Sheep Guarding Llama

We have a new Borders in Ithaca and we are all very excited, I think that just about everyone has made it out to see it by now. Nate is the only one that I am not sure about but he doesn’t read as much as the rest of us do anyway. Loopy and I are near hysterical being able to actually shop for new books right here where we live. In fact, this is the nearest that we have ever lived to a major book store. And with the amount that we shop for computer books, it really makes life a lot easier having one just around the corner. Plus, there is a new Barnes and Nobles due in soon as well.

Our next door neighbor stopped by today and offered me his piano. That was something that I wasn’t expecting. I would like to have a piano though, especially now that I am going to be building a new house, it would be really nice to have a piano. It is an upright, honky tonk deal, but it sounds good so I look forward to having it around. We will see how we will get it over here, though. Pianos aren’t the easiest things in the world to move.

Not much to say about today. Nate is in Perry so Bob, Loopy, Dominica and I went down to Binghamton to see Episode II again. That is about all that we did today. Not too exciting overall.

Ten days without an update! Sorry gang, it has just been a long week. I was in DC last week and I made it home on Friday. I have been so exhausted since I was working through the night every night while I was in DC that I can’t even remember what has happened all this week. Monday was my first day of classes for the summer session and I just started taking care of course work today.

Technology Update: Mozilla 1.0 RC3 is out for anyone who needs to stay abreast of the most recent changes. Opera has gone to 6.2 for Windows as well.

I have been so busy since I have been home that I haven’t even had a chance to post the update for the ninth until now. I was just so glad to be home that I didn’t even think about the web site. Right now I am working in DC and will be here all week. I was expecting to be working in Buffalo starting on Friday but that fell through, which I am relieved to hear since I have been so busy. I will be in DC until I attempt to make it to Star Wars with the gang on Friday night in Rochester.

Loop and I went out shopping yesterday and picked up a copy of the video game Dungeon Siege and a copy of SuSE Linux 8.0 Professional. I had already played a demo of Dungeon Siege and loved it so I was excited to be picking it up. Loop actually managed to come across a used copy of it at Electronics Boutique for only $20 and it had a $10 rebate inside. The game is still $50 anywhere that you go. So, I was ecstatic about it. The game is huge. I installed it on Dominica’s computer since hers is a lot faster than mine and it took everything that her machine had to play the game. It could stand to be on a bit faster machine even. But, as is, the game is awesome. I suggest that anyone with a fast machine with Windows 2000 or XP go and try it out. The demo is free and will give you a good taste of the game.

The company finally provided Eric with a laptop so he drove down to Ithaca yesterday to pick it up. He is very excited about it and was playing with it all day at work today. I did have to confiscate his really cool handheld Compaq iPaq, though. But he is much happier with the laptop. The handheld was ok but because of the silliness of both the PalmOS and the Windows CE operating systems, the handhelds just aren’t incredibly useful even though the hardware has so much potential to be. I don’t understand why they haven’t made more of an effort to really make them into tiny computers that are really useful. I think that a lot more people would buy them then. It is just a software issue. Nothing more to manufacture. I suppose that that would take away from the sales of full blown computers.

The coolest thing is, though, that Eric is now able to play Age of Empires 2 from work against me during the day. That could be really dangerous.

I am writing as I am working. I have found the computer that I was supposed to be working with down here after searching for a while and now I am only short a printer. John swears that it is around here somewhere. I am betting that there will be some missing hardware and that we won’t get everything up and running until tomorrow. That is my bet, anyway.

I got SuSE 8.0 installed for Dominica and so far I am awfully impressed with it. Some reviews recently have been kind of down on it but it is a vast improvement over their latest releases. Josh, Loopy and I are all planning on having it up and running soon on our own machines.

I have been neglecting to do my duty by providing entertaining web sites to go to everyday, so Anne came up with one for everyone to try out. This page is an Elven name generator based on the works or J.R.R. Tolkien. I will try to get back on track with our web sites of the day.

I received my refund from Essential Computing the other day for the two bad motherboards that I had gotten from there. I am still waiting for word from CompuVest as to what is happening with the bad processor that I am waiting on. They are supposed to be sending me a new one. I am waiting to see what happens there before I get the parts to finish off building my computer.

The drive down to DC today was really long. Heavy rain and hail the entire way. I can’t believe how bad the weather was. The wind was probably close to 60 mph. Last night it rained so much in Ithaca that there was a creek flowing past the back of the house. I have heard that the water table is back up to normal levels now and that the drought is over. I should hope so, that was a lot of water. And it is still raining now. It figures that today being the first time that I have taken my new car out for a long trip and it hails on it all day. That car is almost nine months old and after driving all day only has 2500 (yes, exactly 2500) miles on it. I kept track today and I am getting 31 mpg.

I am trying to get Dominica and Eric and another friend of mine, John Stephens, to look into Empire State in the fall. Min is thinking about picking up a B.Sc. in Chemistry while Eric is thinking about something along the lines of Civil Engineering and John is going to go for Computer Science.

Ok, it has passed midnight so I am going to call it an SGL day and move on and post. It is going to be a long night.

Happy Mother’s Day!