I am right up there on the top of the idiot pole this evening. The work week finished well and I arrived at the house with a single task that needed to be accomplished before I could rest easy for the weekend: figure out how to stabilize my failing computer. I had cornered myself through procrastination into a system with insufficient hard drive space to accept more data, a tendency to not come back after a reboot without chicken bones, tea leaves, and smudge sticks, and no where to backup the data that was destine to be lost
if when it crashed. I set out for Fry's with the intent of purchasing an external drive of the Firewire or USB2.0 flavor however, when I arrived I thought better of it since we've recently had a lot of instability. I started adding up pieces parts and calculating how much I could build a system for... one to get by... ugg. Even if I ordered the parts online to save tax, I'd still only be saving a hundred bucks or so, so I started shopping sales. I found a system that met all my requirements and was reasonably priced. Whew! Exhale.
Not really. They were out of stock. I chose another similar... same specs but with less memory. Out of stock. I chose another with a slower processor and less memory. In stock, but all the memory (from every brand they carry) was out of stock. Fuck. What kind of sweat shop is this? So, all said and done, I got a 3.0GHz Pentium IV (with Hyperthreading), 512MB PC2700, 160GB HD, DVD+/-RW, DVD-ROM, Radeon 9200 (the 128MB model), and all the normal shit (10/100 NIC, modem, floppy, etc.) for less than a grand after the $100 mail in rebate. VISA loves me. Anyhoo, after my buddy Raymund losing the last 3 months of photos post hard drive crash and Tom losing 15GB of his photos from the last calendar year, I wasn't going to risk it when my system started flaking.
So, the fun begins. I come home and pick up EL for some food and fun at Sam's. We stay until 10:30-ish and head home to check on Henry. I plug in the new system and observe not just a boot into Windows XP Home Edition, but a boot into a cluster fuck of all varieties of sample software already installed. Oh yeah, that's why I've built every system I've used for the last 5 years. I remember now. I have this grand idea to wipe it all clean and install a brand spanking fresh coat if XP Professional on the system. Yes, I know I preach about all the goodness of Linux here, but I use Photoshop CS more than seagulls shit on cars at the beach, so I must install the root of all evil. Anyhoo, I'm about to start the reformat and (luckily) I notice a proprietary system restore/archive program that allows you to backup your state information to DVD or CD. Oh what the hell... why not? I do it.
XP Pro goes on like a champ... system reboots... and there it is. Half the shit on the mobo is unrecognized. The only "Ethernet" connection seen is the Firewire controller (yeah, go figure that out) and I'm dead in the water. P-H-U-C-K
I take a few deep breaths and pull out the freshly burned recovery CD's and start reverting back to the original partition configuration and the preloaded marketechture. It's almost 3:00 and it's just now getting close to being done.
Live and learn.
On another note, I had a lot of time to think while waiting on whirring drives and calculating chips. I browsed around through some old photos... many from before I knew what I was doing. I picked some of my wonderful wife and did black and white conversions on them all... a little tribute to the woman I love more than anything on Earth.
Goodnight.
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The Unanimous
Declaration of Independence
made by the
Delegates of the People of Texas
in General Convention
at the town of Washington
on the 2nd day of March 1836.
When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.
When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to a consolidated central military despotism, in which every interest is disregarded but that of the army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the everready minions of power, and the usual instruments of tyrants.
When, long after the spirit of the constitution has departed, moderation is at length so far lost by those in power, that even the semblance of freedom is removed, and the forms themselves of the constitution discontinued, and so far from their petitions and remonstrances being regarded, the agents who bear them are thrown into dungeons, and mercenary armies sent forth to force a new government upon them at the point of the bayonet.
When, in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abdication on the part of the government, anarchy prevails, and civil society is dissolved into its original elements. In such a crisis, the first law of nature, the right of self-preservation, the inherent and inalienable rights of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political affairs into their own hands in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right towards themselves, and a sacred obligation to their posterity, to abolish such government, and create another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and to secure their future welfare and happiness.
