Monday, December 28, 2009

End of the Year

That got here fast. Everything I said I'll tackle in 2010, I get to start on Friday. :p I've made worse planning goof-ups. Actually I'm more worried about hitting deadlines with the holiday.

It's not that I want to be anti-social, but I need the decompression that concentrating on writing brings. When well-intentioned friends drag me from my home environment, getting that decompression is night impossible or considered rude. My family has actually been more considerate on this score, weird. It's not healthy to dread invitations.

WHEW, paying job decided to give us New Year's Eve off too. Lovely, I can spend the day getting ahead of the deadline and napping.

More cheerful subject: the local development environment finally WORKS! I am having a slight issue with getting MySQL to run as a service so I have to remember to turn it on every time the computer reboots. I haven't tested the portability yet; Mondays are always too busy for that kind of stuff. But I can finally start using it. *Happy dance*

I haven't figured out what I'm doing with the instructions I developed. They need a fair bit of editing to be less specific to what I'm doing. But do I want to give them to the Drupal Handbook? Oh look, submission fear rising from the deep. :p

Regardless, that's nonfiction and doesn't deal with my goals for fiction in 2010. And I still don't know what I'm doing! I know I'm going to type the kink story that I may not show any where, but it will count. I've put down on my To Do list to organize the background material into TiddlyWikis for both Strix and Zy's Novel. Can I say for certain that vampires or aliens have seized the brain? Nope, still in holding pattern there.

It's nothing to worry about, the muse and my brain usually work this way. I'll just chug along with the list until something knocks loose.

In bummer news, I've lost one wall of storage in the back bedroom. The warping panels meant I had to take almost all the shelving down before more screws popped loose. So I'm expecting major water damage to the sheetrock. None, best guess is the paneling was adversely affected by humidity from the leaking ceiling. The idea how to fix: find or buy a stud finder, nail paneling to studs, then screw shelves into studs.

Finding my parents' stud finder hasn't happened yet. Last night, while waiting for sleep to come, it dawned on me that the pantry on the kitchen side of the wall doesn't have sheetrock, so I could probably see how the wall was made. I got up than and there to see.

Background: the front half of my house is probably close to a hundred years old, but it is cypress and solidly constructed. The back two rooms have always been referred to as the pine add-on, and are younger but were probably built before home building codes. I already knew the outside walls are 2x6 laid flat and sandwiched between the siding and the sheetrock.

So I really wasn't that shocked to see the same thing in the back of the pantry. In fact, I should have remembered figuring this out back in 2006. *headdesk* So now the fun is to figure out how to fix the leak and make sure there isn't an invisible one above the wall as well as find nails and screws long enough to grab the wood but short enough not to end up in the kitchen.

That's the new action plan. No matter how emotionally satisfying gutting and starting over would be.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Thoughts on Doctor Who: End of Time Part One

First off, I GET PART TWO NEXT SATURDAY! *Happy dance* Okay this makes a little more sense knowing my history with Doctor Who on PBS. They would always show the middle of the block of episode dealing with the mission of the day. And then when you actually got hooked and wanted to see the next part, tomorrow night would have a complete different episode. Then SyFy jacking with how long they took to show series. *Sigh* I love grabbing the DVDs, but series four is $85!

Wilf finally made opening credit status! And I think he's officially the oldest companion--not counting Romana.

"Legend of the Blue Box" in the stained glass window; they call him the Sainted Physician. -- I love when those tidbits of the Doctor's influence come up.

Woman in the pearl necklace is played by Claire Bloom, who has quite the resume especially for British television.

O.O Well, no wonder Queen Elizabeth wanted to get his head in the "Shakespeare Code."

Yeah, saw the damn ring coming back. Did not expect the Master to have a harem of devotees. Secret Book of Saxon? Okay, why not, he wasn't that busy frakking with Utopia and winning an election and abusing the TARDIS back and forth.

It's never good when the Ood's eyes go red.

Bio-meteric-whatisit? lasted that long? Really? Time Lord DNA stands up pretty well.

GO LUCY!

"Between us we've got the city covered." -- Seriously, let me adopt Wilf as my grandfather.

The Master is now part grasshopper and Skeletor! (And that was such a giggle when the Doctor called him that too.) He's no Ainsley, but I like John Simms' Master. Completely LOONEY TUNES!

"Sound of Drums" flashback with a vengeance. Still not as creepy as all the humans drumming. Hoped the Doctor locked the TARDIS better this time.

Doctor finally notices he keeps running into Wilf; only three of four times now.

