The King is Gone

But he won't be forgotten. I'm not speaking of Johnny Rotten.

I can't remember the first time, but it was probably the early 70s. Most likely after Caeser's. I think it was amazing to any kid, but I know it was for me. I watched everytime. Heck, I remember the emulation on a Big Wheel.

When I was in 3rd grade, I think, my grandfather convinced my Mom to let me have a mini-bike. Anyone my age will remember the pull start Briggs and Stratten motors on these little things. But I had a Honda. Couple of years Later I got a small dirt bike. This was his heyday. It was fun to watch ABCs Wide World of Sports and the long build ups. Then there were the prime time specials.

Today an unlikely hero died. Robert "Evel" Knievel died at 69. Clearly the man lived a full life. He broke most of the bones in his body. He was a thief. He sued Kanye West. He was the man. He was in real life what Steve McQueen was in the movies (but Steve was awesome in his own right).

He had been sick for almost ten years. Contracted hepatitis from one of the zillion pints of blood he got over his life.

Evel, rest in peace bud, you deserve it.

Vista update

So far, so good. After my inital self-inflicted issues, it is going fine. All my printers and scanners and wireless, etc work fine.
Most of my time has been spent running cables and moving stuff around. I have several external hard drives and I have been trying to do some cable management. Haven't done so good with that.

So far I need - new backup software, my new audio card has no vista drivers so it sits unused, I'm not positive that my monitor set up tool is going to work, there are not yet any USB drivers for my diabetes meter, but I think that may be it.

Not bad. I haven't gotten around to playing with it much yet, so I really have no opinion. Vista does seem to have an aggressive indexing service, but no issue.

So, come on in! The water's fine!

The Vista Challenge

Everyone poo poos Vista. No one likes change. No one wanted to move from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95. Heck, what am I saying, no one want to leave DOS3.3 for Windows 3.0.

Sure there are some buggy OSs (ME anyone?) but actually they all work amazingly well. Look, if you want your 10 year old dot matrix printer to continue to work, you may need to run Windows 95, that's just the way it goes.

So I've shunned the world and am loading Vista on my new machine. Frankly I'd have liked to run the 64 bit version, but apparently drivers just aren't around for it. I looked up my hardware and it seems there are drivers for the majority of it. I think I'll be ok from that standpoint.

Lastnight I started the install. Went pretty well. I got all the hardware installed the day before, last night I just prettied up the cabling. I went into the BIOS and tweeked a couple of things, put in the Vista disk and...BSOD. Hmm. Well, I could have some bad hardware, its all an unknown at this point.

So I did what every good psuedo-PC person does...I turned the power switch to off. Then I turned it on.

Hmm. Same result.

This forced me to the mighty interweb to search for an answer. And I got a handful. This generic error could mean most anything, but something stuck out, so back in I went to change it.

Power on, BSOD. Hmm.

So, I'm thinking I should just go to bed, but....no. I can't. Must. Build. PC. Went back into the BIOS and reset it to failsafe (not exactly sure what that means, something akin to factory defaults) and booted again. Success! Woo Hoo! I get to the point where it wants me to tell it where to put the OS. I see an advanced option. Well, I'm nothing if not advanced, so I chose it figuring I could partition off some of my primary drive. So, I picked the primary partition, clicked format, clicked install. "No media sutible for install". What? Lets try that again (obviously if something doesn't work the first time, you try again). Same thing.

Hmm.

OK, so now what. Well, of course back to square one. Go into BIOS and tweek settings. Boot. BSOD. DAMMIT I did this before, didn't I? I was hoping to find something to do with SATA that needed to be set. No such luck and clearly Vista doesn't like what I'm changing.

Back to Failsafe settings. Boot good, get to install Vista. Pick "install" instead of "advanced options". Picks where I wanted it do be installed by itself (cleverly, I had plugged this hard drive into the number one slot), and away it went. Really didn't take terribly long. Nothing like I remember other installs. Of course my machine should be screaming.

Goes through all its reboots and what not, I create my account and there I am. Looking at the pretty screen. No idea where anything is. Its almost like when I went to 95. Sure is pretty tho.

So there you have it, the base OS is installed. The only real issue so far is the BIOS. But clearly it works. Since everything has to get patched, I'm not going to bother troubleshooting it until after everything has been updated.

And then there is that issue of the PC not ever turning off.....

