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GRAFFITI -- July 16, 2007 thru July 22, 2007 >> 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.

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July 16, 2007

1838 - Good evening. A busy day so far, with chores still to come. Here, this is amusing, though...

"Your password must be at least 18770 characters and cannot..."

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q276304/

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July 17, 2007

Cornucopia, sans corn...

First Tiger Lily of the season

2003 - Good evening. I got home in time to start some watering of the plants in front before another bloke came over to crawl around on our roof for a bit. We may get yet one more quote, depends on where this one lands on the scale. Once he was done, I finished watering out front, then went to the back deck and moistened the potted herbs. Then I went out to the garden and harvested out a bunch of stuff. A collander full of green bell peppers, another almost full of tomatoes, a couple of average cucumbers, and zucchini that the Incredible Hulk must have misplaced. Wowsers! So, after taking that picture, I went out front to capture opening day of the season for our Tiger Lilies. They do better each year.

Now, back to watching more Morse. I learned the other day from the west coast contingent that John Thaw died, recently? No, not recently... more like five years back. Well, so much for me paying attention. I do pay attention to his Morse work, though. Bloody talented bloke. Cancer took him, at 60. Damned shame. Okay, to Morse! Ciao.

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July 18, 2007

Hungry little birdlings

2237 - Good evening. I found them in their nest in one of our hanging baskets. Kinda cute, eh?

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July 19, 2007

No Post....

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July 20, 2007

0928 - Good morning. Last night I played Jeopardy on the PS2 with Marcia, and got transcode working right for ripping audio from a DVD for independent listening. For example:

transcode -i /dev/hda -x null,dvd -T 4,6,1 -a 0 -y null,wav -o T04_C06.wav

That grabs the audio track from the sixth chapter of the fourth title on the DVD. My dvd device is found at /dev/hda. Yours might be symlinked to /dev/dvd or /dev/cdrom, too. Works for me (tm).

Back to the grind. Ciao!

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July 21, 2007

Remodeled mailbox area

1533 - Good afternoon. Nope. Not yet. We're waiting until our normal Sunday shopping run to pick up a copy of the lastest Harry Potter novel. Instead I have had a slow-motion day of chores. I went looking for some cedar to do a bit of rehabilitation work on the mailbox and its environs - couldn't find what I wanted so I used a bit of left behind poplar. You may recall the burning sensation when Marcia found the mulch around the post box on fire a couple of weeks ago. Well, that's fixed up as well as might be expected for the moment. I pruned back all of the dead grasses, but left them there with a crew cut in hopes of a return to life. That's possible since these things are really quite robust. And I dressed out the bottom part of the mailbox with the poplar makeup you can see at right. That has a 30° bevel around the top edge, and decorative grooving near the top. Took about 15 minutes to throw that together, and once it weathers in a bit, I think it'll look nice. I've also been doing some spot-watering around the place. Water's in short supply, and so I'm going to continue to let the lawns brown, but the trees and shrubs that have to-date been fairly hardy in the face of much less than normal rain are getting droopy. So those all got a soaking today.

On tap for this afternoon, I've got to finish reorganizing the music after rebuilding the Ogg Vorbis part of the library into MP3 format. Then I need to blow away and rebuild the playlists on the assorted systems around here. And I'm tired. Bone tired and I'm not sure why. Probably not Ebola, though. Later...

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July 22, 2007

1225 - Hullo. We picked up the Potter book at BJ's. Marcia's going to read it first. I always have stuff to keep me busy, so that's not an issue. Among other things, I'd like to take a few minutes to regard and give my regards to our fallen heroes in the War on Whatever The Administration Is Fighting Against... Make no mistake, our fighting men and women rock, and my faith in them and their sense of duty and honor is boundless, whatever my opinion is of the bloke living over at 1600, and his cronies.

• Sgt. Allen A. Greka, 29, of Alpena, Michigan, died July 13 of wounds sustained from a land mine detonation during a dismounted patrol in Jisr Diyala, Iraq.
• Pfc. Christopher D. Kube, 18, of Sterling Heights, Mich., died July 14 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device.
• Spc. Robert D. Varga, 24, of Monroe City, Mo., died July 15 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident.
• Pfc. Benjamin B. Bartlett Jr., 25, of Manchester, Ga., died July 15, in Mosul, Iraq, of wounds suffered from a rocket propelled grenade.
• Sgt. John R. Massey, 29, of Judsonia, Ark., died July 15 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations July 14 in Baghdad, Iraq.
• Lance Cpl. Shawn V. Starkovich, 20, of Arlington, Wash., died July 16 in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Spc. Eric M. Holke, 31, of Crestline, Calif., died July 15 in Tallil, Iraq, of wounds sustained from a non-combat related incident.
• Chief Petty Officer Patrick L. Wade, 38, of Key West, Fla., died July 17 as a result of enemy action while conducting combat operations in Salah Ad Din Province, Iraq.
• Petty Officer First Class Jeffrey L. Chaney, 35, of Omaha, Neb., died July 17 as a result of enemy action while conducting combat operations in Salah Ad Din Province, Iraq.
• Sgt. Nathan S. Barnes, 23, of American Fork, Utah, died July 17 in Rushdi Mullah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked by insurgents using small arms fire.
• Pfc. Ron J. Joshua Jr., 19, of Austin, Texas, died July 17 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Pfc. Brandon K. Bobb, 20, of Orlando, Fla., died July 17 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Pfc. James J. Harrelson, 19, of Dadeville, Ala., died July 17 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device.
• Sgt. Ronald L. Coffelt, 36, of Fair Oaks, Calif., died July 19 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device.
• Pfc. Brandon M. Craig, 25, of Earleville, Md., died July 19 in Husayniyah, Iraq, of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device.
• Sgt. 1st Class Luis E. Gutierrez-Rosales, 38, of Bakersfield, Calif., died July 18 in Adhamiyah, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle was attacked by enemy forces using an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
• Spc. Zachary R. Clouser, 19, of Dover, Pa., died July 18 in Adhamiyah, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle was attacked by enemy forces using an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
• Spc. Richard Gilmore III, 22, of Jasper, Ala., died July 18 in Adhamiyah, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle was attacked by enemy forces using an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
• Spc. Daniel E. Gomez, 21, of Warner Robbins, Ga., died July 18 in Adhamiyah, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle was attacked by enemy forces using an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.

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Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.

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