To The Metal

If its any sign of the state of Open Source software, I un-installed my copy of Microsoft Office XP last night and am drafting this very post with a free and perfectly legal copy of OpenOffice.org. It’s not perfect and lacks a bit of the functionality of Microsoft Office, but the benefits by far outweigh the penalties which are few and far between.

Looks like there may be some hope on the new apartment horizon as I continue to look and rule out potential new homes. Last Sunday I checked out a 1 bedroom apartment in the top floor of a home built in the 1850s. It was quite a cozy place, which inside needed a bit of TLC. On the outside the place looked laughable. Paint peeling, weeds everywhere, spiderwebs and dirt on everything. I had driven past on Saturday to get a peek at the place and made half my decision to not rent it then. What set my decision in place? Inside, I would have to share the kitchen and dining room with the owner while she was there. I would have to walk through her part of the house to get to the upstairs loft. The bathroom did have a claw-foot bathtub but no shower equipment. For a house so old, it was quite modern with water filtration, radiant heat, upgraded appliances, etc… But for $750/mo plus utilities, I couldn’t justify having to share. Tack on the fact she broke a cardinal rule of making money in America…avoid politics. Now I wouldn’t mind that she appeared to be a Liberal tree-hugger college professor, but when out of the blue she broke into a short diatribe about wars and oil, I decided to get out.

A few days later when I called back to inform her I was not interested, she has asked why and for suggestions and that was when I outlined my reasoning. Now mind you IF the apartment had a private entrance, was cut off from the rest of the house, and had its own kitchen, I would have given it stronger consideration. The whole political commentary didn’t help. Now mind you, I can handle a hearty debate of ideas, but a home is a haven from all things…or it should be. If I had to go home every night and in the process of winding down have to face the blind political black hole Leftist thought, I’d be tempted to commit myself. Sure, I know some of you are thinking “well she has a right to say what she wants” and you would be right. However, as of yet there is no controlling legal authority which says she has a right to be heard, or that I have to listen. I check my politics at the blog.

This site and its sister domain Banginwednesday.com will be down for maintenance in a few hours… I’m removing the HUGE heatsink and fan from my system which requires me to pull out all peripherals including the mainboard to unbolt it. It cools the system quite a bit, unnecessarily so…it didn’t get that hot with the stock one on. It’s also fucking loud and I’m a bit tired of hearing it. L8r.

4th time I’ve seen this, first 3 were in the theaters, twice in the same day. There are some films which simply are too big for any screen yet made, and by far this latest chapter in the cinematic saga of Batman is one of them. Whether your screen is 27″ or 270″, this movie kicks ass, there are none better dare I say it, and its about time someone (Bale) did the role justice. I’m eagerly anticipating the next chapter (2008).

So on Friday night at about 8:30 I found myself in the care of the fine folks over at St.Anthony’s Hospital in Warwick, managed to break the metacarpal in my right hand. Spent the weekend bandaged up, had it set on Monday and hopefully it will be healed in about a month.

Been nearly 2 weeks since I have hung out with any of my friends, girlfriend excluded of course… Not sure if I’ve vanished or they have, I’ve spoken to a few but for the most part I’m starting to feel like a ghost here… Plans get changed, calls never get returned, etc… I should be used to the outcast role by now I guess. If anyone needs me, I’m the guy in the dank apartment with the 5lb cast on his hand.

My bro’s band will be playing on Saturday evening at GW’s in Chester with Replica, all are invited and encouraged to join the party, it’s always an wild time.

Hand hurts, that’s it for today, later folks.

i break my right hand.

ttm is on hiatus for a while.

sorry folks.

Roof is still leaking. Won’t sleep in my own bedroom tonight AGAIN. Hooray for another night on the futon. Doesn’t help the whole sleeping thing if I’m out cold and Real Sex comes on HBO. That’ll give ya some interesting dreams.

