Id

Wow.

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:47:06 GMT

Me: Hey Blockbuster, now that Battlestar Galactica has a boxed set available with the entire series on Blu-Ray, when will you be adding that to your options so I can see the whole series in hi-def? I see you have season 4.5 available, but I want the rest too.

Blockbuster customer service person #1: I understand you want to add Battlestar Galactica season 4.5 to your queue. Here's a step by step explanation of how you do that...

Me: No, I've got over 700 items in my queue, I know how it's done. I want the option of adding BSG seasons in a format that you don't currently have available. How do I go about this?

Blockbuster customer service person #2: As a personal follow up, I will be sure to forward a report to our online movie buyers to have copies of "Battlestar Galactica [2004]: Season 4.0" in BluRay format and be added in our movie library as quickly as possible.

Me: Thanks! Will you please also request your movie buyers pick up BSG seasons 1, 2, and 3, as well as "BSG: Razor" in Blu-Ray? They may only be available in the big boxed set I mentioned earlier, in case that helps.

Blockbuster customer service person #3: I understand that you are requesting for the movie series "Battlestar Galactica [2004] Disc 1, 2, and 3" and "Battlestar Galactica: Razor" in Blu-Ray. Rest assured that I will be submitting your request to our product team. If the movies are "Available" in Blu-Ray we will purchase it and post in our movie library.

Me: As did everyone before you, you misunderstand what I want. YES, I want all discs of Season 4 in Blu-Ray. I ALSO want all discs of season 1, all discs of season 2, and all discs of season 3 in Blu-Ray. Thank you.

That catches us up to this morning. We'll see what their next e-mail says...

HAH!

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:05:41 GMT

Anybody out there using Windows 7?

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 06:24:18 GMT

I've got a computer that's about ready for a reformat and OS reinstall, and I was wondering what your opinions might be of Win7. The system is used pretty much solely for these purposes:

Media playing (MP3s via iTunes, divx files, occasional quicktime movies)
Web browsing (nothing fancy, mostly imdb and e-mail)
Occasional DVD burning (.ISO files provided by a different computer that does all the processing beforehand)
Networked file transfers with a Vista system (can be gotten around with SD cards or AOL IM, but both of those options are annoying)

I don't need much power for the traditional things (gaming, etc), just the basics. Can Windows 7 do those things pretty effectively?

HIGHLY INTENTIONAL EXPERIMENT

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:00:17 GMT

Carelessness while refilling a mayonnaise squeeze bottle can lead to the bottle becoming angry. It appears that some have amazing accuracy, as evidenced by today's experiment producing a bottle that spit mayo in my left eye.

So we can add that to the list of experiences I can never again claim to not have had...

Scraping the barrel

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:36:56 GMT

I just received yet another spam e-mail. This one caught my attention because they really aren't even trying with it. What was the hook they were using to get people to click? Was it increased penis size or stamina? Small business loans? Nail fungus treatment? The potential for training in the police/computer/medical billing industry? Last chance affordable car insurance or warranties? Diabetes meal planners? Cruise vacations? Photos of singles in my area?

No, those would be too obvious! (although every one of those was in the most recent two dozen e-mails in my spam folder)

The subject of this e-mail was, and I quote:

Cell phones that allow you to take pictures

Not sure who to ask

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:01:44 GMT

I remember years ago, hearing that computers consume more power by frequently starting up and shutting down than it would take to just let them run all day. I think the number I heard back then was 3 -- if you're going to turn the computer on and off three times or more over the course of the day, you'd be better off just leaving it on.

Does anybody know if there is now, or ever was, truth in that? I checked Snopes, but couldn't find anything, and I'm just not sure who else to ask...

Best of Ventura County

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:56:07 GMT

It's that time of year again...

Time for the VC Reporter to host their annual popularity contest.

If you enjoy your time in my office, please vote for me in the "Best of Ventura County" poll.

Voting closes July 31, so vote now!

Thank you!!!

Hooray!

Wed, 13 May 2009 15:56:58 GMT

Remember back in last June, when I was whining about not finding the Network Spinal Analysis episode of a show called "What's the Alternative?"

It's airing on May 27 -- not only on Dish Network, but on Verizon FIOS, which is what I've got! DVR is set, and I am ready to go! Woohoo!!!

What is it with me and IMAX excitement?

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:05:57 GMT

Transformers 2 trailer. (there's a link to the trailer in HD just below the video, which is worth the extra downloading time) For just the briefest of moments at the end, it points out that you can experience it in IMAX.

