Sheep Guarding Llama

Today, because of the computer being stolen last night, I did not have to go into the office. Instead, John and I started out the day by going to Best Buy and picking up a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion ze1420 laptop (Athlon XP 2200+ 256MB 40GB.) We got a good deal on it, even though it is a poor consumer grade model, and it will likely suit our purposes just fine. I am impressed by the snazzy new look that HP is using on their laptops, lots of lights all in blue and green (it is obvious that they are going after Apple who has been adding tons of non-essentially lights to their laptops to make them seem more powerful.) We got the laptop back the house and I spent a couple of hours working on it to get it ready to go onto the truck tomorrow. We needed a cable, though, so I couldn’t finish the computer in the morning. At 2:00, John, Michelle, Kit, the girls and I went to see Finding Nemo at the Annapolis Mall. This was my second time seeing it but it still held up as a good movie. I am really looking forward to seeing “Johnny English”, though, with Rowan Atkinson.

After the movie, we returned to the house and I finished setting up the laptop for tomorrow so that it can be mounted onto the truck. It will provide great peace of mind to all of us to have the laptop actually locked down on the truck instead of just sitting in there.

After doing some work, John grilled dinner out on the back deck and we ate outside. After dinner, I worked on the laptop some more while Michelle and I watched Three’s Company. Then later, John and I watched some of Father Ted: Series II.

Well today is full of exciting events. I got up late, as I have been recently since I have been working so late at the hospital, and packed up my hotel room (which turned out to be very fortuitous indeed) and went out to lunch at the Double T Diner in Annapolis with John. We had a nice lunch and talked about work and then I headed into the office in DC. I got to the office to find that the new signature pad that I have been waiting for had arrived and so had the new truck mounting system for the laptop. So now we are really ready to dig into our new hardware down here.

While I was down here we realized that our lease for 13 Observatory Cirlce was due to expire tomorrow (Saturday) and that we had to deal with all of the moving out stuff or arrangements of some sort by tomorrow (or more realistically, tonight.) Since this involved coordinating with an awful lot of people, it became quite the undertaking. So we talked to Lifestyle Properties and they agreed to rent us the house at a reduced rate for part of the month. However, once you add in the water, electric and gas costs into that equation, quite quickly it became more expensive than staying in a hotel by more than $1000 just in a two week period. So that didn’t set well with our wallets and so we are looking into alternatives. The final decision is that we are moving out as quickly as possible and figuring out what to do after the fact. So this will be an adventure. I plan to be staying in Washington for the next two weeks and getting a ton of work completed down here. Min will stay at a hotel in Ithaca or Cortland. I am not sure what Andy is going to do yet. Bob is trying to find a place to keep all of his stuff until the fifth when he can move into his new apartment.

Ok, another change of plans. Lifestyles lowered our rent until it was practical for us to keep renting from them. So we will be renting in Ithaca for another two weeks. Wow, what an adventure that turned out to be. What a mess. But at least life will be more convenient now.

Andy found some really exciting news today! Earthbound, or Mother 2 as some of you know it, is releasing soon as a double cart (along with the elusive Mother 1) on the Game Boy Advance. This is very exciting for those of you who are familiar with the SNES version of Earthbound. Josh and I originally bought the game when it first released and I remember the two of us playing it for two straight days and calling each other every couple of hours to see who was ahead of the other and where they had gotten stuck. We had the best time. The game even game with a scratch and sniff pad to add some realism to the other-worldly locations that you travel to in the game. Andy and Dominica have since played the game. Earthbound is the best console game that I have ever played, the only one to ever hold my attention like that. I am totally excited that it is coming out for the GBA. It might worth owning a GBA just to be able to play this game. There is also a rumor that a new sequel, Mother 3, will be coming shortly there after as well. That may be the most exciting news, because many of us in the Earthbound/Mother fan community have long awaited a sequel that Nintendo has teased us with for years but has never actually released. Mother 64 / Earthbound 64 was one of the original games that they hyped with the Nintendo 64 and many of us bought the console eagerly awaiting that game and it never came to fruition. Everyone should run out and buy both of these great titles for the GBA and show Nintendo that there is still a strong community committed to the Mother / Earthbound games. Maybe if there are enough sales, Nintendo will finally decide to continue the series like they have with Mario and Zelda. From the fanatical following that the game has generated, it would appear to have the opportunity to become the King’s Quest of its time. To really be a strong, cult, franchise.

Since I am not really moving tonight, I have to spend a long evening, again, at the hospital center getting things working more and more smoothly. One little baby step at a time.

I got dinner at the hospital. Veggie Pizza and Mac-n-Cheese (or Mac-n-Salt as would be more appropriate.) Food is really cheap at the hospital, though, as long as you have ID. I can’t imagine spending more that $7 and $4 will often feed you easy. While eating dinner, I listened to some of “Life, the Universe and Everything” on my laptop. I love Douglas Adams’ books.