Nations, as well as individuals, are amenable for their acts to the public opinion of mankind. A statement of a part of our grievances is therefore submitted to an impartial world, in justification of the hazardous but unavoidable step now taken, of severing our political connection with the Mexican people, and assuming an independent attitude among the nations of the earth.
The Mexican government, by its colonization laws, invited and induced the Anglo-American population of Texas to colonize its wilderness under the pledged faith of a written constitution, that they should continue to enjoy that constitutional liberty and republican government to which they had been habituated in the land of their birth, the United States of America.
In this expectation they have been cruelly disappointed, inasmuch as the Mexican nation has acquiesced in the late changes made in the government by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who having overturned the constitution of his country, now offers us the cruel alternative, either to abandon our homes, acquired by so many privations, or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny, the combined despotism of the sword and the priesthood.
It has sacrificed our welfare to the state of Coahuila, by which our interests have been continually depressed through a jealous and partial course of legislation, carried on at a far distant seat of government, by a hostile majority, in an unknown tongue, and this too, notwithstanding we have petitioned in the humblest terms for the establishment of a separate state government, and have, in accordance with the provisions of the national constitution, presented to the general Congress a republican constitution, which was, without just cause, contemptuously rejected.
It incarcerated in a dungeon, for a long time, one of our citizens, for no other cause but a zealous endeavor to procure the acceptance of our constitution, and the establishment of a state government.
It has failed and refused to secure, on a firm basis, the right of trial by jury, that palladium of civil liberty, and only safe guarantee for the life, liberty, and property of the citizen.
It has failed to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources, (the public domain,) and although it is an axiom in political science, that unless a people are educated and enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the capacity for self government.
It has suffered the military commandants, stationed among us, to exercise arbitrary acts of oppression and tyrrany, thus trampling upon the most sacred rights of the citizens, and rendering the military superior to the civil power.
It has dissolved, by force of arms, the state Congress of Coahuila and Texas, and obliged our representatives to fly for their lives from the seat of government, thus depriving us of the fundamental political right of representation.
It has demanded the surrender of a number of our citizens, and ordered military detachments to seize and carry them into the Interior for trial, in contempt of the civil authorities, and in defiance of the laws and the constitution.
It has made piratical attacks upon our commerce, by commissioning foreign desperadoes, and authorizing them to seize our vessels, and convey the property of our citizens to far distant ports for confiscation.
It denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience, by the support of a national religion, calculated to promote the temporal interest of its human functionaries, rather than the glory of the true and living God.
It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defence, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical governments.
It has invaded our country both by sea and by land, with intent to lay waste our territory, and drive us from our homes; and has now a large mercenary army advancing, to carry on against us a war of extermination.
It has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our defenseless frontiers.
It hath been, during the whole time of our connection with it, the contemptible sport and victim of successive military revolutions, and hath continually exhibited every characteristic of a weak, corrupt, and tyrranical government.
These, and other grievances, were patiently borne by the people of Texas, untill they reached that point at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. We then took up arms in defence of the national constitution. We appealed to our Mexican brethren for assistance. Our appeal has been made in vain. Though months have elapsed, no sympathetic response has yet been heard from the Interior. We are, therefore, forced to the melancholy conclusion, that the Mexican people have acquiesced in the destruction of their liberty, and the substitution therfor of a military government; that they are unfit to be free, and incapable of self government.
The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal political separation.
We, therefore, the delegates with plenary powers of the people of Texas, in solemn convention assembled, appealing to a candid world for the necessities of our condition, do hereby resolve and declare, that our political connection with the Mexican nation has forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, Sovereign, and independent republic, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations; and, conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, we fearlessly and confidently commit the issue to the decision of the Supreme arbiter of the destinies of nations.
Richard Ellis, President of the Convention and Delegate from Red River.
