Random Stuff

We were walking down the street when my friend mentioned another friend had said ”Have you heard about the Asian Invasion?”

“What?”

“You know, the Asian Invasion. You haven’t head of it? Think about it, they are selling us their cars, they’re buying up all the property, they have all the best technology, the beautiful women, they are everywhere you go!”

I stopped walking, looked at my friend with a somewhat perplexed look, then looked around at the rest of the group I was with, then looked around at all the people in the crowded area I was in I blurted out “Oh my god! You’re right! They’re everywhere!!!! Oh well, as long as I get to be the token white guy, I’m fine with it.”

Everyone laughed. For a little context, we were wondering around the Heiwa-dori in Naha, Okinawa. I was the only non-asian in my group, or on the street for that matter.

FYI: The Heiwa-dori is best compared to Pike Place market, but imagine the street down the middle is covered with a canvas roof. Then imagine it is three blocks wide and four blocks long. Lots of t-shirt shops, trinkets, food, and a fish market to put Pike Place to shame.

I was experimenting with “rounded corners” in HTML yesterday and applied it to my cars website. I also used a color wheel to determine what colors I should use. Since blue is my favorite color, I went with that. So check out http://rdsd.com/cars

But a little playing around with the color wheel and I noticed that by changing four values I could make my cars site look like a porn site. So for a little fun here are some work safe pre-made links and searches for you with (appropriate titles of course).

Lots of CUTE and HOT ASIANS!!!!

HOTTIES From Europe!!!!

BLONDES!!!!

BRUNETTES!!!

Dark Beauties!!!

HOT and WILD Americans!!!

I’ve been fighting setting up Windows XP on two different computers. I finally got it installed on one, but I’m having a heck of a time getting it installed on the other.

There was a time when Linux was the more difficult OS to install. Now I just plop in the Fedora Core DVD, reboot it, select a few options, select the software I want, and an hour later it’s up and running. I then run the update program and 2 hours later it’s all up to date, on the Internet, and running fine (at the best graphics resolution even).

Here is what I went through on the first computer to install Windows:

1. Drop in XP DVD and reboot
2. screen comes up about checking hardware, then goes blank.
3. repeat several different times with different bios options and various pieces of hardware swapped out.
4. drop in Linux DVD with original hardware, it works fine.
5. Mull about on the Internet for a few hours to find an obscure article about a corrupted MBR causing similar problems.
6. Mull about on Internet some more to find out how to get into the windows recovery console because XP can only go into it if the computer already boots (which is useless if you have a corrupted MBR, because it wont boot)
7. Try Windows Server 2003 install.
8. Server 2003 setup works fine. It recognized the format of the MBR that was written by old install of Linux so use recovery console in Server setup to restore the MBR.
9. Reboot with XP DVD
10. It installs, but network card and video card not recognized.
11. Mull around on Internet on different computer looking for video drivers and network drivers to burn to CD to put on computer I am trying to set up.
12. go to hardware control panel and remove devices that are marked as non-functional because drivers won’t install because it thinks something is already there, just not working right.
13. install drivers, rebooting at least two more times.
14. Run windows update to get critical updates, which takes several hours.
15. Spend an hour figuring out and fixing the one windows update that now causes computer to crash.

I am running into similar problems on the next computer, but with the added step of trying to install SATA drivers that are not in Windows and required for setup. So add in the steps of digging around my office for my USB floppy drive, searching the Internet for the SATA drivers to download from a website that isn’t loaded with ads and pop-ups that actually lets you download the drivers, writing the drivers to the floppy and then taking those back to the other computer.

I might also add that Linux “Just works” on this other computer as well.

I tried Windows Vista. I get about 20 seconds into install before setup stops with the error “Setup encountered a serious error.” And then nothing further. So I suppose this is a good thing since I’m not wasting hours setting up Vista only to find it doesn’t work. It just dies right away.

What sucks is that I actually need to run windows.

