Well tonight I took some steps to get the Ubuntu-Maryland loco group going. I registered the #ubuntu-maryland channel on irc.freenode.net. I sent off to the mailman for a mailing list on Ubuntu’s lists feature. The next steps will be to fill out the wiki page started by Aaron and then get the forums rolling.
Right now I’m off to bed.
Well today we were planning to drive up the road a bit to Cracker Barrel for the Sunday Chicken Dinner. A couple of large chicken breasts deep fried with all the fixins. It’s a very tasty meal that we get anytime we’re traveling on a Sunday. Since we haven’t had any travels recently we were going to make a special trip there today.
5 inches of snow changed those plans.
I want to say to my parents, brother, sister, and all my extended family and friends I love you all very much and you’re always in my thoughts.
I’m so lucky to have you in my life Peg!
I Love You!
At least I know the word:)
Last night was the Western Maryland Dart Association’s 2007 banquet. This is the league that Peg plays with on a regular basis. We got there and found a couple that Peg knows and we sat with them. Tim and Robin were a nice pair to chat with, very easy going.
The meal itself was typical small hotel buffet banquet fare. The open bar was flowing with Appletini’s and extra cherrys for Peg.
After the meal was the awards and door prizes. We won a shotglass and one of her teammates won top shooter for their division, congrats Ellen!
Then it was the Luck of the Draw tourney. Both of us got paired up with better players. In my case that wasn’t all that difficult. We had also wound up with bye games so it was wait for a while. Peg and her partner put up a good fight. JE (I’m sorry you got paired with me) and I started out okay. I was hitting pretty good in the 501 game for not having played in two months. It was not good enough as we lost that one by about 100 points. Then the Cricket game was a slaughter as I didn’t hit a single number. I was ashamed of myself. I got over it by the time I put the darts away, but it was a heavy shame while it lasted. I had fun and that’s what’s important.
Recently I had occasion to be part of a forum discussion. There is a podcast that listen that discusses various topics related to Linux and F/OSS. One of the hosts in particular tends to take a very elitist point of view towards computers and users and who should be ‘allowed’ to use them. He also has a very direct way of speaking that tends to come off poorly. For that reason he gets some forum posts and emails telling him what people think of him. He doesn’t like that.
The other week he got one such email from a listener. That day he decided to post it to the forum and make an example of this unsuspecting person. On and on he went saying that this is an example of what he gets on a regular basis. That he’s sick of people taking him to task for his opinions. That if people don’t like it don’t listen, etc etc. In the same post he declares that all mail to him is his to do with as he pleases. He posted the email and the persons name and email address for all to see.
So I responded to that. I said that it was a lousy thing to do to a person who was sending a private email and publicly disclose the contents of the mail and the name and address for not only those in the forums, but in the webcrawlers, spammers, etal.
His response was that he had a right to his opinion and freedom of speech was his right. That the show was his to do with as he pleases. People had no right to disagree with him as he had the show and they didn’t. He said that back in the day of the BBSs that no one dared talk back to the sysops. That if I wanted to be a troll and cause problems I should do it elsewhere.
The posts continued back and forth for a day. Other listeners were commenting as well. A few trying to turn the topic. Others taking my side of the discussion. Then when I went back the next day the entire thread had disappeared. So I started a thread asking what happened. The moderators said that the other post was ‘getting out of hand’ and it was better for all concerned that it was deleted rather than being allowed to continue. Throughout that thread I was basically told to let it go. That if I continued the new thread would be deleted as well. More censorship would ensue.
So the question becomes, if you question the hosts of a site are you necessarily a troll? Is it just easier for them to write off any disagreements as trollish behaviors?
So last night I’m driving home and I hear this repetitive thumping coming from the car. Obviously it’s a tire issue and I figure that I’ve got a flat. So I pull over on the side of the road and sure enough, the front right is quite a bit low. I stop at the next gas station and fill all the tires with air, at a cost of seventy-five cents. [Why when I was a kid air was free….]
So my trip continued and when I was almost home I started hearing the thumping again. When I parked I didn’t see anything low. Maybe it’s a rock or something that I just can’t see in the dark. This morning I walk out and start the car. It’s a cold morning and my windows have frost. I get out to scrape them and walk to the passenger side. My front right has lost the air in the bottom half the tire. Knowing that these round wheels don’t work well when out of shape I decided that I should fix it. And considering that new tires were in the budget for next month I moved that up a bit.
