| Windows 7 |
[12 Nov 2009|09:12am] |
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Ok I am playing with Windows 7 ultimate now. I am slowly adding my software as my attempts to upgrade have been frustrated.
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| free stuff |
[16 Oct 2009|11:42pm] |
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Tons of free crap at Lightspeed. Show up tomorrow and get some.
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| Goodbye Store |
[15 Oct 2009|11:55am] |
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Lightspeed Systems is closing its doors. Free stuff and some good deals
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| Faith |
[07 Oct 2009|10:12am] |
Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits. - Dan Barker |
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| Classics of SF and Fantasy |
[26 Sep 2009|11:56am] |
The fallowing is a letter written to a friend of mine who asked my option on creating a library including science fiction and fantasy for his sons.
My thoughts on the subject are to work from classics up. All writers, for the most part, write based on what was written before. So to better understand modern SF and Fantasy it is best to start with older SF and fantasy such as H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds" or Jules Verne's "The Time Machine". I was lucky to start out with H.G. Wells and found this was a better place to start rather than with Issac Asimov or Robert Heinlein because I had a better understanding of what inspired these later writers.
http://classics.jameswallaceharris.com/ is a good link to the best in SF. There is a lengthy discussion of the criteria used to pick the books chosen. Again, going for the older books would be a wise idea as these will give you a better foundation to understand the later. Don't forget the short stories. Some of the best SF and fantasy is contained here. You should also bare in mind that some of the recommended books are more popular than "classic" e.g. Dune and similar books. This is not to say they are not worth reading but they should be balanced with books like Philip K. Dick's "Man in the High Castle" or "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" .
As to fantasy it's a bit harder to pin down and there are actually less resources on the web to help. Again, the recommendation stands, start with the older stuff. H. Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines" is good and is the basis for the Indiana Jones/Laura Croft type fantasy. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Robert E. Howard and Conan. But of course Howard in naming his hero references Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who's book "The Lost World" is a classic SF/Fantasy read. It's always a good idea to read those who inspired those whom you admire. A quick list of must reads in the fantasy realm would have to include: J.R.R.Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, "The Worm Ouroboros" by E.R. Eddison, Fritz Leiber and his series of books of the adventures of Fafhrd and Grey-Mouser, T.H. White and "The Once and Future King" a book based on "Le Morte d'Arthur". Don't forget books on the classics of Greek and Norse mythology and such as Beowulf as these stories for the basis for most modern fantasy.
Books by more contemporary writers would include: the Elric Series by Micael Moorcock, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson, Richard Adams and "Watership Down", Ursula K. LeGuin and the Earth Sea trilogy is recommended but I have not read it, Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" a sort of Fantasy book set in the far future. You should remember that these later works may be a bit sophisticated for young readers.
There is a good selection of Juvenile Science fiction and fantasy out there such as "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle, Heinlein's Juvenile fiction, Baum's "The Wizard of OZ", the books of Andre Alice Norton, etc.
I would be remiss if I didn't include H.P. Lovecraft in the list of recommended reads even if he does not exactly fit either of the groups of SF or Fantasy. Of course you might also wish to include his inspiration Edgar Allen Poe who also invented the mystery in his story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" .
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| once upon a time |
[03 Sep 2009|01:22am] |
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A man I know was asked "What do you look for in a woman?" to which he replied quite wisely "The whole." or perhaps also quite wisely "The hole".
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| Cheese cake custard thingy |
[30 Jul 2009|06:04pm] |
Let's face it everyone loves custards, puddings and cheese cakes. But no one wants to make one. Why? "Jay... They're so hard to make." Well, I am lazy. And I have a way to impress your date with your mastery of deserts without you having to really think. This is a recipe that requires NO messuring. None, Zots, Nada.
Let's start with custard 101. A custard is a combination of cream, egg and sugar, gently cooked. The ratios can vary but the basic is 2 cups cream to 1 cup sugar to 4 egg yolks. Now if you substitute cream cheese for cream you get a cheese cake. The secret to cooking any custard is the water bath. The water bath regulates the heat applied by evaporating faster as it gets hotter. This means you can put your custard on 350 and not make scrambled eggs or crack it.
Ok, back to our impress your date dessert. For this recipe we are going to use 3 main ingredients: 2 Whole eggs, 1 Block of cream cheese, 1 Can of sweetened condensed milk. I like to do the whole shebang in a food processor. One of the things you can do to make your thing look like you know what you are doing is make a crust for your custard. Months ago someone left a stack of these whole grain bread crisp things in my pantry. So I took one and smashed it. This works quite well and again can be done in your food processor. If you don't have a food processor just put the thing in a zip lock bag and crush it up that way. Next get a cereal bowl. One that is oven safe unless you are a moron. Butter the inside of the bowl. I like to use a rubber spatula for this. Sprinkle your crumbs in the bowl and swish them around a bit to evenly distribute them. Don't worry if thet do or don't stick to the bowl, it won't matter. Next, combine your eggs and cream cheese together. Don't sweat it if there are a few small lumps. Next, add the can of sweetened condensed milk. If you use evaporated milk you are a tard. Just because the cans look the same doesn't mean they are the same. Add a splash of vanilla if you like at this point. If you dip your finger in and the mixture tastes like melted french vanilla ice cream you have got it right. Pour the mix in your bowl. If you want to be fancy sprinkle some brown sugar on top. Next place your bowl in a cake pan and fill the cake pan half way with water.
Bake at 350 for 30 to 40 mins until the top is golden and the middle no longer giggles when the bowl is tapped on the side. Let cool for 15-20 mins and then refrigerate for an hour. Place a plate over the top of the bowl and flip upside down. Our dessert will come out on the plate and is ready to serve. Feel free to top with fruit or serve as is.
