IT HURTS! IT HURTS!
i'm barely 17 minutes into this and i'm in pain. holy shit this is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad. i've known it's bad by reputation and from those who have suffered thru it. but WOW....
Friday, December 14, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
jebus xmas. 2 1/2 hrs to get home. fucking snow storm came in early and everyone bolted early and the snow plows had no chance to clear the roads.
at least i'm home now.
the holy WHAT!?!?!?!?!?
found on Fark: The foreskin of Jesus has gone missing. Penis
Writer searches for a peculiar relic
The "Holy Prepuce," the supposed foreskin of Christ, has disappeared.
By FRANCIS X. ROCCA, Religion News Service
Last update: December 7, 2007 - 6:09 PM
VATICAN CITY - When freelance writer David Farley first visited Calcata, Italy, five years ago, he figured it would make for a colorful article for a travel magazine.
The picturesque hill town 30 miles north of Rome featured a medieval castle and narrow cobblestone streets, as well as an international population of artists and ex-hippies who had saved the abandoned village from demolition.
Locals called it the "paese di fricchettoni" ("village of freaks"), and on an ordinary Sunday afternoon, one could find residents dressed in Indian saris strolling across the historic main square.
But Calcata's most remarkable attraction -- and the subject of a book that Farley is now writing -- turned out to be something no longer there: the supposed foreskin of Jesus Christ.
For more than four centuries, the "Holy Prepuce" had been the city's treasure, kept behind bronze doors over the altar in the Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. It was displayed every year on Jan. 1, the Feast of the Holy Circumcision. At one time, pilgrims who came to venerate it were rewarded with an indulgence that cut 10 years from their time in purgatory.
To believers in Jesus' Resurrection, Farley notes, the foreskin is "one of the only conceivable parts of his body that he could have left on Earth."
Legend holds that the Emperor Charlemagne received the object from an angel, then gave it to Pope Leo III in the year 800. It supposedly remained in the papal collection until the early 16th century, when a looting German soldier brought it to Calcata.
At one point in the Middle Ages, Farley says, there were as many as 18 putative Holy Foreskins in various monasteries and towns in Europe, most of them in France. By the 20th century, all but one had disappeared.
The specimen in Calcata finally vanished in 1983, an event the church's pastor blamed on "sacrilegious thieves."
Farley set out to tell the story of the relic's history and, he hoped, solve the mystery of its disappearance. From the start, one of his biggest challenges was getting taken seriously.
When the New York-based writer spoke to an employee at the Holy See's mission to the United Nations, the reaction was not encouraging.
"He said, 'What? The Holy Foreskin? You want me to hook you up with someone at the Vatican to talk about the Holy Foreskin? No way! That's ridiculous.'"
The priest in Calcata on whose watch the foreskin went missing was also unwilling to discuss it with Farley.
Silence is in fact the church's official policy on the subject, Farley says. He speaks of Vatican decrees from 1900 and 1954 that he says threaten excommunication of anyone who writes or speaks the relic's name, in order to discourage "irreverent curiosity."
Yet that threat has not inhibited many residents of Calcata, who gladly told Farley their various theories of the foreskin's fate.
Some say the priest sold it to a relic dealer in Turin. Others claim it was stolen by a local group of Satanists for use in their occult rites. Still others blame Neo-Nazis. The most popular explanations, though, point to the Vatican.
Farley is not saying which, if any, of these scenarios he finds most credible, but promises he will offer an explanation of his own when his book comes out in the spring of 2009.
In the meantime, he shares his thoughts on the foreskin's significance, as "not only a holy relic but a relic of a past time," which survived as long as it did only thanks to Calcata's remote location.
"I just find it really fascinating that this thing stuck around for so long, because it represents a way of thinking that we lost, that we evolved away from," he said.
Even the Catholic Church, Farley notes, has in recent years deemphasized the ancient tradition of venerating physical remains of holy persons and the relics associated with them.
