my friend Shannon webcamming from thailand the other day

Shannon instant messaged me to get some help for her mom, who wanted to get some pictures of her webcamming in thailand the other day, so i took these shots and pasted them together for them.

random instant message

infidel says:
far beyond the reaches of the intergalactic Justice Patrol a small Kylian vessel lurks ominously in the shadow of a pale moon.
infidel says:
a Kylian officer manipulates a cryptic control panel, states something in chirps and grunts to his commanding officer
infidel says:
150,000 miles off the port side of the vessel a shimmering light rips open a hole in the fabric of space
infidel says:
the bow of an immense Kylian mothership slowly emerges through the still-growing rift, massive, bearing dozens of Kylian warships on its belly
infidel says:
as the crest of the mothership passes through the aperture the shimmering light intesifies and modulates into a perfect circle
infidel says:
the stern of the mothership passes through, and the rift is finally allowed to force its way closed
infidel says:
ignition sequences begin in scores of Kylian cruisers and they disengage the mothership, their bows maneuvering into trajectories that will carry them in dozens of vectors, each ship cruising a short distance and jumping to interstellar drive and disappearing
infidel says:
terraquads of information stream soundlessly through the black of space between the mothership and the lone Kylian vessel
infidel says:
the Kylian commander touches a button, acknowledges the transfer and closes the channel
infidel says:
speaking in command tones he orders his vessel to its own course and engages
infidel says:
aboard the Kylian mothership a Spdeeka diplomat pours himself a vile looking liquid from a clear glass decanter
infidel says:
things were going exactly according to plan
infidel says:
Diplomancer Shrorft allowed himself a hint of a smug grin as he raised his glass
infidel says:
at first watch tomorrow, the quadrant would be his
infidel says:
Shrorft's hand went instinctively to the breast pocket of his immaculately tailored uniform, feeling the reassuring bulk of the device
infidel says:
small things can make a man

man V technology

since time primeval man stood alone against the forces of the Earth, surviving on courage, luck, and cunning....
this is the story of one such man, and his mortal struggle to regain control of technology.

scour win98 drive for all relevant non-replaceables. methodically copy everything to the XP drive- very long process. run up against "no disk space" problem. not LOW disk space....zero. gasp! recopy 1.5G worth of non-replaceables to win98 drive. breath sigh of relief that only the copy process hung up. notice very interesting problem of XP not letting me rename the folder i was originally copying from.....made me think the computer hadn't actually lost the files it couldn't copy, but just sort of stashed them away in memory, somewhere they wouldn't show up in the folder's contents. breath big sigh of relief it only cost me a couple files and reboots, not complete system hang. bullet dodge #1. realize i have redundant files in another (yet uncopied) folder. phew! bullet dodge #1 + "drunken waterfowl blind luck style" technique.

attempt to burn remaining files to CD. commence Shao-Lin showdown with Nero 6, which stubbornly refuse to come with the proceedicles. Nero pulls multiple unexplained "lock up at 2% of write function complete" maneuvers; 1 buffer underrun error. throw away shiny new coasters. growl. attempt running CD-burn progs installed on win98....nothing work with XP.....scratch head. 98 no boot, back to square one. renew attack on Nero 6 with double ferocity! clean boot, engage application and carefully stealth recon every single option in every menu of Nero. initiate "Burn" maneuver....no go. FUCK! WTF?! hmmm. scratch head. smoke cigarette. doggedly try once more, reducing write speed to 4x..........BAM! bullet dodge #2.

write half a dozen CDs worth of non-replaceables.

take deep breath.

power down; physically uncable XP drive.

reboot. enter BIOS, change boot order to floppy first. boot to win98 rescue disk. run FDISK. pause at top of bridge and watch bridge burn behind me. delete partition data. repartition. reformat. reinstall win98. reupgrade to SE. boot. locate all hardware driver discs. reinstall video driver. nuthin'. re-reinstall video driver. nuthin'. scratch head. disc bad? disc no read. check disc. disc have big stain in bad place. attempt to spit clean disc. reinstall. success! no! no can read necessary file. growl. remove disc. scratch head. try to pick off particulate snot-like splatter on CD. is it food? hmmm. man need....solvent. get Goof-Off. put Goof-Off on shirt and wipe bad spot on CD. bad move. Goof-Off scores major damage with "fuck-up-CD-completely-forever" technique!!!!!

