blanks I’ve got are total crap after realizing that i’ve never successfully burnt one with this new burner. I found a 12x CDRW disk and it burnt just fine. In the process, I found out that there’s a command-line cd burning program for windows (I forget the name just now, but it’s actually made by Microsoft). In the meantime, I found a really helpful page by someone who got Slackware installed on the Dell D620. Aparently, you have to actually “soft-patch” part of the video BIOS to get full 1440×900 resolution under X.

Anyway, got Ubuntu “Dapper Beta” installed, but X still didn’t work. Downloaded 300MB of updates from the APT repository while watching the first half Lord of the Rings: Return of the King with Laura. Followed the instructions on the afformentioned page, and voila: a Gnome desktop. Looks really nice with anti-aliased fonts and the widescreen ;). CPU auto-scaling works, but I haven’t tried an SMP kernel yet (it’s a dual-core CPU). Something keeps accessing the hard-drive all the time, which clicks every few seconds (maybe i need to mount everything ‘noatime’?). Sound works OK, but is crappy quality — speaking of which, i can’t find the speakers on this thing — and the PC speaker is so blaringly loud i’m sure the neighbours can hear it every time i try to use tab completion in bash :).

Anyway, i’m quite happy to have this thing up and working. This whole post is just an excuse to try out the keyboard. The verdict: it is fairly spacious compared to some i’ve tried. My wrists aren’t incredibly sore, but then again, that could be from not typing for 2 days. I’ll take the MS Natural Ergo 4000 over this any day.

Honey, while you’re up, can you get me a big bowl of WTF?

Posted on May 17, 2006 | Filed Under Day to day, Family, Rants

Hey, it’s Jeremy… the guy who never posts on here

So in general, my life is pretty good. If you read the title, don’t worry, i’ll get to that part in a bit. I’m feeling healthy — i’m enjoying weekly yoga classes and i should start biking again closer to June. I’ve had three extremely good days at work in a row — we’re releasing the tech-preview of the web-security product i’m working on and things are going exceedingly well. I also got a raise that i’m very happy with.

My juggling skills are improving since i’m practicing more often. I’m up to 30+ catches-without-dropping of 3-club juggling after just starting clubs two weeks ago. I’m heading to Bellingham with Luke and friends on Friday (I took Friday off). I’ve got some custom-made clubs on order that we’re going to pick up on the way down, which i’m very exited about. Even more exciting is that I’m going to be staying in a barn in the middle of a swamp with lots of other jugglers.

Unfortunately, I had a bit of a shock yesterday after coming home from a really good vanjug meeting and a nice visit afterwards with Luke and Jen. Hence the title.

First off, I found out that my Grandpa on my mom’s side has aparently had a stroke. I’m not sure how serious it is. I’m a bit estranged from that side of the family, so i feel nervous about phoning and trying to find out more. I wasn’t really close with my Grandpa, partially from competition with the 30-so cousins (i have 12 aunts/uncles on that side of the family), but mostly because my family was fairly insular. I’m more afraid that I’d end up having to talk to my mom…

Which brings us to the second shock. My youngest sister is only my half-sister. She found this out this week after finding out that my dad is O+ (the + means Rh+, the O is the blood group). My mother is also Rh+ (not sure of the blood group). My sister is Rh-. She found out when she had her daughter, who is Rh+ and needed blood transfusions after birth. It’s pretty much impossible to be Rh- with two Rh+ parents. Therefore, since we know for sure who the mother is, it’s extremely likely my dad is not my sister’s genetic father.

I’m upset that, once again, my mother has lied to my entire family. This is why i have no respect for my mother. Well, that and the stories of abuse from my childhood that i’ve no recollection of — I found out about a year ago from my Grandma on my dad’s side. To a certain extent, it’s not my mom’s fault; she’s Bi-polar with a few other mental illnesses. But, she’s hurt me and the rest of my family so much in the past 25 years it’s hard to forgive. I’m sorry if i sound bitter, but i think i’ve been through a lot in this respect.

This brings up some interesting thoughts. Namely who are my parents? What is my blood type? I don’t think i’ve even been told my blood type. I bear a very strong resemblance to my mother — hair, eyes, skin, build. I almost don’t want to know… If i’m not my dad’s genetic son, how would that change things? Would I even be able to figure out who my real father was if it turns out to be true? I hope i’m just being paranoid.

Either way, i am what i’ve become, no matter how that came about. I’m happy about where I am and who I’m with (my very significant other, my friends, and my co-workers). Who cares if i’m a literal bastard? It’s not like i’m nobility

Pedestrian rage

Posted on May 16, 2006 | Filed Under Rants

Since Ive started walking home from work Ive had a few close calls with cars. Today took the cake.

Last week as Im walking up the sidewalk a car pulls up to a stop sign to my left. She wants to turn right, so shes looking left for traffic, seeing none she decides it would be great to start going before looking forward or left. So Im edging slowly out, trying to get eye contact with her but she never LOOKED. She just drove forward with her head still turned looking for traffic. IDIOT. Anyway so I jumped out the way and she looked all confused.

Today Im waiting at a crosswalk. The light turns orange and of course a car in each three lanes decides to come through the intersection and stop in the crosswalk. I love that. Anyway, the light turns red, I get a walk signal. First car gives me eye contact and I walk past him. The second car is looking out her left window daydreaming and starts rolling forward. Without looking for pedestrians IN THE CROSSWALK she is stopped in. She rolls into me and I slap the hood of her car really hard with my hand and give her a huge scowl…I really wanted to yell out WTF! but I didnt. Anyway, the third car was watching me the whole time and just shook his head at the second car.

Am i risking my life to enjoy the sun and get exercise?

