--Archive--
((2002))
March 20 - March 23
March 24 - March 29
March 31 - April 6
April 7 - April 13
April 14 - April 21
April 21 - April 27
April 28 - May 3
May 4 - May 10
May 11 - May 17

Oh my God. I can't hardly believe it. Sound in Linux. Can I get an Amen? A hell yeah? A something from someone? It's amazing I tell you, amazing.

Hmm.. just found out this evening that my internet hosting bill hasn't been paid for last month thanks to my new card (with a new expiration). I opened a trouble ticket informing them of the change, hopefully that will be cleared up by the end of the long weekend.

Paid my phone bill at Bellsouth. Unfortunately I accidentally put the wrong Checking account number (I thought it read Check Number on quick glance) but I've informed Betty and all should be well on that front.

Hmm...thinking about New Orleans. Brings a nice big smile to my face. I tell ya, while that first night was the wildest, the whole thing was a blast. Here's a shout to my frien' Tony. If you're reading this, fire me an email, wouldja?

New install of Mandrake 8.2. Mmmm...I love it when ISOs play along. This install was like buttah (oh yes, very much so) and it was a lovely thing to see. Mandrake is nice and user friendly, with the single best installer around, and loaded without enough neat stuff to kill a horse.

And, I got my sound working.

YES!

Let's all just take a moment and enjoy this.

SOUND.

In LINUX!

Evan Erwin from URL @ 9:40 PM

Phew. Early mornings plus little sleep != a good thing.

Not much going on today. I think I'm supposed to go over my mom's house tonight...but I can't remember. Last night I went over my grandma's (my mother begged me) instead of working out, and when I got home my sister called and we went and got my mother's kitchen table from my mom's old house. The bad part was that I tried to move this long, awkward table by myself, and I broke the end of one leg off. It's a "leaf" table, meaning the sides fold down, and one of the legs that holds up one side of the "leaf" broke. Just the bottom part however, and I think a little hot glue and/or Super Glue may do the trick. We'll see. I feel shitty though, because dammit, Mom loves that table and even if I can cover it up for the next little while (this includes YEARS), I'll still know that I messed it up and when she finds out she won't be pleased.

Hmph. Well, Ericka's off this weekend and wants to go back down to East Tennessee Nissan (also known as We Won't Give You Shit For Your Car But We're The Biggest Dealership In The State So We Have The Right To Fuck You). They're having a special where you buy a car and get a used car for a buck (yeah, right), and that they'll give you an extra 2k on your trade-in. Plus they're claiming they're giving away new Sentras for 10.9k. Again, believed when seen. I doubt Ericka will get much more than the $6500 they offered her last time, but if you add 2k to that its $8500, yet she still owes 10k, so you do the math. I dunno, I got a good deal on mine and while I need an oil change and a tire pressure check, everything else seems to be tip-top.

Hmm...Insomnia looks like the best bet for the movies this weekend. Since Ericka is off I'll be spending time with her but might convince her to go see Insomnia (she's expressed interest), but I doubt Episode II. Sure the first half is pretty boring, the last makes up for it in spades. Hmm...a quick check of the Art House in Knoxville reveals World Traveler (a Billy Crudup (Almost Famous) and Julianne Moore flick about a guy who makes a family in a town then splits for another new town to make a new family, etc), which might be interesting if I'm Bored Out of My Mind or something, and also Enigma, which got a bit of press earlier this year then died down. It's about WW2 code-cracking. Um...yeah. Sounds like fun (/sarcasm)

Been reading Lamb by Christopher Moore. For those not Spirtually Sensitive, it's one damn funny book. It tells the story of Jesus in retrospect by his childhood friend Biff. For instance, did you know that Jesus's real name is Joshua? Joshua translated to Greek is Jesus. There ya go. Christ is another word for Messiah. The "H" in Jesus H. Christ is...uh...simply made up because it sounds good. Anyway, if you're not Super Offended (and I certainly know many here in the bible belt who are), you'll hate it. Otherwise, you'll be picking yourself up off the floor laughing. Great stuff!

Gotta run, time to update manuals and procedures. Adios

Evan Erwin from URL @ 2:35 PM

Holy Shit. Check out this DooM III preview over at Gamespy. Beautiful stuff. I'm psyched for next year, which by that time I'll have a new machine and a smaller, female version of myself (Annie that is).

There's a new update to the main site here, a new Short Story named Coy. Go to the Short Stories section of misterorange.com to check it out.

Didn't get to touch Mandrake last night, but I've re-burnt the ISOs for 8.2 (discs 2 & 3, the ones giving me shit), and hopefully this install will be no problem.

Goddamn, check out This Memento LE DVD guide to accessing all the hidden features. I'm gonna wait until I pick up my own copy and play around with it awhile before I begin my own cheating, but damn, just glancing over it, 4 different commentary endings? That's what I'm talking about.

