Random Thoughts

[Derek]

Best e-mail I'll read all week (re: a server that needed to be restarted)

Subject: RE: 10.99.6.181 reboot

Its in need of a fsck…

No clue what an fsck is, but even servers need lovin.

[Ezee E]

[Ivan Drago]

Man, Runaway is cool visually and so is the music, but weird as a story. Whoever directed this doesn't know what he's trying to say---

:reads "Directed by Kanye West":

Ohhhhh.

[B-side]

[Lasse]

It is indeed. I ordered two large pizzas and breadsticks and it came out to the same amount. Felt odd paying that much.

Are you mocking me? :lol:

[Mara]

Okay, I just crunched some numbers and it turns out I'm really poor for the rest of this month. Like, probably-shouldn't-grocery-shop poor. I did my Christmas shopping before realizing that my 6-month car insurance would go up significantly from my move to B'more, and now I'm counting pennies until January. Yikes.

[Mara]

I forgot to talk about Candide! It was amazing. I was a little nervous because this theater company doesn't generally do musicals, but this was a collaboration with a company in Chicago and they pulled out all the stops. The singers and orchestra were flawless. Like the book, the play was by turns hilarious, horrifying, grotesque, and oddly sincere. They weren't afraid to play both Candide and Cundegonde as well-meaning but dim, without strong convictions, bewildered by a world that doesn't fit in their world-view.

(This was, by the way, the Bernstein music but an entirely new book written by Mary Zimmerman, which was strikingly true to the original Voltaire story, sometimes to its detriment. We don't really need every single scene.)

The real thing that set this production apart, however, was how great it looked. The set design was extraordinary-- I've seen some great sets in my time, but this one was so versatile and transformed so smoothly that the audience sometimes applauded the scene changes. The interactions with the sets and props were also great, with some fantastic physical comedy thrown in. Overall, an excellent piece, far better than I expected.

By the by, the performance was interrupted partway through the first act because someone in the audience was having medical problems, and the theater and actors were total pros about it. They quickly and efficiently stopped the play, cleared the stage, had medical people take the audience member out, and then reset and restarted the scene all in about five minutes. The actors weren't thrown at all, which is pretty impressive.

[Mara]

Also, now that I check, the music I was listening to for Candide (New York City Opera version) doesn't have a number of the songs from the second act-- "We Are Women", "What's the Use", etc. I was pleasantly surprised by them.

[endingcredits]

Best e-mail I'll read all week (re: a server that needed to be restarted)



No clue what an fsck is, but even servers need lovin.

fsck is file system check. It's useful to run it as root when a linux file system shits the bed.

[endingcredits]

Pure Gold:
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[Mara]

RE: Mother of the groom wearing wedding dress to son's wedding.

I asked my friend (the groom's sister) to take pictures. I'm really hoping I can have a visual of this fantastic moment.

She changed her mind and wore a purple pantsuit. I'm overtly relieved and secretly just a smidge disappointed.

[B-side]

Pure Gold:
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Show Spoiler

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I just came in here to post this. Foiled again!

[Sycophant]

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: best Keanu performance is in Thumbsucker.

[dreamdead]

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: best Keanu performance is in Thumbsucker.

A happy welcome back to MC is extended to you, sir. Hope your semester is finishing out well!

[Mara]

What is it about Sundays that make me want to sleep for twelve hours at a time?

[bac0n]

What is it about Sundays that make me want to sleep for twelve hours at a time?

football

[[ETM]]

Hardware is going to drive me MAD. After the computer issues I've had recently, my Wacom tablet stopped working this morning, just like that, out of the blue! And in the middle of an important job, too - a cover illustration.

I plug it in - nothing happens. I check the official forums for similar problems - sure enough, plenty of previous posts. WACOM's general response: "It's dead, mate. I'm sorry." Seems like boards die on these things sometimes, and the replacement out of warranty costs pretty much like a new one.

As if that wasn't enough, I fire up my scanner (which also recently had problems) - and the A/C adapter blows up! I mean an audible "POP!" and lots of smoke. I just want to KILL myself at that point.

Pissed off to no end, I take the tablet and start dismantling it... I had spilled coffee on it a while ago, so I had experience with its innards. I rip it open, unplug the power cord, check the main board. I'm thinking - I probably didn't clean it up properly then, so eventually something in it corroded. For some reason, I decide to try plugging it in again, with just the basic parts together... and the bloody thing WORKS. No idea how or why, NONE. I quickly put it back together and now I'm kind of watching it with disbelief. I simply CANNOT afford a new one, and without a scanner, I'd be pretty much done as an illustrator for some time.

[number8]

Netflix stock is over $200 now.

I remember back in '04 or '05 when I considered putting money in (albeit, only like $400 is what I had...) when it was like $30.

I'd have... $2666.

Speaking of, Apple stock is $320 today. :sad:

If I'd buy some 10 years ago when I started using Macs and people were still making fun of the iPod...

[Ezee E]

People made fun of the iPod? I don't remember that. I do remember people saying that there's no way CDs will go obsolete though because of the artwork on them.

[number8]

I posted this in the iPad thread once.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=500?

Great just what the world needs, another freaking MP3 player. Go Steve! Where's the Newton?!

gee! an mp3 player with a HD! how original! kinda reminds me of a JUKEBOX i once knew..

All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field™ is starting to warp Steve's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off.

And these are from Apple fanboys.

I remember the general mainstream consensus was this:



Then everything changed in less than a year.

[[ETM]]

Then everything changed in less than a year.

The iPod was one of the the biggest victories in the long run for both Apple and the various content providers. The greatest trick the Devil ever puller was actually roping people into iTunes.

I still can't believe how so many are so happy to conform, and actually resist and deride choice. It's even more baffling how major companies have failed to counter Apple in any meaningful way.

[number8]

I still can't believe how so many are so happy to conform, and actually resist and deride choice.

What are you talking about? The iPod comes in many different colors.

[Raiders]

I did resist an iPod. I went with an mp3 player and found it damn difficult to get music onto it. Back then though the best option was Rhapsody. Now, with Amazon mp3 store, it is likely to be much easier but since Apple was first to the game in making downloading and syncing not only easy but compatible and relatively error-free, they won my money back then and until some clearly cheaper, better option comes along I'm not switching.

I do refuse to pay the price Apple is asking for the iPad when all I am going to use it for is as a digital book reader and the Kindle is more than sufficient, particularly since Amazon will realize eventually that they must become compatible with ePub.

[[ETM]]

I have to say that I still find the notion of syncing a player and keeping ones entire music collection on a single device completely alien. I tend to listen to a couple of albums at a time at best, and simple drag and drop is pretty much perfection in my mind. Same goes for video.

It saddens me that the iPad seems to be nearing iPod-level ubiquity in people's minds. It's like people's minds have been trained to expect Apple to define every market segment it enters, and even if their interpretation is lacking, it will still be standard, dammit! Again, the big players have been (un)surprisingly meek in their response, and the only real challenge is coming from smaller players who can't possibly compete with the Applenaut. The situation is getting more and more depressing.

[Wryan]

Was hit with a wild blue streak of nostalgia this weekend and bought an N64 console and a few games. Used but condition supposedly good. Once it's here and I can see it's not a piece of shit, I'm a 'gonna go hog-wild buying up all the old games I used to play.