Problems, Christmas, Christmas eve’s eve, more!

Well, it’s another Christmas Day and it is no less exciting than last year. Last year we got robbed right before christmas which made things not so nice. This year on christmas eve we got to enjoy material issues. I went upstairs around 5pm to take a shower so I could go over to my parents place and do christmas everything. Unfortunately, there was no hot water. I found that rather strange that there was no hot water, so i went downstairs and talked to Keen and Paulie to see if anything was amiss – laundry, flushing toilets, running water, something. Well, nothing, they’re on the couch chilling. So I go into the kitchen to check the bathroom and I hear water running. Hmmm, no water running in the bathroom, no water running in the kitchen. Then I go into the laundry room to find our water pipes have bursted! Yay! Water like an inch deep in the laundry room. Luckily, my dad showed me how to do basic water pipe repair, so I give that a go this evening and see what I can do. If you’d like to watch or advise, give me a ring LOL. In terms of Christmas, everything is going swimmingly over here. Lots of presents, lots of family time (which is nice), lots of food, lots of people coming and going. It’s a good time. Oh, also went out the other night with Tore, Keen, Paulie, Sammi and her friend Katie. We invited Emily, but received no reply as to her plans. Anyways, it took forever to get to Phantom from the store, and by the time I got there, Sammi and Katie were on their way out the door. I got to speak to them for maybe 2 minutes before they split. So … since the women were gone, it was drinking time. After a feather-light three pints I was roasted – got a ride home from Paulie, then crashed out. Then woke up in the morning and went to Hooter’s for lunch, then the water-pipe issue above happened. Signing off from my parents wicked-fast P200-MMX + 14.4kbps!

2004-12-25 18:06:24 – Netheus
another shitty christmas! yay! My little brother got me a Nightmare Before Christmas Purse. My little brother is the shit. I got him books. Lot’s of books- The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter set, and the first three Tales of Unfortunate Events. That’s 15 books. I guess I’d better make up for it for his birthday (3 days away!) And all a yous are boys- what did you want for your 9th birthday?
2004-12-27 12:28:43 – WC
I wanted transformers or the entire Voltron set. But both of those items are collectables now I never got them as presents. ๐Ÿ™ I think he’d be happy with whatever you got him.
2004-12-28 18:05:11 – Master Ha-reed
Yeesh, and I thought my rents were bad with the Celery 433
2004-12-30 14:09:08 – Netheus
They are saying that the Earth wobbled.
2005-01-04 23:24:14 – WC
OMG! I just started on The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It r0x0rz my b0x0rz! I am on like chapter 6 and this book is so much better than that wow shit randal is playing. In fact he’s so busy playing it he has yet to call me back from new years eve. ๐Ÿ™ Ohh well, back to reading. ๐Ÿ™‚
2005-01-05 20:04:56 – novadisco@hotmail.com
In his defense, he has been REALLY sick ever since New Years, cought some kind of bug from an unclean woman.
2005-01-06 13:34:21 – Hellbent Rob
WC, the increasingly inaccurate hitchhiker’s trilology is one of my favorites. I think Douglas Adams has like two other series that are almost as funny, the only one that I can remember is Dirk Gently’s wholistic detective agency. BTW nOObs, they’re making Hollywood budget movies out of the series, should be fun, but the books will always be better. As for Rando, leave the unclean women alone and get yourself a dog (one with plumbing skills).
2005-01-06 14:52:19 – Netheus
"Unclean woman"? What, James wasn’t being a good housewife?
2005-01-06 18:19:08 – rand0m
har har har. I’ll be updating shortly, since I’m feeling quite a bit better ๐Ÿ™‚
2005-01-08 15:49:40 – Netheus
I love Placebo. Damnit Randal, update or I’m gonna start shit.
2005-01-09 21:50:51 – Netheus
My sister might be moving in with me. Her dad has been snorting their rent money and not doing his community service= jail. My mom’s job called here yesterday looking for her. Never got a call back. Might be dead, might be fine. My paternal gradfather’s oncologist gave him 90 days, and that was a week ago. I can hear the vultures sweeping in. School starts in a bit over a week. (sarcasm/)Looks like I am going to have a nice, easygoing, layed back semester again this year (sarcasm off/).
2005-01-11 23:36:39 – Netheus
Just heard a great line for an answering machine- "Welcome to the Sodomization for Retardation hotline, where our motto is, ‘What they don’t know won’t hurt ’em!’" Hahahahhahahahha.
2005-01-12 19:36:16 – Netheus
So how long do you think a 50 year old man can live with a history of heart disease and heart attacks, alcoholism, and a coke habit?

