Musings of a Procrastinating Musician

just a blog of my ramblings. really an on-line journal.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

yet more complaints about Windoze

I am sooooo sick of this stupid problem on my Thinkpad. I think it's primarily a Windoze bug. Some programs like ot remember wherever they were on your desktop last time you ran them. When you have a different display setup, this can lead to problems. For instance, usually my T-pad is connected to an external display. Today it's not. So when I try to run my md5summer program (the DVD/CD writer on the T-pad seems to be jacked, so i thought 'I'll just scp this iso image to the Mac, and burn it there." but i'm paranoid- so i wanted to take the md5 sum to make sure it transferred ok... but i digress) I CANNOT SEE THE PROGRAM.

Now, I've had this problem before. Usually I can hit ALT+M and some arrow keys and manage to move the window until the program comes into view. For some unknown reason it doesn't work w/ this program. Maybe it's a combination of Windows window manager crappiness (I've already blogged to whine about that before) along w/ lazy programming on the part of whoever wrote the sum program.

Ugh. I am sooooo ready to get onto my mac, full-time. I've got ALMOST everything working on it now. I installed a new version of WinXP within VMWare Fusion this time and so far I like it better than Sun's Virtual Box. But I haven't yet coughed up the $80. Too bad my company that's doing so well is too chintzy to buy any decent software for their employees. They are soooo cheap. Ok I'm done complaining.

...By the way, I think I'm finally ready to take the plunge. as soon as i get off this blog, I'm going to re-image my craptastic thinkpad in the (vain?) hope that it will start sucking a little bit less. Don't even get me STARTED on all the bizarre problems I've been having with it... Like yesterday, when Elluminate froze up on me and the computer actually GAVE UP (evidently) and powered itself down. I kid you not. Didn't even bluescreen, it just shut itself OFF. That was a new one, even for ME. I think my Thinkpad needs therapy- it's clearly having suicidal tendencies. (If these problems don't start to clear up soon, I'm going to have computercidal tendencies toward it....)

###

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Free verse

yearning
yet knowing
i said i wouldn't

missing
yet feeling
right now we have to be alone

thinking
yet realizing
i can't always have what i want right now

refraining
refraining
refraining
.... how much longer????

Sunday, October 18, 2009

untitled

this room has never felt so empty as it does when you leave
too dangerous, to walk around like this with my heart on my sleeve.
i wish you'd walk back through that door and stay forever
wrap those arms around me, and let go... never.
i hear the crackling of a smoldering ember
after i've gone, will you really remember?
-or will you forget those times we've shared
...so brief in truth- they seem so spare.

i want to give you everything
i said i'd give you anything
up to half my kingdom
up to half my kingdom.
i guess i'm not ready to give it all
until you prove your heart is true
and i know you won't betray me.

you think you're the blockage of my inspiration
-that couldn't be further from true.
the fact is, these feeble verses
are far too much beneath you
and it's been such a long time since i've felt so alone
and it's all because of you.
and after you leave
every song is a sad one.

the silence descends
like a curtain of darkness
heavy
weighted with the overbearing
mass of all i've left unsaid
pressing on my chest
like a vise
or maybe i'm just being melodramatic.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Non-obfuscated Contemporary Vernacular Lingua Franca of Modern Times, sans Redundancy


In honor of this link: http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/ which I received via email yesterday from my friend Heather, I'm pasting in the man page from the VIOS command "seastat" (I swear I am directly copying and pasting the man page!:

Description



The seastat command generates a report to view, per client, shared
ethernet adapter statistics. To gather network statistics at a per-
client level, advanced accounting can be enabled on the Shared Ethernet
Adapter to provide more information about its network traffic. To
enable per-client statistics, the VIOS administrator can set the Shared
Ethernet Adapter accounting attribute to enabled. The default value is
disabled. When advanced accounting is enabled, the Shared Ethernet
Adapter keeps track of the hardware (MAC) addresses of all of the
packets it receives from the LPAR clients, and increments packet and
byte counts for each client independently. After advanced accounting is
enabled on the Shared Ethernet Adapter, the VIOS administrator can
generate a report to view per-client statistics by running the seastat
command. Note: Advanced accounting must be enabled on the Shared
Ethernet Adapter before the seastat command can print any statistics.

