New Stovetop Installed By Idiot
[Post backdated from 03/20/03 to 01/30/03]
Our new stovetop was finally installed today. Later in the evening, I discovered that the idiot did not hook up the existing vent line to the new blower. Is the entire world comprised of freakin' incompetent morons? Or is there just a bad karmic cloud swirling around me that attracts this shit?

Used a borrowed High 8 DV camcorder to capture wedding video to new Dell using Roxio. This resulted in a 6GB AVI file for 30 minutes of DV tape. Moved 4GB of digicam pictures from laptop to new Dell desktop. 

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Partition Magic
[Post backdated from 03/20/03 to 01/29/03]
Used Partition Magic 8 to make one large partition on an external hard drive. It pissed and moaned about not being able to handle the partition. Finally had to reformat the whole drive. Pain in the ass. Does anyone make software that works as advertised? 

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Frack The Cisco VPN Client
[Post backdated from 03/20/03 to 01/28/03]
I fixed my VPN digital certificate import problem. My company's outsourced VPN provider uses a re-branded Cisco VPN client. It sucks. Each time they've provided a version upgrade or a digital certificate renewal, it destroyed my ability to connect. The first time this happened, I had to escalate three levels in technical support to get it fixed. This time I remembered a few of the steps and finally fixed it myself. I'm always surprised Cisco's products appear to be well regarded. All of their hardware or software products that I've used have been problematic. 

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Category Posts
Items from my Radio UserLand news aggregator are mostly being posted in the Items To Review and Radio Fun categories. Anyone visiting my home page will find the links in the left navigation column as To Review and RadioFun.

When (if?) I get caught up with old personal posts, I'll resume putting aggregator items on the home page. 

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Play Time
[Post backdated from 03/08/03 to 01/27/03]
Played Myst III: Exile for hours. Too many hours. 

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More Wedding Photo Work. Lame Software.
[Post backdated from 03/01/03 to 01/26/03]
Maria helped at Crystal and Nate's for Super Bowl Sunday. I stayed at our place to number photos and assemble wedding photo albums.

Downloaded public beta of Jasc Photo Album. Too bad it won't make a slideshow that adjusts the display time to sync to the length of a specified song. Pretty lame. That is a very basic slideshow feature. Uninstalled it. 

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Kitchen Blasting
[Post backdated from 03/01/03 to 01/25/03]
Helped son-in-law Nate load our white glass-topped deck table, white umbrella, and chairs in Crystal's Saturn. The set will now grace the rear deck at their apartment.

Maria taught the first session of class she does not like.

I tore off the old stovetop frame to make room for the new Jennair. God loves a sledgehammer. Tile, concrete, chicken wire, dust, and shrapnel everywhere in the kitchen. The thrill of makin' a mess must be a guy thing. Managed to clean up everthing before Maria returned home. That part wasn't quite as much fun. Sigh...

Used big paper slicer to cut wedding album photos.

Watched DVD of Austin Powers in Goldmember.

Maria's PowerBook with Jaguar OS X 10.2.2 reads a retail DVD but not the test DVD+R/W I burned. 

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Sprained Wing
[Post backdated from 03/01/03 to 01/24/03]
Maria tripped going up some stairs at the college and sprained her right elbow. Now her wing is in a sling.

Heard from the stovetop installer that I should remove the old countertop myself, all the tile and wood. 

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Jennair Getting Closer. First DVD Burn.
[Post backdated from 03/01/03 to 01/22/03]
Our new Jennair downdraft stovetop finally arrived at the local distributor. Installation is scheduled for next week.

Made another test video clip using the new Dell. This one was of son Bryan at a drinking fountain in Santa Barbara back in 1985. Wrote a DVD+RW with moving thumbnails of this video and the earlier sandbox test. It plays on the Dell but not our DVD player in the family room. When I have more material, I'll burn a DVD+R and try that instead. 

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New Home For Myst III: Exile
[Post backdated from 03/08/03 to 01/21/03]
Discussed digital video transfers with Crystal's husband, Nate. Showed kids the first test sandbox video of Bryan and Crystal.

