January 5, 2008

[roymond]

So last night my T-Mobile Blackberry failed. Our home internet router failed. My wife's iMac's internal ethernet card died. And this morning our car won't start. Of course this all happens the day before a big vacation. It finally made me laugh.

QotD: How have the forces of evil conspired against you? Has there ever been a time when it just started looking very suspicious?

[jack]

funny you should ask roy......

yesterday, we experienced what can only be described as a winter hurricane. non-stop heavy rain all day with gale force winds coming off the bay. when i left for work that morning, right as i was walking out the door, the power went out. i got to work and 2 hours later the power goes out. so we all go home. i get home and the power is still out. but it's not only out for me, the entire downtown santa cruz area is without power. so all the stores have now closed. doh. i get home thinking i can listen to my ipod but the battery has run down and i left the charger at work, and i can't charge it on my mini mac as i have no power. doh. my power finally came back on at 6:30 this morning.

they are expecting another bigger storm this afternoon and tonight. wonderful. i'm not hoping for a repeat of last nights performance.

that's my combined DRC and QotD.

[Billy's Little Trip]

funny you should ask roy......

yesterday, we experienced what can only be described as a winter hurricane. non-stop heavy rain all day with gale force winds coming off the bay. when i left for work that morning, right as i was walking out the door, the power went out. i got to work and 2 hours later the power goes out. so we all go home. i get home and the power is still out. but it's not only out for me, the entire downtown santa cruz area is without power. so all the stores have now closed. doh. i get home thinking i can listen to my ipod but the battery has run down and i left the charger at work, and i can't charge it on my mini mac as i have no power. doh. my power finally came back on at 6:30 this morning.

I'm just amazed that all of this took place before 6:30am!
It's like an episode of 24. Maybe you should recap all day.

[roymond]

OK, fixed the router, the Blackberry and the car. And it turns out the iMac was fine. Almost a full day wasted, but gained a much improved home network as a result

[Hoblit]

OK, fixed the router, the Blackberry and the car. And it turns out the iMac was fine. Almost a full day wasted, but gained a much improved home network as a result

I have already decided that all of the improvements to my small network will be made as soon as the router dies. Not a minute before.

qotd: When I got dumped some years ago by a girlfriend of 3 years...there was that, then a few months later there was another big thing, then my car died and I worked in the city but was living in the suburbs. That almost lead to me losing my job PLUS there was more drama at work. I was walking around Piedmont park after work one day (Because it was Sunday and there were no busses running in the suburbs) and I sort of had an epiphany... two days later I moved back to Atlanta.

[Billy's Little Trip]

DRC: Started on my New Years "goals" today. It's raining like a biz'atch here today, so I figured it was a sign to start the music room remodel.
A few weeks ago, I found these awesome Rubbermaid track and hook systems at Home Depot (a large building supply retailer) and they looked perfect for hanging guitars and cords. And I was right, they are perfect. I might add one more track above and stagger two more guitars between the three. But really, those in the picture are my workhorses and the only guitars I use for recording, so I really don't need any others at the ready. Plus I just don't like guitar cases all over in this small room. They have all kinds of shelves and racks as well. Check the link I posted up yahh ^^^ and look at all the stuff. Very durable and very affordable. Home Depot's prices are about half of what they list for in that link.

I also have my dedicated music computer "almost" set up. I just need to clean out the old unused crap, and get my music software loaded up. I think I'll just douche it and reload XP Pro and start fresh.

And, I got my FireBox working! YES! I almost went and bought a new one today, but a little voice told me to keep trying.....keeeep tryeeeeeeing. Then I turned around and it was my wife, like this >> saying, you're not spending anymore money on your stupid music, so keep trying keeeeep tryeeeeeing.

[Ross]

here

Watched football and had a nice little family lunch today

QOTD: ??? What???? Macs are not the force of evil.

[Hoblit]

Then I turned around and it was my wife, like this >> saying, you're not spending anymore money on your stupid music, so keep trying keeeeep tryeeeeeing.

This is exactly why you should AND shouldn't be married!
<font size="1">and probably why *I'm* single</font>

[Billy's Little Trip]

Then I turned around and it was my wife, like this >> saying, you're not spending anymore money on your stupid music, so keep trying keeeeep tryeeeeeing.

This is exactly why you should AND shouldn't be married!
<font size="1">and probably why *I'm* single</font>

Ahh, it doesn't matter, I don't listen to her anyway.
Plus I get tHe sexorz, with a real person.

Joking aside, the good out weighs the bad, and the bad is only as bad as you make it. But some people just aren't designed to share their lives unconditionally, and that's cool too. I personally like having a best friend that blows me on my Birthday.

[JonPorobil]

Always encouraging to hear married folk who are older than I am talking about how great it is. A lot of my dad's friends like to joke that I'm making a huge mistake.

We ordered the invitations today.