Haxoring, Deleting, Restoring, A/C, Christmas

Nick’s server, which hosts rand0m.org, got “hacked” by an automated script that was running around exploiting phpBB installations. It rewrote all the .html & .php files with a defacement notice. So I restored from a random backup. Thank god it didn’t fsck with the database. Speaking of the database, I was doing maintenance to get everything back up to snuff. With a mistype of only a few characters, I erased every comment newer than 08/03/2001. Yes, 3+ years of comments (almost 5000!), gone. Poof. I had a totally accidental backup right there though, so after 30 minutes of script writing, I reinserted all the comments back into the database. It took .89 seconds to insert 4,785 rows. GG Computers! One of the Air Conditioning units at ONS stopped working this morning around 2am. At 5:38am I started getting phone calls from our alerter thing every 10 minutes telling me that it was now 72 degrees. 73. 74. 74. 75. 76. 76. 76. 77 … eventually on up to 80/81, where it stuck. There isn’t shit I could do about it, though, as I am not an AC whizbang guy at all. Called in Olson Plumbing and heating to take a look. Turns out that one of the cooling fans on the roof died. This caused the refrigerant to not cool off, keeping the system high-pressure. This high-pressure status made the compressor cycle on and off 2 or 3 times a minute, each time with an audible “Bang/WhumWhumWhum”, as it would come on, check the pressure, turn off. Repeat. The HVAC guy removed the fan, discharged the refrigerant and piped #1 compressor into #2 compressor, so we’re doing OK – but we are waiting on a replacement cooling fan. I’m going to my ‘rents place for Christmas Eve. I bought them some hot shizzle. I wish I spent that much money on myself. Then Christmas Day, I’m supposed to go skiing? Or do dinner with my parents? I think my wallet will decide that one. Talked to SuperSammi last night – she’s in town for the holidays … and more! It’ll be nice to have another smart woman to spend time with. <3 smart chicks.

WoW, Running into People, Work, Craig and more

World of Warcraft has stolen my soul. It’s like crack, but cheaper. It’s like buttery goodness without the calories. It’s like hot steamy sex without the psycho bitch. I play all the time. I’ve been trying to ween myself off of it a little, though, because staying up until 6am playing is bad for Body/Mind/Work/Store/Everything. I ran into Janora Curtis from highschool yesterday. I was walking out of my building and there she was – I said hey, she said hey, and that was that. I still haven’t spoken to Tabitha H itz, who works at the starbucks @ austin bluffs and academy. I think that’s because I don’t want to talk to her. On that note, there are other people who are bound to be here in town for the holiday season, who I really value and like quite a bit, but I’m unsure of how much I want to see them. I have like 6 people who fall into that category. :-/ Steve came down this weekend bearing gifts – so I now have a box at home! It’s job: play World of Warcraft. Crack, I tell you! Anyways, it’s pretty decent athlonXP 2GHz, 9700pro, 768mb ram. I’m really thinking about buying an LCD to match it, because the monitor on there sucks a LOT. So yea, new box & WoW. We went out and saw Ocean’s Twelve, it was decent – nothing outstanding, and a lot of twist in it. Keen pointed out the very good style of the movie, with a lot of “real world” filming – not so many closeups, a lot of off-screen banter, a lot of … wow, almost indy filming style. But I’m not a movie critic in any way, so don’t bother posting about what a twit I am. Craigalito swung by ONS today, while en route to pueblo for a funeral for this grandmother, in his new Saab. It’s a 97 (???) something or other. All I know is that it’s 1) wicked nice (leather, sunroof, the works) and 2) wicked fast. Good Pick. I’m already envious ๐Ÿ™‚ Condolensces about the death, congrats on the car. Ok, so I’m standing out by Craig’s car and the manager for the 11th floor of the Alamo (where I work) comes out and is chatting with us. She asks for a boost onto the ledge right there so she doesn’t have to walk around. After looking at her with a blank stare for a second, she puts her leg up for the boost and I put my hands on her butt and give her boost. She says thanks and starts walking away, and the first thing I say is “WOW that was uncomfortable. And awkward.” She’s like 45 and a total country girl, so I’m sure she didn’t care but I felt kinda weirded out. LOL ๐Ÿ˜€ And the Techy Stuff. We’re turning up BGP4 tonight on a couple new links here at ONS, which is hawt but makes for a late night, and I’m thinking about buying a LCD. Oh, and a car? iunno.