Installed my old copy of Myst III: Exile on the new Dell. I almost never play computer games. Nothing against them, just never see anything that lights my fire. First-person shooters are so lame. Sports games? Puh-leeeze. Driving games? Hardly. I could just blast through the redwood forest in my Toyota Celica. However, I've made exceptions over the years for the Myst game series. Eye Candy. Ear Candy. Sweeeet. 

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Home Again
[Post backdated from 03/01/03 to 01/20/03]
Son Bryan returned from Boston. He enjoyed the cold city and nightlife with his friend. He and John were roommates here in California until John's job required relocation to the East Coast. 

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Shania Twain TV Concert
[Post backdated from 03/08/03 to 01/19/03]
Tested Dell again on the CAT 5 cable in family room; worked fine.

Returned the Sharp microwave that Nate and Crystal bought us to Fry's. Kept the Panasonic since it fits the cramped space better.

Dinner at Stuart Anderson's Black Angus.

Watched old Shania Twain concert (with Elton John and Back Street Boys in Miami) on Country Music Television (CMT) followed by several of her music videos. Then watched some Faith Hill music videos. I never watch this station; just got lucky tonight. Shania in concert is a real treat for the eyes and ears. I need to buy the concert DVD one of these days. 

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Dell problems. Radio problems.
[Post backdated from 03/08/03 to 01/18/03]
Photograph daughter Crystal's old room. Viewed her old photo albums. Cried.

Moved the Dell into Crystal's old room on table relocated from my office downstairs. Network connection problems with the Dell. Suspect the CAT 5 cable connector since computer connected to internet just fine when on the CAT 5 cable in the family room.

Try to recover Radio weblogdata.root on my laptop. The current version hangs Radio when compacting the data file. 

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Studio 8 beta
[Post backdated from 03/08/03 to 01/17/03]
Install Pinnacle Systems Studio 8.5.8 beta on Dell. 

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First analog video capture
[Post backdated from 03/08/03 to 01/16/03]
Son Bryan left to visit friend John D. in Boston.

Test analog capture card included with Dell Movie Studio Plus. Create short clip of kids from beginning of 1985 family tape #1. Install Pinnacle Systems Studio 8. Make sandbox test video of kids.

Gasoline price benchmark: 87 / 89 / 91 octane at one of the local independents was $1.689 / $1.789 / $1.889 per gallon. 

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Testing New Toy
[Post backdated from 03/06/03 to 01/15/03]
Test new Dell. Install PartitionMagic 8.0 and DataKeeper 5.0 component, both from PowerQuest. Make backup to external USB/Firewire 80GB drive. Apply all current Windows XP Pro updates from Microsoft site. 

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Router Revived, Dell Received, Danes Viewed
[Post backdated from 03/01/03 to 01/14/03]
Bryan's girlfriend Katie left for Berkeley.

Router dude at work changed the UUNET phone number in my Cisco ISDN router. We found that UUNET was having problems with that number over the last few days. Router works fine now when accessing new number.

Received new Dell. Bought DVD X Copy from 321 Studios and a 5-pack of DVD+R media at Fry's. Setup Dell, added several users, ran chkdsk and defrag, started some of the included applications.

Saw Claire Danes on Letterman. My friend Rona has been told she looks like Claire. 

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Tooth Rework and Network Pain
[Post backdated from 03/01/03 to 01/13/03]
Dentist installed permanent crown to replace the temporary I've chomped on for the last month.

Spent last night trying to force the Cisco 1720 ISDN router to dial UUNET so I could reach the internet. Router's refusal to dial out was probably the reason I could not access the internet the other night. Since the router is in the server room, I did not see the status lights showing there was no active path to the outside world. After checking, this really does appear to be router-related and not a problem with the wireless access point.

Received the CD+R/W media portion of my Dell order.
 

