This is sad stuff of course, but what's with the picture? The article is about food stamp recipients starving because of rising food costs, but the most prominent item in the picture is a bag of charcoal? I think there may be more wise investments for food stamps if you're worried about starvation...
Read the article here.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
B- for life
I recently graduated from college. During my last semester, I eventually grew tired of one of my courses, and felt it no longer as necessary. So I didn't go for the last 2 weeks and stopped completing the assignments. It was an empowering feeling, one that I had not previously felt during my college career. I felt good, until I realized that my A in the class had turned into a B-...
It was then that I began to consider what I had done. Was it worth it? I had always been diligent in my studies, and received good grades for my effort. Was this something I would regret for the rest of my life? It turned out that while it may have lowered my GPA, it didn't change my graduating status at all. I graduated magna cum laude with my B-, and I would have graduated magna cum laude without it.
Of course, no one should want to lead a B- life, and that's not what I'm condoning. If I had a B- average, I obviously wouldn't have been able to graduate with academic honors. So when is it ok?
Life is all about balance. What did I do with the extra time, effort, and attention that became available when I gave up on that course? Did I devote those resources to something more meaningful? Unfortunately not. And that made me think.
What does my life's report card look like? Do I have an A in my career and a C in my relationships with friends and family? Am I graduating with honors in my plans for the future while having to take remedial classes for serving and caring for others? Who will look at my life 50 years down the road and give me a B-? What am I doing about that?
Who would have thought that my decision to be a slacker would cause so much introspection? I may have got a B- in the class, but if it helps me to earn an A from those I interact with... I'll consider it the best grade I ever got.
It was then that I began to consider what I had done. Was it worth it? I had always been diligent in my studies, and received good grades for my effort. Was this something I would regret for the rest of my life? It turned out that while it may have lowered my GPA, it didn't change my graduating status at all. I graduated magna cum laude with my B-, and I would have graduated magna cum laude without it.
Of course, no one should want to lead a B- life, and that's not what I'm condoning. If I had a B- average, I obviously wouldn't have been able to graduate with academic honors. So when is it ok?
Life is all about balance. What did I do with the extra time, effort, and attention that became available when I gave up on that course? Did I devote those resources to something more meaningful? Unfortunately not. And that made me think.
What does my life's report card look like? Do I have an A in my career and a C in my relationships with friends and family? Am I graduating with honors in my plans for the future while having to take remedial classes for serving and caring for others? Who will look at my life 50 years down the road and give me a B-? What am I doing about that?
Who would have thought that my decision to be a slacker would cause so much introspection? I may have got a B- in the class, but if it helps me to earn an A from those I interact with... I'll consider it the best grade I ever got.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Computer troubles
It appears that my computer troubles may finally be over... for now.
I'll do my best to briefly explain it, considering most of you don't want the details, and those who do will criticize me the more details I give!
It all started last summer. I moved from Utah to Washington. Along with other belongings, I brought my computer with me. Within a couple weeks of setting it up, the system would no longer boot. After running Seagate's SeaTools diagnostics, it told me that one of my three hard drives was bad. I figured the jostling involved with the move could have caused a hard drive failure. I initiated the RMA process, and some $20 and 3 days later, I had a new hard drive. All was good again in the world, or so I thought.
Several months later I attempted to install Windows Vista on one of my hard drives. Immediately I began to have problems with the system locking up for a few seconds, and then it would respond again. I turned to the Event Viewer (Start | Run | eventvwr) for answers. The System log was filled with events such as the following:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: atapi
Event Category: None
Event ID: 9
Description:
The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort2, did not respond within the timeout period.
There were varying errors (I believe there was also error ID 11, but 9 was more frequent), but all were disk related. Doing some searching for others with this problem led me to believe that Vista and my on-board RAID controller were not compatible. After trying a few workarounds, I decided I would remove the RAID setup and just have 3 independent hard disks.
I reinstalled the operating system, and by this point I knew that I could diagnose the problem by the sounds the hard disk would make. The hard drive audibly made a clicking sound, spooled down, and spooled back up. At this point I was beginning to wonder if it was some other driver that was not compatible with Windows Vista, or if it was possibly a failing SATA controller or cable.
I reinstalled Windows XP and forgot about Vista and my troubles seemed to disappear for a time. Soon though, the hard drive sound returned, and once it did, all sound was messed up. Windows startup and exit sounds were incredibly garbled. Even music played through Windows Media Player or iTunes would be distorted. I had all sorts of theories about how the sound driver could be corrupted by the hard disk problems, but the fact was I didn't know how to fix it. I would reinstall XP, but the problem would keep resurfacing.
