Diary of a Wolfeman

The Good: Loratadine (the active ingredient in Claritin which makes it non-drowsy) is available generically for $0.40 a dose for the 24-hour size.

The Bad: It’s a bad year for allergies.

The Ugly: I tend to build up a tolerance for Loratidine pretty quickly, and I think I’ve already hit it. The only other medication that clears up my allergies (Benadryl) does so by putting me almost to sleep – to the point where I probably shouldn’t be driving. (Those of you that know my driving skills can attest to how bad this is. I can drive anything, anywhere, under any conditions – except when using Benadryl.)

I just have a wierd body chemistry in general. I am immune to the effects of Codeine, which is a pain in the ass when I have to go to the dentist. The novacaine works fine, but Codeine is the preferred after-care prescription for tooth pain. This means I either take a lot of Ibuprofin, or step up to Vicadin. This again almost knocks me out. Handy at bedtime, but only if I get to bed before 10pm, something that hasn’t happened since I got out of high school.

More Good: I will be getting a raise soon.

More Bad: It won’t take effect until the paycheck after next.

Uglier: I still have to make $39 stretch until next payday. Ok, this isn’t so bad, since that $39 is for gas, milk and bread, but rent comes out of the next paycheck, leaving me only a paltry sum as buffer until the following paycheck. All is not bleak since I budget in all my usual suspects just fine, I just hate having less than $100 as buffer – it means I have to pack a lunch every day, which means I occasionaly eat a lunch that is either warm when it should be cold or vise-versa.

Due to a slew of trackback spam in the past couple days, I have disabled trackbacks for the next week or so. Hopefully they will get bored by then and stop.

From Frizzen Sparks:

What’s the most interesting thing you set fire to when you were a kid?

Well, what we set fire to isn’t interesting, but the fire was. It was getting on toward the 4th the year I turned 11 I think, when my stepbrother Josh pulled a boner and took one of those “Dancing Flame” fireworks (the ones that spin really fast and burn different colors) and threw it up into the air after he lit the fuse.

Sure enough, the thing took off and flew into the field across the street, landing at the base of a pine tree, immediately setting the wonderfuly dry grass alight. We managed to get a hose on it before it got out of control, but it left a ring of singed grass in a perfect 20-foor diameter circle centered on that tree (which survived).

It looked like a UFO had tried to use the tree as a landing stanchion.

Later that same summer, though, we discovered the joys of lighting those little green army men on fire. If you get them burning on a board and then lift the board, little flaming droplets of plastic drip off and make a really neat noise as they fall.

Yes, this is what kids do for fun when you raise them in the sticks.

Here’s an interesting concept: what if someone invented a Hyperdrive? What if they put the plans out on the internet?

What if you could build one yourself for a few hundred dollars out of commonly available parts, get control software off the ‘net, and turn your pickup into a space-faring camper?

In Jerry Oltion’s Anywhere But Here, lead characters Trent and Donna Stinson do just that, and take off for a little vacation around the galaxy.

Now, the Stinsons have ample reason for wanting to take this little jaunt. We come into their story some time after the invention of the Hyperdrive, and things aren’t going so well in their small Colorado town. The American government and economy are in the shitter, the Stinsons are both out of work, and things are just generally lousy. Those with the brains and wherewithal have been building personal spacecraft and leaving the country at the least, if not the planet. Off-world colonies are recruiting, and the U.S. has banned personal ownership of hyperdrives, going so far as to shoot down anyone attempting a landing over U.S. soil.

For the second time this year, I have read a really good Sci-Fi novel packed with political dissent. The first one was a cop-out in that the main characters pulled up and left. Here, the characters eventually come home to fight for what they believe in – but only after their government tries to kill them three times.

Cowboys are apparently a stubborn sort.

While being well-written and a fun read, Oltion takes a little artistic license with science in a few places other than the hyperdrive. While having a decent grasp on orbital mechanics, I don’t really think he understands the concept of air pressure very well, unless I have entirely misjudged the difference in volume between a big off-ride tire and the cab of a pickup. Or how quickly heat bleeds off in space.