"Ten Years After" is STILL my fanon. Shaun Temple; I so tried to change that to Simon Templar.

Narrator is Timothy Dalton, snazzy robe, Rasslion?

Don't think gluttony with help your condition, Master. Oooo, he's knocking four times with the drumming. Time Lord Mind meld! The drumming is real?

"All these years you thought I was mad!" And for good reason!

Wilf stands at the "heart of coincidence" according to Pearl Lady. I have sneaky suspicion she's Romana.

My thoughts upon seeing Wilf's gun. "Will that thing still shoot?"

Doctor-Donna is still around?

Doctor getting into the TARDIS with Wilf on his heels and Sylvia Noble screaming: "You can't go with me."
Wilf: "You can't leave me with her!"

I know the blonde disguised cactus -- NINA from "Being Human" Oh that hair style looks good on you, hun.

I really hope Gwen kept better charge of the Torchwood stuff in Cardiff. Cause whoever cleaned up after Canary Wharf did a sloppy job.

Clever use of the Obama stand-in, and maybe some news footage.

Donna's not affected? Time Lord biology; can't remember that gooble-gook from the "End of the Journey." Donna's remembering and yes, they are going with the brain frying thing. Can't she catch a break? Hell, Martha got a better ending than this.

"The human race was always your favorite, now it's the Master race!" -- Okay, RTD, I forgive a lot because riding with the Doctor is tons of fun. But we meet and I'm Gibbs-slapping you for that line. Don't care if I get arrested for assault.

TIME LORDS! Time Lords looking an awful lot like Daleks there. So is Timothy Rassion? The Keeper? Vinyard? Some other Time Lord prick?

Inside Doctor Who: Yes, I got the not-good vibe from the Time Lords. Good job with that. Though when told how the Master came back (to help them win the Time War) my first shout was "How badly were you guys LOSING to save the homicidal maniac from final death!" I haven't trusted them for a while.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Computer fun

I took part of the cash I received for a Christmas present and bought more RAM. 1GB was the biggest card I could find that my computer would take, but the Geek Squad Agent at Best Buy assured me that I could leave in my original memory card since I had two slots still open as long as the total I put in doesn't go over 3GB (a limit set by my motherboard).

So now I have 1.25GB of RAM, and the computer is running the best it has in a long time. I just managed to get through my GMail inbox without getting a Javascript run error. I haven't tested the games I've noticed have a really bad lag time yet. I have a suspicion that will be fixed too, and I can't remember who told me "oh you have plenty of RAM that's not the issue" every time I bitched about the way the computer ran. I owe them a boot to the head.

Left GMail up while watching Doctor Who. No Javascript errors! Somebody really needs that boot to the head.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Busy Weekend

The sun is finally shining! And most of what I have to do is inside the house. :p

I did get out yesterday and found my new boots at Sears. I ended up with Covington brand, style name Paulette, which is really funny because that's my mother's name. Then I headed to Best Buy. I picked out the the LG 22x Internal Super Multi DVD Rewriter, and since I had gotten such a good deal on the boots, I also picked up Breaking Benjamin's new album Dear Agony for the song "I Will Not Bow" and AFI's Decemberunderground for the song "Prelude 12/21."

I had heard "Prelude 12/21" on a Tin Man fanvid that has been killed off YouTube since, but SEE there's not reason to go anti-pirate on fanvids! I bought this CD because of that fanvid! "I Will Not Bow" sounds like the Strix universe, and I think that's where I put their whole Phobias album.

I spent the rest of Saturday installing the DVD burner with a long break for dinner with Mom. I also made sure to find out if I could add more RAM to my motherboard while I had everything open. I only have 256 MB, and this could be why I have hiccups in programs and slow running speeds. There is room; I just have to budget for it. :p

Oi, physically installing the DVD burner took no time. Trying to get the software installed--that's went over three hours. I started only checking on it during commercial breaks from the Doctor Who Inside the Tardis special and Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars. While I waited, I listed computer plans:
  • Setting up the portable local development environment
  • Clean the duplicate files off the external hard drive
  • Replace front power switch
  • Replace chip fan
  • Install more RAM
  • Get a Dazzler DVD Recorder
  • Get a scanner that feeds paper through it
  • Get a new computer desk
Wonderful, I finally got to install Nero 7. I think I had to reboot five times. Finally, all done and it works! I watched Alice again to make sure that part worked. Now I need to testing the burning.

Thoughts on Doctor Who: BBCAmerica is showing The End of Time Part One on Boxing Day! This never happens with Doctor Who! I usually have to wait a whole frakkin month!