I searched and searched on the Internet under different forums for people having similar problems. SeaTools was showing that one hard drive was failing the diagnostics now. Another failed hard drive in a year? One person had suggested that it might be the power supply, which for some reason, I had ignored until now. I decided that this may fit the symptoms, seeing as how the third hard drive had been added last year, and Windows Vista could have demanded slightly higher power output from the power supply. I postulated that this increased demand could have led to a degrading power supply that would now not even support Windows XP with 2 hard drives.
Whether or not any of my assumptions were right, I replaced the 2-year-old 420W power supply with a new 550W power supply. It's been several weeks now, and I'm glad to report that there have not been any disk errors! Maybe one of these days I will get around to installing Vista again on one of the drives, or configuring the on-board RAID again, but for now I'm just happy that I can go several weeks without reinstalling the operating system, hearing the hard drive restart, or hearing garbled sound in Windows XP!
So if you've had any of these symptoms, don't forget to consider the power supply, especially if your power load has recently increased!
P.S. For those interested, here are my system specifications:
ASUS P5GD1 motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 630 3.0 GHz dual core LGA775 2M
Kingston 1 GB (2x512 MB) DDR RAM
3x300 GB HDD (Maxtor/Seagate)
PowerColor Radeon X800GTO 256 MB
550W (now) power supply
I'll do my best to briefly explain it, considering most of you don't want the details, and those who do will criticize me the more details I give!
It all started last summer. I moved from Utah to Washington. Along with other belongings, I brought my computer with me. Within a couple weeks of setting it up, the system would no longer boot. After running Seagate's SeaTools diagnostics, it told me that one of my three hard drives was bad. I figured the jostling involved with the move could have caused a hard drive failure. I initiated the RMA process, and some $20 and 3 days later, I had a new hard drive. All was good again in the world, or so I thought.
Several months later I attempted to install Windows Vista on one of my hard drives. Immediately I began to have problems with the system locking up for a few seconds, and then it would respond again. I turned to the Event Viewer (Start | Run | eventvwr) for answers. The System log was filled with events such as the following:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: atapi
Event Category: None
Event ID: 9
Description:
The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort2, did not respond within the timeout period.
There were varying errors (I believe there was also error ID 11, but 9 was more frequent), but all were disk related. Doing some searching for others with this problem led me to believe that Vista and my on-board RAID controller were not compatible. After trying a few workarounds, I decided I would remove the RAID setup and just have 3 independent hard disks.
I reinstalled the operating system, and by this point I knew that I could diagnose the problem by the sounds the hard disk would make. The hard drive audibly made a clicking sound, spooled down, and spooled back up. At this point I was beginning to wonder if it was some other driver that was not compatible with Windows Vista, or if it was possibly a failing SATA controller or cable.
I reinstalled Windows XP and forgot about Vista and my troubles seemed to disappear for a time. Soon though, the hard drive sound returned, and once it did, all sound was messed up. Windows startup and exit sounds were incredibly garbled. Even music played through Windows Media Player or iTunes would be distorted. I had all sorts of theories about how the sound driver could be corrupted by the hard disk problems, but the fact was I didn't know how to fix it. I would reinstall XP, but the problem would keep resurfacing.
I searched and searched on the Internet under different forums for people having similar problems. SeaTools was showing that one hard drive was failing the diagnostics now. Another failed hard drive in a year? One person had suggested that it might be the power supply, which for some reason, I had ignored until now. I decided that this may fit the symptoms, seeing as how the third hard drive had been added last year, and Windows Vista could have demanded slightly higher power output from the power supply. I postulated that this increased demand could have led to a degrading power supply that would now not even support Windows XP with 2 hard drives.
Whether or not any of my assumptions were right, I replaced the 2-year-old 420W power supply with a new 550W power supply. It's been several weeks now, and I'm glad to report that there have not been any disk errors! Maybe one of these days I will get around to installing Vista again on one of the drives, or configuring the on-board RAID again, but for now I'm just happy that I can go several weeks without reinstalling the operating system, hearing the hard drive restart, or hearing garbled sound in Windows XP!
So if you've had any of these symptoms, don't forget to consider the power supply, especially if your power load has recently increased!
P.S. For those interested, here are my system specifications:
ASUS P5GD1 motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 630 3.0 GHz dual core LGA775 2M
Kingston 1 GB (2x512 MB) DDR RAM
3x300 GB HDD (Maxtor/Seagate)
PowerColor Radeon X800GTO 256 MB
550W (now) power supply
Friday, February 15, 2008
Hole(s) in the Wall(s)
Sometimes the best restaurants go unnoticed. Low advertising expenditures. No franchise or name recognition. There are many reasons why these "hole in the wall" places fold and disappear. But often it's not because of the food.
