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May 31, 2007
Free, For a good home
On an ordinary street sidewalk there sat an ordinary box. On the front of the box was written "Free, For a good home" in large capital letters. Out of the top of the box, the head single kitten poked out. There was noting particularly special about the kitten, it as just an ordinary grey color with wide curious eyes.
This kitten had not always been the only one in the box. Earlier there had been quite a few kittens there. However, one by one the others had left. People with friendly faces had stopped at the box. They examined the available kittens and picked out one to take home with them. As they where taken, the look on the kitten's faces were unmistakably happy. They where leaving the box and travailing to a new life where they would be loved and cherished. Soon the time in the box would just be a distant memory of another life.
However, now there was just one. One kitten who sought a home and a life with people who love it. Many people walked by. Some payed no attention to the box and its occupant. Others stopped and examined the curious creature. The ones who stopped never stayed around very long. Usually they who pat the kitten on the head and say something like "thats perfectly fine kitten. It will surely find a good home," then would move on.
The kitten longed to be taken. It thought to itself that perhaps if my box looked just a little bit better someone will surely stop and take me. Though the kitten was rather ordinary looking it was remarkably resourceful. It left the box and gathered some brightly colored wildflowers nearby. Very carefully it picked the flowers and placed them around of the box. With the new arrangement of bright colors in front, the kitten returned it its place and waited for the next person to come along.
The flowers did bring more people over to look at the box and its feline occupant, but these people where still just as disinterested as the one who came by before. "What a cute kitten with all those flowers," they said. "Surely it will make a perfectly good pet for someone." Then they would turn and leave.
Now the shadows were growing long. Daylight was coming to an end, still no one had taken the kitten. Without the warmth of the sun, the cool wind brought a chill to the box and the kitten did its best to keep warm. There are fewer and fewer people walking down the street now. The street lamps came on; casting the world in a monochrome orange light. The neat flower arrangements now looked like a pile of orange tinted weeds piled up against a orange tinted box. The world looked strange and alien.
The solitary kitten realized there is nothing more it could do. "Someone must come by eventually and take me home," it though. The kitten looked down the street in both directions. There is no one around. It rested it head on the side of the box and just waited to see what fate would bring it...
Posted by binhqx at 11:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 30, 2007
Starcraft Crazy
LaTour has gone Starcraft crazy. After the announcement of Starcraft 2 earlier this week, we decided to pull out the old Starcraft disks and relive past glory.
What we did not realize is that we where opening a Pandora's box of a video game. Pretty soon everyone at LaTour was playing all the time. We have already had more then one night where we stayed up to 5:00 AM playing long multiplier games.
We have all matured a bit and I think this has allowed us to become better players. In the past the game-play would become incredibly heated resulting in shouting matches between teammates. Now we are a lot more cool and collected in the face of adversity. When one player gets in trouble due to a early Zerg rush we can effectively communicate to our teammates and help each other out.
Posted by binhqx at 11:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 29, 2007
Go Yuki at the Abbey Lounge with a new drummer!
Alix Jakson parted ways with Go Yuki a few weeks ago. Since then we have heard about a talented drummer named Aine Fujioka who would be the band drummer.
Tonight was her first show with the band and Cap, Matt and myself decided to show up to see how it worked out.
Here you can see Aine in the back on the drums. The show was pulled of with out a hitch. That is impressive considering Aine has only participated in three rehearsals with the band. She showed to be a very talented drummer and make a welcome addition to the sound of Go Yuki.
After the show we hung out with the band. Yuki said that I do not have enough pictures taken with her. So here is a new one.
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May 28, 2007
Memorial Day Festivities
This Memorial Day we splurged and had a real cook out. We had steak, hamburger and hot dogs. It was great.
Afterward we went to Mojito's for our normal Monday night Wii event. As usual no one showed up. It okay, we had fun with Jack. As long as he is amused, we are is good standing.
After that we came home and played Starcraft till the early morning hours. I had forgot just how fun that games is.
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May 27, 2007
Getting into DnD
Our friend Opa invited Pedro, Cap, SB and myself to play Living Greyhawk. A old school Dungeons and Dragons, pen and paper RPG.