DUDE.

Maybe they missed the point.

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:43:06 GMT

I was extremely excited for a while. From all reports, Camarillo is getting an IMAX. The Edwards cinemas, just 1.5 miles from my house, is premiering an IMAX screen later this year. That's really exciting news, right?

Well, on Wednesday night, Jen and I saw Inkheart at that theatre. (great concept, poorly executed. Not the point.) When we asked when the IMAX was opening, they said March 6. (Looks like it's opening with The Watchmen) This took me by surprise -- there's no obvious construction. Then they said it would be in Theatre 7. My heart started to sink. But hope stayed alive - we'd parked in front of the theatre, and #7 is in the back. Maybe the rear parking lot is being built into to accomodate the screen? I mean, they're building that huge extension of the Outlets right next to the theatre, so parking could overflow in that direction pretty easily.

Yesterday, I rode my bike to the theater in the morning and confirmed my fears. I rode behind the theatre, to where Theatre 7 is located. No construction whatsoever.

So unless they're digging into the ground under Theatre 7, what's happening appears to be that they're using the two-story space they already have and putting in new projectors and possibly speakers, and calling that IMAX. IMAX, whose slogan is "Think Big." Whose standard is a six-story screen.

This makes me very sad, and a little insulted. What, they think because we live in Ventura County, we can't figure out the difference between a six-story screen and a regular-sized one? Heck, the Cinerama Dome or the main screen of the Chinese Theatre is bigger than Theatre 7, and neither of them would qualify as an IMAX.

I may check it out when it opens. It's possible I'm mistaken. It's even possible they are, in fact, digging four stories down. Doubtful, but possible. But at this point, I really don't know. =(

Data sync

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:58:01 GMT

Question for the geeks out there...

How would you go about keeping the contents of a common directory synchronized across three computers in two locations?

I'm taking the basis of this from how the computer deals with my PDA. ActiveSync looks at all the calendar items, contacts, tasks, and files and compares them between the PDA and the computer. I assume it'd do the same thing with an iPhone. Any items that have changed on one of the systems is copied over the old version in the other. Any new items are copied. Any conflicts generate a question -- which should be kept?

That's what I'd like to accomplish, but without the PDA.

My work computer is at the office. I have two computers at home. I'd like to have the ability to not care which computer I'm at in order to work on work-related stuff, and not have to worry about where any particular Word, Excel, Photoshop document or even JPG was created or last edited. I have an FTP site available as an intermediate step if needs be, but the goal is to automate: When this computer goes online or boots up, check for changes and update. Periodically (perhaps every 5-10 minutes or so), sync again.

Can this be done? How would you do it?

Anybody got a good data retreival strategy?

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:47:04 GMT

A couple months ago, I lost a hard drive. Well, OK, I still know where it is -- but the computer doesn't. It's a shame, too - this was a nice drive: Seagate 300GB SATA. The bigger shame is the lost content -- there was some video on there whose tapes had already been erased but not yet processed, including a friend's wedding.

I called around, trying to find out what it'd take to save the data. The lowest cost quote I could find to even look at the thing was over $250. So I stuck the drive in a drawer to see if inspiration struck later.

A couple weeks ago, my other SATA drive died. (OS is on regular ATA. I've got a lot of disk drives.) At this point, I figured it couldn't be coincidence -- it's much more likely that my motherboard and it's on-board SATA were the culprit.

Tonight, I picked up a external enclosure, that plugs into SATA and turns it into USB. This makes it lose a massive amount of speed (thus rendering it useless for video editing, but fine for storage), but essentially bypasses the board that may or may not have killed the drives. Plugged in more recently dead drive -- works great. Plugged in the more important one (with the wedding vid), it spins up and abruptly halts, then tries again. One might describe the sound as repeated crashing. The computer brings up the other drive almost immediately, but doesn't seem to recognize that this one is even trying.

Anyway, the drive is under warranty and I can get Seagate to replace it, but the data is forfeit. I'd REALLY like to not lose this data -- I know what it's like to have your wedding videographer friend flake out on you, and I DO NOT want to be on the other end of that exchange. My buddy trusted me, and I don't want to have betrayed that trust. (and yes, the original source tapes are gone. I didn't think I'd lose everything to a hard drive crash.)

So...Does anybody have any suggestions for cost-effective data retreival?

It's back

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:56:29 GMT

Now announcing, for the rare person who cares, the return of jlweight.

