Having Fun Installing WinXP

Or, I Really Need to Take Better Notes

As much as I like using Linux, I freely admit that there are tasks that it is not at all well suited for. And since I was faced with such a task a while ago, I had to dig out the old Compaq system restore discs and put XP back on my tinkering system.

All fine and dandy for a week or so. Problem was, I got a missing file message when I finally got around to uninstalling all the resource-hogging backlog that HP/Compaq[1] feels compelled to install during a system restore[2]. A dozen unplanned restarts, a virus scan that can't read much of anything and a CHKDSK later, I've come to the conclusion that something is seriously wrong with this computer. (This was a week ago, Wednesday)

Rather than fuck with it overly much, I decide to just dig out the restore disks, grin and bear it. Like I've said, this is a tinkering system. I don't have anything on there that I need to keep.

So, I get them in and low and behold, I get
!(< =)

Actually, it said IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Since that particular jibberish made as much sense to me as that did to you, I got to looking and found that the likely cause was the computer having problem communicating with the expansion cards. When removing both of my expansion cards[3] didn't let me proceed (with either the restore discs or the XP Pro install disc that I located elsewhere), I went even more drastic. I went in to the BIOS and turned off everything that wasn't absolutely necessary to starting the computer. In other words, I let the computer use the processor, talk to the CD and Hard Disk, and put stuff on the monitor. At least this cured the IRQL. In it's place, though, was a BSOD[4] telling me the MEMORY_MANAGEMENT module failed. So I took a hint.

I pulled all 512 MB of memory.

Now, anyone who knows the basics about computers will tell you that - up to a certain point[5] - the more memory you have, the faster your computer is going to go. Conversely, the less memory you have, the slower your computer will go. You can use this to run a very - very - basic test to see if your memory is working. Basically, one at a time, in the first slot, you plug in each module and see if it even tries to boot, or if it fails.

You guessed it, one of my modules failed. Which wouldn't bother me so much if it hadn't have been the newer one.

So, I learned two things this week. The first being that after cleaning all the crap off of it, Windows XP Home Edition can and will run respectably for web browsing - albeit fairly slowly on anything multimedia - on 256 MB of RAM.

Of course, I didn't find this out all at once. You see, when I got everything sorted out, I went to connect to the internet. All my connections were snug, my ATI was pushing a strong signal at 1280 x 1024, and the modem was sitting unused, as usual. But for the life of me, I could not find my freaking network adapter. Or rather, I found it, plugged it in, and the computer ignored its existance.

By this time, it was closing in on bedtime last night, so I said fuckitall and went to bed. First thing when I got up, I sheepishly returned to the computer, entered the BIOS, and turned back on the onboard LAN.

Which brings me to both the second thing I learned, and the opening of this post...

I really need to remember to take better notes.


[1] Actually, it's not just HP. It's anyone who tries to sell you a computer these days... Dell, Gateway, IBM. I have no problem with preloaded software straight out of the box. But for goodness' sake, I wish they would package it separate from the operating system on their system restore disks (HP's practice of not including separate restore disks with your computer is an entirely different rant). When you reinstall - or repair - the OS, you shouldn't have to spend a half hour aborting various branded shite.
[2] I'm ont talking about the Welcome to Windows thing. To give you an idea of this, I turned on the computer. Windows Messenger; to be expected, that's an actual XP component. Then the little connect to the internet graphic pops up, which won't go away until you run through their options trying to sell ISP subscriptions. I don't need an ISP, I'm hooked up already. Then comes Compaq Organizer - a heavy-duty program that could have been a widget - which is basically your Start Menu's most used programs list, a free-floating search bar, and your bookmarks folder. A dozen shortcuts to WildTangent; gone. And then I can start getting rid of the trial software.
[3] An ATI Radeon 7200 video card and an Agere Modem, if you were curious.
[4] That is, Blue Screen of Death.
[5] That point being the top end of what the mainboard can recognize and deal with. Any more than that, and either the computer is going to start throwing errors or just ignoring what it can't see. In my case, that point is 1024 MB (1 GB) of memory. Actually, it's probably 2GB, but the manufacturer says limit it to 1. This is a tinker-toy, not a gaming rig. I don't need to go all that fast.

