Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:51:49 -0400 http://geekdad.org/ ::geekdad.org:: en-us http://geekdad.org/images/logo.gif http://geekdad.org/ admin@geekdad.org http://geekdad.org/Article53.phtml So I've found gainful employment... Let me tell you, its a huge lifestyle change... but it coincides with the girls getting back to school... so I'd be missing them anyway. But man, its cutting into my housework, yardwork, website, world of warcraft time!!! (not necessarily in that order) Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:51:49 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article52.phtml Wow, looking at the counter on this site, it says I've been unemployed for 128 days. That's crazy. I don't know if its fully accurate in that I've been doing a lot of freelance type work, but I have been without a full-time salaried position during that time. now that I take a breath, I am amazed at all the things that i don't know how they got done while I was working full-time, and appreciate the miracle that is my wife all the more every moment. Wed, 14 May 2008 11:22:46 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article51.phtml *hangs head in shame* I never thought I'd be in this situation. I never thought I'd be the one to ... need to leave. I'm not weak! I'm not! I just can't live like this! But I can't abandon her to this life alone! My wife is addicted to World of Warcraft, and I can't stomach playing for 10 hours a day anymore. Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:50:39 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article49.phtml So my dear wife and I just celebrated our 9th Wedding anniversary... BY PLAYING 6 HOURS OF WORLD OF WARCRAFT TOGETHER, GETTING A QUICK BITE, AND PLAYING MORE WoW!!!! ... you're jealous... aren't you? Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:36:02 -0500 http://geekdad.org/Article48.phtml I stumbled upon a post that caught my ire ... got my dander up?... ... bothered me a bit? ... entitled "Where were the teachers?" on http://www.lifes-like-that.com now I'll admit that my comments are the typical response by relatively anonymous individuals, who have zero direct involvement in that specific context... but like the rest of the internet, I'd like to think that my experiences, that the the wife's, my mother, my grandmothers, etc... is highly relevant. Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:25:16 -0500 http://geekdad.org/Article47.phtml So my folks leave for a (relatively) lengthy vacation two weeks ago. On Wednesday morning, on their way out, they drop off a fish (a betta) and a couple of plants that require extra care. in their hurry, they realized they hadn't picked up the fish food. no problem, we can go get it. Sun, 05 Aug 2007 13:25:58 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article46.phtml I bought the wife a laptop recently. A pretty decent little refurb'd HP (dv6000), for which she immediately then purchased a pink with white polka dotted bag, and a pink polka dotted skin to stick across it's hide. the specs were pretty good for the price: 1.66 Ghz intel core duo, a gig of ram, and 80 gigs harddrive- plus bells and whisteles like ... and this was a selling point- a remote control. (don't ask me why she'll need it when its sitting in her lap.) and for a brief time, that machine was the top performer at the homestead. Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:39:41 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article45.phtml So two fridays ago, soon following the birth of the neighbors 1st child (5 weeks early, but 7 lbs some-odd oz.... doing fine) NeighborWife's father came down to visit his newest grandchild. Now, NW & GW (NeighborWife & GeekWife) got to talking about NW's concern that her father needed something to do or he would drive her crazy.. So they conspired to have a load of projects for him to do... at our house. Can't have him puttering too loudly 'round the recovering mother and child I suppose. Of course, 99.9% of the projects are either projects we've discussed as “hypothetically would be nice someday” and all of them are well within my skills. Sun, 24 Jun 2007 14:24:32 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article44.phtml Gotta handful of stuff for you. Reviews, commentary, bitching and moaning, etc... brief. cause there's a lot going on. Thu, 14 Jun 2007 23:05:10 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article43.phtml I'm tired of my current job. things have changed. rules and policies are no longer consistently supported, and if my staff or myself try to enforce a rule, we're reprimanded for it. And of course, if anything goes wrong as a result - we're to blame, even though we're not allowed to enforce the rules. Wed, 06 Jun 2007 14:58:48 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article42.phtml couple of things have had my attention recently: a) elder daughter has eye sight issues b) elder daughter lies a lot c) work environment is obscenely & irresponsibly misdirected d) spring=mowing the lawn all the time Wed, 02 May 2007 18:24:58 