Hmm...we're going through an FDIC exam, which happens every year, so we're dealing with that at the moment. Most of the stuff, thankfully, is already prepared thanks to the audit we went through a week or so ago. All the work I did will pay off in numerous places.

And is there anyone out there that can successfully get Slash to work/compile correctly? The installation instructions suck and a HOWTO would be great. Too bad there isn't one...

Evan Erwin from URL @ 11:54 AM

Dammit, I overslept this morning and thankfully made it to work around 7:30am or so before anyone else showed up. A bit of a flurry, but I got the work finished on time. Phew.

Talked to Rhonda today. Her man Steve has a tear duct stone. Seriously, a stone in his tear duct. She said that he's going to have surgery...this week? Not sure, but she did detail a few doctors visits where they stuck a needle in his duct to try and get it out. Your tear ducts are in that little groove between the top of your nose and your eye. Imagine a needle going in there from the bottom in hopes of popping that bitch out. *cringe*

Lastly, check this teaser poster out. Sweet ass stuff! :)

Evan Erwin from URL @ 11:31 AM

Hmm...the post install blues. The laborious tasks of finding, copying, installing, etc etc. Hrm. My Ximian binaries that I burnt to CD are giving me mostly I/O errors (woo, thanks cdrbq). I'll try to copy them again but hell, I'm probably better off just downloading the stuff while I sleep. As I speak I can barely keep my eyes open. It's time to shut eye, six hours before the awakening. Ugh.

Hrm. Mandrake. Good stuff, but a little odd. Here's an example: no pico. I mean, seriously folks, what's Linux without fuckin pico? *shrug*

I'm pretty sure there is just no way in hell now that my Aureal soundcard is going to work in Linux. The drivers won't compile, I get a kernel error, no matter what version of make I do, and since Aureal went out of business, Creative Labs stopped putting money in the chipset and won't release the specs for further driver development. sigh.

Phew. Sleeeeeep....

Evan Erwin from URL @ 12:17 AM

Well, the Mandrake install has finished. My thoughts? Well, were it not for my fucking around with Sawfish, it would've been a wonderfully condusive experience. Also, I believe my disc 3 iso is bad and/or incomplete. The system couldn't read it and so I didn't get to install every package I wanted to. Either way, this is a really beautiful interface and the installer is top fuckin notch. The fdisk tool alone is worth an install.

Damn, another 7am day tomorrow. Sigh. The good news is that my Internet Access Guide is finished, a 17 page illustrated (with screenshots) of how all the bank's internet functions work and how to access them. I worked on it for about two/three hours and I swear to God Travis drove me absolutely batshit. Can't one guy just BE QUIET? Can't you see I'm BUSY!? Ugh!

Well, there's the news. Time to install Ximian and Abiword. Peace.

Evan Erwin from URL @ 11:08 PM

It is time for Mandrake. Yes, ladies and gents, it is time. I have enjoyed my Redhat(e) 7.2, certainly I have, but now Mandrake awaits and all that that implies. Who knows Redhate, I may come back to ya. But until the next reinstall, this is me signing off of Redhate 7.2/Ghome/Ximian.

Be back in a few hours with thoughts :)

Evan Erwin from URL @ 7:58 PM

Woohoo! I've made a breakthrough at work concerning cisco routers and our DSL internet connection. Basically, I needed to know how to get other branches, who are connected via Cisco router and Frame Relay circuits, on the Internet. Well, today the light shone in and everything became clear.

You can get the good stuff Here, at the forum posting at Sygate, the fine people whose routing and firewall software we utilize. You'll find all the how-to and the why-nots in there.

I gotta tell ya, its nerve-wracking as hell working on the router, but the payoff, when it works, is a glorious thing :)

Ugh. Getting up at 6am sucked, btw.

Evan Erwin from URL @ 1:29 PM

Interesting happenings this evening. Well, last night actually. Seems as though I've written my first short story in a LONG time. I actually can't remember the last short story that I wrote to be nothing more than a little ditty that has a beginning and ending on less than fifteen pages. This one is only seven and is now in the rewrite stage. I really like the simplicity and speed of it. I think that short stories, if nothing else, teach you economics with words. Of course with novels you can ramble a little bit (hell, Stephen King got in that rut for YEARS. Can any human really stomach Needful Things, IT, and the Tommyknockers one after another?) but this is where the real storytelling comes out. You have to make each sentence, each paragraph, build on the one before. Sheesh, from that description, sounds like I'm writing the Grapes of fucking Wrath. Anyway, it's not great but it's nice to have completed, and after editing and rewrites I'll post it for your viewing pleasure.