Holy shit, the lighting in his spacesuit helmet making his face a skull. Director, that was GENIUS! This episode really expands the argument that the Doctor is an incarnate of the god of entropy--if not the god himself. This idea came up with a discussion in Rich's The Ten Doctors webcomic:
Dave Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 12:54 am

I believe the Doctor’s best subject at the academy was thermodynamics, according to a conversation he had with Drax in the final part of the Key to Time series. Granted, this is the kind of thermodynamics that would allow him to cancel out the formation of a black hole with a supernova within the time vortex so as to allow energy to remain constant as evidenced in the most recent Children in Need special, but there you have it.

DrkFire666 Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 2:43 am

I think Dave is right. Thermodynamics does seem to suit The Doctor, particularly the 2nd law.

“Entropy increases… Yes daily, The more you put things together the more they keep falling apart. That’s the essence of the 2nd law of thermodynamics and I never heard a truer word spoken.”
–The 4th Doctor, Logopolis [Season 18 - Episode 7]

“Everything has its time and everything dies.”
–The 9th Doctor, The End of the World [Series 1 - Episode 2]

Rich Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 6:11 am

7th Doctor (looking at a broken machine he doesn’t remember building): No, looks pretty far gone. You’d need a genius to unravel it.
Rani (disguised as companion, Mel): But you’re a genius.
Doctor: Oh yes, I definately remember that.
Rani: Especially in thermodynamics.
Doctor: ….How did you know that, Mel?
Rani: You told me. You said it was your best subject at the academy.

-”Time and the Rani”

DrkFire666 Says:
December 6th, 2007 at 2:33 am

“Back when I first started, at the very beginning I was always trying to be old and grumpy and important, like you do when you’re young… and then I was you.”
– The 10th Doctor to The 5th Doctor. [Time Crash, 2007 Children in Need Special]
*Shivers*

He doesn't really like it. After all, he chose the moniker "Doctor" because he wants to fix things for the better. Sometimes, he can use entropy to accomplish that goal; sometimes he can't.

I think I'm sticking with "incarnate of entropy" because the Doctor trying to become a god is the scariest thing I have ever seen on the show. O.O "The laws of time are mine!" "We aren't just fighting the flood; we're fighting time itself!" -- Oh shit, he needs a companion. Donna said it best: "Sometimes, you need someone to stop you."

Course my other thought at the end of this and seeing the promo ad for The End of Time Part One is "Damn, talk about making it hard for Stephen Moffet." I trust Moffett. When it comes down to it, the episodes I want to watch over and over again, the ones I recommend that other non-Whovians need to watch have all been written by him. :)

I can't decide what I'm more excited by: the reappearance of Donna's grandfather or the Master or the Ood. Come on, the Ood are pretty damn cool: giant psychic hive mind of the universe!

So now it's Sunday. The Saints lost last night, but 13-1 is still a record for them and it doesn't hurt the true goal: Black and Gold in the Superbowl! I need to catch up on everything I didn't get done during the week, especially laundry since it's not storming. Let me really get started with today.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Friday, December 18, 2009

Number Crunching #163

Quicken Cash Flow = 730.99
STEF Total = 6.15

December Budget Meeting

Reconciling Quicken with bank statements: Reconciled up to Dec. 18th.
Reconciling last month’s budget: I didn’t make a budget the month before. My goal is to try to pay my bills, especially the house note, keep gasoline in the car and groceries in the fridge without racking up bank charges that equal half my take-home pay.

December 15th
Budgeting has too many systems and I’m not keeping up with them really well. I like the philosophy behind the GFD’s budget-to-zero spreadsheet, but I’m notoriously bad at filling it out. I need to get my hands dirty with Quicken’s budgeting features before deciding “ick, no like.” I have to make a plan for the month ahead and stick to the plan so hard I bruise it and me. Yeah, that’s a pleasant image.

In the spirit of budgeting, I got my numbers together for the December bills.
  • Dec. 18th paycheck = $824.03 (take home pay)

  • Must pay = $1132.26
    • Nationwide Mortgage = 429.13
    • Demco = 117.08
    • Verizon = 71.55
    • Liberty Mutual = 224.91
    • AT&T = 289.59

  • Would like to Pay = 824.47
    • Citifinancial = 333.84
    • Republic Finance = 212.10
    • Chase Student Loan = 122.47
    • TeleRecovery = 45.00
    • Alpat = 62.06
    • TurboTax = 49.00

Notice a small detail of what I don’t have listed: groceries and gasoline. And I already have a deficit. *Pulls hair*

Good news: I got money for graduation presents. *Tears up* I totally didn’t expect that. I am spending some of it on a DVD burner for the computer and a new pair of boots, but the rest will go on running my house. I’m torn between paying things off completely or putting it on a reoccurring bill. Which is better?