I don't get it.

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:23:42 GMT

61.0% of California votes to put hope, tolerance, and acceptance into the White House.

And at the same time, 52.5% of California votes to put fear, intolerance and bigotry into the State Constitution.

I just don't get it.

Knowledge schmowledge

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:52:42 GMT

I propose a new game called "Choose My Vote" behind the cut.

Here's how the game is played:

Register to vote with the political party marked as "Undeclared."
In the months, weeks, days, and hours leading up to the election, collect all the political mail you receive. Keep a notebook by the phone so you can keep track and listen to all the robot calls you get, and when a political call comes in from an actual human, find out who's supporting it.
For all of these, make piles based entirely on the "paid for by" line on the paper. The robot calls count as one sheet of paper, the human calls count as two. For items that show up on your doorstep, count each piece of paper as two and each human encounter as three.
Wait until an hour or two before your voting location closes before continuing to the next step -- the last day is still fair game for them to attempt to get your vote. In fact, I'd suggest a bonus point to any human encounter, in person or on the phone, that happens on voting day.
For each issue, proposition, and candidate, see which pile is biggest on voting day. That direction is obviously wasting more of their resources on trying to get your vote than on concentrating on the issue at hand, and has no right to win. Vote against them.
If there's a tie, you've got a choice: either you vote randomly, leave that one blank, or consider learning about the issue(s) it's pretending to address and vote how you believe.
Recycle all the paper you've been collecting and save a small forest.

Try it next time there's a major election - it's fun for the whole family!

In other news...

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:08:40 GMT

$2.569 / galon

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:51:45 GMT

Costco rocks.

An actual update

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 06:58:34 GMT

Last Thursday, I went to see a Naturopath. Several of my coworkers at GC have recommended him to me for one reason or another, and I have been having some symptoms that I haven't been enjoying and would prefer they go away, so I went.

We spent about 90 minutes together, but he had come up with and explained a theory that makes complete sense within the first few minutes.

It appears I have a longstanding, chronic, systemic Candida infection.

To clarify, Candida causes several things depending on its location. In the mouth, it causes Thrush. In the vagina, it causes a Yeast Infection. It is, after all, a yeast. But like e-coli, it's one of those things that we all naturally have in our bodies. It's only a problem when it exist outside the area of our body that it's usually found, or when there's too much of it.

When it's in your whole system, it does lots of things.

It's a yeast, so it likes to hang out in damp areas like lungs and sinuses. This irritates the tissues, which can cause mucous buildup (check) as well as a perpetually stuffed nose (check for many years. Like, at least ten of 'em.).

It eats glucose (sugar and the things that turn into sugar), so it hangs out in the digestive tract, causing all sorts of issues involving improper digestion. The ones that apply to me are cravings for starchy and sugary foods, mood swings associated with delayed eating, gas...heck, it could also be involved with weight gain or an inability to lose weight. (If we take this as a key symptom, which I don't know that we should, then this probably started about nine years ago. That's when I very suddenly balooned.)

Because it's a yeast (which is an inflammatory), and because it makes you crave foods that are inflammatory in nature, there's also an inflammatory response in the entire body. This can cause: redness, swelling, heat, pain, and/or loss of function. Anywhere in the body. Joints, muscles, skin. (Check, check, and check.) Taken to an extreme, it can cause the skin irritation/redness/itchiness/pain I've been having across my hands for several weeks now.

It's not directly responsible for giving you any specific illness, but (as the Naturopath put it) it's like the immune system is running a race with a 20 pound backpack on. It may do well in the race, it may not -- but it'd get through a lot more effectively if it wasn't dragging the extra weight.

So what's the solution? Supplementation and diet changes. Thankfully, that's all of a temporary nature - once the infection is gone and the only Candida I've got is the stuff I'm supposed to, I can go back to eating like a healthy normal adult. (Or like I have been for a while, although that's not recommended.) The bad news is what's restricted. As I say, yeast eats sugar. So I can't eat anything that is, or directly converts to, sugar. Which means no refined sugars, no carbs, and no fruits. For 4-6 months. (rice and potatoes are OK, but only occasionally)

Specifics are forthcoming: my actual report of findings, in which Larry tells me specifically what I should and should not be doing, is next Thursday. Which is good, 'cause I've got some questions on what I am or am not allowed. Like yogurt and tortillas. (not together. Ew.) And what the consequence is of a rare slippage off the wagon. The holidays are coming up, and I don't relish the idea of going through them without a single thing off that list...but if a single slip-up means I lose all the value of the time I've spent dieting from now to then, it's not worth it.