Stopped by Mountain Creek. Should have bought a condo years ago. I’m kicking myself now every time I think about a friend who picked up a real nice one for like $80K, now $130K gets a studio. Riiiiight. I saw their version of a studio apartment. It’s a little bigger than my living room. I have a small fucking living room. The guy seemed more interested in getting me to rent, not really discussing that I want to buy. Even coming up with some “1 percent rule” as far as how much it’ll cost me per month to actually own a place… mortgage plus utils, etc… Did a little looking around and I can’t believe that a 150K mortage is gonna cost me $1500 a month. I’ll definitely have to look around a bit once I get a pre-approval, as after the past 3 years if I can avoid renting, I most happily will. While there we discussed one of his clients who was buying a condo to rent out, likely asking $850 a month, another studio but apparently bigger than the last one.

This won’t be easy, but God willing next year I’ll be owning my own home.

I am so fucking livid right now it’s unbelievable. If I could skip today and keep what I learned, I’d be all for it. Lets start at the top, shall we?

A few days back the skies opened up. Got a leak in my apartment bedroom that messed up my semi-good sheets and stained my matress. No big deal, I caught it in time and cleaned it up. I spent a good chunk of Sunday moving shit around, re-arranging everything so that if the roof leaked again, I wouldn’t have a problem.

Well today I spent a good 12 hours at the office. After work, I go to the Vernon Inn. Now the past few times I’ve gone there the food has been utter shit. Tonight was no different, and the bartender I can’t stand was there. So I get in the door around 9, take care of some shit and go into the bedroom… Where my mattress is SOAKED THROUGH because a different part of the roof leaked. So now my 500 dollar mattress is slowly drying. I’m seriously sick of all the shit I have to put up here. Yes I like the place, it’s small, it’s cozy, it’s quiet, and the rent is low. Just the same, the roof leaks, I can’t run air conditioning because the wiring is so old, the place never heats up enough in the winter, and I have to share my bathroom with my 70 year old shits on everything BUT the bowl neighbor who I have to constantly clean up after. For a long time it seemed like a good deal. Didn’t mind smoking, I quit. Didn’t mind my ex staying there all the time, now that isn’t an issue. Didn’t care about a lot, just let me do my thing as long as the rent came in on time. Now I think I’ve just outgrown the place. I want a house, or a condo, a place of my own, but I don’t have the money. I made a mistake buying my last Intrepid which I’m paying for now in the form of higher payments on my VW. Still, just like I payed a small amount more for piece of mind when I bought the Volkswagen, at this point I’m willing to pay a small amount more for piece of mind when I walk in the door at night. Nobody should have to come home after a 12 hour day to a leaky roof they don’t own and be forced to sleep on a futon while their bed dries out. So I checked the classifieds, there are a few decent places in the area at a reasonable price, I’m going to check them out. Like I said, I’m willing to take one more good shot in the wallet if it means a warm, dry bed this winter and a cool dry apartment come summer time. Things will be tight for a while, but a little sacrifice makes a man humble.

So this week has been a week of tying up loose ends at the office. I had promised a file-server for my marketing department a few weeks back. My initial plan was an open-source Slackware Linux and Samba based setup, integrated into my Active Directory Domain. I had it almost working for almost 3 weeks before I finally scrapped it and gave the folks what I promised. I learned quite a bit, which is why I’m not all that upset that I changed the plan after a week or two. I still plan on building another file-server based on Linux that’ll integrate with my existing setup, but not when it holds up everyone else… Also, awhile back I built a fax-server for my customer service department… Pretty much put it together out of spare parts. It held up great for about 2 years before lately when it started having random lockups. Considering it’s a used machine made from used parts which were likely overclocked by the genius I replaced, not bad. Catch was I had files on that fax-server which were going to be moved to the new file-server, so one project held up another one. I could have put it all off another day but I stuck it out and got it done. I’m absolutely in love with these SATA RAID-1 systems. They’re easy to set up and any worry about losing data due to a hard drive crash is a distant fear. That little file-server I set up ran about 600 bucks, but equivalent performance sans-OS from any major manufacturer likely would have ran at least 2 grand. Not bad IMHO. The new fax-server is a warrantied Dell system with an extra bit of RAM and another SATA RAID. Can’t beat it.