One of my dad's friends just gave me an old flamenco guitar with a hard case. I think I drove them nuts by playing the first six bars of "Classical Gas" over and over again, and failing to remember the rest. Oh well, it's one more guitar. Which is nice, because my old classical guitar (The one that was in almost every Jon Eric Songfight entry from 2003 to 2005) got crushed in a tragic car trunk accident. It still plays, but it sounds really dull from all the sound leakage.

In other DRC news, my dog is dying. Apparently, the day before I got back home, she jumped up onto the couch and got her snout into a whole bowl of Hershey's Kisses. She's 13 and on her last legs, and the chocolate may very well have sealed her fate; there's a good chance she'll die before I leave for Ohio again. She's been sulking around the house, panting a lot, even though it's cold out, and looking like she'd rather spend the rest of her life without having to walk anymore. Sad.

Overall, I don't really feel like the universe is conspiring against me, because pretty much all my bad luck from the last year or so has been my own doing. I mean, yeah, I blew out a car tire, and my cell phone is a piece of crap that can't hold a charge for more than 15 minutes anymore, but that's small potatoes. My flight was delayed for two hours, but I still didn't miss my connection; that's the universe conspiring in my favor, right?

[roymond]

It's great.

Sorry to hear about your dog. Is chocolate really bad for dogs? I hear it talked about but our dog when I was a boy loved it and I'm sure we gave it plenty to smile about. She lived to 16 and didn't die from chocolate. Has there been studies or are these wives' tales (not to insult the wives whom we love so much...just a saying)? My wife's grandma is 103 and eats pretty much...chocolate and cheese its as far as we can tell.

[JonPorobil]

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp

The article is specifically about Cocoa Mulch, but it verifies the "Old Wives' Tale" with these two paragraphs towards its bottom:

The danger of canine theobromine poisoning does not begin and end with cocoa mulch, however: chocolate in any form poses substantial risks to some pets. This most beloved of foodstuffs contains theobromine and small amounts of caffeine, both of which can sicken and even kill cats and dogs.

Chocolate's toxicity to animals is directly related to three factors: the type of chocolate, the size of the animal, and the amount of chocolate ingested. Unsweetened baking chocolate presents the greatest danger to pets because it contains the highest amount of theobromine, approximately 390-450 mg. per ounce. White chocolate contains the least. As a general rule of thumb, one ounce of milk chocolate per pound of body weight can be lethal for dogs and cats. (Milk chocolate contains approximately 44-66 mg of theobromine per ounce.)

And it should be noted that Ruby ingested a pretty large amount of it, as she had the house to herself at the time, and nobody stopped her. And she's a pretty small dog (the smaller variety of beagle, and the runt of her litter at that).

[Caravan Ray]

My wife's grandma is 103 and eats pretty much...chocolate and cheese its as far as we can tell.

What breed is your wife's grandma? 103 is pretty old for a dog. My wife studied veterinary science - and when we first got dogs, she gave me very strict instructions to never give them chocolate or onions. And never give dogs paracetamol. Apparently that is very common - people think their dog looks sick so they do what they do for themselves when there are crook and pop a few paracetamol tabs. Dogs are apparently a different species to human beings. There is no reason to believe that what works as food and drugs for people will also work for dogs. That's why I don't drink out of the toilet or lick my own testicles (thats a lie - it's purely lack of flexibility that stops me from licking my own testicles)

[JonPorobil]

Grapes and raisins, too.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Sorry to hear about your dog, Jon. My wife and her sisters are pet groomers, breeders, etc, so my boys and myself are drilled on these things. So I just asked her how to help your dog after the fact. I told her that your dog is a small beagle and that she ate Hershey kisses. The good news is that Hershey kisses are cheap milk chocolate and contain very small amounts of cocoa which means low amounts of theobromine, which will make her sick if she ate a lot, but if treated, will not give her permanent digestive damage unless she ate mass amounts.

She said that if it's too late to induce vomiting, to feed her about a teaspoon of active charcoal and water (we keep it in our medicine cabinet) and get her to the Vet. The vet will give her active charcoal interveniously to stop further liver and kidney damage. Anything to dilute it in her system helps too, if you don't have any active charcoal. You can also feed her cranberry juice, but she might not drink it, so she said that most dogs, including ours, like people food flavors, so one thing that is good for dogs that gives flavor is garlic powder and eggs. Or make a soup with some canned dog food and cranberry juice. But there are encapsulated over the counter products that will help too. But the best treatment is following the daily dose instruction for active charcoal capsules from a pet supply, or of course, the Vet.

[sausage boy]

And I was right, they are perfect.

Sweet bass.

[Billy's Little Trip]

And I was right, they are perfect.

Sweet bass.

Ha! It's an Ibanez Flying V. Kind of heavy metal looking, but I love the sound and feel of it.

[HeuristicsInc]

Good luck, JE. Marriage is awesome. Definitely, if you are sure about it, do it. Let us know how the dog is doing, hopefullly the vet can help.
-bill