swear loudly. growl. remember ATI Radeon Excalibur upgrade card bought long time ago. power down computer. crawl under desk. blow major thick dust layer from open case. cough. blow more. get flashlight. uninstall ATI Rage Fury card. install Radeon Excalibur card. install Radeon driver.....SUCCESS! infidel does victorious "extra-hardware-in-da-house" dance!

smoke cigarette.

take deep breath.

reinstall XP hard drive. accidentally slam hard drive to front of case, notice no screws securing hard drive. sweat profusely. reboot machine. machine start to boot. boot from floppy. fuck. remove floppy, reboot, enter BIOS, change boot order to XP drive first, reboot. boot sequence aborts with "PRESS ANY KEY TO REBOOT" message. reboot, enter BIOS, change boot order to win98 drive, reboot. win98 boots. check out drive letter sequences, notice extra partition information on XP drive. shut down. reboot. same error. power down, reinstall XP drive cables. reboot. same error. power down. locate XP CD. tremble.

begin reinstall of XP. catch fleeting glimpse of "press F2 to enter installation repair mode" but attempt keystroke too late. tremble again. choose reinstall XP from menu. watch screens closely. choose to "let me designate the drive letter" to install XP on. watch screen closely. choose "repair previous installation" option. enter system console. follow directions to log on as administrator. realize i have no fkn clue what i'm doing. guess at administrator password.....lucky guess, i'm in. realize i still have no idea what to do next. choose to search for existing operating systems. it finds one in C:\windows, and another one it cannot identify. choose to enable that operating system. get asked for label. misunderstand command entry structure; accidently label newfound installation "1". growl. get list of available commands. read help sections on commands. find "bootcfg" command and run it. follow most logical-sounding options. choose another command that seems pertinent. run with most logical-sounding options. cross fingers. reboot.....

BAM! two possible boot configs. one named "1". growlz. choose it. XP boots! everything works still! win98 boots! way better vid card works! multiple monitor capable!

10 hours after beginning the epic struggle, infidel kneels, suffused with humility, radiating relief.

by the end of the week i should be back to being able to use my unusable-for-the-last-5-months-since-no-cabling-option-existed speakers and my unusable-for-the-last-5-months-due-to-op-sys-incompatibility recording hardware to pick up right where i left off.

so ends the latest chapter in the continuing saga of our hero, man triumphing over technology.....will he be so lucky next time?

new dream

Scene 1:
i was being driven down the I-5 corridor southbound. at some point i must have been dropped off, because i found a place to camp on the outskirts of Tacoma (a city in Washington for those unfamiliar). it was a slightly wooded area in an urban setting adjacent to a parking lot. it was twilight. knowing it was very late to begin making a fire, i very briefly set up my stuff and gathered some wood to make one. in a short time i was successful and soon had a small but workable blaze going. while looking around for some additional firewood to put on it, so to get it to burn long enough to cook with, i realized there was someone watching me, telling me all the things i already knew which were obstacles to my progress, such as it was very late, and the area was generally overrun by squatters, and critiquing my (reportedly) dying fire. when i returned with a small handful of wood i saw that the stranger (an older fellow) was correct about the fire dying. i noticed i'd built my fire atop a small running stream, merely a trickle of water. by this time it had become downright dark. the stream, which had originally flowed well below the fire's fuel, seemed to be welling up, wetting the bottom-most layer of sticks and putting it out. not wanting to let the fire die, and rather than start a new one to gain a better spot, i laid one of the sticks i was carrying across the current to dam up the water flow and slow its rise. i managed to get the fire going a little better but it was still pretty small.