Still, it’s a damn good book that I had a hard time putting down. Go see for yourself.

I’m closing down the shop today when I get a text message on my cell from a number not in my address book:

“Can i see ur boobs”

Oooookkaayyy….on a whim, I call the number up and get voicemail. Shrugging, I leave a message:

“I received a text from this number a few minutes ago, and I think you’ve got the wrong number. But if you’re really into the Man-Boob thing, I don’t see why not…”

Later on, I get home to find an email from Thecyberwolfe Security Assistant, asking me to click on a link to my own domain to verify my account details.

Blink

Yup, that’s right folks, some idjit tried to phish me from my own domain. Here’s the really funny bit: whois tells me the originating IP is leased from a French ISP.

I’ve been p(h)oissoned. :)

Or “Birthday Toys pt. II”

Greyduck and I went down to do some research and birthday shopping at Fry’s this evening after work, and came back with a happy new set of 5.1 speakers for the computer. It came down almost to a coin-toss at the end to decide between an Altec-Lansing rig that was on the demo board and a Logitech rig that had received good reviews, but was not on display. The result? A Logitech X-530 rig. It has an additional 10 watts of power compared to the Altec set, for just $10 more. So, back to Chez Wolfie and 20 minutes or so of rewiring later…

These speakers rock.

Serious room-shaking power, with remarkably clear and precise sound at volume. Yes, there are bigger and badder speakers out there, but for at least double the price. Not to mention I would never get the full use out of a more powerful set – I just don’t turn music up that loud. (I don’t even have an amplifier in my car.) These will do very nicely indeed.

Now we need to play MechWarrior again so I can hear my enemies fry in perfect clarity :)

Today being my official birthday (as opposed to the day the party was thrown), I figured I had best play with my new toy and connect up the new VHS/DVD recorder. Being greedy (and not really wanting to tackle the rewire job that putting it in the living room would be), I opted to hook it up in my room upstairs. All went well, until I realized something: I have a crappy tv in my room. It only has VHF coaxial inputs.

Whoops. Now, technically, it is possible for me to still use the new unit with the old tv, but I would have to buy an RCA-to-VHF converter, something readily available at the Radio Shack down the street. Experience as a cable guy, however, has taught me that these devices introduce scads of interference on local broadcast channels, with channel 6 getting hit the worst. Gee. That’s the channel I record…

So, after I got Pookie into bed tonight, Greyduck and I took turns crawling behind the mammoth entertainment center. After several RTFM bouts, we managed to get things set up and working, replacing the existing pair of units. The Daily Show was on by then, so I dropped in a DVD blank and stabbed ‘record’ on the remote. Lo and Behold! It worked as advertised, and played back with no issues. This is just a quick test mind you, and I will endeavor to fully test the capabilities of the device over the next week or two. I’ll write up a complete review and reveal the make and model of the device when I have a complete study.

I like where my birthday is on the calendar – with it’s proximity to Memorial Day, I have a three-day weekend close enough to throw the party on, and it is the traditional start of the barbecueing season. (of course, it’s not like I need a reason to apply meat to fire…) It was alot cooler when I lived back in Grants Pass though, as they hold a carnival that weekend. What more could a kid ask for on their birthday?

This year’s turnout was a little on the slim side, mostly due to me not sending out invites soon enough. What I lacked in quantity was more than made up for in quality, however. The Roomie and The Physicist are always good company, but The Girlfriend scored major points by providing not only most of the food, but by also gifting me with seriously cool gadgetry: a VHS/DVD player.

This on the surface is cool enough, but reading through the operations manual makes it even cooler. VHS-DVD conversion is almost completely automatic. (The remainder of Greyduck’s MST3K conversion will be simplicity itself.) I can record shows directly to DVD for play in other players (it handles both the ‘+’ and ‘-‘ media) and if I use DVD-RAM disks, it allows the coolest of all: time-shifting of live TV (ala TiVo)!