Got to see Tommy's kid, that was neat. Got to hold him for awhile, play with his little feet, again marvel at the softness of their new skin. It's great stuff, but I couldn't help but groan at the description of the circumcision and the care involved. Did you know you have to change the bandage every time the baby urinates? Up to six times a day? You do now.

Anyway, got back in time to watch the Road Rules/Real World challenge. Ericka was jazzed and I enjoyed it while we downed some Krystals.

So, that's the update. Gotta run now. G'bye :)

Evan Erwin from URL @ 12:14 AM

Well, after getting the wrong battery, I returned home with the right battery and got it installed it all right. A few sparks flew however, just to remind you that yes, that battery can kill you.

Ericka called in today, she seems to have an earache of some sort. The nurses said to drop olive oil in her ear. Has anyone else heard of this? That seems just plain strange.

Anyway, boss is gone so I get to come in at 7am tomorrow. Yay. I can't wait. Anyway, I will get to see Tommy's kid tonight, so that will be interesting. You know, when they're on the other side of the belly, things change. I guess change will come soon enough to our household, eh?

Gotta run. Hehe, stuck in windows now, I feel the hankering for Linux :) I'm tellin ya, that Ximian stuff plus Abiword pushed me over the edge. Sweet stuff.

Back to the grind...

Evan Erwin from URL @ 1:55 PM

GRR. In one of life's bitter ironies my car will not start. I smelling sulfur (from the catalytic converter I found out), and a loud clicking noise. This means either the battery is dead, or the starter is fucked. It could also have something to do with the car not being completely in gear. I'll try that, but I believe my battery is hosed. I had no problems whatsoever yesterday, but you never know.

I've called Ericka and told her the news about Tommy and Amanda. She is trying to get off work early, so we'll see how that goes. I suppose we can pick up a battery coming home from seeing them at the hospital or whatever.

Sheesh.

Evan Erwin from URL @ 8:57 PM

Holy shit, you heard it here first: Tommy Alexander is a new father as of 3:40PM or so. In this corner, coming in at 7.4lbs and 20.1 inches long, the challenger: Charles Dylan Alexander (I'll confirm this name btw). Exciting stuff. :)

Evan Erwin from URL @ 7:52 PM

Hmm... After a LONG download (150MB!), I'm finally getting to like Linux now. I downloaded Ximian Desktop, and Ximian Evolution, I must say, is one kick-ass program. It's as Outlooky as Linux is ever going to get. Add that with the Gnumeric, the Linux Excel, and that neat AbiWord program, and you might have yourself a nice little desktop.

Click on the shot below for the full 1024x768 blowup.

Evan Erwin from URL @ 7:35 PM

Oops, seems the blog went down for a few. Here it is again.

Evan Erwin from URL @ 2:46 PM

Yesterday I got to soak in a new film and an old film. Let's take the old film first.

Pound for pound, I enjoyed Frailty more than I expected to. It was creepy, well acted, and while not as scary as they make it out to be, it still got a good jump in now and then. Well written, I really enjoyed it.

The second was Star Wars. What can I say, it's fuckin Star Wars. It was good, but just...I don't know. The first hour was SO LONG...sheesh. Then the rest of the time they put heros, who we know will live, in danger. "Ooooh, I wonder if Obiwan is gonna make it.." I mean, seriously. The only really interesting moment of danger was when Anakin gets his arm stuck in that plate. That would've been kinda foolish however, so it doesn't take long to dismiss the notion and get on with it. Now I've read long rants on AICN about how great this is and how much better this is than blah blah blah. I don't think its the worst, but it's not the best by any means.

I'd rank Episode II pretty high up however. The battles were kick ass and...well, dammit, you had to admit that the Dooku/Yoda battle was the SHIT. I loved every second of it.

My fav Star Wars, ranked, from best to worst:

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Episode IV: A New Hope

Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

You had to admit that the Boba/Jango Fett storyline was pretty sweet (I'm just a man trying to make his way through the universe) and that the final shot, with the helmet against Boba's head, is pretty damn awesome. Yoda again. Yoda yoda yoda! Damn he was the man in this film. Sigh, and even worse, Jar Jar is still so fuckin stupid, so damn ignorant, that basically, you can blame the fall of the republic on his stupid-ass Gungan shoulders. That's really sad and if George thought he was making a light, endearing character, this was the wrong way to do it.

Anyway, again, Frailty had the ambiance, the script, and the characters that were solid and very well done. Star Wars had the universe, the characters, and the FX to make it a spectacle flick, one worthy of seeing multiple times in the theater. Yes, I will probably sneek in again after watching Lord of the Rings again sometime (I still want to see that 4 minute Two Towers trailer).

Bleh, rant over. Gotta go. Cya!

Evan Erwin from URL @ 1:00 PM