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article41.phtml In central Texas, there is a plant used quite often in landscaping called Pampas Grass. I call it hateful blades of death. I can see why people plant it to hide unsightly aspects of their homes, like where the meters are and where the utilities tie in- as my wife did. Because it grows quickly, survives drought and heat, and continues to grow, long after you wish it would stop. Sun, 15 Apr 2007 23:13:52 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article40.phtml So the by product of my adventures in hollywood (separate story, later, if I can ever get it written down) was my coming home with an Ipod Shuffle! (Bill- great wedding and best gifts to the wedding party ev-ah). of course, I spent the majority of my trip contemplating the random issues and horror stories I've heard about itunes destroying peoples collections on windows , and the traumas I've seen written about getting ipod anything working with linux. I had come up with this elaborate plan to store much of my collection on a double layer dvd, install itunes on a work or friends machine... all just to load my shuffle. But I need not fear- Amarok & Mandriva worked 99% flawlessly! Sat, 07 Apr 2007 10:37:04 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article39.phtml Lemme tell you, H & R Block SUCKS!!! So the wife was trying to use Turbo Tax to efile. and guess what, it got kicked back because it asked for our 2005 AGI, and what we submitted, based on the the copy of the print out from H & R Block DIDN'T MATCH what they had on record!! Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:47:45 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article38.phtml geez people.. come on, just a little courtesy, please? I just spent an hour clearing comment spam and spam users. I mean, I didn't mind the one or two items.. but there were over 4500 pieces of comment spam in the reviews section alone!!!! stupid people. Wed, 07 Mar 2007 09:51:30 -0500 http://geekdad.org/Article37.phtml the short version: roommate from college and shortly there after is getting married. the guy is like a brother to me. a brother I have spoken to rarely in 7-8 years. the cost of a L.A. wedding will push my financial situation to an area that I'm uncomfortable with, but I feel like I should go. -and not but three weeks earlier- my wife has decided to get elective cosmetic surgery using funds gifted to her from her mother/grandmother. I feel conflicted on oh so many levels. Sat, 03 Mar 2007 22:40:25 -0500 http://geekdad.org/Article36.phtml frustration aside. I must say. with the wifes new recliner, and the wireless keyboard (a big remote, but it works flawlessly)... I can sit and watch a heck of a lot of tv, and I enjoy it. (thus far its a total of almost 3 hours of enjoyment.. but that feels like months compared to my normal schedule.) Sat, 03 Mar 2007 22:20:30 -0500 http://geekdad.org/Article35.phtml ok ok ok... so I should know by now that nothing's “easy” ... especially when its a task for the wife, and especially when I am grossly over confident in my skills and my hardware. See, we have this old P3 with an ATI Rage 128 with TV Out.. and we watch most of our television shows via computer. And the wife, in her infinite wisdom says, “I wish we could just watch it on the TV” ... why? Who knows, she got me a great 19” Sony LCD (check the reviews) and HDTV looks niiiiiice on it. Plus the well spaced stereo speakers and subwoofer. (sorry, haven't gotten the surround setup in the living room yet, she keeps rearranging furniture and destroying the layout.) - but why watch anywhere else? Other than the fact the MY office is MY domain and all mortals/wives/children shall quake in fervent gratitude for the opportunity to enter... and its got a small love seat in there and its really set up for my sitting at my desk. And I don't allow food in there. Yes I'm obsessive.. sometimes. So me in my infinite wisdom say “no problem!” rip a season or two of shows to the 80 gig hd, (perfectly legal if you own the DVD- right?) and hook up the video out and off we go! Well. That was a crock of #@$%@#$. So my first mistake was trying to get an improved interface for her and the girl children to use. I really really like MythTV's look and feel. Of course its more meant for tv playing and recording than watching video files, but it can do that too, so hey, no problem. WRONG. Damn I'm stupid sometimes. (yes, more often than not). In the end, it would appear, what I need is a really simple interface for file browsing and playback- which is way outside of what MythTV is. Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:17:45 -0500 http://geekdad.org/Article34.phtml couple o random things: tollways- yup, central texas just opened their first batch o tollways. yippee. now what I want to see is someone suing the designer for completely botching the job. see, the problem for me is- none of them go anywhere that I need to go. anywhere. in fact, they made a nasty couple of intersections and roads worse. for example. 