I had only played a little bit of this style game back in high school. I had always wanted to do more, but stating my own game or jumping into someone else's games can be intimidating. So Opa setup a game day specifically for absolute beginners like myself.
The event was held in the basement of Elite Hobbies in Dover NH. We are all very appreciative of them for letting us use their space.
The entire event was composed of two introductory Living Greyhawk mods. We stated with some basic characters that Opa had help us create. He is really fantastic at helping us create a RPG experience that fits our personalities and will be the most fun for us.
Right at the beginning we nervous about doing or saying the wrong thing. However it did not take long for us to get into the swing of the game and just relax and have fun.
Over all the experience was enjoyable. I and looking forward to the next one.
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May 26, 2007
The last epesode of MST3K
This afternoon we watched a very special episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the last one ever made: Diabolik.
It was sad that this episode marked the end of a era but it left it on a high note. The movie with the callbacks was hilarious. However the best part of the show is how they closed the story of the crew of the Satellite of Love.
Spoilers:
Mike and the bots get back to earth and end up getting a apartment together in Minnesota. They now spend there time watching bad movies on TV and make fun of them.
I believe that the point they where trying to get across is although MST3K is over, it does not mean that the spirit of MST3K had died. As long as there are bad movies to be mad fun of, the legacy MST3K will live on forever.
Posted by binhqx at 1:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 25, 2007
Arrr! Its a Pirates night.
All the guys went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End tonight. Over all it was good. It put a nice cap onto the end of the story.
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May 24, 2007
A more sedate Medacast.
It was just Cap and I making the last Medacast. With the two of us the show is just more chill, more laid-back. It is way different from the heated episode last week.
Check out the show that Cap and I did here: Medacast #059
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May 23, 2007
Darts league
Somehow SB and I ended up in a darts league. We will be playing all around souther NH. The matches are every Wednesday evening.
Our first match was held at Mojitos tonight. SB and I played well in our group and individual matches. Our team won the overall match, good for us!
Posted by binhqx at 3:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 22, 2007
Freeradius: sql accounting of failed status type
The default version of Freeradius does not record accounting failed packets with rlm_sql. I found CDRTool had a patch file that will enable failed packet logging. However, it is made for a older version of Freeradius that is different from the current code.
So I took there code and made a new patch available here: sql_accounting_failed.patch
Once the patch is applied, all you need to do is add a failed query line to the rlm_sql config file.
accounting_failed_query = "...query goes here..."
Posted by binhqx at 5:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 21, 2007
Wii at Mojito's with Mom and Auntie
My other was down from Maine for a few days, so I thought it would be nice to have them come over to Mojito's for some fun. Mom and my aunt Carla showed up for a It was a exceptional time.
We started out with some drinks and a fantastic fish dish made my Les. Then I introduced them to the Wii. They had never played on a Wii so I started them out with bowling. Once everyone got the hang of the Wiimote, I moved on to Tennis and boxing. Mom and Auntie took to the game real fast.
I also brought out Excite truck and WarioWare to show off a diversity of game play.
The only problem Wii has is its tendency to exhaust the players after a few hours. Eventually it got late and everyone felt exhausted from the games.
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May 20, 2007
A bittersweet Wii night at Mojito's
There were some highs and lows at tonight's Wii night. Tons of people showed up and everyone had a lot of fun. SB picked Pedro up at the airport so he was there. We also showed off WarioWare to the group. It was well received and everyone had a good time.
The sad part of the evening was toward the end. Many of the regulars were UNH students and many of them graduated yesterday. There were quite a few long goodbyes.
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May 19, 2007
Gas prices :(
The cost of full from my car really sucks. I had filled up my car just as I was leaving maine last weekend. After the drive home and the drive to Manchester on Tuesday I was running on empty. I did my best to not drive much the rest of the week, but I had to refill my car today.
It ended up costing about $35 to fill the tank. That is just from one weeks usage.
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May 18, 2007
Son of MST3K -> RiffTrax
I have been curious about RiffTrax for a while. Here is the description of RiffTrax from the FAQ:
RiffTrax are downloadable audio tracks that you play in sync with your DVDs. They are written and performed by Mike Nelson, former host and head writer of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
So it is like MST3K, but the titles they have chosen to commentary are a bit more contemporary. I went ahead and bought the commentary for Star Trek V, the worst movie of the Star Trek series.
