My love affair with Ubuntu

I don't know why, I always go back to Debian after a few months with Ubuntu - But Debian Testing was getting on my nerves and I don't have time to help make it better.

I installed Ubuntu - Gutsy Gibbon finally. It works fine on my laptop. I really appreciate the new network manager, new easy breezy graphics composite support and the just plain works attitude.

Why do I even bother going back and forth?

Also.. kazehakase is the bomb.

Pound Puppy Profile: Momma Shila

It's that time of the year, time to get a new dog. Sam the dog needs a buddy and Skyefoil started looking at the online pet finder classifieds to find a nice dog in need of a quick rescue.

We had a few dogs lined up in our minds and waited a few days to call about them. Once we called about them we found out they were already gobbled up by other eager doggie do-gooders. Back online we went and Skyefoil ended up finding Shila in a home out in Wasilla, AK. We drove out the next day to see what Shila was all about.

She was shy, both of us had to get on the floor once we got into the house before Shila was all that comfortable around us. She eventually warmed up to us a little bit and we decided Sam better give her the ol' white glove routine and see if she is up to snuff. We brought Sam up to the house where Shila was waiting behind the chain link fence. She noticed Sam and started barking and wagging and growling and jumping and sniffing all at the same time. Sam was calm and just wanted to sniff everything and pee here and there. Thankfully the owners have very large english mastiff dog who probably pees a gallon at a time, so having Sam pee all over the place was no big deal.

Shila followed Sam around for a bit and eventually figured she liked him enough to wanna play a little. Sam didn't mind but he was more focused on sniffing the yard out. We went inside and sat down with both dogs and the foster family for a while. It was time they decided if we were good enough for this poor abused dog. Skyefoil and I joked around with their kids and they played with the dogs a bit, eventually they decided we should take Shila for a sleepover and see how that turns out.

Shila shook the entire ride home. She wasn't calm when we got her into the car - and she definitely wasn't calm until she was home with us and allowed to run all her shivers off in the front yard. Her and Sam ran a bit together. It was very sweet.

Inside, she met the cats. Mia's initial reaction was "For now I want to sniff you, and that is all". Everybody else hissed. Shila didn't care about the hissing and was more concerned with her new people. We all settled down, then Mia cat decided to poof up into a little furball and hiss at Shila as she was meandering by. OH NO, A MONSTER! *trumpets sounding* Sam leaps off the couch and chases away the vile beast. Shila must have appreciated it because she was quite effectionate to Sam afterwards. She didn't seem to mind having a dog growl and lunge at her nearly as much as when a human tiptoes toward her.

She paced a lot when we were trying to sleep. Skyefoil discovered she was a little afraid of the dark, and turned on a night light. She calmed down and snuggled in the bed for a bit before boarding the Snoozeville Express.

The next day was fun, she was very chipper and vocal with us about how much she wanted to play, and go on a walk. The walk was fun, except she isn't to be trusted off-leash for a while. Sam and her instantly darted into the forested area surrounding the park we were at and it took a while to recover her.

She is a lovely dog, I will blog more about her very soon

For now - It's movie time.

Moosing About

You see these guys everywhere in Alaska, except of course isolated islands and where only the mountain sheep go. But this Moose was too curious around too many curious people with too many cameras. Hence, we has moose pics. I figured he was going to hop a train to Fairbanks. More photographic evidence from Coworker Jens Blog suggests otherwise.

ICRC Moose

'Susceptible Me' or 'To be a Veggie Man'

I have to admit, the recent venture between Sophie Monk and PETA made me think about going vegetarian for more than a minute. In fact its been a few days now and I'm still kinda thinking about it - that must mean something. I love veggies and fruits and grains and all things non-meat. I also really love the taste of meat, but I have never had anything good to say about where the meat was supplied from.