What I try to be...

"...is fundamentally a person.

He fears he may be a bad person because he knows what he thinks rather than just what he says and does. He chokes off those little reactions and impulses, but he knows what they are. So he tries to act like a good person, often in situations where the map is unclear."

--Terry Pratchett, referencing his character Samuel Vimes, Oct 2004.

Saw that quote this morning wikisurfing. I hadn't heard that frame of mind - which I admit to sharing - phrased quite so well before. The quote was in response to someone saying that "Vimes is not fundamentally a good person."

You ever feel like that? Like you're one lapse away from becoming what you [feardespiseinsert verb here] most? You see your choices laid before you and you can't help but be tempted by all the choices. And the only thing keeping you on the straight and narrow isn't the internal rewards of being of a good person; but the fear of what you might become if you stray. And the sickening realization that you're entirely capable of choosing the 'bad' path, and that a part of you truly wishes to fall from grace.

There's another concept that Pratchett uses when referring to Vimes. It's the opposite of drunk. No, not sober; it's as far from sober as drunk is, only in the opposite direction -- you have knurd. Knurd is about two drinks short of stone cold sober; it's where that nice haze that people live their lives in gets blown away; where all the illusions and assurances we fill our eyes with in order to function as decent human beings is wiped away. When you're knurd, you can't help but see the world as it is; and more importantly, you can't help but see yourself for what you truly are.

Say what?

You know, there's some things I never thought I'd hear on a morning sports talk show.

The phrase "there's a bunch of sexy tentacles coming off of this thing" was near the top of the list. But that's the phrase I heard this morning watching Mike & Mike in the Morning while they were discussing the Roger Clemens congressional testimony this afternoon.

Maybe it's the fact that I'm exhausted, or maybe I'm just perverted, but isn't there a number of phrases that might be -- I don't know -- more appropriate than "sexy tentacles" when discussing tangential stories from an interesting news story? Unless the lead story -- and I hope you pardon my word choice here -- explicitly involves Japanese women in schoolgirl uniforms. Then who knows, 'sexy tentacles' may be entirely appropriate.

Pedro and the Cockfight

Video surfaced on Youtube this week of NY Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez and MLB Hall of Famer Juan Marichal at a cockfight in the Dominican Republic.
First some facts.

• The video - which is over 2 years old - shows Marichal and Martinez acting as honorary "soltadores".In other words, they were the ones that put the animals into the ring.
• Right or wrong, cockfighting is legal in the Dominican Republic. In fact, the fight took place at the nationally known Coliseo Gallistico de Santo Domingo (Santo Domingo Cockfighting Coliseum).

U.S.-based animal rights groups are - predictably - up in arms about the whole ordeal. And the gods know I don't blame them. Cockfighting is a particularly barbaric practice, and there are a number of very good reasons why it's illegal here in the US.
So why can't I get worked up over this whole thing?
Well, I think the biggest reason is the knowledge that other people don't hold the same values as I do. And apparently Hispaniola is an entire island filled with people who hold strikingly different values regarding the morally and ethically correct treatment of animals. So much so, in fact, that a practice most Americans would find viscerally repulsive is not just tolerated; it is to baseball in the Dominican what pro baseball is to pro football in the US: the second most popular spectator sport.
Should we condemn Martinez and Marichal for their involvement in an activity that is perfectly legal where they observed it? Perhaps. Perhaps that outrage would be better directed toward your local congresscritter in a call to pressure the Dominican Republic (and other nations) into discouraging - if not outright eliminating - the practice.