I bet you haven’t heard anything about it on American news. You’ve probably heard a lot of talk about the suspicion of Iran attempting to build nuclear weapons. But I bet that’s all you’ve heard. Well, if you listen to any of the big 4 American news agencies (abc,cbs,nbc,fox).

But it goes quite a bit further than that. And it’s starting to sound quite familiar. Wag the dog.

Iran is trying to build a nuclear power plant. It requires enriched uranium. President Bush says they are trying enrich material for weapons. The bush administration is also telling us over and over that there are no plans to attack Iran.

Yet, listening to foreign news. It came up in UN meetings that plans for a US attack on Iran have leaked out. Both military and civilian targets. As well as reason for going forward for it. These reason include “Reasonable belief that Iran is developing nuclear weapons” and “Iran is supplying the insurgency in Iraq with weapons.”

What happened on the news recently? Oh yea, An “anonymous” source held a press conference showing several weapons that had to have come from Iran that were captured in Iraq.

It all sounds too staged to me.

Iran has a nuclear reactor they purchased from Russia. It requires enriched uranium. So why would Iran not try to enrich uranium? I believe there are thoughts of nuclear weapons on their side, who wouldn’t in their position. But otherwise, they do have justification for enriching nuclear fuel.

Iran was in a war with Iraq for nearly 40 years. Why wouldn’t there be weapons in Iraq that are from Iran. What about the largely unprotected border between the two countries. What about plain old smuggling. Insurgents would be paying top dollar for weapons to use against us. Whose to say that a single person in the Iranian military, some lowly quartermaster in charge of these things sold a few of these things for a buck. We also don’t hear just what the source of these weapons is. Were they captured? Bought? Turned over? Or did a couple of our CIA operatives go steal them from Iran (there really weren’t that many).

Tiny reasons for us to attack. Sounds a lot like the justification for the attack on Iraq to oust a leader we put there in the first place, ironically to be an opponent to Iran.

Should we actually attack Iraq, the results would be disastrous. The United States is already looked upon as the most hated country in the world by most of the world, and only tolerated by the rest. An action like the plan to attack Iraq would bring about an unleashing of power from several countries around the world against us.

If history repeats itself, we will attack Iran.

My girlfriend and I spent some time down in the International District Saturday Afternoon to check out the celebrations. Lots of drums, lots of firecrackers, and dancing dragons. We stopped into a few shops and saw some things I will need to save up money for, but will eventually buy.

I met probably the best salesman ever. I’m a big fan of tea which didn’t help, but we got to sit down with a shop keeper and have tea. It was nice, and we walked out with a rather expensive bag of fermented Oolong.

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6085329

I just read this article. It worries me. The fact that bees are dying off in large numbers is just not good. Without bees the process of polination is slowed down greatly.

I think I have another kidney stone. A familiar pain on the left side of my lower back. I’ve been having problems with my back that I’ve attributed to other things over the last week or so, but right now it’s very localized. A building pressure. It’s not incredibly painful right now. It feels more like I bumped my kidney on something. We’ll see how the next few days go.

Ugh. The hours are dragging on today. There’s only so much source code that one can read before your eyelids start to get heavy. And that’s what I am doing to keep from getting too bored.

My ex-wife’s son is back to living with my son and I. Though I am trying to do my best to remain positive about this, I remain skeptical. I would like to believe that his intentions are to do the best he can to get back into life, back into school, and succeed, there is the lingering thought that I am going to be taken advantage of. It is my nature to help out as much as I can. To give “one more chance” way more than I really should. To be hopeful that everything will turn out for the better. I cannot turn him away.

Part of me feels that have been deceived. From talking to him and talking to his grandmother, I got an impression that he had really turned things around. Had taken it upon himself to start working on independent classes to get back into school, and was on the right track. I was willing to give things another try if he was willing to try as well. I set some ground rules such as going to school AND passing. Otherwise he was going to be working and paying rent. Respecting the house as well as the people in it. And a few other basics we had issues with. He arrived on a plane today. But over the course of the few minutes that I’ve spent with him so far as well as the brief chat I had on the phone with his grandmother, I begin to wonder if anything had really changed. I get hints here and there that it had not and in fact perhaps they thought convincing me to let him come back would change things. If he is really on the right path, I think that is awesome. If not, we are both out of options. I agreed to be a guardian to him again, get him back into school, and provide a roof and food once more.