What happened?
We used whole eggs instead of just yolks to make this easy. We can do this because we have diluted the recipe enough with the condensed milk that the egg whites will not turn the final product tough. Whites tend to puff a bit more as they cook which is again ok because we don't necessarily want something as dense as cheesecake. As our custard cooks it expands somewhat. This is good for us because we want it to release from our bowl when we are done and the custard will shrink as it cools. Our crumbs will have floated to the top. This happens because the butter and cream cheese melt allowing them to float. If we had used something more dense we would have had to sprinkle it on top and would not have so saturated the crumbs in our mix.
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| Sex sells |
[04 Jul 2009|10:06pm] |
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This sure looks yummy.
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| Quicksys DiskDefrag |
[04 Jul 2009|11:25am] |
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I'm defragging Rad Richards harddrive this morning. I was looking for a good tool to do this. The defrag in Windows proved inadequate for the task so I looked around. After trying Auslogic's defrag program I found Quicksys. All I can say is IT WORKS. There really needs to be a review site for free system tools
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| Fallout on Sale |
[04 Jul 2009|09:38am] |
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Steam has put Fallout3 on half price this weekend only. Get it if you haven't already.
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| Oh the Joy |
[20 Jun 2009|08:58am] |
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The impeller on my washing machine has ceased making the horrible racket and begun to work normally. Saints be praised.
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| Blue balls crying in the rain |
[13 May 2009|08:36am] |
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I find it amazing that things I think would not overly effect me do. I have discovered that the thing I really can't stand is being around someone with whom every conversation goes something like this; Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex,, but not with you. Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, but then I don't find those people to be repugnant. Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex. Have I talked to you again today about how my fuck buddy is boning my sister? Gawd that is disgusting. Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, I'm not having anymore sex until after I leave Texas so again, no sex with you. Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, did I say that? Psych! Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, scuse me while I put this tie around the knob of the bedroom door next to yours. Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, have I talked about my collection of whips and vibrators today? Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, I really want to marry someone who would be ok with never having sex with me. Is your nephew coming over today?
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| Puppies |
[05 May 2009|08:32am] |
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I have puppies. Do you want one? Yes they are cute. Yes they have been de-wormed. Boxer shepard mix. Long or short hair. Males and Bitches. jayhova4x4@gmail.com
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| The Bitch is back |
[12 Mar 2009|08:09am] |
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I found my dog. A chinese couple in Alief had her.
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| An unexpected letter |
[07 Mar 2009|07:01pm] |
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I got a letter from Ruth yesterday. She is married and living in West Texas
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| JOCO Update |
[05 Feb 2009|07:49am] |
Friday March 13
House of Blues (Houston, TX) with Paul and Storm
Details and tickets coming
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| what's going on. |
[27 Jan 2009|09:04am] |
Most recently, I've acquire Dragon dictate. I did this, so it would be easier for me to document a journal by making of the current woes of lightspeed systems Inc. it actually works pretty well.
In summer of last year I was working at lightspeed when a dispute arose between myself and Jim Davidson over who should be responsible for creating Jim, a new username and password. I was firmly under the impression that this was Jim's responsibility as he was responsible for all actions with banks including financing the company. As a result, I was fired. In October of last year. I was forced to return to the company. In the time since my part for the management of lightspeed Inc. had run the company into the ground. The rented not been paid for multiple months in a row there were huge amount of tax owed, as well as a large debt to our vendors. In addition to this mike had since told customers that we were out of business and placed a note on the door saying as much. This made it very difficult to go back into business as consumer confidence in us had severely wavered. In addition to these difficulties, as it was the end of October, we were going into our Christmas season, which is traditionally a very slow time for us. Especially postholiday. The upshot of all this is that lightspeed systems Inc. is currently several thousand dollars in the hole. And I have not been paid since October 2007.
Around the time of my birthday this year the joint on my right toe began to cause me pain. When it kept me up all night I decided to go see a doctor. It is somewhat ironic that by the time I went to go see a doctor. My toe was getting better. When I paid $180 for the blood tests. It actually felt much better. I can however already spent the money on the blood test, and so decided to go back to see what the results were thinking that maybe I had gout I sat at the doctor's office from two o'clock until 5:30 when I actually got to see a doctor. The doctor for the most part ignored my toe as unimportant and told me that I have diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. I was put on a restricted diet given pills to control my high blood pressure and told to come back in a week. Somehow the doctor managed to spin this as good news. I'm still trying to figure that one out. He gave me more pills to control my cholesterol and more pills to reduce my blood pressure. I am also now required to shake myself in the thumb in order to draw blood to test my blood sugar I do this routinely. Two hours after lunch. I'm told I will eventually see the effects of diabetes in macular degeneration, numbness, etc. it's nice to have something to look forward to.
Meanwhile, Jim appears to have gone off the deep end, is accused me of any number of outlandish actions, including stealing $30,000 from him, lying to him and being too stupid to pay myself.
If all this does not seem bad enough, back in December, I hired a girl to help organize the office she seemed to be doing a very good job at the office was very neat and tidy, which it hadn't been at any time since I had been there. Unfortunately, she managed to do this by throwing away the things she felt we didn't need. More unfortunately, one of those things was the general ledger, which included itemized details on all the money I had put into the company as well as many other vital company transactions.
January has been a real shit storm.
Edit: oh, I almost forgot. Right after I went on my new diet my eyesight went out. Now, about half the time. I need reading glasses in order to read. Sometimes I even have trouble seeing things on the computer. My distance vision does not seem to be affected, and it tends to be more pronounced dead mornings and evenings.
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jayhova's journal