When the truck finally got back from Providence Hospital, I found out that our laptop had been stolen. This is the second time that the laptop has been stolen out of the cab of the truck. What a great evening I am having now. So I had to spend a great deal of time dealing with that disaster and now I have to get up early in the morning to go and get another computer and configure it so that they can use it on the truck! Then, it turns out, we are missing some vital code that we need down here in DC so Andy and I had to stay up late working on that as well. It has been a really long night. I did get to take Brainbench exam, though, so at least the evening was not entirely wasted.

Well today is full of exciting events. I got up late, as I have been recently since I have been working so late at the hospital, and packed up my hotel room (which turned out to be very fortuitous indeed) and went out to lunch at the Double T Diner in Annapolis with John. We had a nice lunch and talked about work and then I headed into the office in DC. I got to the office to find that the new signature pad that I have been waiting for had arrived and so had the new truck mounting system for the laptop. So now we are really ready to dig into our new hardware down here.

While I was down here we realized that our lease for 13 Observatory Cirlce was due to expire tomorrow (Saturday) and that we had to deal with all of the moving out stuff or arrangements of some sort by tomorrow (or more realistically, tonight.) Since this involved coordinating with an awful lot of people, it became quite the undertaking. So we talked to Lifestyle Properties and they agreed to rent us the house at a reduced rate for part of the month. However, once you add in the water, electric and gas costs into that equation, quite quickly it became more expensive than staying in a hotel by more than $1000 just in a two week period. So that didn’t set well with our wallets and so we are looking into alternatives. The final decision is that we are moving out as quickly as possible and figuring out what to do after the fact. So this will be an adventure. I plan to be staying in Washington for the next two weeks and getting a ton of work completed down here. Min will stay at a hotel in Ithaca or Cortland. I am not sure what Andy is going to do yet. Bob is trying to find a place to keep all of his stuff until the fifth when he can move into his new apartment.

Ok, another change of plans. Lifestyles lowered our rent until it was practical for us to keep renting from them. So we will be renting in Ithaca for another two weeks. Wow, what an adventure that turned out to be. What a mess. But at least life will be more convenient now.

Andy found some really exciting news today! Earthbound, or Mother 2 as some of you know it, is releasing soon as a double cart (along with the elusive Mother 1) on the Game Boy Advance. This is very exciting for those of you who are familiar with the SNES version of Earthbound. Josh and I originally bought the game when it first released and I remember the two of us playing it for two straight days and calling each other every couple of hours to see who was ahead of the other and where they had gotten stuck. We had the best time. The game even game with a scratch and sniff pad to add some realism to the other-worldly locations that you travel to in the game. Andy and Dominica have since played the game. Earthbound is the best console game that I have ever played, the only one to ever hold my attention like that. I am totally excited that it is coming out for the GBA. It might worth owning a GBA just to be able to play this game. There is also a rumor that a new sequel, Mother 3, will be coming shortly there after as well. That may be the most exciting news, because many of us in the Earthbound/Mother fan community have long awaited a sequel that Nintendo has teased us with for years but has never actually released. Mother 64 / Earthbound 64 was one of the original games that they hyped with the Nintendo 64 and many of us bought the console eagerly awaiting that game and it never came to fruition. Everyone should run out and buy both of these great titles for the GBA and show Nintendo that there is still a strong community committed to the Mother / Earthbound games. Maybe if there are enough sales, Nintendo will finally decide to continue the series like they have with Mario and Zelda. From the fanatical following that the game has generated, it would appear to have the opportunity to become the King’s Quest of its time. To really be a strong, cult, franchise.

Since I am not really moving tonight, I have to spend a long evening, again, at the hospital center getting things working more and more smoothly. One little baby step at a time.

I got dinner at the hospital. Veggie Pizza and Mac-n-Cheese (or Mac-n-Salt as would be more appropriate.) Food is really cheap at the hospital, though, as long as you have ID. I can’t imagine spending more that $7 and $4 will often feed you easy. While eating dinner, I listened to some of “Life, the Universe and Everything” on my laptop. I love Douglas Adams’ books.

When the truck finally got back from Providence Hospital, I found out that our laptop had been stolen. This is the second time that the laptop has been stolen out of the cab of the truck. What a great evening I am having now. So I had to spend a great deal of time dealing with that disaster and now I have to get up early in the morning to go and get another computer and configure it so that they can use it on the truck! Then, it turns out, we are missing some vital code that we need down here in DC so Andy and I had to stay up late working on that as well. It has been a really long night. I did get to take Brainbench exam, though, so at least the evening was not entirely wasted.