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Dinner and Stubborn Powerbook
[Post backdated from 03/01/03 to 01/12/03]
We met son Bryan for dinner at Adolph's in Santa Cruz. The original plan was to dine at Zoccolis Pasta House, but we found that location closed down. Don't know if they relocated, or just closed.

Strange... much trouble getting Maria's Powerbook on the network tonight. 

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More Chihuahua Drugs. Katie's Going-Away Dinner.
[Post backdated to 01/11/03]
Vet prescribed 30-day supply of anti-anxiety drugs for our Chihuahua, Misty, who has been nibbling the hair on her backside. Chihuahua with baboon-butt still looks pretty funny. Tried to get digicam photo but she won't hold still tonight. 

Maria worked at the college all day for semester registration.

Going-away dinner at Tom and Nanette's because Bryan's girlfriend Katie is headed to Berkley as a junior. King and wife Ying were also there. I carpooled with King several years ago. Ying makes jewelry as a hobby and gets supplies from Fire Mountain Gems & Beads. She was "forced" to learn Photoshop at work. Spoke geek with her. Fun. 

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Dude, I'm Getting A Dell
[Post backdated to 01/09/03]
Rain started again in the mountains. The welcome break is over.

The new Dell shipped today.

Maria saw Rona at the college. Rona said the lawsuit over the house, and more disturbing matters, settled 12/24/02. Good for her.

Still no new stovetop.

Photo work on a Nike doo-doo picture with Maria. This will be a Valentine's Day gag gift for Crystal's husband, Nate. 

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Medical Pain In The Neck
[Post backdated to 01/08/03]
We are on "backup elder patrol" again while neighbors are in San Diego.

I was forced to make an emergency medical plan change at work after being informed that negotiations broke down between my current medical group and my company's insurance carrier. No other medical group in town will deal with the HMO arm of our insurance carrier. Only one medical group in town will deal with their PPO arm, so I had to switch from HMO to PPO and move to a new medical group. As usual, the patient gets screwed. This change is going to cost me a small fortune in uncovered medical charges over the next few months.

More picture printing for parent albums. Spent much time organizing directories of digital camera picture. I really need something like Adobe Photo Album.

Crystal and Nate returned from Nevada. 

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Photo Stuff
[Post backdated to 01/07/03]
More photo work for wedding albums and Katie care package. Read review of beta version of Adobe Photo Album at dpreview. Sounds interesting. 

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End of Holiday
[Post backdated to 01/06/03]
We moved all the Christmas decorations back to attic. Photo editing of Bryan and Katie pictures for a "Katie care package." There will be a going-away party for Katie next Saturday, as she leaves the following Tuesday to start school at U.C. Berkeley as a junior. Crystal and Nate drove to Nevada to visit Nate's grandparents. 

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Quiet Sunday
[Post backdated to 01/05/03]
More wedding photo work on 5x7 copies for parent albums. Installed another printer in Maria's office at the college. 

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New Printer
[Post backdated to 01/04/03]
Bought new EPSON Stylus Photo 825 color printer. Began printing 3 albums of Crystal and Nate's wedding photos, getting 31 full 8x10 sheets from 1 color ink cartridge. Maria took down the Christmas decorations while I printed. 

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Movie and Software Day
[Post backdated to 01/03/03]
I went to see Star Trek: Nemesis in Santa Cruz by myself. Uninstalled HP Photosmart 850 digital camera image import software from Maria's PowerBook. Now iPhoto can import from her digicam. 

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The Great Outdoors
[Post backdated to 01/02/03]
Maria and I planned to go to Ano Nuevo State Reserve but found out too late that you need reservations, which were no longer available. Instead, we drove north on California Highway 1 to the coastal access point north of Davenport. There we had wine and snacks on the beach and took digital photos of the heavy surf. Drove home through Bonny Doon, stopping in the forest to take my first "moving water" pictures. In the evening, Maria and I watched the DVD of X-Men. 

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Happy New Year
[Post backdated to 01/01/03]
Maria and I watched the DVD of Minority Report with son Bryan and his girlfriend Katie. 

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