All of the Web Development office computers at Northwest Nazarene University are managed by IT and contain a Windows XP image that is parceled out over the network. I do not particularly enjoy working on a Windows machine and today I ran across the Wubi project again. It allows a user to install Ubuntu Linux on their Windows based machine to try it out. There is no need for any extra partitioning as Wubi installs as a Windows program. It sits inside the Windows partition and can be remove at any time through the control panel, thus keeping your Windows install safe. Upon computer boot the Windows boot menu will pop up asking you to choose to boot Windows or Ubuntu. It works great and now I have my full Linux development studio setup again. Should have figured there would be a project out there that let me have my Linux without hurting the Windows image. Go Linux!
Check out a screenie. I even got OSX to run inside VMware Player inside my semi-virtual Linux!
After my First Beard Culling I spent a couple days with my new look. The short strap and the longer goatee. Decided I did not really like that so I shaved off the strap too. Amazing what that small change did to how I look. It does seem weird now that no fur folds up on my face when I rub upwards from my jawline. That was kinda a neat feeling. I am liking the goatee for now, we will continue to watch and wait.
I ran across a picture of John Wesley's grandfather on the Wesley Center website today. He bears a striking resemblance to Diane Leclerc, a religion professor at NNU. Is Diane the almighty John Wesley's grandfather come back to haunt us? You decide.
As many of you noticed I have been growing out some facial hair. I have a rather full and thick beard. The majority of people liked the beard (mother not included) and I was thinking about letting it grow till the end of summer, but the sides were touching my ears a lot and I cannot stand hair touching my ears. So I trimmed/shaved it. Beards.org has a great compilation of styles to look through. I like the hair down the sides, but wanted to grow out the goatee a bit, so I went with a sort of strap/goatee look. I'll try it out for a few days. The sides may get shaved and the goatee may loose some width, but right now it seems ok.
Here are some before and after shots.
The Original Beard
After the trim
Side Trim Shot
Edit an hour later: The best part about these pictures is that I got a haircut right after posting them.....
I found out last week the church I am currently attending had two full drum kits in the attic in addition to the set on stage. I went to take a look and what do my eyes behold but a set of Roland V-Drums. I do lots of MIDI stuff with Reason 4 and I have been thinking for a few months that it would be nice to get a set of electric drums to use instead of my keyboard, and what would I want other than a set of V-Drums. Well happy day! I am borrowing the set from the church currently and hope to get some fat tracks laid here in the near future, or at least bone up on my drumming skillz. It has been quite a while......
My buddy Kevin sent me this picture. I thought it was great. I need to get one of these for my house!
I went to see the Cirque Polynesia while I was in Maui and the drummer astounded me. I must have watched him for the first twenty minutes at least. He totally made the show. He reminded me of a cross between Kiss and Michael Jackson, leaning heavily towards the Joker. Check it out and see how much you like him too!
Momma Ducks eggs finally hatched and she now had a proud little flock following her around!
Spring break this year was a much needed relief. I was incredibly ready for a break. School just really isn't my cup of tea when I do not feel like I am learning anything and it makes me just want to get away. Anywho, I had fun over break. My father picked up my grandfathers old hunting rifle, shotgun, and competition revolver. My grandfather used to be one of the best competition quick draw shooters in the northwest. I feel honored that he has entrusted us with the care of his old guns.
Since the guns had been sitting for probably 15 years, and my father had some other guns that needed cleaning, we had a cleaning party. I spent 3 hours alone on that revolver. It is in pretty good shape, but it was dirty. The shotgun wasn't too bad. Though I am not much taken with shotguns so I probably did a subpar job on it. The worst parts were the spider nests in the barrel and all the rust on it. Cleaned up pretty nice. But then comes the gun I have become really attached to. 1951 Savage 99E .308. She is not the greatest gun to look at, but the knowledge that this gun used to be my grandfather's hunting rifle, along with the fact that I have wanted a .308, caused my to become more and more attached to it as I took it apart and cleaned it all out. The .308 is in remarkable condition for being so old. It looks like it has had a long life, but she still shoots true and is all prettied up. I forgot to take pictures of it after cleaning, but you would be amazed at the change. It also has a really nice Leupold 3x9 scope.
Went shooting with friends a couple times, played wallyball, worked, and slept. Slept a lot. Overall it was nice and relaxing, but getting my grandfather's guns was definataly the highlight of my week.
Only 5 more weeks to go!
Below are some pics. Click any of them to see the full gallery!
The Revolver
Part of the .308
Random Bike in Portland
Box Fish
I currently have an external hard drive in my posession. It went from the owner to another guy. That guy did something with it, then it went back to the owner. The owner then handed it to me to copy the data off of it. Knowing how sensitive external laptop drives are, I babied it all the way back to my computer. Plugged it in an guess what? 'tick tick tick tick' Not a good sign. I finally got it to recognize today and I am pulling everything off it right now. It is taking me a little time. Check out these readings from hdparm.
[blobaugh@yomotha ~]$ sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sdb
/dev/sdb:
Timing cached reads: 2 MB in 52.41 seconds = 39.07 kB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 2 MB in 16.37 seconds = 125.11 kB/sec
Yippee! I wish they could bottle that kind of speed!
I think I'll die of old age before 103gigs of info copies off here!
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