The Empty

So I was finally able to see the latest Indian Jones movie because it was released on DVD last week.  The movie was alrighty, but I think could have been a bit better in places.  It is no Raiders, of course.  Anyway, I watched the special feature on the DVD with Spielburg and Lucas talking about everything leading up to finally making the latest Indiana Jones movie.  Basically, as far as putting the movie ideas for the movie together it was "George Lucas came up with a stupid-ass idea, and luckily Spielberg was there to make it not as stupid."  I dunno wtf happened to George Lucas, but he h

I stumbled upon a linux turn based strategy game called The Battle for Wesnoth tonight. Looks kinda neat. I am emerging it now and need to remember to try it out sometime soon :)

I have been setting up 3 new Linux servers at work.  Two of them are on gigabit, so I set their MTU's to 9000 to increase the throughput of the gigabit interfaces.  During certain parts of setting the servers up, I saw issues.  I couldn't rsync from one of the gigabit servers to the other.  I couldn't scp files.  Well, I could scp files, but only tiny ones.  I was perplexed.  I could scp and rsync between either of the gigabit servers and the one on fast Ethernet.  I could ssh into any of the servers from any other.  Heck, the gigabit servers were even on the same subnet.  I asked friends and coworkers.  I got onto IRC.  No one had a hint.  Then I crafted a better google search and found this.  Basically, my packets were getting fragmented since the switch probably has the MTU set to 1500, which is the "normal" Ethernet MTU.  While the info at that URL blames a firewall or NAT, I found some other posts around the 'net from people that also experience it without any firewall or NAT in the way.

Anyway, I cranked the MTU back down to 1500 on all interfaces and everything now works fine.  Grr.

I meant to post this last week, but....

I've been watching American Idol this season and am very impressed with a couple of the performers.  However, wtf is wrong with Paula Abdul?  Everything she says falls into one of three categories:

1. Irrelevant
2. Doesn't make any sense
3. Inane

Her eye movement and body language also indicate to me that she is not completely sober.  Mark my words, after this season of American Idol is over, it will come out that she has some sort of drug problem or something.

Last week, there was a shooting at Northern Illinois University. Several people were killed or injured and the shooter also took his own life. As I drove home from lunch with my family today, I saw members of the Westboro Baptist Church demonstrating across the street from a funeral for one of the people killed at NIU. Please click in the hyerlink about this 'church' if you are not familiar with them. There is not a group of more despicable, hateful, and cowardly people in this country that I know of.

One of their signs said "America is Doomed." I think the other one said something about the people who got killed deserving it or some nonsense. If they think America is so doomed, why are they still here? Pull up stakes and move on out! I'll pay their way! If they don't like gays, Catholics, Jews, Muslims and whatever other bullshit prejudice that can come up with, then find a piece of land away from everyone else and set up shop. Perhaps Antarctica or Greenland.

I won't even begin to talk about the idiocy of them trying to use Christian ideology to support their stance. Or the fact that they abuse the rights granted to them by this country to slander it and innocent citizens of it.

If you ever hear in advance of one of their demonstrations, please counter demonstrate. Better yet, make a sign that says "I'm with stupid --->" and march with them. It is said that difficult people are a blessing because they can truly teach you patience. These guys are quite a blessing and it takes a lot of patience to not want to stoop to their level. I think my sign will say "Hatred is a weakness."

We've had some snow and now some ice in Chicagoland, so the snow has a crunchy top on it. When I went out with my dogs before bed last night, I realized one of the things that I really enjoy about the cold and snow.  You have to gear up - and you get to wear cool gear with cool names. I have boots called Timberwolves. I have gloves, a hat, a fleece, an outer shell. Gear!

As I was saying, the snow has a crunchy coating on top now. So I am crunching through the rugged, snow covered terrain under the moonlight - well, as rugged as it gets in my backyard - and I realize that I think this is fun. I can defy the elements with my gear and with my wits if need be. The crisp air on my cheeks make me feel alive and alert. Plus, I make cool crunchy noises when I walk. Kinda like a giant monster crushing Tokyo.

In the course of rearranging my home office to accommodate my new desk (huzzah!) I accidentally dropped my Buddha statue.  Sadly, his two middle fingers and his thumb broke off.  However, he is now a rockin' Buddha!

Well, after the wife and kids have had colds and sore throats on and off for the past month or so, I have finally contracted something.  My nose is a little runny, and I feel run down.  We'll see how it progresses but I am attacking with tea from Traditional Medicinals - their stuff is awesome!  Dextromethorphan cough syrup works for shit on kids (and not too much better on adults) and isn't very good for them either.  Teas from Traditional Medicinals do the trick.

So, I'll be laying low and drinking some tea.  Well, except for some wine drinking tomorrow night :)

Oh my. Where do I begin? Let's start with the Cylon Centurion. Robots are not tubby and no, the black is not having a slimming effect here. And your buddy 'Pat' on the right is not flattered by the outfit either.

And yes, I am mean :)

So yeah, I've let some time slip by between posts. Did anyone notice? Hello? Is this thing on? Anyway, I saw an ad on craigslist for Utterz. I know what you're thinking. I just like it because it sounds like udders. Basically, Utterz is a service that allows you to post to your blog, wherever it is, by using your mobile phone. You can call to make an audio post, text (SMS) in a post, or send pictures from your mobile.

If you scroll down and take a peek along the right hand sidebar on the main page of this site, you'll see the Utterz widget thingamabobber. That gives access to my posts through Utterz. If I was using something like LiveJournal instead of my own wordpress site, they'd be able to just auto-post stuff for me instead of using the widget.

Let's have some fun!