So people are likely to ask me why NSA didn't help with this. The answer is simple: My body's been giving me signals for quite some time now that I eat poorly and should do better about my diet, and I've been ignoring it. As I tell my practice members, the body does not like to be ignored: if it wants your attention, it'll get louder until you pay attention. Which is what mine did. Sometimes you need another voice to tell you what you should have already known, or to help you go about doing what you need to do.

Anyway, enough about me. How are you?

Proposition 8

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:44:36 GMT

I have decided to change this post from friends-only to public. My beliefs are mine, and I own up to them. Standards and morals are only worth anything if they're upheld even when it's uncomfortable. I'm still going to spare your friends list with an LJ-Cut, though...

I’m angered by the debates over Proposition 8, and feel compelled to share my thoughts. And for the record, these are the thoughts of a happily heterosexually married man.

I have not yet heard a single cogent, logical, valid argument for Prop 8. I’ve come up with one argument that I think makes sense if and only if it leads to a completely different proposition than this one, but I’ll get into that later. For the most part, the actual arguments I’ve heard in favor (as opposed to statements of blatant fearmongering like "this has been forced down our throats") have been these:

“Marriage” has always been defined this way (I’ve actually seen in print the word “forever”), and we’re just fighting to maintain a pre-established word.

You say that as if language is a stagnant, stable, constant thing that never evolves. (oh wait, evolution is another argument altogether) You say it as if this specific situation and argument have been around for millennia, and it therefore can be said that the status quo has been tried and tested and proved to be the correct way. As opposed to language changing and shifting in order to allow communication based on new situations, incorporating things like the Merriam-Webster "word of the year" being “w00t” – and yes, I spelled that correctly, with zeros instead of o’s. The fact is that languages that fail to evolve, much like societies and species with similar rigidity, tend to die.

Without this proposition, the schools will have to teach the gay agenda, and I don't want my children exposed to ideas with which I disagree so vehemently.

I’ll rephrase: If you fail to define marriage in this way, public schools will have to give equal time to the notion that ideas I don’t believe in may be valid. This would force me to communicate my value system to my children myself, rather than forcing the public educational system to do it for me. After forcing the children to intone a pledge with the word God in it whether they believe in a deity or not, and not allowing them to learn about the dangers of sexual encounters without protection from disease or pregnancy, why break the pattern now?
My response is basically simple: If you don’t like how the public education is being taught, pay for a private education. That’s why it’s there. Meanwhile, try doing some actual parenting. That’s why you’re there.

Gay marriage threatens the sanctity of marriage as an institution.

I fail to see how Britney Spears’ 12-hour marriage-turned-divorce is more sacred than George Takei’s 25-year committed-union-turned-marriage. With arranged marriages, weddings held purly for tax purposes or to allow the participants to get off-base-housing, and over 50% of all American marriages ending in divorce, the sanctity of the institution of marriage is threatened less by homosexuals and more by modern humans. Go oppress them for a while.

We’ve fought this fight years ago, and 61% of the people in California voted in this way already. The battle’s lost, people. Give it up.

1: People change. 2: People can be wrong. 3: People disagree, often with the opinions they themselves had years ago. If a finite list of undisputable laws was sufficient, communism would have worked. Instead, we live in a society in which people are supposedly allowed to question the decisions made by those in power or in the majority. It’s kind of what made us a country in the first place. People change, can be wrong, and disagree. Live with it.

Four people shouldn’t be allowed to overturn the will of the majority.

That's one example. Here's another: grander scale, two consecutive presidential elections. It happens all the time. We live with it all the time. Be consistent – either put up with it or don’t, but don’t make exceptions just because this was the one time that made things inconvenient for your group rather than the other guys’. If you’re going to hold a moral high ground, do it when it’s inconvenient for you too. Morals and standards only mean something if they’re always upheld.

Without this change in the constitution of California, churches could be sued for not performing marriages that they disagreed on for religious reasons.

I’m not sure how this is change with a different definition of marriage. California is a litigious state. People sue. Big deal. No judge will hold a church accountable for discrimination simply because they held to their religious beliefs --- it’s what defines the first amendment of the country’s constitution.