Now to the first thing that really set me off today. I’m building that fax-server and need to install a fresh copy of Windows on the RAID array. Now it used to be that you could reinstall Windows, and activate it, no big deal. Not if you have to reinstall it on a system by one of the major manufacturers like Dell who sticks the damned license keys to the side of the case where anyone can see it. As such, Microsoft apparently considers anyone who has to reinstall Windows on one of these systems is a pirate by default and subject to an Inquisition that’d make Marie Antoinette blush. The setup is absurd. First you waste a good 5 minutes punching in the 60-digit numeric installation ID on their 800 number. Then another minute goes by as the attendent checks and forwards you to a human. No English man for you though, oh no, you’re too good for that, you get a nice little Hindu man taking time away from his civil disobedience to interrogate you over your decision to use Microsoft Windows XP. 5 times I was asked why I had to reinstall windows. 5 times I had to give the same answer to this guy who spoke worse English than a World War 2 Kamikaze pilot. I had to tell him what company the computer was built buy, how I bought it, the CD key, and so on and so forth. I wasted a good 20 minutes justifiying to this flip-card toting moron just why I needed to reinstall SOMETHING I FUCKING OWN. Now I haven nothing against big companies trying to save a buck and support American unemployment rates by shuffling off certain departments to overseas call-centers who work for a scruples. That’s their right. Just the same, how about some English lessons. Seriously, there was no Spanish option on the menu, and I could only imagine this twit interrogating me in broken Spanglish.

So now I’m going to kick back with a glass of bourbon and sleep on the couch. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll find a new place to live that won’t bankrupt me.

Am I the only one who finds the distinct aroma of rotting leaves almost intoxicating?

I love October.

I can’t say I know exactly why I’ve gotten two serious migraines in the past two weeks but something I can say for sure is it never occurred when I was smoking. Sure, I got them when I was a kid, but once I lit up for the first time, no more migraines, no more serious headaches to be perfectly honest. Something I learned awhile back is that all migraines have what is called an ‘aura’ or some symptom which identifies the onset of a migraine. For me, it was always floating sparkles that I would tend to notice while trying to read… They’d block out the letters until I couldn’t read. If I did nothing, which for the first few years was all I knew to do, I’d effectively go blind for anywhere from 15-30 minutes, and have a mind-numbing headache for at least an hour. The best way to describe the sensation was if someone managed to slowly wrap a crowbar around my head. So as time went by I learned that if I took 2 aspirin (nothing else worked) at the aura, the spots, and relaxed for 15 minutes or so with my eyes shut, I could completely avoid the blindness as well as the migraine headache. So last Tuesday at work I start seeing the spots while working on one of the servers. Nobody in the entire building had anything with Aspirin in it, and my own supply was depleted. That left me out of commission for about an hour, and blind for a good 30 minutes. Ok, it was a fluke. Then yesterday I’m driving home from NJ and over the course of 15 seconds I lose about ¾ of my eyesight. Made for a real interesting ride home. Only thing I could guess is that since I haven’t smoked in nearly a year, this is the first Autumn i’m experiencing without smoke, my sinuses are paying the price.

Ah yes, Applefest. That wonderful time of year when Warwick pulls out all the stops and whores itself out to 40,000 clueless automatons in search for the meaning of life…

Not to confuse the meaning of life with apples, overpriced gifts, hastily prepared fried foods and porta-johns.

For starters, parking. In the however many years that have passed since Warwick started this, parking has never improved. Never mind using some of the available open-space in order to keep our streets clear for actual residents…that might get in the way of home-building. Next year they should ban parking in the town except for residents, and force visitors to park in one of the many open fields on the way into town. That way little things like a mullet-bearing hick in a Lumina screaming at some “dumb mother-effer” around a bunch of kids could be avoided.

Strollers should be banned. Next year I’m bringing one. I have no kids mind you, and not everyone does it, but most of the people there with strollers use them as battering rams to cut through crowds. I’m seriously going to bring one. I’ve had it with being brushed aside by some moron and his offspring.

Stopped at the thrift shop. I’ve got a big box of dishes, glasses, tableware, and cooking utensils that I wanted to donate, so I asked about it. “Oh I really don’t want any of that.” Mind you half the store is full of shoddy clothing, the other with shelves that are maybe 1/10th full. I’ll likely drop it off at the local migrant center “The Alamo.” Apparently they’re not as picky (stuck up). No wonder the youth of America has such a piss poor work ethic. They could learn something from the migrants.