Guilt

All my blog buddies are back at it (well, Annnnnnnn doesn't stop), so I was feeling guilty. Thanksgiving is over and the rush to Christmas is on. I figure none of us will have a ton of time. Better get it out now!
So lets see...

Thanksgiving was good. I had a little break as the family went away while I worked. I took the time to do some cleaning up, put the motorcycle back together, and light the house. I'll never be on the tacky light tour, but I enjoy putting up lights.

I did the deed tonight. It was sad, but I did it. I took the lightweight tire off the back of the bicycle and put the cheap one on. I decided it was stupid to tear up a good tire on a trainer. Sure I'll be on the road some over the winter, but there will be more time on the trainer. Come spring, I'll slap the good tire back on. Also, I had lost the cadence sensor, so I got a new one and put it on. I also preview the new DVD I got. It is going to be TOUGH. Only thing I don't like about it is that they don't give you a target cadence, so its up to you to push hard. Its a muscle building video, which I need. I'm tired of all the girls dropping me. One last cheat, I ordered my 12/25 cassette. I'm figuring that will help when the 3 Bit....I mean Sisters are in my path. Watch out girls!

The PC is in, so you might see some trip photos one day. I took a break from assembly to come write.

And now in the spirit of joining in, (or tagging along, whatever), I was reading my Ironman friend TriGirl 40's blog about their post Ironman events. Seems they went in for some body alteration. Nice looking stuff they've got there. Well, I did the same thing last week, so......




There are more to come, but this will be it for awhile. I think this goes back to my midlife crisis. At my age, why just not do what I want? If people are going to judge me based on it, oh well. They'd have already done that with the earrings anyway. :-)

I tried to go to the gym today, but that was pointless. It was PACKED. Its never this packed. I left. All the cardio was full, and folks were signed up for the next slots. All the weight stuff was in use, and the free weight area was packed. I hope this was Thanksgiving guilt. I pay less at the Y and only have access to this small one. If they get this many folks to start coming, I'll have to find another place. They just don't have enough gear to support that many people. I need to be on the bike anyway, but I'm spending the money so I'd like to use it.

I suppose I should go do some other chores...like Christmas shop!

Revelations

I got the idea awhile back that I should try to do a 10k run. I kind of floated the idea. Everyone said I could for sure work up to it easily. I gotta say being around all the TriGirls made me think I should give it a shot. Swimming would kill me at this point, so a triathalon is out.

Today was a Turkey Trot at my kid's school. They had to do 2 loops that amounted to a mile. My kid is pretty slow, and it was pretty cold. We ran.....some. In that some I realized something. I.Can't.Run. Confirmation. There you have it. Man, it is just so awkward. My knees felt rough, my calves just pounded. Now, my stride was funny, but still. Nope. Not gonna.

Now, a little bragging. Sorry in advance. We're having a sleepover tonight. My kid is an only, so we try to do these things so she isn't stuck with just us. We've had several kids over over the years. Everytime I end up feeling the same. Everytime i end up realizing how great my kid is. Now, she can be ...motherly (bossy perhaps), but she is so well behaved. Other kids tend to annoy me because they act like kids. They really aren't doing anything wrong, none of the kids have ever been bad. She's just really good. I'm very lucky.

Getting a new PC. Lord knows I didn't need to spend the money, but my desktop has become processor bound. Its pretty old, like 4 years. I'm not sure exactly what has happened to it, but something. I've scanned it with several virus engines, spybot engines, tuning software, and nothing has come up. I loaded a piece of software the other night and it took 75% of the processor. Scottie called and said "she can't take anymore captain". I've never had this happen, usually I just upgrade for the heck of it. This time it looks like I finally maxed it out. Now the issue of finding something to do with it. Of course it'll be over a month before I'm off of it and feel like the new one is stable..

[/off geek]

Night

Stuff, Random at its Best

I'm way overdue here. I had the best intentions of putting up more pictures, and I will, but I just haven't gotten around to converting them. They are all still sitting on the card...much like that Kodak commercial. My excuse of the day is that I bought a new harddrive for pictures. I bought new software because my old wouldn't deal with RAW files. I figured I might as well reorganize the mess in the process.

And there you have it.

Also, dealt with some odd stuff. Can't really write about it. Not bad, just....odd. No matter how old I get, I still seem to meet people I don't understand.

