Just Shoot Me

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Put the gun down, I was talking about video cameras… I put up a short article about the Penguicon over at Linux Journal, and the video is painful to my ego. I really should consider investing in something with better audio recording ability, and better low-light performance.

Or maybe I could get an implant into my eyeball that digitizes everything I see in real time… I could call it Shawncam, and get shawncam.com or something. I could put a patch over my camera eye for those “private moments” that I don’t want y’all to see. (Like picking my nose in the mirror. What were you thinking?)

It’s too bad we’re spending our incentive money on a new fridge…

Pharmaceutical Candies?

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I took the red pill. heheheThis time of year, I take lots of drugs. Allergy drugs, headache drugs, asthma drugs — lots and lots of medicines to stave off my genetically prescribed death. Lately, I’ve had lots of headaches, and so we had to purchase a new bottle of pain medicine. The problem is that these new pills are candy coated to make it more pleasant to swallow.

But they’re really tasty.

I’ve really never had a problem swallowing medicine. I can usually take a handful of chalky, pointy, enormous pills and get ’em down sans water. When you make the pills tasty, however, I end up flirting with the amount of time I can enjoy the sweet goodness before the candy coating is gone. My inner monologue usually goes like this:

“Mmmm… that’s yummy… Is that cherry? No, maybe just sweet. I think the red makes me assume cherry. It’s so tasty. I can’t quite put my finger on the flav— GAAAHHHHH!!! Burnt rubber! OMG, I’m gonna puke!~!!!”

And then I try to wash down the horrid flavor with coffee, toothpaste, or even attempt to rub the foul taste off with a dirty sock. It’s downright rancid, and I’m sure that’s the reason the tasty coating is there in the first place.

See? This is what it’s like to be me. Aren’t you glad you just get to read about it? 😀

How to Make People Love Linux

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I wrote this for Linux Journal — but it’s something that I’m pretty passionate about, so I’m reposting here:

There are two kinds of Linux people in the world, those that will help people fix their Windows spyware problems, and those that will not. I land squarely in the former camp, and I think that it’s important for us all to consider doing the same.

read more | digg story

Tux: Possibly Permanent

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Many of you know that we have a Silky Terrier named Tux. He’s cute. He’s affectionate. He’s travel sized.


He’s also not housebroken.

I don’t require too many things from our pets, but proper bathroom habits ranks near the top of the list. In fact, there remains a distinct possibility that Tux, awesome namesake or not, won’t remain a member of the Powers’ household. He has until the end of summer.

Thankfully, last night, he made it through the night without desecrating our home. This pleased me greatly. It was actually 2 nights in a row, so I see some hope.

Go Tux Go! (but like, go outsite and stuff)

Well, it’s Workin’

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I’m not totally thrilled about the new theme, but for a day or so, this is what we’ve got. It’s 1:30, and I’m tired. 🙂

The good news is that I’m now managing the updates, etc, now. Hopefully I can manage to avoid most wonkiness in the future. We’ll see.

G’night.

My Site is Teh Brok3

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My site has several layers of brokedness to it, and thus will be killed, roasted, and eaten this evening. I will likely have downtime. I will likely have problems. I’m planning for total chaos, and hoping to be surprised. Wish me luck.

I think this is my karmic punishment for meme tagging. Thanks Nathan. 😀

The Death of Memes

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Henceforth, all memes shall die here. I’m all about playing silly Internet games, but “tagging” is much like chain mail, and people don’t seem to take kindly to such things.

SO, that means all memes shall be officially voluntary, and never to be pressured in any regard whatsoever. Any previous, “tagging” shall be redacted, and future taggers will be flogged. Well, actually the taggers I don’t really mind, but the right to flog me is bequeathed on anyone I might tag in the future.

But still, I retain my right to respond to any and all memes I desire, because I often find such silliness fun. So there.

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane… Nope, it’s a Meme.

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Nathan tagged me with a “6 Unimportant Things” meme. I have the odd position of sorta liking these type things, while completely understanding why they annoy the crap out of people. So now, I need to come up with 6 things, and then tag 6 people. It’s the latter that I feel bad about doing. But, since I did prank call Nathan once, it seems only fair that I be a good sport. 🙂 So here ya go:

Rules:

  1. Link to the person who tagged you.
  2. Post the rules.
  3. Write six things about yourself.
  4. Tag six people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
  5. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their sites.
  6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

And now my list:

  1. My right foot is turned out slightly. This mutation give me no super powers, nor does it really hinder me in any way. It’s very unlikely said mutation would qualify me as one of the X-MEN.
  2. My first car was a 1978 Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel. I paid $250 for it, and would gladly pay 10 times that much for the same vehicle now. I didn’t know what glow plugs were at the time, and I think it would have made the experience much nicer if I had.
  3. I’m absolutely terrified of bees. It’s one of those fears that you’d think would be funny to tease about, but I’m so scared, it really wouldn’t be fun. It just isn’t fun watching a grown man cry.
  4. I prefer driving a vehicle with a manual transmission. Maybe it’s a power-trip control issue. Maybe it’s just that I like to keep busy while driving. Whatever the reason, I like ’em better.
  5. I like hot tea and cold tea. I like hot coffee, but think cold coffee concoctions are horrible abominations
  6. I wear mismatched socks on every occasion I can. I’ve mentioned this before, but it remains true. I find it very difficult to take life too seriously while wearing one purple sock and one green one.

Now I have to tag people. I’m sorry I have to do this, but I’ll try to tag people that will forgive me. I suspect they won’t all actually participate, but I don’t think they’ll disown me either:

REDACTED. See above post.

Sorry guys & gals. 🙂

Amanda at the Talent Show

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Last night was a talent show in our district for all kids between the 5th and 12th grade. That’s a huge age bracket, but it didn’t stop my 11 year old 5th grader from entering. I’m biased to a degree that almost negates the validity of my comments, BUT she was awesome. 🙂 Also important to note, is that almost every other singer in the competition sang with the regular artist’s CD, and effectually “sang along with the radio version.” That’s not to downplay anyone’s performance, just to express how proud of Amanda I am for singing to the music-only version of the song. See for yourself Amanda singing Krystal Meyers’ “Beauty of Grace”, and let her know in the comment section whatcha think:

UPDATE: If the youtube video above is blocked, try going here instead…