December 18th
What have I paid
  • Dec. 18th paycheck = $824.05 (take home pay)

  • Must pay = $1132.26
    • Nationwide Mortgage = 429.13
    • Demco = 117.08
    • Verizon = 71.55
    • Liberty Mutual = 224.91
    • AT&T = 289.59

  • Would like to Pay = 824.47
    • Citifinancial = 333.84
    • Republic Finance = 212.10
    • Chase Student Loan = 122.47
    • TeleRecovery = 45.00
    • Alpat = 62.06
    • TurboTax = 49.00

This leaves me with $160 in the checking account for fun things like gasoline and groceries. I may end up with more spare cash, since I have set back only $100 of my graduation present money to spend on the DVD burner and new boots, which I probably won't get to shop for until Saturday.

I also apologize for the sudden spamming of budget posts that don't really have anything interesting to say. :p

More will be coming on setting up January's budget.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Darth and Droids

This page is so full of awesome it made my day. But probably not the way people would think that the characters did something so awesome in the story, nope. That's not it.

Darth & Droids is set in a world where Star Wars never existed, so the movies are a roleplaying game. Now the players took some time between games (movies) one and two, and some of them played a fantasy game. They forgot to invite Annie (Anakin's player), so she doesn't know anything about it, but Pete (R2-D2's player) is still holding a grudge about how he died in it.

To catch up with current storyline, the GM is sick and Pete stepped in to run the session. And get his revenge for his character death in the fantasy game.

And this is the page I figured out that the fantasy game was the Princess Bride.

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Not a good week from crossing things off the list

I don't know if it's the rapidly changing weather or some residual graduation-is-over-stress-let-go thing, but I have had the hardest time concentrating on things I need to get done.

I totally missed the eye appointment I had Monday after work, but luckily rescheduled it for today. I get up too late to work, and when I get home, I'm staring at the computer screen until I remind myself to look at your list. I feel fine; just not here.

I did manage to get the modules fixed at the Circulation Desk and FanFiction Garret without breaking anything this morning. I ran out of time before I could start moving Alt. BM Site's. I divided the setting up a local development environment into nine sub-projects, so as of now, I'm two-thirds done with project one. PROGRESS!

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Broke, where it counts

I had some crazy delusion that I'd actually get all caught up on my Number Crunching posts today. Down to three, and one of those I have all month to finish, but I feel so disgusted with the status quo I can't enjoy the things have been crossed off the list feeling. Basically, I don't have enough paycheck for all the things due and past due for next week.

My family and friends surprised me with lots of nice gifts and money for graduating that I totally didn't expect to get. I was thinking that I'd get to spend it on something big that I have been denying myself or maybe a few things I consider splurges. :( I don't know if I can justify it with the list of items I'm looking at now.

It's not the end of the road, and I'm probably halfway through the really dark tunnel. It doesn't look good right now because I am tired and need to go to bed. I'm buying boots (if I can find some to fit), I'm buying the DVD burner for the computer (and a new off switch), and I'm buying a few books I've been itching to get since they launched. I'll be uber responsible with the rest.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Graduation!

It's all official (even though I don't get my actually diploma for two weeks): Kindra Lynnette Coates M.A.

We had 1330 people graduating in this ceremony: the largest graduating class Southeastern has ever had.

I wish I had my pictures already, but I have to wait for those too.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Monday, December 07, 2009

"Did he just call me a vessel?"

First coherent thoughts on Syfy's Alice: "TIMMY, I missed you!"
"MATT, I MISSED YOU MORE!"
"O'Brien what are you doing here?"

Yeah, I skipped Castle, because I'm fairly certain I'll get Castle in reruns without horrid cuts and Syfy is not that reliable.

Overall, I enjoyed part one and I'm certain I'll like part two. I loved how they acknowledged the book and made it history of the world as well as using the characters as archetypes to fill. Working in Dinah the cat and the Cheshire Cat was inspired.

One Massive costuming dept. FAIL: "He must have slipped it in my pocket!" WHAT POCKET on Alice's dress? Yeah, the color combo was interesting, but I want to steal her boots.

Dad is the wise-old guy in the waiting room. Since Mom is Carol, I'm expecting his name to be Lewis.

*Squishes the White Knight* Matt Frewer, I forgot he was in this until he showed up. Where is my A-Team movie? *Sob* Really Hollywood, I figured out what to do with the old cast minus Hannibal and new hot young guys. Call me!