Charles B. Stewart
Tho. Barnett
John S. D. Byrom
Francis Ruis
J. Antonio Navarro
Jesse B. Badgett
Wm D. Lacy
William Menifee
Jn. Fisher
Matthew Caldwell
William Motley
Lorenzo de Zavala
Stephen H. Everett
George W. Smyth
Elijah Stapp
Claiborne West
Wm. B. Scates
M. B. Menard
A. B. Hardin
J. W. Burton
Thos. J. Gazley
R. M. Coleman
Sterling C. Robertson
James Collinsworth
Edwin Waller
Asa Brigham
Geo. C. Childress
Bailey Hardeman
Rob. Potter
Thomas Jefferson Rusk
Chas. S. Taylor
John S. Roberts
Robert Hamilton
Collin McKinney
Albert H. Latimer
James Power
Sam Houston
David Thomas
Edwd. Conrad
Martin Palmer
Edwin O. Legrand
Stephen W. Blount
Jms. Gaines
Wm. Clark, Jr.
Sydney O. Pennington
Wm. Carrol Crawford
Jno. Turner
Benj. Briggs Goodrich
G. W. Barnett
James G. Swisher
Jesse Grimes
S. Rhoads Fisher
John W. Moore
John W. Bower
Saml. A. Maverick (from Bejar)
Sam P. Carson
A. Briscoe
J. B. Woods
H. S. Kimble, Secretary
Well, well... hump day has past and the sunshine is abundant. I'm digging the weather. *sigh* If only I was not stuck under the fluorescent hum! In a odd turn of events, my grandmother's home was broken into with her in it... scary. Fortunately, she is ok. We really need to get her a dog. I would be happy to give her my sweet
Éclair if she was interested. She's a good watch dog. I'd even pay child support for her hip problems. My only concern is that
Éclair has never spent much time around small children (like my cousins that visit grandma regularly) and I would worry about them pissing her off. Kids are absolute idiots when it comes to pets. Dropping them, kicking them, hitting them with stuff, poking their eyes, etc. I firmly believe that if a well natured domestic animal snaps at a child because the child stuck a stick in it's eye, the kid
deserves to be bitten.
Flame away protective parents! While you're disagreeing, keep a better handle on your child. It's just my $0.02, but parents today are pigeon holed by society's "touchy feely" nauseating nosiness and soft hand in how they should be raised. It's the
Woosification of America as put by
The Buzz's radio
guy. No more dodge ball because it singles out the weaker kids and makes them feel bad. No more marking corrections on a child's report with red ink because it psychologically harms them and breeds low self esteem. No more show and tell because the poor kids are intimidated by the rich kids stuff.
Fuck that. This country is going to shit. I remember corporal punishment at school. I remember when a mother could scold her child in a public supermarket without Miss Do-gooder (who probably doesn't have any children) at the end of the aisle calling
Child Protective Services. Who wants to raise a child in this society? Not I. How the hell did I get on this rant anyway? Oh, yeah... the dog. So, my grandmother needs a gentle, but protective dog to live with... not so small that it gets under her feet, but aware enough that it won't bowl her over. The burglary thing would have probably been avoided if she had one already. Which, a completely different story, she did until a couple of weeks ago. My mother got her a retired greyhound named Abby. A wonderful animal... perfect for my grandmother. My youngest cousin was over visiting and did something to aggravate the dog. The dog snapped at him. My aunt at that point, told my grandmother that she wouldn't see her grandchildren as long as the dog was around.