The other thing. Harris Interactive released a poll earlier this week (2/5). US adults who follow one or more sports were given a list of sports and asked to name their favorite.
No big surprise, professional football was the favorite of the biggest chunk of the pie: almost 30% of respondants named NFL as their sport of choice. Football is very popular in the US, an additional 12% of those with a preference preferred college football, making it the third most popular.In second was baseball (Harris didn't separate college from pro) with 15%.
Fourth is where it gets interesting. In 1985, when Harris started the poll, fourth and fifth were a tie between pro and college basketball. Not surprising, this was during the great Celtics-Lakers matchups and Michael Jordan's rookie year. Today, fourth place is Auto Racing (including both F1 and NASCAR), and fifth is - of all things - hockey. The basketballs are in a 3-way tie for sixth with men's golf.

Oddly Enough, Continued

The damn disc was scratched. Oh well, we'll try again in the morning. The more I think about it, the more I realize I should have just told 'Brey to deal with it until April rolls around. That's when the new version of Ubuntu (my OS of choice for this computer) comes out.
Basically, the disc was smudged before I started. I tried to use it and it burned ok, then it failed the verification. I still tried to use it. Didn't get very far, but no big loss since the box is FUBAR at the moment anyway.

I'm down another pound, a few ounces over 298 on the fitness center scale. It's not fast going, but I never expected it to be. I probably won't be down to 275 by the time we go to State, though I think Chel will be. I did a half-hour workout this morning, a mile on the treadmill, and some light weight-work for my shoulders, back and abs. But my shoulder's a bit sore tonight; no big surprise, I've had trouble with it after workouts since back in high school. Depending on what Chel has planned and how I feel after my shift, I may go do another round in the morning. Or maybe when Chel gets home from work. Either way, while I don't particularly like working out, I do like the feeling just after I get done.

Oddly Enough

Subtle:
Has anyone else noticed that the people in the background of the ad for that PMS-symptom easing birth control pill Yaz are singing "We're not gonna take it!"?
Not-so-Subtle:
I haven't been on for a few days. And to be quite honest, there's a couple good reasons. Mostly that I haven't been keeping track of what I have been eating. Ever since last Sunday, I've just been gnoshing more and more. I know, I know. Back on track, though. Since I got up, I've only had a ham sandwich, a small handful (~1 serving) of Harvest Cheddar Sunchips, and a Green Giant vegetable blend package. Around 3-4, I'll have a lean cuisine steamer bowl (whiskey steak, IIRC).
The other reason is that I did something incredibly stupid and messed up my computer.

Best of intentions, right? Aubrey uses my computer, too - complete with her own username and password. So, anything she does is her business, and not mine. I trust her to make good decisions about things.
Then again, I'm not completely stupid. Because even though she's only supposed to get on when mom or I are around, she conveniently forgets early on Saturday and Sunday mornings. So I installed parental controls, IP logging, that sort of thing. I also made sure that she has a limited user account, without sudo access. Which means that she can't install or uninstall programs, turn off my logging daemons or really hide anything. And every once in a while -- after she goes to bed -- I read the logs. It's intrusive, it's sneaky, and it shows an appalling lack of trust in my only daughter. It's also good parenting. I check up on her. I've told her what kind of people get online, that not everybody is looking out for her. I don't want to scare her, I just want her to be aware of it. And she knows that there are some sites that we don't care if she looks at, some sites we'd rather her not look at that we aren't going to get upset about, and that there are a whole lot of sites that we really don't want her to look at until she lives another 8-10 years. And she knows that I'm going to be checking on her at times.

But, while she was going to the sites we approve of, her browser (Firefox) would crash. A combination of too many flash ads and just plain bad coding, really. So I had her back things up, saved my stuff, and tried to fix things. And I finally said, "you know what, screw it;" and went to reinstall. Which was all fine and dandy, until I realized that all my install disks are scratched. In a spot that doesn't come into play until after the disk is formatted (bye-bye data) and everything else is installed. I don't know how all of my disks lost the same program (the program that controlls the installation stuff), but it's made it hell trying to get it back up and running. So I'm sitting up here at work, trying to ride a torrent for a new disk, and it's a bit slow going. I'm down to about an hour left. Hopefully, this one will work.

Splurge Day

I have a feeling that tonight is going to be a 'splurge day' on my quote-unquote diet.