Wow. I'm afraid, all I can say is- wow. *heavy sigh*

There's just one thing I'm really not sure about, though... In order to use the seastat command to view per-client SEA statistics, do I need to enable advanced accounting????
###

Monday, July 06, 2009

Michigan

I always forget how green it is here until I come back. It's sooooooo beautiful here. People say Austin is green, and compared to the rest of Texas, it is. But compared to here, it's brown, brown, brown!

In other news, I realized yesterday that diet really does affect fitness. I was eating all sorts of awful things on Saturday that I don't normally eat. Pizza, some chicken (not horrible, per se, but just not what my body is used to at this point), some packaged "grasshopper" cookies, 3 beers (probably should just stick to 1 or 2, and in fact, should probably rule it out all together when i'm training for a triathlon), and *gasp* worst of all, some snack foods with trans fat in them. You know what's scary is, I'm actually to the point now where I can sometimes tell by the taste when something has trans fat.

Well, on Sunday I went for a 5-mile run around my brother's place. I mapped out a nice route on mapmyrun, waited until I had (at least mostly) digested my snack, which (yuck!) including some kind of nut mix that had some weird sesame sticks (one of the offending trans-fat sources). honestly i never should have even bought that stuff. I only did because I made the classic mistake of shopping for groceries when I was hungry.

So I was running and enjoying the relative coolness (it was only like 80 or 85, which when you're used to running in 102 degrees, feels quite nice), but about halfway into it I started to feel sooooo sick. I seriously thought I was going to vom. In fact, when I got home I actually did (a little). (Which made me feel better). Whenever I am tempted to eat bad things I shouldn't, I am going to force myself to remember how gross that felt and hopefully it will bolster my self-control.

In related news, there is a ton of food here yet almost nothing to eat. Seriously, if I ate the kind of stuff my brother's house is stocked with on a regular basis, I would feel like crap all the time.

If I had the money to do it, I would be so tempted to throw away all the food in the house and replace it with really healthful stuff. But, in addition to me not being able to afford it, I don't think it would do any good, since most good-for-you foods require some preparation (yeah right, like THAT's going to happen...), and I really do'nt think such a gesture would be appreciated.

*sigh* oh well fortunately there's a grocery store not far away...