WooHoo! No more commercials!! The trick here is deciding on whether or not I share with the boys or keep it in my room ;)

Some of the most fun we had though was an impromptu game of Ultimate Frisbee. Five players (ok, 4 and a half with Pookie) and four frisbees, try to keep track of what is flying where. Most surprising is the fact that the shot to the face I took hasn’t left me with a shiner. Lucky for me, us Wolfie-types don’t bruise easily :)

Now to see if I can’t finish off some of those yummy deviled eggs…thanks again, beautiful!

Having watched too much TV lately, I’ve seen far too many Microsoft commercials. Here’s some commercials I’d like to produce myself and see on TV as a response.

Pan in on a nice suburban neighborhood, where all the houses save one are identical, with windowframes that bear a striking resemblance to a certain software company’s logo. On the porch of one home is a small package, with no return adress. A grandma-type person opens the package as she turns back into the house and shuts the door.

A moment later, hundreds of ravenous little creatures with snot dripping out of their noses jump out through the mailslot and go charging down the street, jumping in through all the other mailslots. Within seconds, every house in view has green slime oozing out through those windows, fouling the yards. Pan down a few houses to the one with a lawn-gnome-sized penguin on the porch – the little green snot-beastie falls unconscious after bashing his head on the mailslot. This house is still pristine.
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Variation: same street, only at night. A comical burglar is quickly going from house to house and making off with credit cards and other obviously important stuff. He gets in through open doors and windows or possibly by typing quickly on a keyboard to open up a ‘security hole’ in the side of the house.

When he gets to the house with a penguin on the porch, lights come on to full daylight bright, steel shutters slam down over the doors and windows, and sirens start screaming. The terrified thief runs away. The penguin looks smug.
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Car-themed spot. We start out driving an older car – it’s big and has a ‘W98’ on the dash, and is barely lumbering on. Camera swoops out the window into the car next to it – basically the same, but it’s moving a little better and has ‘W98SE’ on the dash. Swoop into the next car – still big, with ‘W2000’ emblem. Car jumps and slows, then all the dash lights go bright blue and it stalls. Swoop to next car, ‘WXP’ emblem – seems to be okay, until it too ‘blues out’ and stalls. Driver sighs and cycles the ignition switch. Car starts again, goes down the road, then stalls. Driver slumps over wheel while cycling ignition.

Swoop out the window into another car. This one is more sleek, and has a very pleasing engine rumble. We just drive down the road, passing a number of other cars showing symtoms similar to the others. On the dash is a penguin with ‘K 2.6X’. Driver seems very happy.

I’m a bit worked up over something tonight. First, realize that I dedicatedly watch two hours of tv a week: CSI and NCIS. For movies, I watch caper flicks, for tv I go the other way.

So there I am, watching the previews for tonight’s show over the last week, hoping they wouldn’t actually kill a main character. I recorded the show so I could watch it without interruptions (my daughter is here on both nights I watch tv).

Last week, they came damn close to killing off DiNozzo, the teenager-mentality senior Agent. He came back this week a tv-land week early from sick leave. In his first hour back on duty, he falls down a hill (ok, it was a small one), saves Kate from being bitten by a snake (ok, so it wasn’t poisonous) and nearly gets blown up (that one was kinda close).

Later on, Gibbs nearly gets blown up by our good friend Ari, the so-called Massaad double-agent Gibbs shot in the shoulder a few weeks back.

In the last minute of the show, after the big save-the-day scene, Kate jumps in front of a round intended for Gibbs. We all gasp! and wonder if she’ll make it – but of course, she was a smart girl and wore her Kevlar. Whew!

Which is why, in the last ten seconds of the show, that bastard Ari shoots her in the forehead with a sniper rifle from too far away for Gibbs to return fire.

The fuckers.

I know, I know – it’s just a tv show. But still.