We talked about the friends he was hanging out with before and how I had issues with them and how I was not willing to put my career in jeopardy over trying to get him to school. We talked about what it takes to make a household function. How it was not just me trying to stay on top of everything, but that he was old enough to have responsibility in this as well. The law is that it is my house, my rules. It’s not a democracy. I can negotiate on some things, but if I decide on something, that is it.

A major problem before was that during the marriage to his mother, he was taught that I was the one who was responsible for everything. The cooking, the cleaning, the laundry, everything. After his mother and I divorced, she continued to reinforce that by telling him that he didn’t have to do anything I said because I wasn’t his father. We came to a head that almost started a physical fight. It ended shortly after he challenged me to a fight and I pinned him to the wall and threw him on the floor.

I had almost lost my job because I was missing key meetings because he was missing the bus so I had to take him to school. I HAD to take him to school because we already had a truancy meeting about his attendance. He was skipping school. He was throwing his garbage from his room into the hallway and trashing the house in general. He would miss dinner, then wake me up at 1am when he was hungry and demand to fix him something or go get something because there was nothing in the house he liked. There was plenty of food he could have fixed for himself, but didn’t want to. Missing the toilet when going to the bathroom. All guys miss and make a mess, but he was outright urinating ON THE FLOOR not hitting the toilet at all. Flushing was out of the question. These were just a few of the things over one week that almost brought us to blows.

I got up from pinning him down. I told him it was my house. He had no rights here. No I wasn’t his father, but if he chose to live here, he would live by my rules. He chose to go to his mothers.

The conflict didn’t end there. Shortly after him getting to his mothers house, she called me and said she was going to call the police if I didn’t take him back. I bluntly told her that if he wasn’t willing to straighten up I didn’t want him back. Her response was that he wasn’t my son and that I had no say in it. I said “yep, you are right. He’s not my son. It is my house though. If he comes back and he doesn’t live by my rules, this will happen again. Go ahead and call the police.” and I hung up on her.

After a short period, he did come back, but again problems ensued. He went back to her house, then a shelter when she went into the hospital, then he flew to his grandparents house. He’s been there for several months. Now he’s back here.

So I am skeptical. I don’t know if how things went at their house were all painted rosy or not. I don’t know how things will be going forward from here. I’m guarded. He turns 18 this July. If things don’t work out, what is he going to do after that? In a way, I am more worried for him than I am for myself over the next few months.

I’m starting to write about travel. I haven’t got a whole lot yet and I need to get buyoff from at least one person (as well as their help) for the format that I want to use. But at least I’ve got a title and an introduction.

http://rdsd.com/travel

Right now it’s in blog format (using wordpress), but expect that to change. It’s only got one paragraph so far. But it is a start.

Yep, today is my birthday. I probably would have forgot, but I got a bunch of automated emails all wishing me a happy birthday this morning. The 4×4 bulletin board I used to be active on sent me one. The sport-bike BB sent me one. the 300zx BB sent me one. Borders sent me one with a 15% coupon attached (on one regular item that is not already on sale) plus a free desert free desert from Seattle’s Best Coffee.

38 years old. hm. 20 years ago I remember thinking anyone in their 30s was ancient. To be honest, I’m much happier now than I was then. I feel at least 5 years younger than I did 10 years ago, or 10 years younger than I did 5 years ago. I’m in better shape and happier.

I even had a friend email me after seeing my travel pics and say that I was lucky and he was a bit jealous. Age has begun to tear down most of us, he pointed out that I look better now than I ever have. He also made note that we’re not 15 and he can make comments like that.

I look good and I feel good, well except that back ache I’ve had for two days now

Warm Apple Pie and Ice cream. That’s all I want. After all, I’ve got pretty much everything I need.