Last Saturday was my birthday. My kid always has "plans" about birthdays and such. They kind of drift with the prevailing winds so it can be a challenge to figure out what you're doing.
She decided I needed a boy date, so she had my wife call a work friend and see if he was available. I was supposed to go drink beer and do boy stuff. So we went to GForce Karts. We did 2 sessions. I came in second both times, but I really blew it the first time. Second time the track was more crowded, so I got held up some. I did beat my friend.
Afterwards we went over to Joe's Inn for a beer and a snack. Racing is tough you know! Must hydrate! (Thanks for that lesson, ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN).

So, I had been instructed to warn when I was coming home, so I did. Upon returning I walked to the door to be assaulted on either side by Silly String. Nice, they actually got me. We went inside for the gifts, which included what will be a torturous Spinervals DVD. I have one of the easier ones, Aero Base Builder. I used it last winter and it really helped me get use to spinning more. As much as I dread this Big Gear one, I need it.

Birthday dinner was at Ichiban. Kid knows I like sushi, so that was the choice. She enjoyed her chicken nuggets with chop sticks.

Great day.

Otherwise not a lot of excitement. The new Einsturzende Neubauten cd is great. I like most all of their work. The songs have more melody than they did 20 years ago. They are still a tough listen, but worth it if so inclined. Most people would be put off by the German lyrics. Last time I saw them in DC they stated they wouldn't be back due to the cost of travel. We'll see. And hope. I will be paying a personal tribute to EN next week.

And...that's it.

Bored

Worked a little late, went to a meeting tonight, didn't feel like dealing with photos. Instead, I took those quizes TriDi and REB60 have been.....so....

Addicted to Coffee - 71%
8th Grade Science - 69%
Internet Knowledge - 62%
Spelling - 73%
Geek - 36%
Blog Rating - PG-13 - Dangerous and Sex


At least my blog got a good score.

Day Oneish

So, here we go



Alright, so this isn't from the first day, whatever. A note, all photos I'm posting were shot in Nikon RAW (.NEF) and I used Irfanview to do a quick resize and format change. The web ain't art, and I'm sad to say my photos don't seem to be either. In fairness to myself, I tend to just whip it out, zoom and click with the digital. Obviously that's not possible with that camera up there.
I was in Sedona the first couple of days, where my folks had a place. We went to some park where I shot some photos. Only a short hike in. The photo sizes are odd as I can't seem to get larger ones to show right. I know it has to do with my page format. I'll change it one day.








That last one is the one I'm counting with the 4x5. It was by far the best shot. I shot all of it on color transparency and B&W. I'll have to get the color processed. I'll do the B&W, but it'll be awhile. I left all my stuff out in AZ with my folks, who'll drive it all back in a week or two.

When I was shooting, I had folks stop and stare, stop and ask questions, stop and copy my shot. They figure if I have all that crap out, it must be good! Seriously, I never know what to say, and I blow it everytime. I mean, perhaps since I've been around photography my whole life and have always known who Ansel Adams was, I knew what a big camera was. Apparently that isn't common, even in people older than I. The first couple asked what it was, and I said Zone VI. They said what? I said, oh, its a 4x5 view camera. Still the looks. The woman asked if I had to go to special school for it. I was stumped. I just said, well, its what that used in the 1800s, so it isn't that tough. Feeling like an ass, I quickly offered to let them look under the dark cloth. There is something quite special about that. They were amazed. I wonder if they noticed the image was upside down and backwards? I suppose not. Later we ran into them and the man said he knew I was a great photographer because he had been there all day and he took my shot and it was his best. Great.

Later a lady came up and asked what it was. I said a view camera. Her response was, I know, what kind. See? Can't win. She felt the need to list all the cameras she owned and how she was considering large format. I guess if I shoot more, I'll get use to it. The forums are filled with the same sort of stories.

Ok, that's it for tonight.

I'm Back

Not that that's all that exciting. I have lots I could write about. I have a gazillion photos, but I have to go through them, and frankly I'm tired. And, I came back with a cold.

But, really, there is only one thing I want to say. I want to congratulate trigirl40 and TriGirl DL and all the other Tri Girls I know on their weekend. I just can't imagine the last year of dedication and work these girls put into this event. Hell, I can't even imagine a Triathalon, much less an Iron Man!!

So, I'll catch up later. I need to go read some blogs.

Girls, you rock!