Another Opinion Among Many

I got my walking in this morning, for sure.  I went to the school with Caleb at the regular time (and, on the way home I realized that I made a whole lunch for him when its a short day) and came back to get Abby ready.

Yes - to get Abby ready! Its her first day of school and she was so excited to go.  I sure hope that it doesn’t wear off, as she’s going to need a challenge.  The little sponge! I’ve taken the morning off work so that I could go with her and also get some other stuff done, like get my driver’s license renewed.  Just because I don’t own a car doesn’t mean that I won’t be driving one in the next few years!

In an hour, school will be out and we’ll go get the kids.  Its almost not worth having a day, being so short and all.

Do I hear an echo in here?…

I’m watching the “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.  He’s got Jessica Biel as a guest tonight and he’s put her on the spot to sing for something that she told him she wanted when she was a child.  It turns out that its one of those little cars that kids rarely get.  So, as an adult, she finally gets one because she rises to the occasion and sings a song.  I now like her even more for rising to the occasion.  Great poise.  And, you do have a decent voice, Ms Biel.

So, I’ve had words with my stoner jerk neighbor for the second time in a week. He seems to dislike the neighborhood kids and, since mine live next door, he seems to have the biggest problem with them. We lived side by side for a year without exchanging a word. Now, he’s a grouchy bastard every time he smokes up. I tried to talk to the guy to ask him to just take it easy and not be such a prick when the kids come around our area, but it was no use, as he was too much of a chicken to actually have a conversation. I didn’t think that I’d come across another such gutless mouth off in my life time as one fellow that I met about 6 or 7 years ago. But, they seem to be around here and there.

There’s no use for you to totally “run away” from a verbal communication by going out of your way to avoid eye contact and begin walking away when someone (who you’ve never really even spoken to) wants to discuss something with you in an adult manner. But, “good neighbor” can’t seem to do that, I guess. I think that part of it is because he’s too stoned to coherently put together one word, let alone a whole sentence, but still!

Its frustrating, to say the least. All I want is to actually have one exchange of words that gets the understanding across that, “We don’t ever have to talk again, but please stop giving me dirty looks, you jerk.” I hope that, although he refused to participate in the conversation (making it seem like a monologue), that somewhere in his fried little brain perhaps we can go back to just not talking. The whole thing sucks.

I’ve had a bit of a time lately with my CD Burner taking 10 minutes to burn a CD, which is ridiculous, as some newer machines can burn a whole DVD in not much different time. I didn’t get around to figuring out deeply what I could do about it. I checked the Device Manger (right click on “My Computer” and choose the “Hardware” tab. Then, select “Device Manager”) and I noticed that my CD Burner, which was on the middle of the UDMA cable (the slave position) was in PIO mode, even though I had selected “DMA, if available” as the preferred mode of the IDE controller (you can see this by double clicking the “Primary IDE Controller” in the Device Manager). Well, there is a cause for this and also a fix. More likely than not, Windows “decided” to use the much slower PIO mode when it encountered more than 6 CRC errors at one point or another. This can happen if you put in a scratched CD. If you’re a regular visitor, you know that I have kids. I’ll say no more about that.

The good news is that there’s a solution and its everywhere on the net.  It does involve editing the registry and changing a few values (or deleting and reinstalling the device - not my favorite option, since it is the disk controller that has my hard drive on it).  The even better news is that I found a page that explains the procedure, or, if you’re too lazy, you can use a little script they came up with to do the editing for you.  I ran the script.  After a reboot, I got UDMA2 for my CD Burner and a full CD (697MB at normal size and 800MB ISO images) in just over 3 minutes, which is good enough for my old machine.  Its nice to have that back.  The CPU isn’t stuck at 100% while I burn a CD either.  Now off to try Linux Mint…

I don’t know why, but, although I’ll be completely broke and home bound, I am looking forward to not working for the week next week.  I had hoped for other things to happen, but I am merely looking forward to being paid to not work.  I’ll have to get outside with the kids and perhaps finally unroll that kite.  Perhaps.  Is it Friday yet?