When the web-crawler started indexing pages a number of years ago, they were really on to something. It was the web-crawler that allowed companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, and of course Google make the billions of dollars they do today off searches.

In my opinion, the demise of the web-crawler from being a search engine into just an aggregate web-page for searching other search engines, was caused by people taking advantage of the technology to cause their pages to reach the top when any search term was used. Pretty soon anytime you entered a word into the search, you would get nothing but random web pages and porn. Rendering the search useless until you got to page 10 or more of the results.

Alta-Vista came next with faster servers, and an all around better algorithm for searching. Also the use of “Natural Language” in the search terms made it easier to narrow down the list of results. But again, people began to figure out how to take advantage of Alta Vista’s indexing, and again only random web pages and porn began to make the top of the list. Useless results for the first few pages.

When Google began I thought it was great. Once again searches were actually relevant to what I was looking for. After a little while it would begin to get a bit randomized, but at least I wasn’t getting porn every time I searched for something like “Washington weather”. And for the most part, at least porn is not what is showing up.

Now however, the results are starting to degrade a bit more. Over the last couple of months I’ve been learning about a technology that I’ve been wanting to learn more about for a few years, but have never taken the time. What I am finding when I search for a keyword or an example of source code usage, are not really the pages I want.

What comes up when I follow the link, that even appears to have a reasonable description, are nothing but pages full of links to other pages and are filled with Google ads. The sole purpose of the page is to do nothing more than gather revenue for click throughs to other pages that have nothing to do with what I was looking for. Either that or I get a page that sends pop up ads and have the page I want embedded or copied from the site that I was hoping to reach. Junk.

I’m not finding the relevant information on the first page or two of the search and it seems to be getting worse.

When is the next new latest and greatest search algorithm due out? I’d really like to find the information I search for again. Without having to search the search results.

I’ll admit it, the first thought I had after hanging up the phone was “How come I’m so god-damned nice?” getting angry at myself for giving in again. But, it’s not entirely selfless.

Julia had decided to move from Boise with her parents to Longview to be with the boyfriend she met at Western State Hospital. It had been an ongoing relationship since before we were divorced. Everyone including me had warned her about his recurring habits. He was in and out of both hospitals and jails for a combination of mental illness and heavy drug use. Not just smoking pot, but meth and heroine. Even me telling here that she wasn’t going to see her son if she moved in with him didn’t convince her it might be a bad idea. But with the mental maturity of a 14 year old, perhaps we all just made her more determined.

When she finally got to Longview it was not all roses. Within days of her showing up, he was into drugs, had taken her money, was partying all night, and basically left her with nothing. Not even any medication. She wound up back in the hospital and is now in a group home in Longview.

She called me tonight asking if I would come get her and let her stay at my house until she could get to Boise. I said she couldn’t stay, but I would pick her up and buy her a plane ticket to Boise. She agreed. I booked the ticket for 8:50pm Saturday night. Then called her parents. They thanked me and said they were mailing me money for the ticket. I don’t really need them to pay me back, but somehow it makes me feel a bit better. At least this round it’s only time.

To be perfectly honest though, it’s not all selfless. When I heard she was back in the hospital, I wondered if she would be back in Seattle. I also heard she was going to be in a half way house up in Seattle after the hospital. That struck fear into me. That would mean that she is close.

Then she called asking for my help. First she wanted to stay for a while until she got an apartment. “No way in hell!” is what I almost blurted out. But, an alternate plan came quick. “How about if I come get you and get you a plane ticket to your parents house?”. She agreed.

Now she gets to spend a few hours with her son who wants to see her, and then later that evening, I get to put her on a plane to get her as many miles as safely possible away from me.

$131 is definitely worth the cost to put distance between her and I. And I get reimbursed.

 It’s not always a bad thing when traffic slows down enough that you begin to look out your window instead of the brake lights in front of you. This is what I saw on the way home Tuesday evening shortly after getting off the freeway and taking the road along the lake to my house. It was such a pretty sight that I just had to stop and enjoy for a few minutes.