So I called my customer and rescheduled that visit. Then I called the office and let them know what was up. I then went and talked to Peg and found that the local NTB is a decent place to get tires from. Having dealt with other branches in the past I was happy with that choice. So I put the donut on the car and drove over. Dropped off the car and found out that tires are more expensive than what I was thinking they were going to be at almost $125 each, after all the fees and stuff. I did have to tap the emergency fund a bit to cover the shortfall with the final piece of the fundage coming next months budget. So this is just another thing that I don’t have to go into debt over. Finding out about Dave Ramsey and his Baby Steps really was a good thing.
I was told it would be about two and a half hours before the car would be ready so I called for a ride home to wait. Four and a half hours later I decided to call them to find out what the holdup was and found that the car had been ready for a while. ‘Sorry we didn’t call you earlier’ was the general gist of their person. So I got a ride back over there.
When I went to pay I was asked ‘Do you want the basic, 1, 3, or 5 year alignment?’. I just want to pay and get my car. ‘Well we need to know what to bill you for.’ Huh? I thought it was ready. ‘Well we had to do an alignment.’ No you didn’t, as I told the guy that I dropped the car off with that I wanted a call for anything extra that was done. ‘Well we did it anyway, do you want to pay for it?’ Not really as I was not notified of the work. ‘Well I don’t like to do business like that {referring to work done without notifying the customer and expecting payment} it was a mistake so I won’t charge you for that.’ He took it off the bill, and I paid the original total.
Truth be told, had they called me to let me know that the car was ready I would have negotiated to pay for part of the alignment. The way he reacted seemed like an honest mistake was made in the deal somewhere. And because of his dealing with it as he did, quickly and without arguments, is why his store manager/owner (not sure if it’s a franchise thing) and the NTB corporate office will get a nice letter from me praising his work and professionalism.
Well I just put up some pics from our trip to the National Zoo on Saturday.
Outside of that, not a lot to talk about today.
So I was reading one of my regular comics today, UserFriendly, when I had to laugh at the situation that Greg is in and Irwin’s response.
I know that I’ve kind of ignored this the last week or so but getting into good habits can be difficult.
So after my last post and cajigoring the wireless to get that working, I broke the router. Rob had an old (V1) WRT54G router that he wanted to get DD-WRT running on. So me being me said ‘I can do that for you’ and after the flashing I had a nice bricked router. So after a few hours of research and trying things to unbrick it went to bed.
Saturday we went to The Original Pancake House for a wonderful breakfast. Then it was off to Fry’s to get a new router and a few other little bits and pieces. Back to Rob’s to get the network working again. For dinner it was a great meal at Pappadeaux’s.
Sunday was off to Martin’s for breakfast with some of the best southern biscuits I’ve ever had that were not homemade. We parted ways with Rob there and headed up to meet Peg’s sister Sarah and her son Trey. We had a nice visit then it was off for the long, rainy drive home. We arrived back here at about 2am and it was out like a light for both of us.
Monday was out to breakfast with Peg’s mom and brother Chris for his birthday. Nice meal and great visit. Nancy was preparing to leave for a trip to Isreal with a church group.
Then it was back to the work schedule and not much else until Saturday. The weather was fantastic. Peg’s friend Chris and her charges, a friends four children, were going to the DC zoo so we met up with them there. What a great time that was. Chris was a lovely person to meet and the kids, all under eight I believe, were a treat. It was awesome to see the zoo through their eyes.
Sunday was a lazy day and the last two have been work stuffs.
So now we are here and I am off to bed.
Well it’s been a few days since my last post, so here’s some catchup info.
Wednesday Peg and I went out to breakfast with Liz and Jim to Lenny’s in Reisterstown. It’s a nice deli that my Dad took me to for the first time some months ago. Everyone seemed to like it. We got back to my parents and I worked with my Dad a bit on a small project involving Mom’s Christmas gift. Turns out that the under the cabinet TV he purchased doesn’t work. So he’s taking that back to Sears. We then said our good-byes to Liz and Jim who are returned to RI on Thursday.
From there we set of to my old apartment complex and turned in the keys and paperwork. Then it was the auto parts store for a new cigarette lighter for the Honda. After fixing that, I did a quick wire run for the Sirius and it works great using the FM modulator. And for those that have trouble with the modulators, disconnect or put the antenna down. From there it’s pack for the trip.
Thursday – Off to North Carolina to visit the Fems. it was a long drive, but nice with the Sirius all hooked up:) They are doing real well, and Natalie is a real cutie.
Friday – After some great bagels that Rob had dropped off the day before on his stay at Casa de Fem it was off to see Rob in Atlanta. Hit some traffic on the way but nothing too intense. Some crazy drivers down here though. We went out for a dinner at Cracker Barrel that was very tasty. Peg broke the peg game after playing with it one time. Then it was back here to Rob’s nice house and after some cajigory got the wireless network working:)