Sorry that yesterday was so insanely boring. Imagine living my life! I slept in late this morning hoping to get over whatever was causing my headache. I left the hotel a little after noon and headed out for the grocery store because I need some soy milk for protein because it is hard to get enough being a vegetarian in the south. I hit SuperFresh and then went to the Bay Mills deli to get a sandwich for lunch before driving into the hospital. I am sure that today is going to be a long day again so I want to be prepared as much as possible. I also stopped at the Walmart in Bowie and picked up a few movies since I have run out of things to watch down here. I got The Love Bug, Punch-Drunk Love and Just Married. They were a good deal since all of them were on sale. I am on the prowl for Children of Dune from the Sci-Fi channel’s mini-series. I have been excited to see it ever since the first series came out a few years ago. The second one is just out and supposedly even better than the first one which I thought was really incredible.

Mom had to go to the emergency room this morning. She was having a hard time breathing – we assume because the ozone levels are so high because of the weather.

It is very hot again today. I hate the heat. Weather.com says that it is 92 but feels like 95 here. You New Yorkers get to relax in the high 80’s. 89 in Ithaca today.

After a long day of working around the office, I finally got a chance to relax a little bit after Thomas, our driver for the evening, took the route truck out on its first evening run. I have little to do while he is out since I am pretty much just waiting for him to get back. So, I popped in The Love Bug, one of the great Disney classics. What a great film. Some day I will have the whole series. Buddy Hacket and Dean Jones are hilarious. I love those old feel good family movies. It just occurred to me that Dean Jones and Paul Walker look a lot a like.

I have found a new DVD player that I really like for playing DVDs on the computer. I have never been very impressed with WinDVD or PowerDVD. And on Linux, there have never been any good DVD players for the longest time which has driven me crazy because I don’t want to watch movies on Windows very often. But I finally came across VideoLAN. VideoLAN has been around for some time but I had been under the assumption that they were no longer working on the project. But this is apparently completely not the case. VideoLAN is now a full fledged piece of awesome software that runs on many platforms including Windows, Linux, BeOS and MacOS X. It also has the unique capability to play movie files from harddrive, broadcast movies over a network or watch movies that are being played over a network. It is a really neat piece of software. And it is OpenSource available under the GPL so it is totally free. Everyone should download it and give it a try. And they are constantly making improvements to it to so it just keeps getting better and better. And of course it can do other cool things like ignore Regional Encoding to allow you to watch movies from all over the world.

I also found another cool piece of DVD software that rips a DVD movie onto your harddrive. It would be neat to have an online movie library that would come from a central server so that you don’t need to go looking through all your discs to find what you want. It would make movie watching a lot easier. And the ripping software is nice enough to remove any extra menu and advertising crap from your movies so that you can show them like they are shown in the theatre without all of the setup and announcements.

I am staying at the Comfort Inn in Annapolis again tonight. This is probably the last night that I will be staying at the hotel. I expect that I will be at John’s house in Arnold after tonight. I am hoping that tonight is my last really late night at the hospital for the rest of the week. We have new hardware coming in over the next few days that we need to try out so I will be working during the day a little bit more. We have new signature pads to try out.

Dad called. Mom has to stay in the hospital. They think that it is her pneumonia but they don’t know for sure. She will be staying in the hospital until they know more, which may be a while. Dad is going to be working out of the hospital during the day for the next few days.

After watching The Love Bug, I watched Adam Sandler’s new film, Punch-Drunk Love which won “Best Director” at Cannes. So I am very excited. I am a huge fan of independant films. This is also the first title in my collection that is transfered in “Super Bit” which is supposed to really help how good it looks. It has its sound in DTS and Dolby Digital AC-3 EX too. Too bad I am watching it on a laptop. This is most definitely not your average Adam Sandler movie.

I am making up, now, for all of the falling behind that I have done recently with the updates. I think everyone has plenty to read each and everyday now.

This morning I got up with a throbbing headache. It made for a long drive into the office with the sun blazing down on me. I got into the office around 10:30 and tried to work until around 2:00. By this time my head hurt so bad that I was starting to feel sick. So, since there really is nothing but babysitting for me to do at the hospital, I decided to drive on home to the hotel in Annapolis. I wasn’t tired but I was worn out. I set my laptop up on the little coffee table in the hotel room and watched the rest of Patton which was about 2.5 hours more of movie. While I was watching it I ordered a pizza from Dominoes. They make the best thin crust with onions and green peppers. Patton is a good movie. I learned a bit about WWII from that. I never really knew much of anything about our generals in the war.

After watching Patton, my pizza arrived and I watched Grave of the Fireflies which is a very sad Japanese piece, only 88 minutes, about two children who live in a small village on the outskirts of Hiroshima. The film is hard to follow but it is very sad and morose. It was good though and has been called one of the greatest war movies of all time.

I watched an episode of Drew Carrey and went to bed early. What a boring day! My head felt better after being in the dark and cold of the hotel room and taking a much needed shower to moisturize my sinuses.