I am going to watch it later tonight with the guys and report back on its hilarity value.
UPDATE:
It is really funny. They managed to make Star Trek V nearly watchable. Although the Shatner priceline.com jokes get old after a while.
Posted by binhqx at 1:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 17, 2007
Who is the Mauvais Loup?
Yesterday's blog entry produced quite a bit of concern and response from my readers. I have been carefully reading each reply and deliberating on the subject of my happiness.
It was unfair to just let the Mauvais Loup out without explaining what it is. I keep a part of my personally hidden away. It is the part of me that is self-important, callous, inconsiderate, unpredictable, and impulsive. When I am feeling distressed all these latent personally features come out in full force. I call it Mauvais Loup mode.
I have been trying for a few months to make my personality more integrated. To prevent myself from just blowing up with all this stored up negativity. But that is a tough thing to do.
Posted by binhqx at 1:06 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 16, 2007
Mauvais loup rant
Right now I am in mauvais loup mode and I am going to write down everything I can think of be for returning to mild mode.
For my entire life I have been behaving as other people expected me to. Early in my life it was my parents and teachers that directed me in proper though and action. As I matured it was my peers and superiors in school and work that guided my behavior. I became a good student because that is what my parents and teachers wanted me to be. I kept my mannerisms mild and proper and my goals lofty, noble, and selfless. The perfect little student to become the perfect little citizen. I would be content with consuming and overcoming the challenges served to me in prepackaged containers ready to eat.
The expectations of these people became invisible shackles that prevent me from straying to far from the path set for me. My peers and friends are not except from being the chains that bind my life style. In fact, it is their influence that effects me the strongest. Their exploits and interest become me without critically examining my own will.
I have been living in the cookie cutter built by the people in my life. I have live this way for so long that I do not know what it is that I want. I do not even know how to go about finding what it is I want. All I do know is how I want to feel. I want to do a action and afterward feel that I am fulfilled and peace with myself.
It is like I am a computer and I know what my internal goal is, but I lack the software to get from here to there. The only thing this computer has ever been programed to is follow the instructions give to it via other's expectations. It has no idea how to act with out them. Nor can I act against the will of another person with out feeling the internal distress of embarrassment/shame/humiliating due to incorrect action.
The worst parts is this creeping sense of resentment that I am occasionally feeling toward the people in my life. They do not deserve to be the target of this negative feeling, they have only the best intentions for me. However they are not me and there for can not fully understand the internal drives that are unique to me.
The mauvais loup is fading out now. It is goes back to the cage that I have built to shield it from the world.
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May 15, 2007
Hanging with my dad waching some House.
My dad was in Manchester for a couple of days to do some conferences. Today after work I got to spend most of the evening chilling out with him. We had dinner at the local 99 and then watched some TV back at the hotel. It might not sound very fun, but the activities where just a facade. I really had fun just talking face to face with my dad.
Now that I live so far from home it is a rarity that I get any one on one time. Even when I go up north to visit, I spend most of my time interacting with my family as a whole. There is not much time for individual interaction.
He has a incredible volume of knowledge and experience. Any time I can access his experience for myself I befit greatly.
On a side note: House really does creep me out.
Posted by binhqx at 2:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 14, 2007
Back from the time warp
It is odd how time does not seem to pass while away from home. All the usual markers one uses to tell the passage of time. For example, I skipped my entire usual weekend routine and now it feels like the weekend never happened. This is completely false, I had a enjoyable weekend with up in beautiful Bass Harbor.
But now I am home and I have to go strait into Monday.
Posted by binhqx at 10:25 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 13, 2007
Sunday at MDI
Its mothers day and I am at home with my mother. I guess that is what it is all about.
We hiked up Flying Mountain this afternoon. It is not much more then a hill but the view of the sound are spectacular.
Me hiking around in the bushes.
My sister and dad with myself up on flying mountain.
Before I leave for home, we will be doing dinner at The Mex in Ellsworth. After that I am heading home.
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May 12, 2007
Saturday at MDI
I got here safely late last night.