I’m watching a copy of The Corporation, a film about corporation and its effects on us. So, if you see a few anti-corporate rant or two in the near future, this might have been the catalyst. But, it might not be, as I’ve pretty much already made up my mind.

There was a 3 car accident at the intersection of Maple and Westmorland bridge. The intersection had to be closed down to be cleaned up and I believe there were injuries. I hope that it wasn’t too serious. The cars were really smashed up, leading me to believe that somebody was going way too fast through there, which is normal. The speed limit is 50kmh but many sail through at 80-90kmh (or faster), and the intersection is rough and bumpy.

I got the tires patched on a bike I got for Abby (for free) and a new tube for Caleb’s front. Now the kids both have bikes (and yes, we bring them inside at night now). Abby is loving her “big bike”, although she’s just getting onto pedaling. I remember when Caleb first learned.

Interesting fact about me: I was not taught how to ride a bicycle and never used training wheels. I was visiting my cousin one weekend and tried her two-wheeler, which had either 20″ or 24″ wheels. It was a full sized bike, really. The only reason I, as a child, could get on it was that it was a girls bike. I had no hope of sitting on the seat. I got on and started to ride - just like that! I wish that I could do that with learning to make oodles of money!

Its a nice day. Maybe we’ll take the phrase, “Go fly a kite!” to heart.

From my inbox:

Some Things That Come Out of Kids Mouths

1 ) NUDITY
I was driving with my three young children one warm summer evening when a woman in the convertible ahead of us stood up and waved. She was stark naked! As I was reeling from the shock, I heard my 5-year-old shout from the back seat, “Mom, that lady isn’t wearing a seat belt!”

2 ) OPINIONS
On the first day of school, a first-grader handed his teacher a note from his mother. The note read, “The opinions expressed by this child are not necessarily those of his parents.”

3 ) KETCHUP
A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone. “Mommy can’t come to the phone to talk to you right now. She’s hitting the bottle.”

4 ) MORE NUDITY
A little boy got lost at the YMCA and found himself in the women’s locker room. When he was spotted, the room burst into shrieks, with ladies grabbing towels and running for cover. The little boy watched in amazement and then asked, “What’s the matter, haven’t you ever seen a little boy before?”

5 ) POLICE # 1
While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was interrupted by a little girl about 6 years old. Looking up and down at my uniform, she asked, “Are you a cop?”

“Yes,” I answered and continued writing the report.

“My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask the police. Is that right?”

“Yes, that’s right,” I told her.

“Well, then,” she said as she extended her foot toward me, “would you please tie my shoe?”

6 ) POLICE # 2
It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring in at me “Is that a dog you got back there?” he asked.

“It sure is,” I replied.

Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then towards the back of the van. Finally he said, “What’d he do?”

7 ) ELDERLY
While working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I used to take my 4-year-old daughter on my afternoon rounds. She was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers and wheelchairs. One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass. As I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she merely turned and whispered, “The tooth fairy will never believe this!”

8 ) DRESS-UP
A little girl was watching her parents dress for a party. When she saw her dad donning his tuxedo, she warned, “Daddy, you shouldn’t wear that suit.”

“And why not, darling?”

“You know that it always gives you a headache the next morning. “

9 ) DEATH
While walking along the sidewalk in front of his church, our minister heard the intoning of a prayer that nearly made his collar wilt. Apparently, his 5-year-old son and his playmates had found a dead robin. Feeling that proper burial should be performed, they had secured a small box and cotton batting, then dug a hole and made ready for the disposal of the deceased. The minister’s son was chosen to say the appropriate prayers and with sonorous dignity intoned his version of what he thought his father always said: “Glory be unto the Faaather, and unto the Sonnn, and into the hole he goooes.”

10 ) SCHOOL
A little girl had just finished her first week of school. “I’m just wasting my time,” she said to her mother. “I can’t read, I can’t write and they won’t let me talk!”

11 ) BIBLE
A little boy opened the big family Bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible. He picked up the object and looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages.

“Mama, look what I found,” the boy called out.

“What have you got there, dear?”

With astonishment in the young boy’s voice, he answered, “I think it’s Adam’s underwear!”