620, east of Parmer. used to be a nice straight shot, with the unfortunate addition of a new stop light every year or so (I find it odd that the hospital was actually the last to go in) ... but a straight shot none the less, in fact, on a good night, you could cruise at 55 straight through, if you hit the lights right. (I did last night in fact... with the upcoming exception). See they took a straight, unobstructed section and made it merge with the new I45 tollway. Now, coming from Parmer you are defaulted to driving straight onto 45. and if that's not where you wanted to go, you have to make two 90 degree, right angle 15 mile and hour turns- which the speed limit is only an issue if you miss the two lights they've added! To be fair, I can see how mentally deficient (or morally corrupt with financial kickbacks from the tolls) might think that it's the only way to merge the east bound traffic. I can ALMOST comprehend that. BUT for the west bound traffic, there was ABSOLUTELY NO REASON that persons heading west bound could not have continued straight and uninterrupted. In fact, thats exactly how the traffic used to flow! they had to tear it up and back fill it even though the path they destroyed went cleanly from where there current mess starts, to where the current mess actually merges 620 and 45. Some times, when I'm feeling really really really angry, I realize that its going to take not just one death, but multiple deaths at this intersection for action to be taken... I begin to wonder if I could just get the designers/architects/engineers of this cluster to volunteer for the sacrifice out of sheer guilt of how bad it is. b) I hate stupid stop lights too. the one at the driveway out of where I work- late at night. it stays red for those of us trying to leave. I'm talking about 15-20 minutes of red. I'm talking about instances of if I'm trying to make a left turn, but can't... I have actually have had people get out of the car behind me and yell at me because I'm blocking them. So I have to make a right turn and go through the grotesque display of ignorance mentioned above. Now, I will admit.. this light in question has a sensor on it. but it will on turn the signal for no less than 3 cars in line, OR two 3/4 ton trucks. And the city of austin? they're real good and passing me around on the telephone with no one really taking responsibility for fixing a damn problem. Sat, 09 Dec 2006 21:40:14 -0500 http://geekdad.org/Article33.phtml my dear sister, Dawn Cleaves, has just installed this mural in our den. She painted it at her place in New Jersey on muslin, in two pieces, rolled them up and flew them down here. Then after her husband and I disassembled the fan- my wife and a friend of the family applied it kind of like you would wallpaper. If you're interested in what she does, seeing more examples, or contacting her- go to si-murals.com the only hitch and point of debate was around the question of whether the west-east orientation should be true to "real life" or should it "read right" when you looked up at it. we evidently went with it being relatively true to reality (as true as you can without actually pulling out a compass or trying to orientate it against the counties plot) Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:58:16 -0500 http://geekdad.org/Article32.phtml looking for suggestions on songs I should learn to play on guitar for my 4 & 5 year old daughters. for singing to them, with them, for them to dance to, and lullabies. feel free to submit links to tablatures or sheet music. (hint hint) Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:36:40 -0500 http://geekdad.org/Article31.phtml I am soooo sad that I actually have internal debates about leaving comment/link spammers in the user database, just to pad my numbers and to give the illusion that there is ANY real user traffic here. of course, the flip side is how sad is it that they keep signing up and posting spam, when there is NO real viewings by anyone!! Tue, 10 Oct 2006 20:53:36 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article30.phtml I've tried starting to type this many times, but this old laptop keeps crashing. so the following is completely disjointed, and lacks a clear chronological order, please bear with me. Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:38:12 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article29.phtml It is time I begin drawing up the specifications for building a new computer. And I know many of you spend waaaay to much time tapping away at them, so I thought I'd solicit your input. Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:37:32 -0400 http://geekdad.org/Article28.phtml My brother in law has set me up with a gig installing automated/robotic/fancy schmancy lights in a bar/casino/hotel in mississippi. So I'm taking some vacation time from my "real job" and doing it. a couple of things to remember: -I'm waaay out of practice and self concious of it -I've never been away from all of my girls for this long -I'm using an antiquated pentium 3 laptop -I've flown like 3 times in my life.. that i remember... and i don't like airports. -this area was decimated, things are struggling to return to normal a year later. Sun, 20 Aug 2006 19:44:27 -0400