This morning my family and I climbed Beech Mountain. The weather today was absolutely fantastic. A cool dry wind off the ocean blew away any haze. Visibility went on forever.
Here is my dad and myself standing on the fire tower.
Here is my dad and myself sitting down of a rest.
Next we drove up Cadillac Mountain and looked down on Bar Harbor. There was a cruse ship anchored there and we could see little boats shuttling passengers back and forth.
I brought my DDR pad with me so I could play some songs with my sister. I needed to clean my [ad before I could play. Luckily my parents have a air compressor that was just perfect for the job. Just running a puff of air down the button seams blew tons of junk out of them. So a got to play on a nicely cleaned DDR pad.
After DDR and dinner we sat down to watch some TV. We do not have any cable up here so my folks have taken to downloading TV shows from the internet. I am so proud of my parents for watching an entire season of House using only YouTube.
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May 11, 2007
Tough time getting started.
After bit of car trouble, I made it To Bass harbor main safly. As I was leaving work I decided to test my inverter that I would be using during the trip. Immediately my car died and the engine would not turn over. At first no electrical system in the car would work. I thought I had blown a fuse. After a little time the console lights started working again so it could not be a fuse.
Matt Helped me pull the car battery out and we inspected it. The fluid in the battery was only about half of what it should be. I could have refilled it with distilled water to temporarily restore the ability to hold a charge. However, I was about to embark on a 240 mile trip and did not want to risk dead car half way there.
We ran down to Walmart and grabbed a new battery. Once it was in the car, the whole thing came to life. The whole ordeal put me about 2 hours behind my initial schedule. Lucky my family does not care about tardiness.
Posted by binhqx at 9:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 10, 2007
Going Up to Maine Tomorrow
I am going up to my parents place tomorrow. It is a long drive so I have to make some preparations.
Tomorrow morning I am getting my car's oil changed. It is always good to have a mechanic look under you car for any obvious problems. Last time they found a broken tierod.
I also have some entertainment to break the monotony of a long drive. I found a mp3 of Isaac Asimov's The Naked Sun. It should be interesting.
Before work tomorrow, I will get packed up so I will be ready to leave right after.
Posted by binhqx at 8:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 9, 2007
Time ends all disagreements. At least for me.
When it comes to having disagreements with people, I have a statute of limitations. If I become angry or cross with another individual and stop communicating with them for a while, eventually I will let the source of the dispute become moot. However, if that other person reopens the old disagreement, I will be right back into it.
For example, I met up with a friend today who I left on bad terms and had not seen in a few months. She was nice, civil and reminded we of all the good times we had in the past. We talked for a while and eventually the conversation got back to the topics that caused us to separate in the first place. These where mostly instances of personality differences between her and my other friends. Had she not brought them up, I probably would have forgotten them. That is just the way I work. I tend to remember the positive attributes and event that surrounds a person while letting the negatives fade with time. But if a person wants to deliberately re-open old wounds, I will recall all that negativity and be put right back where I was when the conflict started.
I believe that every day and every moment we are born new people. That is what allows us to change our opinions and moderate our extremes. Many times I have caught up with old acquaintances and found that they are not the same people that they were in the past. Time as a way of tempering a person. So even if you had differences in the past, you can meet them anew down the road a bit.
Just do not fall back on the old disputes and rekindle them.
Posted by binhqx at 8:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 8, 2007
Go Yuki show in Somerville, MA
Cap and I decided that we have not heard or talked to Go Yuki for too long. So we made a road trip to Somerville to see them at the The Abbey Lounge. The other bands that played there where pretty good. Go Yuki played third so it was a bit later on in the evening.
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The show was great, there was a lot of energy in stage and off. Some how one of the guys from another band got a bit drunk from too many PBRs. Half way through the set he decided to start a one person mosh pit. This was a big guy jumping around and running into other people. All he really accomplished is scaring away the rest of the audience.
Other then that it was a good show.
Posted by binhqx at 11:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 7, 2007
In the Kitchen at Mojito's
Monday night at the Wii event are dead slow. No one ever goes out on a monday night. So this Monday, we asked Les, the chef at Mojito's, to teach SB and I some of the secrets of his fantastic food.
