Fire!

Fireworks to be more precise... 5 different houses in my neighborhood had their own little fireworks shows going on. From the awesome, one of my neighbors is an ex-special effects guy and he was launching two inch mortars, and another one who just likes fireworks who lacked the connections for the two inchers but made up for it with the quantity of everything else. To the merely cool, kids with sparklers, bottle rockets, and roman candle wars with some of my more adventuresome neighbors. Was going to go down and see a friend in the Springs, but didn't get in touch with them so ended up staying home and partying with the rest of the block. Rain cleared up right before sundown so it was pleasantly cool and everyone was outside and just talking. Pretty nice and laid back holiday if you ask me.

It's always fun to watch stuff explode. Granted, this was stuff that is designed, and whose only purpose is, to explode so it lacks a little bit of the cool factor. I always secretly keep hoping to see a mortar fall over and fire into someones garage or something. Am I alone there, or does anybody else wish for just that extra little bit of chaos to make the event more memorable?

My computer is at about 95% of the functionality I had before the problems. Just a few programs left to install, but they're not that critical and so will probably wait until I need to use them again. Speaking of which, I still need to get in touch with a few ex-co-workers and recover some of the software/books/music/etc... that I loaned out. Not that big of a problem, it might actually be nice to talk to a few of them again and see how things are going.

I did get a call today from one of my ex-co-workers who just got back from his class trip to Croatia. Sounds like he had a great time. Got a lot of pictures too, so we're gonna have to hang out sometime soon. He told me that they did finally manage to fill my position, but that training isn't going nearly as well as the managers had hoped. Looks like they're starting to realize just how valuable I was... Too bad they fired me, that means they can't hire me back now that they're realizing just how stupid a move that was. I never claimed to be irreplaceable, but I wore some pretty big shoes.

Still going stir crazy. Only one more week, and I get to start working! I've pretty much beaten that topic to death though, so I'll just say that that's where I still am and we'll just have to see how the week goes by.

Up and Running

My computer is fully functional again! Well, mostly functional at any rate. Haven't spent much time with the Windows partition other than getting all of the updates. My Linux partition is all the way back, and possibly just a little better since I got the latest version of Ubuntu on a clean install. Previously when I would try to boot using the 2.6.28-13 kernel, my system would crash, now it's running smooth. Plus, as an added benefit, they fixed the problem that was preventing my external USB hard drive from auto-mounting on startup.

But, both of my questions have been answered. It wasn't using the rest of the drive because I had set it up using the Wubi installer in windows, and it was on a virtual drive. And it was filling up because one of my video editing programs wasn't deleting the temp files after it was done. But why, you might ask, did this require a complete re-install of your OSes? Well it really didn't, but one of the earlier steps I had taken, booting the computer off of a GPartEd live CD jacked up my GRUB boot loader settings which meant my computer wasn't booting at all, and I decided that it's been 9 or 10 months so it's about time for a clean install anyways. I usually do one about once a year anyways. It keeps my system fresher, and makes sure I've only got programs that I'm using installed. If you've got the time and the savvy, I would highly recommend it.

On another note, looks like our fourth might not be that fabulous this year. Severe thunderstorm warnings for the Denver metro area. Fortunately (?) I hadn't planned on going anywhere to watch fireworks. Just going over to a friends house whose spouse is working, and ex has the kids. Maybe watch some fireworks on TV, play a few hands of cribbage, drink a few beers, grill up some hot dogs... You know, just a relaxed, kick-back and talk kind of day. Of course I'm going to have to take the dog, what with the thunderstorms and people still lighting off what fireworks they can he's going to be a wreck, and it'll be interesting to see how he gets along with my friends pets... Suppose I should put his spiked collar back on.

Well, it's getting late, and I need to take a nap before I head out tonight. Yes, I stayed up all night working on my computer. I'll have more later, but right now it's getting difficult to see the keyboard.

Beautiful Day

It was about 80º out and nice and sunny earlier. Now it's about 60º and torrential downpour with lots of thunder and lightning. I always love rainy days, possibly due to growing up in AZ where you appreciate them all the more. Of course with all of the thunder and lightning, my dog has become my shadow again, never more than 5 feet away from me. After living here for a couple of years I'm starting to appreciate the sunny ones too though. For one, it makes it easier to ride the motorcycle. Which is what I did this morning before meeting a friend for lunch. Not that I won't ride in bad weather (rain, snow, cold, etc...) but it means that I have to spend the extra time gearing up. But, riding in the rain can actually be quite soothing. The sound of the traffic is muted, not as many people on the roads, and the gentle pitter-patter of the drops hitting your helmet can be very relaxing. Riding in the snow can be a zen experience.

Met my friend at C. B. & Potts as it's been about 3-4 months since I last had a Monte Cristo sandwich. Yes, it was delicious, and no, I'm not worried about my weight. Since I haven't been working, I found that I'm eating a lot less, and am now down to 150# again. Wouldn't be that bad if I was 5'8", but since I'm 6'4" it means I'm getting beyond skinny again. My muscle tone is still good, and I'm not feeling achy or short of breath so I'm still doing OK, but I'm definitely going to need to start eating more. While we're on the subject of health, I really do need to quit smoking too, and possibly exercising more as well, but these are both relegated to secondary concern status right now. Once I'm in a more stable position I'll start giving them some serious thought, but now is just not the time.

Having a few problems w/ my computer too, but I usually look on this as a good thing as it allows me to learn a little bit more about it as I'm fixing it. My Linux partition is running out of space. It's on a 60GB drive all by itself, but for some reason it's only allocating 13GB for itself... Rest of the drive is empty. I need to figure out A) why it's not using the other 45GB, and B) why it's even using 15GB as last week it was only using about 8. Looks like I've got a fun afternoon ahead of me, cheers!