And I'm seriously in love with this rewrite of the Mad Hatter. Don't know if I'm shipping Alice/Hatter yet or just like them as comrades-in-arms, I guess that depends which side Jack ultimately ends up on.

Dr. Dee and Dum beat out Disney's version, which I had thought was super creepy before now.

Haven't been bit by a crossover bug, which apparently a few in Tin Man fandom have. *Snort* I suppose I have my crossover fix already in place thanks to Zack. And my Planes-walker is really glad he doesn't have to go to Wonderland.

Thoughts on Part Two:
"GAETA! How did I miss you the first time! Oh yeah, you only had one line."

So I was totally wrong about Dad and his name should have been Lewis. But this time the Walrus and the Carpenter died and all the oysters survived. :D

Hatter versus the Tweedles and Mad March in the truth room! I was waiting for somebody to start spouting the tea party nonsense.

Hatter/Alice shipper now, and it is so totally canon. But Mom's expression at the end: Mastercard priceless!

Another lovely quote:
Hatter: *Hugging Allice after she gloumped him* "Oh this is nice." *Realizes where they are and let's her go* "We should do this when we're safe."

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Did I accomplish anything?

I have 9 pages of typed instructions/notes of how I screwed up, 7 handwritten pages of notes to add to the typewritten, 10 or 11 multi-page articles printed out of instructions and how-to's cited in the typed/handwritten notes, an equally thick stack of stuff printed out to consult but didn't end up citing them.

The local multi-sites setup is finally working, but with still so much so wrong, all I want to do is delete and uninstall and start all over.

If I didn't have an empty sink, I'd swear I didn't accomplish anything this weekend. :p

Basically, why my contributed modules didn't work when I thought I had installed them correctly after getting them out of the core module folder? The folder under sites MUST match the virtual host's server name! NOBODY said that when setting up virtual hosts. In fact, I only found it mentioned under doing it online not on a local server environment. Gee, guess what keywords I was using when I searched for directions.

I can fix the production site modules, and then backup everything that already works to make the local development environment out of. I don't know if I can make separate installs work, but I do know what has gone wrong with the multi-site setup. At least to the point where I can get two sites up and running, and will be free to discover new issues.

If I uninstall XAMPP, I could reinstall it on the external hard drive and make it portable. Then I could do all my website edits from it without being limited to what computer I use. I think I understand where all the hiccups were for the virtual host file now. (Provided I get the paths typed in correctly so it doesn't matter if the drive's letter assignment changes.) I think I can get everything downloaded and installed fresh instead of going back and fixing another goof-up I just found I did thanks to not having the damn Drupal handbook memorized.

I don't know what to do about Windows declaring folders "read-only" when I need to write to them, but that is easy to deal with once you know why those error messages are popping up.

I'm tired of not being finished with this. I should be figuring out the changes I want to make to the site, not STILL trying to make this all work without breaking.

I'm done for the night. I'm taking a shower, and then curling up to watch Alice on the Syfy Channel.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Friday, December 04, 2009

Didn't we have this last year?

Looks like I get to drive home in the mix of snow and rain if not outright snow to get home. I was so hoping that this wouldn't start until after I was safe at home. And other office have let their people out early but not ours. Craptastic.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Um, where's my bounty from the god Caffeine

In case I haven't talked to you already, I'm back from my trip and had a lovely time. Just what I needed to do. However, I brewed my last bag of caffeinated tea before I left and just finished my last soft drink this morning. I've got a cup of hot chocolate to stave off the withdrawal since I don't get paid until Friday. *Sigh*

Anyways, I'm happy to report that the local copy of Circulation Desk is finally running properly in my Development Environment with all the contributed module folders out of the core module folder. Oddly enough, they refuse to work under sites/circulationdesk/modules but will work under sites/all/modules. On the prod sites this won't matter because they each are a separate install of Drupal. I will have to be extra careful in the development environment with which modules go with which site because they will have access to all of them.

Depending on what the lack of caffeine does to me today, I haven't decided if I should fix the other two sites production sites or their local copies first. I know I need to translate my notes of bitching into actual instructions, but I don't feel awake enough for that. :p

In other news, I got my haircut last night! It's chin-length now, and the rest sent off to Locks of Love. Now I just have to make sure I don't break out or flake up and figure out the the twist for the stole for Dec. 12th. Seriously, the included instructions don't work. I'm afraid I may have to safety pin it to the robe so the colors show. Is that against the rules for proper collegiate wear?

Read Free!
The BookWorm