2004-12-15 04:46:00 – pinky
CRACK IS CHEAP!!!!11!!!one!!!11 Uh, so IB kids get of of college and hang around colorado springs and workk at starbucks? bleh. Also, I am having a graduation party at my house this Sunday. I forget what time, but you’re invited along with anyone else. You have to bring me expensive presents, though. like diamonds.
2004-12-15 09:25:00 – rand0m
I think the "get out of college" part is the sticking point for most IB peeps who work at starbucks. That’s just my opinion, though, and I have no idea what she’s done with her life for the past 4 1/2 years.
2004-12-15 09:35:46 – Netheus
Finals…. ugh… Hey- it’s that time of year again- who else has lost a relative in the last month, or looks like they are going to loose a relative in the coming month? I got a few on the line, but it looks like they will at least make it to Feb.
2004-12-15 12:31:23 – keener2u
Why aren’t you playing WOW right now…get crackin’ go go go!

Laura, SotLS, Truck

I went out to dinner with Laura the other night – she was in town from Boulder for Thanksgiving. We had a pretty good time, even though our time was short because Chili’s closed hella early. It was nice seeing her again ๐Ÿ™‚ I posted the full story of The Lucky Sacajawea over in the articles section. Little peice of trivia about ol’ randal ๐Ÿ˜€ My truck is having issues tonight. On the way to the store it started doing this funny shimmy-shake thing, where once every couple seconds it will stutter, almost like it’s running over a peice of wood. It’s extremely disturbing, and I’m afraid I’ll be buying another car soon. I posted some topics on some forums and newsgroups, and everybody says to replace the fuel filter & pump before I do anything drastic, then check catalytic converter, brakes and vacuum lines. Oy. I’ll post with what I find out when I jump under it tomorrow morning. [b]Update – 12/5/04 @ 2:12p[/b] – Well, I replaced the fuel & air filter with no luck. Tried to tune out the carb and noticed that the mixture adjustment screw is missing (!!!!). Argh. Anyways, I then replaced the fuel pump which helped a LOT, but I was still getting some bucking at ~2500rpm in 4th and 5th. So just for the sake of it, I replaced my distributor cap & rotor, spark plugs and spark plug wires. My old spark plugs made me want to cry, they were in /horrible/ shape. Anyways, those last few tweaks made it run pretty well – enough that I drove it to the store (~10 miles). It’s running horrendously rich though, so it’s either time to rebuild the carb / get a new one, or think about ditching it for a new car.

2004-12-04 17:02:14 – Netheus
I hate it when my car acts up. That would scare the ever living sh*t out of me. I hope it’s nothing terrible. If you need a cheap come to your house mechanic, I know one. He’s neat-o. Nam vet who was in the motor pool for like 20 years or something unusually long, and he loves working on cars. Loves going to the junk yard to get cheap ass parts even more.
2004-12-05 04:34:29 – R20unicorns friend
Randal, you are my hero. Whatever life throws you, throw it back. After you have tackled it (which of course you would). Optimism. Kick some A$$ and take some names!!!! -Teh Gay_
2004-12-06 12:01:17 – GrooveMan
Noooo… you can’t dump the Toyota. Thats like me getting rid of the Bronco, Never going to happen. Well not if I can help it anyway ๐Ÿ˜›
2004-12-06 13:59:04 – rand0m
Well, I would definitely trade it in if I had the opportunity, but I’m really certain that no place will take my truck as a trade in … which means that I’ll probably end up with two cars. At least I don’t have three like Keen. Freak.
2004-12-06 14:09:37 – Netheus
you could try to sell it to some young high school boy and then apply that money to a new car. Or, you can continue to fix yours until it literally _Falls_ apart on you. I mean, car payment + full coverage insurance = $$$$ your car has got to still be cheaper than that.
2004-12-06 15:05:47 – rand0m
Even with the occasional $100-200 repair it is still a LOT cheaper than a new car … hence why I’m keeping it and only doing a little shopping; I don’t want to be stranded when it *does* bite the big one.
2004-12-08 10:16:51 – WC
Ate least your car isn’t stuck in 2nd gear. Do you know how fusterating that is driving to work (Boulder) everday in 2nd gear. So hopefully after this car show this weekend a company that my credit union works with I’ll have a new car. Dunno though.
2004-12-11 22:32:39 – Netheus
Adelphia is changing to the west coast feed for Comedy Central on 12/20. Call and complain now. They will tell you that they aren’t doing it, it’s comedy central that is doing it, so go to their web page and complain there, too. This isn’t a South Park entertainment thing, this is another "Focus put pressure on us to change, so we are" decision. This means the Daily Show with Jon Stewart won’t be on till midnight, and all your other favorite shows won’t be on until 3 hours later. This is another shot in the head to personal responsibility, and people too lazy to watch what the hell their kids are up to. Adelphia: 1-888-683-1000 www.comedycentral.com and p.s. randal- the posting guide thingie isn’t working.
2004-12-13 11:56:04 – Master Ha-reed
Comcast has done the same thing, although I didnt know the Great Satan Dobson was behind it. That makes me even angrier.
2004-12-13 13:51:23 – GrooveMan
TiVo anyone?