On my way home from the events, I ran into my favorite type of driver… The Subaru driver. Ah yes, the “beauty of all wheel drive.” Subaru drivers definitely trump VW drivers when it comes to asphalt morons. We’re putting along in a line of traffic, and this idiot in an Outback is tailgating a Tahoe. Finally on a curve, he pulls out and passes the guy (double-yellow). Then catches up to the next in line, an Escort and tailgates them straight into Pine Island, unable to pass in an actual passing zone. So I get into Pine Island, both are gone. I don’t think twice about it until I get to the intersection, hang a right, and see the Subaru popping out by the school. Guy tried to get ahead of traffic by skipping the intersection.

Well we just can’t have that! I catch up to, and pass the guy despite a feeble attempt to out-accelerate me. I then stay comfortably behind the Ford (yes, he still ended up behind the same Ford) and we happily putt along at 40mph. Then, the gem of the entire maneuver, at the end of the 40mph zone, I slow down and turn around in a dirt lot. Guy in the Subaru didn’t try to tailgate me, and he didn’t make any effort to pass the Ford after that one.

Illustrating absurdity by being absurd. 🙂

I’m going to go out on a limb here, but I’d like to say that the relative intelligence of a community can be determined wholly on the number of stop signs and traffic lights in the community. Case in point, 3 years ago this month I moved out of my parents house and got an apartment in the rural community of Pine Island, NY. When I left, there were 4 stop signs and one yield sign (ASS) in my parent’s development.

Yesterday I stop at the old homestead and on my way back out there’s not one, not two, not four, but a total of 8 stop signs. They even removed the yield sign and replaced it with a stop sign.

Of course this weekend Warwick has its Applefest celebration, where 40,000 rubes are duped into invading the town, and sadly a fair number of them decide to stick around and eviscerate the quaintness of the area which attracted them by building nice new barn sized homes 2 feet from each other.

Traffic on Saturday was already chocked full of morons, I don’t see how people should have licenses when they are wholly incapable of driving at the speed limit. It took me 10 minutes to get to the laundromat from my parent’s house yesterday when it should have taken less than 5 due to the increased number of stop signs (apparently a single resident can now request them, how about one at each driveway so that when they’re waiting with their kid in a nice warm idling SUV 40 feet from the front door, motorists can stop and admire their stupidity again, and again, and again) and some moron in a PT Cruiser who insisted on driving 15mph as well as taking turns at less than 1mph.

Driving back to town I always have to laugh as I pass the Pulpit rock property at the intersection of West St and County 1… It sits there, overgrown with weeds and vegetation while across the street another batch of barn-sized homes go up where a farm used to be. Cracks me up that a few years back the yuppies of Warwick threw a fit to protect the boulder across the street from the evil Library that wanted to move out of their ever-crowding building. Now more of these cookie-cutter idiots move into Warwick likely to complain about the size of the library (that of course depends on whether or not they even know what a book is) but I’m sure they’ll vote down any chance to expand or relocate the library…because it’s a landmark.

It never ceases to amaze how quickly Warwick will rise up in protest to any commercial expansion that would remove a ‘green gateway’ but will sit back in silence as barns full of NIMBY’s (That’s Not-In-My-Back-Yard to my Liberal friends) move in and destroy what??? GREEN GATEWAYS.

One last question… Why the heck does Warwick raise the price of water to fund the purification equipment as a result of the invading yuppie hordes for all residents? It makes no sense to me. If I use 100 gallons a month between my shower, toilet, and coffee pot I’d be amazed. Down the street there could be a family of 5 using 1000 gallons a month. Why should we pay at the same rate? Shouldn’t they pay more because they use more? I’m not using any more of the equipment than I was before, so why should I pay more? Hell, with all the Libs moving in I’m amazed they haven’t volunteered to pay more to help offset the plight of us poor-folk living in the dirt. Oh that’s right… no controlling legal authority…but I digress.