So he through aprons on us and put us to work cutting up vegetables and cooking up some of our favorite dishes. Les is a fantastic cook. He is trained in just about every genre of cooking. From Jamaican, Italian, French, Japanese, he knows it all. While we where cooking up Mojito's special taquitos, he made a hot Japanese nabe. Things like that do not appear on the Mojito's menu, but if you know what to ask for and Les feels like making it, you could probably order just about anything. Well, anything they have the ingredient for in the kitchen.
Les is just one of those guys who has so much cooking experience, you will learn something new every time you talk to him. I am so appreciative that he is willing to share that experience with us.
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May 6, 2007
Fun day but long day.
It has been a long day. After being up with Cap all night and doing some recovering of my own it had a rough start. But we sucked it up and kept going.
I invented a the potato and sausage omelet for breakfast.
Nicole came over and we did Medacast.
The entire evening was spent doing Wii at Mojito's. I have to give props to Spyder for taking care of Cap and I all night keeping us hydrated. Now it is late again and I need to go to bed.
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May 5, 2007
Cap parties a little to hard this Cinco de Mayo
Cap is the next person to learn the dangers of unmoderated alcohol consumption. This year we celebrated Cinco de Mayo at a friends place. Cap made the mistake of claiming that he does not get drunk within earshot of the wrong person. This former marine sergeant then mad it his duty to teach Cap the limits of consumption with a drink called a "Bed Spin" To make a long story short, Cap is now feeling very sick and is recovering by lying very still on the couch.
Now I do not want anyone telling Cap anything about drinking. He has learned his lesson better then you can imagine.
Posted by binhqx at 11:17 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
What is in Sun Tzu (and Red Bull)?
I wrote earlier about question Sun Tzu energy drink. Since I have found that Sun Tzu and Red Bull are essentially the same. A wick look at the wikipedia show that one of the main ingredients of Red Bull is a substance called Taurine. Taurine was first isolated from red bull bile as well as semen in 1827. That is how the drink got its name.
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May 4, 2007
Quite Friday
Its Friday and all is quite here at LaTour.
I'm going to play some DDR before I find something to eat.
So here is cute picture of a animal called a Fennec fox
THey are so cute. I hardly believe that they are real animals.
Posted by binhqx at 5:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 3, 2007
Snapping out of a that temporary frump.
it is so easy to feel like a frump at the end of the day or just after work. It is the hour or two after work, dull errands, or traveling where I do not want to do anything. Of all the moments in the day, these are the ones I feel like I am wasting.
There are so many fun things I could do in that hour or two that could be fun. I could walk to the cafe for a hot tasty drink. Or I could hit the library to check out that latest popular books. Or I could just walk one of the many stores around town that sell fun things. I could do anything.
It is just that hour or two where I do not have any motivation. I need to find some device to snap out of the frump and re-find my motivation.
I found that caffeine can work, but I would rather not become depended on it. In other cases listening to upbeat music or comedy works good. I have also found some other things that do not work. TV only makes me less motivated. Video games are not much better.
So I am looking for more of the things that work.
Posted by binhqx at 4:16 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 2, 2007
Getting into OpenGL
I have decided that it is time for me to get into OpenGL. I have been wanting to get into this API for a long time, but never had the proper motivation. I have found that there are many parts of OpenGL that are hard to understand without the context of a program to us it in. A good example is the manipulation of the GL_PROJECTION and GL_MODELVIEW matrixs. It makes little sence when one reads about it, but once I started programing and manipulating them, it all just came together.
Posted by binhqx at 10:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 1, 2007
16 bytes of pain for AACS LA
AACS LA is the company responsible for the Digital Rights Management (DRM) of all high definition media (Blu-ray and HD-DVD). Last week a specific encryption key was found that will allow a programer to write the software necessary to decrypt protected Blu-ray and HD-DVD movies.
Here is a article about it:
Hackers discover HD DVD and Blu-ray "processing key" -- all HD titles now exposed
In response to this, AACS LA has been sending DMCA takedown notices to any site displaying the 16 byte key. Here is a example of one of these notices.
In response to this, the Internet community has been perversely posting the key any any public forum available. The idea being there will be just too many places to send notices to be practical.
Posted by binhqx at 3:40 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack