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Sometimes the icon bars line up and shrink to create some interesting things.

Today’s tune is from Dogs Die in Hot Cars. From their, well, only album. Released in 2004 and titled “Please Describe Yourself”. This Scottish group plays your stereotypical Britpop but they do it wonderfully. I was saddened by their announcement in September of 2007 that they were ending their work on their second album and going their seperate ways. But then in April they announced “The Second Album Project” which includes some downloads - sounds very promising.

The song I’ve chosen is “Paul Newman’s Eyes”. Not one of their popular songs, it’s nonetheless a quite catchy tune with a wonderful chorus that you’ll be humming to yourself all day. So listen to the song, check out the lyrics, and buy the CD.

Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Please Describe Yourself

Paul Newman’s Eyes
Dogs Die in Hot Cars - Please Describe Yourself

I wish I had Paul Newman’s eyes
And every day came with some surprise
I wish I had Paul Newman’s eyes
That would be nice

Look at those houses, big houses over there
Look at those suits spending money without a care
Here comes the stars with perks around their arms
Here comes the sports car that carries so much charm
But I’m just a nothing that doesn’t have a lot
And I asked for your life but look at what I got

So sick of seeing, don’t want to hear no more
And you can amputate my limbs
And starve me to death whilst I beg for freedom
Away from a life which is this

But I wish I had Paul Newman’s eyes
And every day came with some surprise
I wish I had Paul Newman’s eyes
That would be nice

Look at those setters, those setters of the trend
Look at that band, they act so confident
Here comes the movies with dialogue so cool
Why did they never tell me to speak like that in primary school

So sick of seeing, don’t want to hear no more
And you can amputate my limbs
And starve me to death whilst I beg for freedom
Away from a life which is this

But still I wish I had Paul Newman’s eyes
And every day came with some surprise
I wish I had Paul Newman’s eyes
That would be nice

So sick of seeing
Can’t stand to talk
And I’ve no compassion
Or thought

What did I do this weekend. Well, first off I replace the front brakes on the ole ‘Woo. I had new rotors for her to, but the caliper mounting bracket bolts weren’t budging and considering I was on an incline, I felt it not wise to attempt to use too much force.
Also, I learned how important it is to ensure the jack you bought will fit under your car.
And also, I learned that the previous owners of the vehicle stole the lug nut wrench and the jack handle.
Which meant I had to use the only tool left, a screwdriver, to raise the car’s own jack. No, it wasn’t really fun.
I was actually disappointed the brake pads had as much left on them as they did. I was hoping my soft brakes were the cause of next-to-no pad left. I was wrong - but in a week or two I’ll tackle the rear brake pads and rotors - hopefully those are the ones causing the issue. The guy at Napa, in a super casual glance through a hole in the rim assured me that “Yeah, they’re shot”. So if you can’t trust that, who can you trust?

Then, on Sunday, I went through all of my computer parts and electronic packratting. I managed to go from 4 large plastic bins down to 2. I threw away a lot of things, some of which were:

• 17 computer power supplies (Out of 19, I kept the 2 AT ones for use as bench power supplies)
• 5 cell phones of varying age, the newest being about 5 years old
• 11 hard drives, with a combined storage total of 9GB!
• Batteries for a laptop I don’t have any more
• Batteries for several cameras I don’t have any more
• Easily 300 feet of coax cable alone - plus about 200 feet of misc cable
• A ginormous box of obsolete electronic devices from a local school district. A lot of Mac gear.
• 2 complete PCs, not anywhere near powerful enough to do anything of much use these days.

I also have something like 35 12 foot long brown extension cords.

All of this is part of my “One Project, One Trip” mentality. If I have a project to complete, I’ll buy the main parts of it and anything else I think I need but don’t know if I have.

So I think I’ll start making a home inventory system for the office. Keep all my cables tagged and organized. Same with the tools. And if I’m going to do that, I might as well make it web enabled, so I can query it from Home Depot and see that yes, I do have a 25 foot long S-Video cable. And if I’m going to do all that, I might as well throw my barcode scanner into it, so I can just scan things when I get them and know what they are right away.

Ain’t technology great?

I’ll have some pictures of the brake action later, but forgot to take some of the cable action. However, I will be taking timed pictures of the move out date, so I can make a neat little time-lapse movie about it.

Anyway - big move happens this Friday. And I think we’ll be ready.

So I was having a rough day to day to say the least. That is, until I got a little email at about 5pm. And that email? It was this:

Yes, that’s right - I finally got beta access to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. (Read about it on Wikipedia) I’ve been nothing but smiles and in the absolute best mood ever since! Why? I applied to be in the beta almost 2 years ago.

To give you a sense of scale, since I applied to the beta, I’ve:

• Lived in 2 cities
• Met, then proposed to, my Mishka
• Had 4 different jobs in 3 cities
• Been published in 4 magazines and 2 newspapers

So yeah, you can say I’ve been waiting.

And sadly, I’ll need to wait a little longer, too:

Only 25% done downloading after 3 hours.

But that’s A-OK with me because I FINALLY HAVE BETA ACCESS! HOT DAMN!

I mean, look what I’ll be playing soon, so very soon.

And I’d love for you to join me too - if you pre-order the collectors edition (I’ve ordered 3) then you get an automatic invite into the open beta which will be coming up in a few months - AND you’ll be able to play with ME! So do it!

Pre-Order Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Collector’s Edition

Sometimes I really get awesome speeds from my Comcast internet connection.

PS: If you have a USB thumb drive sitting around, I heartily encourage you to check out PortableApps.com - all the apps you can carry around your neck. Works wonderfully, too.

Today’s Tunesday we lately¹, and proudly, present a song from the E’s band, Eels. It’s actually hard to write that. I want to put “The Eels”, but that’s not correct.

Anyway, Bus Stop Boxer, from their 2001 album “Souljacker” is a hauntingly beautiful song about proving yourself. Of all his songs, this has to be one of my favorites. So listen in, read the lyrics, buy the album so I get money, and enjoy!

And forgive the quickness - we’re in the process of moving so 90% of my music is packed or on one of my shut down machines - so I have to pick and choose. And if you’ve ever tried to copy music off your iPod by going through the indivdual folders, you know my pain today!

Eels - Souljacker - Bus Stop Boxer

Eels - Bus Stop Boxer

I don’t miss where I came from
But each night I dream about being back home
When I wake up in the morning
I’m too tired, tired of being alone

So I get up and go downtown
And pick me out a little piece of ground
Where I can prove something to the world
I can prove something to the world

Don’t look at me
I’m the bus stop boxer X2

Daddy put us in the truck and
Dropped us off and said good luck, then
One lucky kid waiting for the bus
Made a winner out of one of us

Don’t look at me
I’m the bus stop boxer X2

Going down by the railroad tracks, where
People know that they better not relax
I’m the man, baby, I am the man
This is where I can make you understand

I’m the bus stop boxer
Don’t look at me X2

1. You help a friend install her air conditioned in an attic apartment in 90 degree heat with 80% humidity in the rain after a 2 hour work out. [↩]

This comment on TheDailyWTF.Com forums made me laugh. It’s either too early in the morning or I’m a geek. Or, I suspect, both.

So somewhere or other on the interwebs I found a link to Crystal Disk Info and downloaded it. Ran it at work on my work laptop and everything was A-OK. I thought to myself, neat little utility, need to remember that for the home computers.

So I brought it home and ran it on my Dell. This is what it told me:

So I wonder how bad this is, and if Dell will send me a new laptop. I dumped it all to an external drive thanks to SyncBack, but just to be safe I think I should call it in.

It says I have 100 reallocated sectors. According to this website a reallocated sector is when the hard drive finds a bad spot on the drive and moves everything off of it to another “reserved” sector. It seems like the other 2 attributes (”Current Pending Sector Count” and “Uncorrectable Sector Count”) are related to it. Just not sure how bad it is. I’m used to server hardware, not consumer stuff. I’m fairly certain that Dell will say it’s ‘within limits’ - I’ll find out. I’m used to server level 3rd tier support - if I felt something looked at me funny I could tell them to send me a new one. I get a feeling it doesn’t work this way for run of the mill consumers

Anyway, to lighten the mood some here’s a picture I ran across. The “Friends with Benefits” benefit summar prospectus. Click to see it full size.

Today’s Tunesday is of someone I hit upon recently - Imani Coppola. Ah, yes, it was found via some random file share, and apparently it was featured on the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack. And I happened to fall in love with it! The song is “Raindrops from the Sun (Hey Hey Hey)” off of her “The Black & White Album”. It’s only vaguely topical of the 4th of July due to the first line - but hey, it’s that or nothin. So have a listen, read up about her, check out the lyrics, and have a great week! I’ll probably have more of an editorial next Tunesday. Or not.

Buy Imani Coppola - The Black & White Album from Amazon.

Imani Coppola - Raindrops from the Sun (Hey Hey Hey)

Yesterday was kind of like the fourth of July
The way your face lit up the entire sky
I had to look away because it hurt my eyes
The way you hit me was a big surprise

Yesterday I really didn’t know what to say
I wasn’t making any sense but it felt ok
I asked you if it was my birthday
This kind of thing don’t happen everyday

Hey hey hey hey hey hey

Didn’t think an angel would get in my way

Yesterday I felt just like a child
A little curious a little wild
Live in the moment and never go out of style
You know it’s really been a while

Hey hey hey hey hey hey

I didn’t think an angel would get in my way

Excuse me wont you step aside
I ain’t got no room for you in my life
I don’t got the patience to love again
I don’t got the guts to keep you as a friend

Be an angel and fly away
I hope you reach some heavenly place
If you come back when you’re all done
Bring me some raindrops from the sun

Today I feel like i’m doing time
Didn’t know it could be just like a crime
Been a while since I let you go
But time don’t let regrets go

Hey hey hey hey hey hey

I didn’t think an angel would get in my way

So I gotta welcome angels

So since I’ve decided to keep the ‘Woo instead of upgrading to a sexy CX-7, I’ve decided why not go the next step and actually upgrade it.

My Leganza is an “SE” model. Not the absolute bottom line, but not the top end “CDX” version. But, what I have going for me is the fact that most of the stuff the makes an SE a CDX is already there. All of the internals are there - wiring harnesses, sensors, and the what not. And to be honest, for being a ‘bargain’ car maker, Daewoo did do a lot to the hardware side of things¹ - it gets over 30mpg, the 2.2 liter engine is surprisingly peppy, 4 wheel anti-lock disc brakes², power windows, locks, mirrors, etc. So it’s definately worth keeping around for awhile.

The best part is since they sold it all to Chevy, the Daewoo branded stuff is getting dirt cheap - I bought the service manuals and wiring schematics for over 80% off their normal price! Hell, I can buy the Daewoo allow rims for only $50 a piece, when they originally went for almost $250 each! Not to mention, the Daewoo website is amazingly helpful. I can buy, literally, any part that the car has - right there online.

But even better, and back to my original point - eBay has many of those same parts, and even cheaper. So since we’ll be moving to a place with a garage and multiple rooms soon, I might as well get started!

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Taking away from the comfort side of things to do it [↩]
2. And it’s a 2001 mind you - there’s a lot of 2008 cars that don’t have 4 wheel disc brakes [↩]