WTF? Anyway, that hurt her even more than giving the dog to a good home, so she did. Let's not continue because that will fire me up even more when I think about how fucking ridiculous it was to give her an ultimatum like that... unreal. Anyhoo, I've had the mighty gauntlet smacked down upon me by my lovely wife. Effective immediately, I am "encouraged" to only buy camera "stuff" with money made from selling prints or usage of my work. This seriously puts a damper on my plans to save up for a
nice birding lens, but I think it is a fair and equitable agreement. My wife is a smart cookie, ya know? I think the word "addiction" actually leaked out when we were talking about my acquisition of tools. Heh. Seriously though, I recently spent some money on a
Cokin system for my landscape shots. I really want to get those up to speed. The "
Sunrise at the Bend" photo is hanging in our kitchen now... printed up at 20" x 30" on Kodak Endura metallic paper... looks fookin' amazing. I haven't really spent much time in marketing, but apparently this needs to change. So speak up if you are interested in a print of anything I post here. I'm not going to do any pimping for sales on the blog. That's not what this site is about obviously, but I won't turn anyone away either. Just keep in mind that not all photos print at all sizes and if you have a question, just ask. I went to this big meeting this morning on our revised review process at work for annual performance analysis.
Crazy! It's better than it has been in previous years, but it's also a lot more complicated. Hopefully, we get the review we deserve from here on out and not the review based on how proficiently you smooched your bosses ass. I believe my new management team is fair and just... they have integrity... something that has been sorely missed at work for a long time.
Amen. I think I'm going to grab a bite to eat. Have a good lunch!
A wealthy old lady decided to go on a photo safari in Africa. She took her faithful pet Yorkshire Terrier along for company.
One day, the Yorkie starts chasing butterflies and before long the Yorkie discovers that he is lost. So, wandering about, he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the obvious intention of having lunch.
The Yorkie thinks, "OK, I'm in deep trouble now! Then he noticed some bones on the ground close by, and immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat.
Just as the leopard is about to leap, the Yorkie exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious leopard. I wonder if there are any more around here."
Hearing this, the leopard halts his attack in mid-stride, a look of terror comes over him, and he slinks away into the trees.
"Whew," says the leopard. "That was close. That Yorkie nearly had me."
Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So, off he goes. But the Yorkie saw him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figured that something must be up.
The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard..
The leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here monkey, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine."
Now the Yorkie sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back, and thinks, "What am I going to do now?" But instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet...and just when they get close enough to hear the Yorkie says....
"Where's that damn monkey? I sent him off half an hour ago to bring me another leopard!"
STOP! Before you do another single thing this morning, grab your cup-o-joe and
watch this video.
(Note: I am not responsible for any liquid squirting out of your nose if you attempt to drink while watching this pimp ass muthafukka.)
Okay. Now that we have that out of the way. I must tell you, eating nothing but peanuts, beer, Cheese Nips, and Crown Royal for dinner doesn't make for a happy tummy. Oh yeah, and peanut brittle. Ugg. Dirk's pre-birthday birthday party was last night at Blanco's Bar and Grill. Yee Haw. I am going to wander around in the basement and find some food. Perhaps something besides peanuts? Speaking of food, EL just call to tell me that Henry was eating tootsie rolls out of the litter box. You see what I mean?
Terrorier! Oh, and the larva in the photo series from this weekend is definitely a Whitemarked Tussock Moth. I confirmed this with an entomologist yesterday. The truth
is out there.
________________________
"They're made out of meat."
"Meat?"
"Meat. They're made out of meat."
"Meat?"
"There's no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."
"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?"
"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."
"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."
"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."
"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."
"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and they're made out of meat."
"Maybe they're like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."
"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take long. Do you have any idea what's the life span of meat?"
"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."
"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads, like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through."
"No brain?"
"Oh, there's a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat! That's what I've been trying to tell you."
"So ... what does the thinking?"
"You're not understanding, are you? You're refusing to deal with what I'm telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat."
"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"
"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?"
"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."
"Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."
"Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?"
"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual."
"We're supposed to talk to meat."
"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there. Anybody home.' That sort of thing."
"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"
"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."
"I thought you just told me they used radio."
"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."
"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"
"Officially or unofficially?"
"Both."
"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."
"I was hoping you would say that."
"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"
"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say? 'Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"
"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."
"So we just pretend there's no one home in the Universe."
"That's it."
"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you probed? You're sure they won't remember?"
"They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."
"A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream."