But even if the Holy Prepuce is not gone for good, Farley thinks it's unlikely to be held up again as an object of veneration.
"I think most people would agree that it won't do the church any good to get publicity" of that kind, he said. "Most people still snicker about it."
Monday, December 10, 2007
bloody fucking hell
i can't wait to hear this.
1st source dloading as i type. will be in my ears tomorrow morning. w00t! (//mol - 12/11/07)
outside of a few odd goofs, it was one hell of a fucking show. and i can't wait for some other recordings to surface. i've heard snips of 2 different sources that should be very nice. but many thanks to slowburn for being the first to post the show in its entirety. and now the search continues. but it's one hell of a show. In My Time of Dying is fucking brutal, just oozing blues. Kashmir may be the song that Robert considers to be what Led Zeppelin is all about (and i do agree), but In My Time of Dying is a fucking work of art. and to anyone who had doubts about Jason - he did his father very proud. like the millions of other fans, i hope they tour, but if they don't, like Pink Floyd, they went out on top. there is absolutely NO question in my mind. Led Zeppelin = greatest band ever. //mol - 12/12/07
Good Times, Bad Times
Ramble On
Black Dog
In My Time of Dying
For Your Life
Trampled Underfoot
Nobody's Fault But Mine
No Quarter
Since I've Been Loving You
Dazed & Confused
Stairway To Heaven
The Song Remains The Same
Misty Mountain Hop
Kashmir
{encore}
Whole Lotta Love
Rock and Roll
Friday, December 07, 2007
techie humor to hide my annoyance
Most unusual data disaster horror stories for 2007
A man in Thailand took the cover of his hard drive off and sprayed the interior with insect repellent
Sandra Rossi
December 06, 2007 (Computerworld Australia) -- An ant-infested hard drive and a failing parachute top a list of data disaster horror stories for 2007.
The list, provided by Kroll Inc.'s Ontrack Data Recovery unit, illustrates some of the strangest and wackiest things that people put electronic storage devices through on a regular basis.
Putting drives in the washing machine. Using oil to stop them from squeaking. These are just two examples of the user bloopers the company's engineers nominated for inclusion on the list. Remarkably, Kroll data recovery specialists were able to recover the data in both instances.
This year, Kroll's engineers said the company has seen more damaged portable devices than ever before.
One woman called to complain that she had "washed all her data away." Her USB stick had been through a cycle in her washing machine and -- surprise! -- she couldn't retrieve any data from it.
A British scientist was fed up with the way his hard drive was squeaking, so he drilled a hole through the casing and poured oil into the mechanics. The squeaking stopped, and so did the hard drive.
A wedding photographer faced the potential wrath of a new bride when he discovered he had overwritten her photos with ones from another event, the photos were recovered before the couple learned of the mistake.
In an effort to test a parachute, a camera (acting as the chute's cargo) was dropped from a plane. Unfortunately, the parachute failed its test and its fragile cargo shattered into several pieces. Ontrack's engineers had to reassemble the camera's memory stick and the video of the parachute's demise was recovered.
But the best recovery of all has to be the ant invasion.
Discovering ants had taken up residence in his external hard drive, a photographer in Thailand took the cover off his computer and sprayed the interior with insect repellent.
The ants didn't make it, and neither did the drive.
Adrian Briscoe, general manager of Kroll's Ontrack Data Recovery Australia unit, said the company's staffers are always fascinated by the extraordinary things people do to data that is often irreplaceable.
"We can often perform a successful recovery from what may seem to be a hopeless case -- proving that you should never give up," he said.
Monday, December 03, 2007
annoying annoying annoying...
i'm stuck here in braintree at the new office not so much my choice, as i am because a stupid drive decided it wasn't happy with its working environment and now the stupid RAID card WON'T STOP BEEPING AND IT IS DRIVING ME INSANE AS I STAND HERE AND TYPE TO YOU PEOPLES.
i got paged about this yesterday morning, but figured it was a UPS issue, and not the server, so Q tried to silence it, but it turns out she didn't need to silence anything as it wasn't the one of the myriad of UPS' we have.
so i drove down here figuring it would only take a few minutes to address the issue and boy was i wrong. i've attempted to remove the faulty drive from the RAID config and it doesn't like it because the array is 'degraded' (NO SHIT) and when i physically remove the drive, it doesn't like it because the faulty drive isn't there to be disabled. it's a no-win situation, so i said fuck it and now i wait for the drive to be rebuilt within the array. if that doesn't fix it, i'm not sure what i want to do.
but it beeps every 2 seconds and normally, i like background noise, but this high pitched beeping that i can't silence is driving me insane.
and it's cold in the server room, more so because i'm keeping the door mostly closed to keep the insanity provoking beeping from driving other people insane. it's a good thing i grabbed my sweatshirt to help keep me warm, as well as the hood is providing protection for my neck. the rebuild is now at 92% and i started around 10am give or take so it's taking a long fucking time to rebuild the array and that in itself is frustrating enough, but to have the beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep of the alarm is just maddening.
happy thought happy thought happy thought happy thought....No Country for Old Men was pretty good. i meant to see it a while ago, but kept forgetting about it so i finally remembered yesterday. i still want to see The Mist but as that's been out shorter than No Country, i figured i should see that first. maybe i'll see it tonight with my free movie ticket.
anyways, i enjoyed No Country - wonderfully twisted and fucked up. i found it quite entertaining and humorous. and even better was i didn't get paged.
our first 'major' snow has come. all of 2" or so of heavy stuff, but it is enuff to make things a mess. KO did the driveway and i cleared my car off so i didn't have to do that when i left for work. the ride in wasn't bad...
no beep....time to reboot and get the fuck out of here.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
heh
three rights make a left. hadn't thought about that one in a long time, but had to laugh. thanks ant.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
...
i'm so glad i'm no longer smoking. you always see that rubber lung thing when you are a kid in school, but this is just nasty. this is what i was putting into my system back when?
eeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww.....
Still Smoking? Watch This !! - The most amazing videos are a click away
Saturday, November 17, 2007
random bits
well, the move is complete. that's not to say that everything is as it should be in the new office, but for the moment at least things are quiet. i considered going to the new office today, but opted out which was a mixed blessing. i hate being dragged into other projects that have the cart being drawn before the horse. what a fucking mess that is turning into.
finally got around to seeing Saw IV in the theater last night. i thought it was ok, nothing great or special, just ok. i didn't think that it was bad, but i liked how the first 3 played out and this one had the feeling of trying to fit into them, but didn't quite make it. it certainly had a few moments, but all in all it was just ok. i've always been a fan of the series, but now i'm wondering if there wasn't a bit of shark jumping with this one.
M stopped by last night and startled me a little - i was debating what i wanted to watch on dvd tonight and she opened my door. it didn't help that i was listening to music and completely missed her call so it wasn't until i saw my door opening out of the corner of my eye that i realized what was going on. i rather enjoy being lost in my world of music, and i suppose that's my achilles heel - once i tune in, i tune out the world around me.
while she was here it dawned on my that as of 11/8/07, i am by definition debt free. there will always be bills, but i no longer have any loans hanging over my head as my final student loan payment has come and gone. it was so very nice to see this when i logged in to check on it:
Loan Balances
You do not currently have any active or fully disbursed loans on our system.
it took a few moments for that to sink in, but it's really nice to think that the chunk of change i've been sinking into paying that off now sinks into my bank account. i'll try and enjoy this while i can, but at the same time i also know that i have a new car coming in the coming months (i'm finally fed up with my explorer - i don't want it anymore but will suffer thru the winter to save down payment money to help minimize that loan) and of course once the house hunting starts up again, that's going to put me in debt for pretty much the rest of my life. so i'll have to enjoy it while i can.
weather has turned brisk around here which i suppose is expected for this time of the year. and it looks like the trees around the house which had their leaves up until very recently have finally dropped most of them. it's been odd to see just how many leaves haven't fallen yet, of course they are shades of brown, so it's not as nice as leaf peepers would like. tho i do have to chuckle at a sermon the assistant priest in high school gave about how he enjoyed fall and the fall colors, but how one year in school it was explained why the leaves change color - the are dying and when dying they go from green to the bright vivid colors, etc. anyways, he had a hard time dealing with that as he couldn't figure out why if they were dying were they so vividly colored. eventually it clicked that it wasn't a bad thing as in the spring there was a rebirth and life would return, etc.
i always found it amusing as i guess i never looked at leaves that way. sure i knew why they changed colors, but i never gave it much thought other than to wonder why they'd change to the color they did (yellow, orange, red, etc). he certainly got over it, but it was some time before he shook that memory, eventually relating it to whatever bible story was the subject of that sunday sermon (most likely rebirth or something along those lines). but i guess it's since stuck with me - i still smile a bit when i think about it. anyways, moving on.
Porcupine Tree's Fear of a Blank Planet is a current front runner for the Molius Album of the Year award (sounds fancy). if you haven't heard it, it's well worth plunking your hard earned money down for.
and on that note, i'll wrap this up.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
huh
go figure. who knew that oprah and i actually have something in common - we both like Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. (that and goldens i suppose)
the rens bought me the book years ago for xmas, and it's one of the few books that i can recall pretty vividly (meaning i really liked it). that question of what books would i bring with me if i was stranded on an island is always answered by my wanting The Dark Tower series, the entire Dune series (old & new) and Lord of the Rings. Pillars would be one of the few non-series books i'd want with me.
it's a long book and well worth reading (and it's not scifi - go figure). must be those cathedrals i seem to have a passing interest in.
Ken Follett is latest Oprah Winfrey pick
By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer
NEW YORK - Oprah Winfrey went for the big time Wednesday with her latest book club pick, choosing Ken Follett's 973-page "The Pillars of the Earth," an announcement that will likely mean hundreds of thousands more sales for an author with a huge, international following.
Winfrey, whose TV talk show airs from Chicago, called Follett "a best-selling author that everybody has heard of, but this novel is unlike any of his books he's known for around the world."
Follett, a 58-year-old native of Cardiff, Wales, is famous for spectacular thrillers such as "Lie Down With Lions," "Eye of the Needle" and "World Without End," published last month, and a sequel to "The Pillars of the Earth," which came out in 1989.
Follett has called "The Pillars of the Earth," a love story set in England in the 12th century, his favorite novel. According to his Web site, the book still sells around 100,000 copies a year in the United States alone.
"My publishers were a little nervous about such a very unlikely subject but paradoxically, it is my most popular book," Follett writes on his Web site.
"It's also the book I'm most proud of. It recreates, quite vividly, the entire life of the village and the people who live there. You feel you know the place and the people as intimately as if you yourself were living there in the middle ages."
A year after "Pillars" came out, Follett was so popular he agreed to a two-book, $12.3 million deal with the Dell Publishing Company. He reportedly has 90 million readers worldwide and recently signed with Penguin Group (USA), which released "World Without End," for a planned multigenerational trilogy set in the 20th century.
___
Associated Press writer Tara Burghart in Chicago contributed to this report.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
unfucking believable.
i got paged at 7am this morning to find out that NStar is planning on shutting the power off to the building where our main office is.
and we have no fucking clue what is going on because we can't seem to get a straight answer of WHY this is, or HOW LONG this will take.
ok, i now have an answer so i'll leave what i wrote alone.
some fucking asshole smashed into a electrical pole around 545am. we lost power while nstar cut us (the building) over to a secondary power feed. they are in the process of fixing the pole and at some point today, when they don't know, they are going to shut the power down and put us back onto the primary power feed.
i'm now waiting for a quick email to alert the agency from my boss and then i'm heading home to hurry up and wait to find out when things are going down and when they do, i'll head back in to get stuff restarted.
just fucking lovely.
Friday, November 09, 2007
long day
i left home around 930am today and returned at 1030pm tonight.
what a fucking mess.
the good:
- stuff is moved
- i have the switches patched (thanks RB)
- we have data connections to all offices on both voice and data sides
- i'm finally home
the bad:
- the network upgrade didn't go quite as expected. (it's fine now for the most part, but i guess the phones were totally fucked in MN and the guy they had working on the routers was a fucking dolt
- i had to replace the batteries in one of the UPS which sucked ass and wasted 2 hours of my life
- the 208v outlet has the wrong plug for my UPS (electrical guy will be there in the morning)
- the server room is a fucking mess
- not everything is wired up
- i have to be there for 8am tomorrow
- there was no alcohol provided
- i still have to reprogram the phones and extensions (ugh...)
i realize that it sounds like there was more bad than good, but all in all, the important stuff from my view is in place and it's now down to the busy work. i should be able to get the simple stuff done pretty quickly and find a quiet corner to reprogram the phone system so with a bit of luck, i'll be out by mid-afternoon. changing the phone numbers is going to take a while - it took me 2 hours to do it last year for some 50 or so users. i have nearly 150 i need to do here, so i'm hoping i can crank it out as long as i'm left alone. if i could, i'd just lock myself in my office in MN and do it there, but i need to be able to test it a bit while i'm there, so i'll see where i can hide.
not much else. LB picked up dinner from cheesecake factory, but they didn't bother to include forks, ketchup or straws. so thanks LB for dinner.
well, i'm tired and need a little mindless entertainment before i collapse in a heap. only to be rudely disturbed by my alarm in a few hours.
Read More......
Thursday, November 08, 2007
this weekend is going to be long
most likely. we're moving one of our offices this weekend and it all starts tomorrow at noon. at least my piece of the massive puzzle that is this move. in typical fashion, my sleep has suffered as the anxiety of the move gets to me. at least i know that's what it is, and that things should return to normal when this mess is all done.
but at noon i shut down all the servers in the office and start the process of pulling it all apart. and then i need to remove a few of the servers, pack them up and move them to the new office, get them reconstructed and with a bit of luck, all will be as it should be.
yeah, right.
we'll see. but it should at least prove to be entertaining. i have a 4 walkie talkies so the banter should be what gets us thru the mess. we need to think of handles to use while we work. clerks 2 seems to be inspiring my train of thought right now, but i'm having a hard time figuring out who picklefucker would be....
Friday, November 02, 2007
D'OH!
Led Zeppelin reunion show postponed
LONDON - Led Zeppelin fans awaiting the rockers' reunion will have to wait a little longer.
The band's first concert in two decades, scheduled for Nov. 26, has been postponed until Dec. 10 after guitarist Jimmy Page fractured a finger, organizers said Friday.
"I am disappointed that we are forced to postpone the concert by two weeks," Page said in a statement.
"However, Led Zeppelin have always set very high standards for ourselves, and we feel that this postponement will enable my injury to properly heal, and permit us to perform at the level that both the band and our fans have always been accustomed to."
Led Zeppelin, who split up in 1980 after the death of drummer John Bonham, announced in September they were reuniting for a one-off show. The lineup includes Page, singer Robert Plant and bass player John Paul Jones, along with Bonham's son Jason.
More than 1 million fans entered a draw for a chance to buy one of the 10,000 tickets to the concert at London's O2 Arena, a tribute to Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, who died last year. The lineup also includes former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, Foreigner and young Scottish singer Paolo Nutini.
Organizers said tickets for the Nov. 26 gig will be honored at the rescheduled show.
at least it won't be like the start of the tour in 1975 when he broke his finger then and they continued on. but then it did bring How Many More Times back into the setlist...
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