~L

Moving day

Posted on May 12, 2006 | Filed Under The Apartment

Yay! Angry neighbor man is moving out! Hallejuhah (or however you spell it!)

No more angry yelling! No more blaring of Cher’s greatest hits! One less small dog living near us!

Ahhh silence…until the other yippy dog starts barking at least.

~L

She’s gone!

Posted on May 9, 2006 | Filed Under Day to day, Rants, Drama

If you start a new job and you know that you live really far away from the office, for example you live in White Rock and your new job is in Downtown, should you really be surprised that it is a long commute on a bus?

She quit today and left right away.

And so, Im back at the phone. Sigh.

But, my raise is still happening. So now Im just answering the phones for more money. It still sucks monkey butt though.

~L

Trapped!

Posted on May 8, 2006 | Filed Under Dreams

Last night in my dream I was in my old neighborhood in Victoria at a big scary house. I was trapped there, like a slave or something. There were all these people there who were under evil mind control or something. It was nightime and I was going to escape. I climbed up this tall shelving unit to reach the window. I pushed the window open and was about to slide out, when someone grabbed my feet. It was a friend of mine who was EVIL and he had hold of my legs. I started punching him in the head as hard as I could, and i remember the feeling of my knuckles breaking as I punched him and the sound it made. Ewwww! It was so gross and I woke up feeling shaken, and very very very guilty for dreaming of punching a friend of mine in the face! Sorry!

What the @#*%?

~L

New job

Posted on May 8, 2006 | Filed Under Day to day

I decided to go with the more senior adminstrator role, doing settlements for our online system and assisting the traders. I dont think I really want to be a trader at this time, and maybe never. So…Yay!

The new girl to replace me started today and its going well. I should be ready to learn my new job by later this week although guess Im just a floater until they get a new computer for me.

I was a little surprised that my manager had my new salary contract ready for me to sign today, so that was a nice surprise! Yay for raises.

And I got to walk home in the sun! With just my t-shirt. I had to carry my sweater and coat! Yay for summer.

~L

moving up…

Posted on May 4, 2006 | Filed Under Drama

Ive got one night to figure out which of the two positions open that I want to move into. Ive pretty much been offered either one, with a raise. So…What to do? Do I become a higher up administrator and pioneer the position of doing settlements for the brokers or…do I become a broker? Hmm. Im not good at making quick big decisions! ahh.

Unfortunately the role of VP was not offered

 

~L 

shake up

Posted on May 3, 2006 | Filed Under Randomness

So…three people put in their resignation at my work today. One of them is an agent in Victoria but two are at our office. With my replacement starting on Monday, I guess there is a couple spaces for me to move to…should be interesting

~L

Busy weekend

Posted on May 1, 2006 | Filed Under Day to day, Family, Friends

Three days away and it felt like a week. Thursday night I raced from work to home to get the one thing I forgot to pack: my mom’s bday present…Grabbed it and ran back to the bus depot and made it to the bus in time for the 7pm ferry. The ferry arrived half an hour late so I was late arriving in Victoria, but hurried to Syn to meet Kristin and Jacqueline. While I saw Kristin at Easter two weeks ago for a couple hours it has been months since Ive seen Jacqueline, so it was really nice to spend time with them and drink some yummy martinis and to catch up on what’s been going on. Jacqueline and I made it to the last bus, leaving Fort and Douglas at 11:50pm! so early! and made it to her new apartment. I spent the night on her couch, and her kitty George spent the night running around and being hyper! Apparently he’s usually very shy, so I feel honored that he was curious and let me pet him and kept me awake
Friday morning Jac was very nice to drive me to my friend Jen’s where Jen gave me a haircut and we got to have a good visit. I went with Jen to take her son Clay to daycare and then we went to Hillside Mall where I killed time browsing and she went to the doctor. On our way back to her house on the bus, Jen realized that she had a car I could have driven us around in! heh. She’s so used to not being able to drive it (with only her L) that she forgot I could! very funny…

After a little mix up of exactly where to meet, my friend Josh finally picked me up and we went to his place for a good visit, mostly involving us sitting around and listening to records, it was fun. Yet another friend I have barely talked to or spent any time with lately…so it was really nice to spend some time with so many friends in one visit.
I met my parents and brother at the Keg for dinner that night and we had a great time. Although I was so tired from a busy day that I pretty much just went straight to bed when we finally got home.

Saturday morning I slept in a bit and then got up to take my moms car to go pick up Jeremy from the ferry and my family headed up to Duncan. We met them up there eventually after taking a little detour to check out the Mill Bay ferry schedule. We arrived at my mom’s cousin’s and great aunt’s place and commenced the big birthday bash/ family reunion. It was fun to see all the people that I usually only see every couple years or even more. Pretty funny to see my little third cousins all grown up wearing makeup and listening to their ipods…I used to babysit them when they were babies! eek Im old

I changed beds/couches three times that night trying to get away from various snoring, but I guess thats bound to happen in a house with lots of people visiting. Needless to say, it was not a restful sleep…I think I got to sleep around 4am or so…
We were able to catch the 1025am Mill Bay ferry and we drove from Brentwood to make it for the noon ferry, but with the horrible traffic in Van we didnt get to the bus depot until after 3pm. That was a long day of travelling…it was so nice to crawl into my own bed for a nap, after three nights of couch/uncomfortable bed sleeping…

It was a tiring couple days but Im very happy to have been able to see friends that I miss dearly and to spend some quality family time too. Im very happy that next weekend is looking to be fun and not too stressful, although this week at work will be pretty crazy. We are shortstaffed and very busy, but the plus is that I get to work an earlier shift to help out in the mornings, so I should be off work every day by 4 or 430 so thats great!

~L