"And we marked the entire sector unoccupied."
"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"
"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again."
"They always come around."
"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone ..."
(by Terry Bisson)
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Easter weekend was wonderful. The work week spiraled to a uneventful end as fewer and fewer "things" were happening in the office. I had plenty of work to keep myself busy, but the majority of the management and executive staff was out of town for some sort of conference, so there weren't many meetings to shuffle productivity into compartmentalized blocks that are difficult to stack. One of the biggest things that needed to get done before I threw in the towel on the week was to send out the hardware from the big network hootenanny we had a couple of weeks ago to have an engineering failure analysis performed on them. Once that was done, I was able to leave a little early to try and beat the holiday traffic southbound for the coast. EL and I made good time to my grandmothers. It's always like stepping into another world when we arrive at her reservation. You know, there is always that special feel to a grandparents home, but for me it's more than just a slurry of memories and the stereotypical atmosphere. The plush shaded yards of pecan and various citrus trees... the huge vegetable garden... the different little pools of lilies that are spattered with fish darting about... the abundance of life due to all the greenery... it's all special. One of uncles has a home toward the back of my grandmothers property. He and his wife add a little quirk to the grounds now because they have an inordinate amount of avian pets. Guineas, turkeys, chickens, etc... they roam the place freely. It's barnyard Serengeti. After a quick visit, we continued to my mother's place to meet up with her and her fiancé. The purple martins had already moved in, so the mosquito population was very low compared to normal this time of year. I've mentioned it before, but they live in a cove off the Corpus Christi bay. The house is right on the water with boat dock access off the back porch. I love sitting out there and watching the sea birds and passing ships. Bob caught a redfish for dinner that was still swimming on the stringer off the bulkhead when we arrived. Yum. Cuba Libre, ocean breeze, the sound of gulls in the distance, the smell of that familiar salt air that I grew up in, and the freshest gulf coast fish filet one can have for dinner short of catching it swimming by in their teeth made the perfect end to Thursday and kicked off a great weekend. Friday morning was sunny and calm. I took a few photographs, but nothing to get excited over. We planned a big boil and caught Bob's buddies shrimp boat coming in from it's morning run. After trading the captain a 12 pack of beer for about ten or fifteen pounds of shrimp (or however much could be fit in a small ice chest), we took the fresh veggies bought that morning at the local fruit market and got to it. Bob is the chef when were around, so he did the actual boiling. EL and I drove over to Nana's and picked a dozen lemons off one of her trees for the evening. My mom invited some of her friend over and we all had Bob's margarita recipe (with the fresh lemons) and fresh shrimp on the deck. It amazes me how much juice was in those lemons. My mother got a full cup from two lemons! While the festivities were still in full swing on the downstairs deck, EL and I went upstairs and spent some time in the hot tub before sleepy-time. Saturday morning we went over to my grandmothers for breakfast. It's always a trip highlight for me when we go visit. Usually we get taquitos from the City Tortilla Factory, but this time we made all the fixings and just used their fresh flour tortillas. After breakfast, we scooped up my grandmother and took her with us for Henry's first time at the beach. He loved it once he figured out the whole waves crashing in and going out thing... cute as a button. Port Aransas beach was in great shape this trip... clean and pleasant. The sun was strong and I think everyone got their fair share of pink. Awesome afternoon. Saturday night started out with a big party down the street from my mom's, but EL and I ducked out early to have a quiet evening at home. I wish we would have stayed for the blue crab, crawfish, and shrimp to get dumped on the table, but when we left, they were all still crawling around in the coolers. The bad weather rolled in Saturday night. Winds rose to around 50 mph over the evening and the rains came in with them. EL and I decided to head out early Easter morning to get back to Houston before the rush. Overall, it was a wonderful weekend with my family. I do have a few photos to share, but I simply have not had time to develop them. Perhaps I'll get a chance this evening and will post some tomorrow. Until then, this one will have to do... who knew Great Blue Herons were such gardeners? Heh.