###

Friday, May 22, 2009

System
Welcome Laura McWilliams.
System
Connecting to server. Please wait...
System
Connection with server established.
You
Technical Support Topic: DSL High Speed Internet
System
Riley has joined this session!
System
Connected with Riley
Riley
Thank you for contacting AT&T Internet Services. How can I help you?
You
hi
You
quick question
Riley
Yes, please ask.
You
i just finished looking at some article another ATT person sent me about putting my modem into bridged mode
You
but i think it's not enough- something weird is still happening w/ my router (and i know you're gonna say "we don't support your router")
Riley
I apologize for the inconvenience you are facing with this issue and will be happy to assist you.
You
just wondering if there's any other configuration setting required beyond putting it into bridged mode
You
the weird thing is, the router is getting a (seemingly valid) gateway and DNS info
You
(although the subnet mask is coming up all 1's... 255.255.255.255, which seems odd to me)
You
the router can ping the outside world, but the PC cannot
You
any thoughts?
Riley
Laura McWilliam, thank you for the information.
Riley
What is the make and model of the modem/router?
You
Linksys WRT45g
You
the last ATT person sent me to linksys
You
i told her " they are not going to give me tech support" she was like, "yes they will"
You
well she was wrong, my friend
Riley
Okay, I aplogize for inconvenience.
You
is Riley your real name?
Riley
Yes.
You
ok
Riley
Are you able to browse any web sites like Google, Yahoo! etc?
You
well i can at the moment, but that's b/c i went back to my cable connection
You
thank goodness i didn't cancel it yet
You
the modem works on its own, it just wont play nice w/ my router
Riley
Have you tried to connect with the modem only?
You
yeah i got that working first b4 hooking up the router
Riley
Okay.
You
then i tried to get the router to work, leaving the "PPoE " or whatever on the modem. that didn't work
You
so then i changed it to bridged mode and put the PPPoE authentication onto the router
You
when it was set up like that, the router itself could ping outside the local network, but my mac, which was of course on the LAN, could not
You
actually it really does sound like a router issue doesn't it
Riley
Yes, you are correct.
You
but the router works fine when it's connected in dhcp mode to my cable modem
Riley
Okay, please confirm the light status on the router.
You
unfortunatley at this moment the router is connected to the cable (hence we are having this conversation)
You
but i can tell you with utmost certainty, there is a reliable link between the modem and the router
Riley
Okay.
You
of course, there was also WLAN activity showing on theh router, too
You
apparently a lot of ppl have trouble getting ATT to work w/ their routers
You
anyways, do you have any other suggestions besides putting the modem into bridged mode?
Riley
I would like to inform you that there should not be any problem while putting the modem in the bridge mode.
You
so you're basically telling me to get a new router
Riley
No, as you informed that your router is working fine when connected to the cable.
You
does it sound fishy to you that when it's connected to the DSL modem, on the connection status page, that it says the subnet mask is 255.255.255.255?
You
or is that normal?
You
(btw i'm glad you're not telling me to get a new router. i feel like i'm already doing better than i was w/ the last ATT person i talked to)
Riley
No, there is no need to buy a new router.
You
yay. so... any suggestions?
Riley
I would like to inform you that it is very difficult to continue with the bridging steps from this chat session.
Riley
You need to contact our voice technical helpdesk.
You
ack! no, not them again
You
argh
You
lol
You
they won't help me b/c it's a Linksys router
Riley
I know they will not help you as you are using the linksys router but they will transfer your call to the appropriate department.
You
nope, they will try to transfer me to linksys
Riley
Okay.
You
are you saying this b/c you really don't know, or just b/c it's not your job? (it's ok either way, i am not blaming you)
You
(i don't want you to get fired or something)
You
ok i have just one question
You
maybe you're allowed to answer
Riley
Yes, please ask,
You
on the router when i set it up to use PPPoE, there is also a place where after the login info i can put a 'Service name'
You
i had just left it blank- do you know if there's supposed to be something there?
You
this is the first time i ever tried DSL so it's all kinda new to me
You
i'm used to cable which you know it just works kind of, "out-of-the-box" as it were
You
...Well, you seem to be kind of busy
Riley
It is not necessary to put the service name there.
You
ok thanks
You
all right Riley well i guess i will just have to continue googling
Riley
The most I can do is.
Riley
That I can send you the link regarding bridging modem.
You
yeah, i did the bridging thing. it helped. it was a step in the right direction
You
thanks anyways, i already have that link
Riley
I guess that you do not like it but finally you need to contact our voice support.
You
no, seriously Riley, i really did try that already
You
they aren't going to help me
Riley
And, you need to contact the Linksys support.
You
they won't help me either. not unless i pay them like 39 bucks, which is almost enough to buy a new router
You
so, away to google we go
You
if i don't get it working i'll just cancel the service; i didn't really need to switch; cable works fine
You
have a good evening/morning/whatever time of day it is where you are =) take it easy Riley
Riley
What they told you regarding the issue when you contacted the Linksys support?
You
they literally wouldn't tell me anything b/c my router is too old. it's "out of warranty"
You
i think they have a solution, probably all printed up in a nice PDF sitting on their desk
You
lol
Riley
*smile.
You
but i told them i wasn't willing to pay
You
(all right, i finally got a smile out of you! my goal is achieved)
You
:-) thanks anyways
Riley
I am here to help you and it is nice chatting with you.
Riley
I must say that you are technically sound.
You
that is probably the 2nd weirdest compliment i've ever received
Riley
It is not like that.
Riley
Laura McWilliams, Is there anything else related to AT&T that I may assist you ?
You
nope i think i'm good
You
have a good one Riley- guess i'll sign off the chat now
Riley
Thank you for your valuable time and patience.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Weird Coincidence

I realized this awhile ago, but I never mentioned it here. For a long time, my favorite day of the week has been Tuesday. It just always has been, ever since I was little. I think for as long as I've been aware of the days of the week, Tuesday has been my favorite.

My favorite time of day is 11:11 am. I find the sequence of ones very satisfying. It also just seems like a good time of day- in the middle of the day my energy levels are usually pretty high, and I'm probably busy doing something.

Anyways, probably within the last year or so, I was looking at my baby book, which my mom gave me when I moved away, and I discovered that I was born at 11:11 am on a Tuesday. Isn't that weird?

############# edited later
incidentally, lately I have even more reason to look forward to Tuesday. Hence, this post.