Scene 2:
i soon knew that despite the effort to build the fire, and despite not having eaten yet, i'd have to go meet some people, relatives who were also camping some distance away. this would require leaving my things to the mercy of whatever squatters might be in the area. there was no way to bring all my stuff with me- i had to risk leaving it. i set out on foot carrying what i needed. i emerged from the wooded area into a parking lot, crossed it, and followed a long road down a huge hill, in the dark, along more parking lots and stores (a very urban setting) for a long time, until i finally found their spot.

Scene 3:
meeting up with the people, i felt welcome in the way that you feel welcome around family. i had a conversation with a woman who was evidently my aunt, and though she was a dream figure she reminded me of Aunt Penny. she was wearing a coat and a backpack. she told me how much her sons (my cousins, not present- possibly corrolating to Jim and Craig) would enjoy my joining them where they'd be camping in another fairly distant area the next day. she handed me a small piece of paper with the information on where to find them written, as they all wrapped it up for the evening and got ready for bed. i turned to go but was quickly asked to wait, evidently by my dream sister, who's corrolary might have been Nichole. her children wanted to hug me good-night, but weren't quite dressed presentably to come out. i waited a moment then peeked in their tent, where a young boy (possibly an Ethan or Cole corrolary) was sitting on the floor struggling to put on a pair of pants. i said something about not worrying about it all and went in and gave the little guy his hug. then i said my goodbyes and started back for my campsite.

Scene 4:
it was a very long walk back to my original spot, and i worried about the squatters as i trudged up the steep urban sidewalk, carrying what i'd brought with me. i was hungry and tired, and i tried not to be distracted by thinking about what the drivers in the passing cars were thinking of me. i just kept my head down, thinking, watching my sneakers on the sidewalk, and putting one foot in front of the other. the older gentleman i'd seen at my site earlier now appeared as a sort of voice in my head, talking to me, and again seemed to reiterate what i was already worried about.

finally i made it to the familiar parking lot outside my wooded area, and as i crossed the stretch of pavement diagonally, walking by a few vehicles (i noticed the same white van i'd walked by earlier), i saw a teenage boy sitting on the steps of an old, beat-up white RV before an open door. a few more teenagers, boys and girls, were hanging around the area. somewhat daunted by the number of people i was about to confront, knowing this large group had squatted on my things and likely appropriated them, i walked up to the RV, past the first teenager, and entered it. inside the RV, a certain teenage boy seemed to be in command and holding court over some others. i looked around and didn't see much of my stuff at all. many of the teenagers were spread out around the floor of the main living area of the RV, almost in slumber-party style. i asked a girl there a few questions about my things, briefly describing some of them to her. she wasn't much help. i saw a kid writing or drawing something in an open binder. he also had a small metal clipboard-type-thing that somewhat resembled a metal clipboard of mine, but wasn't. the boy in charge came in from the kitchen and directed everyone to let me look around, but i didn't have much confidence i could find anything, and didn't.

Scene 5:
evidently i left, because i was back in the wooded setting with the older fellow. at some point i realized i wasn't satisfied with losing my stuff, so i soon found myself back in the RV, talking with Teenage Leader Boy. the thing i was most upset about losing was a red, white and blue checkerboard quilt my mom crocheted for me in the real world. i pointed out its similarity to some other checkered blankets in the room, careful to state that none of the ones i saw were mine. he "let" me look around again, and soon enough, hidden on the floor beneath a small pine tree (inside, possibly a Christmas tree, pre-decoration) i found the blanket. i also found a few other things, including a stylish button-up shirt that belonged to Loren in the dream, which was laid out neatly. it still had the price tag on it. i gathered up the things i found and was preparing to leave to get my fire started again.

then the phone rang, and i dreamed no more. it was Loren calling me.

new photo album entries

i finally got to updating my online photo album; almost everything i've taken between late march and now has been added. that includes a ton of shots of my son's birthday party(ies) and all the pictures taken during my aunt & uncle's visit to washington.

there are maybe a dozen more entries to post, but this was the major update, and this is the official update notice.

there you have it- enjoy!

PEACE. out.