By going this way I don't wanna get wrapped up into meat logistics, the global empire of the Meaty McMeaterson Inc or the cruelty to animals issue. They are all important and shouldn't be ignored. I just don't think I'm going to speak out on there behalf for fear of finding a new project to be mad about.

All I want is to be a bit trimmer, eat good food, and live longer. Maybe I could try vegetarianism out (after Thanksgiving, I'm no tofu turkey fan). Hmm, maybe I could just limit my meat exposure or I could start raising my own game hens then offing them as a sacrifice to my belly. I dunno...

Why do we eat meat?

Why don't people harvest their own meat?

Is it wrong to eat animals, no matter if they show signs of sentient logic or not?

I know lots of veggie heads that have turned back to meat, is it just a change in politics?

Guh...

It's hard to not have a stance on any of the other commonly debated issues surrounding this topic. My views start with this: I don't like the way animals are processed, I don't like thinking about where meat comes from, I don't like wasting meat. Unfortunately I love steak, I like tacos, and I love cooking and that includes just about any ingredient I can get my hands on.

Dear Blog,

It's been a while. I know.. I KNOW!.. I've just been busy and off in la la land thinking about things only crazy people and geniuses want to think about. So far its more crazy then genius.

I'm sorting out my life day by day, joined the Gym (Pete's City Gym) and am still carpooling with the lil' lady. She's hip to Yoga, I'm hip to having somewhere nice and happy at home to stretch in.. Neither of us are hip to creating that area out of the mess we have at home. I had a dream we cleaned, it was awesome. Then I woke up, put my thoughts back where they were the night before and continued on being crazy.

I love thinking about things, coming up with ideas and implementing them. I do it all the time - little projects here and there that never go anywhere. The unseen advantage to this haphazard get-r-done lifestyle is I walk away from every half complete project with a bundle of new knowledge. Its been easier to theorize on things lately. Probably because the missus is kinda letting me zone out every so often and do whatever I need to get done in my head.

Sigh, I'm not quite sure why I'm still at the job I'm at now.. I have other options.. I'm just a pussy now that I have health insurance and a 401k. I should just do what I need and move to a position that really puts me to the test in a realm I'm very comfortable in.

That said, I'm finally learning Vim.. I dunno why.. I've always wanted to but never had the inspiration to do so until recently. It's kinda silly that I don't actually know what the inspiration is other than I just wanna know it now. We'll see how long this lasts.

Take care, Blog. Who knows when I'll be back to scribble on you.

xoxo

Things I never thought about doing until today.

Today I had the challenge of pushing 150 feet of polypro (plastic like lightweight high-tensile pulling line) through 150 feet of 1 1/2" diameter electrical conduit. 200 foot fish tape would easily do the job, but lets take a crack at SCIENCE. I procured the following:

• Polyline
• Shopvac
• Pingpong Ball
• Foam Ball that looked cool at the store

I hooked up the shopvac to the far side of the electrical conduit and it was a perfect fit. I was so happy. So I skipped off to the other side (skipping for 150 feet is pretty fruity) and attempted to check the vacuum force on the other side. Holy crap this thing still has a lot of suck! I attempted to put a ping pong ball in the hole to find out it was just too wide. However it stuck to the end of the hose with a pretty nicely as the shopvac complained about it being all clogged up on the other end. I removed the ping pong ball and went inside to warm my hands and cut the ping pong ball down a bit. So I chopped off just over half of the ping pong ball (or just under half, depending) and realized if I tried to send this through the conduit it would more than likely rotate and lose its suckable surface area (SSA). I took the foam ball and put the little ping pong on it like a hat, and whiddled it down so I had a perfect little ping pong foam bullet. I drilled a hole through it and ran the polyline through the hole and tied it off to the top.

Now that everything was tied and ready for suck, I placed the bullet into the conduit and almost got rope burn with how fast my little shopvac was pulling the line through. It stopped, I rejoiced and ran back to save my shopvac from over-suckage. Behold.. The results.





I'm so tired, sorry for incoherency.