That does bring us to the actual heart of the argument, though. The problem is that “Marriage” is an inherently religious word. The real problem is that by allowing homosexuals to use the word for their unions, the state is imposing their definition (and therefore their will) on religious organizations. You can’t separate the word “marriage” in the context of the state from the word “marriage” in the context of the church – it’s the same word for a reason.

At the same time, this is the exact argument FOR using the word that way. Say, for example, that you were to put in the US constitution an amendment that defines the word “man” as “any individual whose DNA gender markers includes ONLY a single X chromosome and a single Y chromosome.” What implications would that mean on the rest of the document? Where would we be with women’s rights? How about instead, defining African Americans as being having 2/3 of a vote? Yes, I understand that this bill does none of that, and that homosexual unions have the same rights as heterosexual marriages no matter how this vote goes. But the real problem is that the proposition brings us back to a “separate but equal” mentality – and look how well that turned out for everyone involved. Four legs good, two legs bad. You can ride on the same bus, but only in the back. You can be joined legally, but you’re not allowed to use our word. We held a revolutionary war to fight this kind of mentality, saying “you do what you want to do in England, but in America, we fight for the minority and against oppressors of any kind, and you can’t force us to do otherwise.”

So here’s my proposal. Forget 8 – it should never have existed, it’s a relic of the pre-enlightened-1960’s. Instead, proposition Anti-M, as an amendment for the United States constitution: “The word marriage is an inherently religious word, and we live in a society that has deemed necessary a separation of Church and State. Therefore, the word 'marriage' shall not be used with any legal standing in any context, for any couple or group of any gender combination. All legal rights previously endowed upon couples with the title of Married shall now be given to couples with the title of Legally United. A Legal Union shall be granted to any two individuals, regardless of gender, with the same requirements and processes previously required of Marriages by the state. Marriages may still be performed under the guidelines of one’s church, temple, clan, coven, etc, but the title of ‘Married’ shall no longer carry any legal rights or privileges.”

The problem is a combination of segregation and religion. People shouldn’t be singled out because they’re different, but you can’t force any religion to accept beliefs they don’t want to. So do what should have been done in the first place: separate the Church from the State, and give anyone who applies for it the same rights, the same privileges, and the same title.

Vote

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:40:58 GMT

I wonder why the permanent absentee voter ballot doesn't come with an "I voted!" sticker. To supplement my collection, here's this:

No updates

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:52:53 GMT

sencollins pointed out that I haven't updated my LJ pretty much since my YouTube was taken down.

He's right, but the timing is coincidence -- mostly, I haven't done much recently outside try to build up my practice. Which, come to think of it, I'm pretty much ready to post pictures of. I'll try to get some of those taken soon.

I have my license (including the wallet-sized one), so I'm officially a Doctor of Chiropractic. Yay! I did a Holistic Healing Day in Camarillo a few weeks ago, and I'll be part of the Your Health Connection health expo on November 2. (free tickets for the event are available, but I don't know for how long) I'm in the process of joining a fellowship of alternative healthcare providers in Ventura County called "The Natural Path," and am considering re-joining the Barbershop Harmony Society via the local chapter. (I REALLY miss singing, particularly in close harmonies.) Still driving to Santa Barbara twice a week to get my own treatments in. Still working at G.C. three times a week, which is paying for my office during this period of not having any Practice Members of my own. And that's pretty much my life right now.

Other than that, I'm not sure what to say. I'll try to be better about posting updates here, but I make no guarantees - my efforts need to be concentrated on making the business successful...which is what I'll go work on now.

Odd thought just occurred to me

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:15:42 GMT

"Pitch Perfect" would make the perfect audiobook. I mean, aside from the various rights issues making it obscenely expensive...

I'm official. Sorta.

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:25:11 GMT

All the paperwork says I can't be called Doctor or Chiropractor until I have the license in my hands.

That said, if you go here you can (finally) look me up and see that the license exists. It's being sent to me and I should have it in my hands by the end of the week.

WOOHOO!!!!! I'M OFFICIALLY A DOCTOR OF CHIROPRACTIC!!!!!

My YouTube may be gone...

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:51:08 GMT

...but you can still cook a beatbox fill!

On a not-entirely-unrelated note, that guy (Beardyman) appears to be awesome.

Two quotes, same conversation

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:05:20 GMT

Me: "That came from Mr. Wonderful. Mr. Wonderful? Dr. Horrible. It came from Dr. Horrible. Eh, Mr. Wonderful, Dr. Horrible, whatever."

[later]

Jen: "I like Captain Tightpants. He's shiny..."