A bunch of his friends are putting together a charity drive/anthology for Writer Rob Wells who has been struggling with mental illness and the financial burdens it has thrown at him.  Details here.   http://monsterhunternation.com/2014/04/21/important-altered-perceptions-a-charity-anthology-for-mental-illness/

So last week I had the joy of rebooting my computer at the end of the day and not having it come back on.  Turns out the 3 month old hard drive failed.  ::sigh:: well that is what warranties are for but still I then spent the rest of the week reinstalling all my custom programs and being very very grateful that apparently while playing with windows ( Read more... )

I don't know if it is just a California trend or what but I see these bare pergolas everywhere.  Which makes no sense because bare they are not actually an effective shade structure.  To function correctly a pergola needs vines and flowering plants growing over it providing green shade.  That is an effective shade structure.  But the typical ( Read more... )

I'm amused.  Given all the panic and fuss about tracking students with RFID tags I'm kind of amused that no one thinks twice about giving their kid a smartphone, ipod, or similar wi-fi enabled device.  I'm working with the new wireless system we are rolling out at a school and when it is done using 33 wireless access points I can track any WiFi ( Read more... )

Ok watched the pilot for the new series Defiance.  It doesn't look like a bad science fiction show.  Got aliens, check, falling star ships and the like.   Ok, I'm more than a bit confused by the whole planiformed earth but hey I expect some weirdness in my scifi so I'll give that a pass.  It looks like we have a secret plot and a hidden muguffin to ( Read more... )

And in the people are weird category a talk show person I listen to in the morning and who lives in the Davis area is looking for a preschool to send his young son to.  He described the conditions on one that had an opening and all I can say is that the preschool people are crazy and really really kooky.  I would worry if a relative of mine went ( Read more... )

I'm finding the reactions of the people who write about computers interesting.  I'm not certain why but far to many of them seem to miss the target when they talk about Windows 8.  They either dismiss it as not making somekind of revolutionary change in computers and boosting PC sales 50000% percent.  Or they complain about people stuck in the past ( Read more... )

So finally we got a nice snow that built up a bit.  Not much in snow country terms but for the lower foothills in California enough.  One of the things I was particular about when I bought a new car back in August was that it have full wheel drive or at least all wheel drive.  Mainly because I've gotten old enough and creeky enough that I find ( Read more... )

The weather outside is weird. It started with driving home and almost home I start seeing whatever is falling. Except the windshield isn't getting wet and the road is showing no sign of it. So it can't be rain, and can't be snow because it's 44. I see no real sign it is sleet. So parked in the garage and I can hear it outside sounding like bacon ( Read more... )

So I've finally had the first snow of the season at home.  Got home from work and found a layer about 1 snowflake thick on top of the trash can when I went out to bring it in.  And that was already melting.