Evening Meal: 810 Calories
1/2 pie of Kashi roasted chicken pizza (450 Cal)
Sugar-free Pudding Cup (60 Cal)
Dr Pepper (300 Cal)

Second Meal {planned}: 860 Calories
Wendy's Ultimate Grilled Chicken Sandwich (320)
Side salad w/Ranch (240)
Dr Pepper (300)

That's 1670 calories already. Those sodas are a bitch to the bottom line, aren't they? I have a microwave dinner if I get really hungry before the night's out, but I really don't think I will. A couple glasses of water should tide me over until I get home and to bed in the morning. So, if I know that the soda is going to crash the ride, why drink it? Quite frankly, I didn't care :P. I want a freaking soda.

Final Weigh in, 2/1

So, apart from that 528 Calorie breakfast sandwich I had before I slept the day away, I've really eaten quite sensibly, I believe.


Evening Meal (Burrito Scrambler & OJ): 601 Calories

• Tortilla: 120 calories
• 2 eggs, scrambled: 154 Cal
• Ham: 51 Cal
• Dijonnaise <1/4>: 1 cal
• Orange Juice (~20 oz): 275 Calories

Snacks (2 oranges, Ritz Mix): 190 Cal

• Ritz 100 Calorie Pack: 100 Cal
• 2x Small Orange: 90 Cal

Lean Cuisine Dinnertime Select Salisbury Steak (Early Morning meal, 3 AM-ish): 270 Cal

Since I'm drinking water exclusively tonight at work, there's 0 calories there. For a total of 1589 calories. A little less than what I probably should have had, which would explain the bellyache I had this morning (either that, or that mushroom gravy just did a number on me).

Opening Lines

A list of book opening lines I found enjoyable (there's a link to an update on the page with more opening lines) http://classicilliterature.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-to-start-book-off-right.html. Take a read (middle-clicking will pop it in a new tab), and come back. I'll wait.

You know, he's right. Some of my favorite books I've known I'll like from the first line. One that comes up again and again in the comments is probably the best example.

The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.
--The Gunslinger, Stephen King

Even the first time reading it, I could hear it in my mind. Actually I heard the voice of Sam Elliot drawling through the line, putting nearly a full stop between the words "desert and" to put that narrator's air of inevitability to the chase that ends -- and truly begins -- with the conclusion of the book. Or Stephen Fry saying:

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western
Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small un-regarded yellow sun."
-- The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

in that impeccable accent of his. I don't know why I 'hear' things I read. The way my mind processes information, I guess.

Half Day

The last day of my 'weekend' is always an odd day out.
Tonight I go back to work, so I've got to sleep most of the day. Which is all fine and dandy, except it messes with my calorie counting. I mean, I have about 4 hours of wakey-time, and then I go back to sleep. It'd probably be a lot easier if I kept to my work schedule on my days off -- you know, awake at night and asleep in the day. And I would, except there's something that's just 'right' about sleeping alongside the person you love. I guess I just crave that presence next to me, even when I'm not conscious of it. But, Chel works days, so I sleep alone most of the time.

Anyway, i woke up hungry as an ox today, so before I go back to bed, i fixed me a breakfast sandwich:

Breakfast: 528 Calories

• 2 Slices bread: 90 Cal
• Ham (3 oz): 151 Cal
• Fried Egg (no oil): 92 Cal
• Curley's Hickory BBQ, 1 tbsp: 35 Cal
• Miracle Whip Light, 1 tbsp: 20 Cal
• Apple Juice: 140 Calories.

My BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, amount of calories burned by spending 24 hours at rest in a temperature-neutral environment) figures out to be right around 2700. Basically, for me, today will be about a 36 hour day, when I got up this morning (~5am) until I wake up Saturday (~5pm). Since my self-inflicted target intake is 1500-1800 (between 1/2 and 2/3 BMR); my range for a 36 hour day would - mathematically - be 2250-2700 Calories. So, I have about 1700-2100 Calories to get me through the night. I should be okay.