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GRAFFITI -- May 08, 2006 thru May 14, 2006 >> Link to the Current Week << Last Week << Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun >> Next Week Search this site : Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable.     About eMail - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.

MONDAY    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
May 8, 2006

1926 - Good evening. Grrr. Sorry for the delay, but my body was so happy to not have any gardening to do today that it decided to turn off the alarm this morning and sleep in a bit. By the time Mr. Body got to work, Mr. Brain started waking up, so I leapt right into the working day, and didn't break out for a quick post.

I do wonder one thing, though. If the Medicare Drug Benefit plan is supposed to help people, why do they have deadlines for signing up that involve penalties? WTF??? Bastard bureaucrats is my guess. From what I've read, they worked pretty hard to make the plans themselves confusing, too. Just the thing to inflict on our seniors. Bastard bureaucrats is my guess.

Anyway, bills are paid, the backup is running, and I have to get the trash out to the curb before I can consider having supper. Ciao!

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Mon    TUESDAY    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
May 9, 2006

1847 - Good evening. Welcome to Tuesday. Not much changed. Well, I did get up within 15 minutes of the alarm going off, in and out of the shower and actually at the office a couple of minutes past 0700. The commute is distinctly more pleasant at that hour. It almost offsets the distinct foulness of getting up at that hour. It was a productive day, with another set of systems prepped and shipped.

I learned something about sshfs last night. It's FUN! You should try it... if you're running late model Linux (2.6.14 kernel or later). If not, then you'll need to install the fuse kernel module from sources, too. But that's not too heinous. It turns out my problem at work, when building sshfs from source, was that I needed libglib2.0-dev installed. Without that, the build fell over sideways... with less than helpful error messages. Still, all's well that ends well. I'll be more loquacious on the subject at a later date.

The seed corn was in, when I got home. So Marcia and I went out back and got the corn planted and watered in. Yay. Only carrots and a few more small things to go, then everything will be in the ground. I've got more watering setup to do, and a dog-restriction fence to put in around the strawberries before Molly season starts. But not today.

Have a lovely evening. Ciao!

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Mon    Tues    WEDNESDAY    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
May 10, 2006

No Post.

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Mon    Tues    Wed    THURSDAY    Fri    Sat    Sun   
May 11, 2006

0822 - Good morning. I'm into the busy time. Linda Rose is dog-sitting this weekend while Marcia and I go to visit Fallingwater in Pennsylvania. We've got an early Sunday tour, which is both more extensive than the standard afternoon walkthrough, and allows photography. So we're going up on Saturday, and staying nearby-ish, instead of getting up at 3AM on Sunday morning.

Since I planted in the gardens over last weekend, I didn't get around to mowing. With rain incoming and at least another week before I had a chance to mow again, that was my task last night. I got it done, but that ate any remaining energy that I had. So, no post yesterday, so sad.

I'm hooking up the Mac Mini downstairs, as a part of the entertainment system. I'll be able to use it for slideshows of the digital pix, and for iTunes playing from the home music repository or from online sources. For the former task, I went by the Apple Store in Montgomery Mall yesterday afternoon and picked up a DVI-to-Video adapter. For the latter feature, I thought I had a mini-plug to stereo RCA cable, but apparently that's not the case. So I'll pick one up across the street at Best Buy later today.

Time for the next task here at work, so I'll bid you farewell until later-ish. Have a great day!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    FRIDAY    Sat    Sun   
May 12, 2006

1112 - Good morning-ish. Grrrr. People are idiots.

The new survey found that 63 percent of Americans said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism, including 44 percent who strongly endorsed the effort. Another 35 percent said the program was unacceptable, which included 24 percent who strongly objected to it.

A slightly larger majority--66 percent--said they would not be bothered if NSA collected records of personal calls they had made, the poll found.

A link to the Washington Post article is here, if you want to read how Americans are willing to trade essential liberties for no true additional security. Dung-for-brains!

In other news...

NEW YORK: A public school teacher was arrested today at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement. He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.

"Al-gebra is a problem for us," Gonzales said. "They desire solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute value. They use secret code names like 'x ' and 'y' and refer to themselves as 'unknowns', but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with co-ordinates in every country.

As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say: 'There are three sides to every triangle'."

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes."

Okay. Back to work for me. Ciao!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    SATURDAY    Sun   
May 13, 2006

1041 - Good morning. Lucy is Major Mopey dog this morning, and I think she's bucking for promotion to Colonel Mopey. Yeah, she's moping about because she knows that (usually) when the suitcase is being packed, her people (one or more) are leaving, and she gets upset. Linda Rose will be over to dog-sit in a while, and we're going to be leaving for Pennsylvania shortly. Tomorrow we'll tour Fallingwater, and back home tomorrow evening. Have a lovely weekend!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    SUNDAY  
May 14, 2006

1804 - Good evening. Yay, we're home. We went to the Flight 93 crash site yesterday, and Fallingwater today. Both: interesting and educational. I'll have some pictures to share with y'all tomorrow.

Sadly, too long a list of soldiers and marines lost to us in service in the Middle East, reported in the preceding week. Their sacrifice on our behalf is without parallel. My condolences to the families and comrades of our fallen heros.

• Pfc. Alva L. Gaylord, 25, of Carrollton, Mo., died of injuries sustained in Qasr Ar Riyy, Iraq on May 5, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his RG-31 Mine Protected Vehicle during a combat clearing operation.
• Pfc. Benjamin T. Zieske, 20, of Concord, Calif., died of injuries sustained in Kirkuk, Iraq on May 3, when an improvised explosive device detonated during a dismounted combat patrol.
• 1st. Sgt. Carlos N. Saenz, 46, of Las Vegas, Nev., died in Baghdad, Iraq on May 5, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations.
• Spc. Teodoro Torres, 29, of Las Vegas, Nev., died in Baghdad, Iraq on May 5, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations.
• Sgt. Nathan J. Vacho, 29, of Janesville, Wis., died in Baghdad, Iraq on May 5, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations.
• Sgt. Matthew J. Fenton, 24, of Little Ferry, N.J., died May 5 at National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., from wounds received while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq on April 26.
• Lance Cpl. Leon B. Deraps, 19, of Jamestown, Mo., died May 6 while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Cpl. Cory L. Palmer, 21, of Seaford, Del., died May 6 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, from wounds received while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq, on May 1.
• Staff Sgt. Gregory A. Wagner, 35, of Mitchell, S.D., died of injuries sustained in Baghdad, Iraq, on May 8, when an improvised fire projectile struck his HMMWV during combat operation.
• Lt. Col. Joseph J. Fenty, 41, of Fla., died east of Abad, Afghanistan, in the Kunar province, on May 5, when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during combat operations.
• Chief Warrant Officer 3 Eric W. Totten, 34, of Texas, died east of Abad, Afghanistan, in the Kunar province, on May 5, when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during combat operations.
• Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christopher B. Donaldson, 28, of Ill., died east of Abad, Afghanistan, in the Kunar province, on May 5, when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during combat operations.
• Staff Sgt. Christopher T. Howick, 34, of Hamburg, N.Y., died east of Abad, Afghanistan, in the Kunar province, on May 5, when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during combat operations.
• Sgt. Bryan A. Brewster, 24, of Fontana, Calif., died east of Abad, Afghanistan, in the Kunar province, on May 5, when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during combat operations.
• Sgt. John C. Griffith, 33, of Las Vegas, Nev., died east of Abad, Afghanistan, in the Kunar province, on May 5, when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during combat operations.
• Sgt. Jeffery S. Wiekamp, 23, of Utopia, Texas., died east of Abad, Afghanistan, in the Kunar province, on May 5, when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during combat operations.
• Spc. Justin L. O’Donohoe, 27, of San Diego, Calif., died east of Abad, Afghanistan, in the Kunar province, on May 5, when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during combat operations.
• Spc. David N. Timmons Jr., 23, of Lewisville, N.C., died east of Abad, Afghanistan, in the Kunar province, on May 5, when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during combat operations.
• Pfc. Brian M. Moquin Jr., 19, of Worcester, Mass., died east of Abad, Afghanistan, in the Kunar province, on May 5, when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during combat operations.
• Spc. Aaron P. Latimer, 26, of Ennis, Texas, died in Mosul, Iraq, on May 9.
• Sgt. Alessandro Carbonaro, 28, of Bethesda, Md., died May 10, at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, from wounds received while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq, on May 1.
• Staff Sgt. Dale J. Kelly Jr., 48, of Richmond, Maine, died in Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq, on May 6, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his M1083 cargo truck during combat operations.
• Staff Sgt. David M. Veverka, 25, of Jamestown, Pa., died in Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq, on May 6, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his M1083 cargo truck during combat operations.

Fred on Everything gives fair and balanced coverage to Multi-Culturalism. Go, Fred!

See you next week. Ciao!

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