My friends and I ate at a good little Asian spot the other day, if you're looking for something a little more authentic. It's called Fusion Asian Grill, located in the same complex as Dallas Roberts. Give it a shot if you're looking for something new, before it goes under as well.
In addition, my trusted colleague "bird on the lawn" tells of a great Mexican place as well. I haven't been here yet but I've heard from 2 or 3 people that it's worth exploring.
So get out there and try something new. After all, this may be a limited time offer...
My friends and I ate at a good little Asian spot the other day, if you're looking for something a little more authentic. It's called Fusion Asian Grill, located in the same complex as Dallas Roberts. Give it a shot if you're looking for something new, before it goes under as well.
In addition, my trusted colleague "bird on the lawn" tells of a great Mexican place as well. I haven't been here yet but I've heard from 2 or 3 people that it's worth exploring.
So get out there and try something new. After all, this may be a limited time offer...
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Forgotten memories
It's nice to talk to family and talk about memories that I have since forgotten. It just goes to show how easy it can be to forget about something that happens in your own life, and how helpful it can be to write it down, whether physically or virtually.
There was the time when my dad was mowing the lawn and out of nowhere the sliding glass door shattered. We assume it was a rock, but I like to think the sound coming from the lawn mower reached just the right pitch to match the glass door's natural harmonic frequency.
We went to Disney World several years in a row when we lived in Ohio. We then moved to Florida, and my parents were thinking of taking us to Disney World again. They asked us if we wanted to go and, much to their surprise, got a ho-hum response. We ended up going to a nearby hotel, had some fun on the beach, and we each got $50! My parents still tell that story to other families that talk about taking such vacations, and they get a kick out of it.
I should make a habit of writing down stories like these so I don't forget them like I did these. So one other one that I haven't forgot: we went to play at the beach during Hurricane Georges. Of course, we only went down to the bayou behind our house, but it was still a lot of fun. There were waves nearly 6 feet high in a location where 1 foot waves were considered big. I can only imagine what the waves were like on the Gulf coast. We also jumped on the trampoline during the hurricane. Now that's a good memory.
There was the time when my dad was mowing the lawn and out of nowhere the sliding glass door shattered. We assume it was a rock, but I like to think the sound coming from the lawn mower reached just the right pitch to match the glass door's natural harmonic frequency.
We went to Disney World several years in a row when we lived in Ohio. We then moved to Florida, and my parents were thinking of taking us to Disney World again. They asked us if we wanted to go and, much to their surprise, got a ho-hum response. We ended up going to a nearby hotel, had some fun on the beach, and we each got $50! My parents still tell that story to other families that talk about taking such vacations, and they get a kick out of it.
I should make a habit of writing down stories like these so I don't forget them like I did these. So one other one that I haven't forgot: we went to play at the beach during Hurricane Georges. Of course, we only went down to the bayou behind our house, but it was still a lot of fun. There were waves nearly 6 feet high in a location where 1 foot waves were considered big. I can only imagine what the waves were like on the Gulf coast. We also jumped on the trampoline during the hurricane. Now that's a good memory.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
The most influential dates in my life
1. December 1983, in a military hospital
2. July 1995, in a military hospital
3. Spring/Summer 1997(?), in a Florida forest
4. December 1998, in my backyard
5. December 1999, in Kent stake center
6. June 2001, in Kent, WA
7. October 2003 in Seattle, WA
8. December 2003, in Provo MTC
9. February and September 2004, in Миасс, Russia
10. February 2005, in Челябинск, Russia
11. October-November 2005, in Пермь, Russia
12. June 2006, at Provo airport
13. December 2007, in Provo, UT
Many of these events are very personal, and some are events that many have gone through. It was an interesting exercise thinking of these events though. Which events are responsible for who you are?
2. July 1995, in a military hospital
3. Spring/Summer 1997(?), in a Florida forest
4. December 1998, in my backyard
5. December 1999, in Kent stake center
6. June 2001, in Kent, WA
7. October 2003 in Seattle, WA
8. December 2003, in Provo MTC
9. February and September 2004, in Миасс, Russia
10. February 2005, in Челябинск, Russia
11. October-November 2005, in Пермь, Russia
12. June 2006, at Provo airport
13. December 2007, in Provo, UT
Many of these events are very personal, and some are events that many have gone through. It was an interesting exercise thinking of these events though. Which events are responsible for who you are?
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Phobia(s)
I don't know the technical term for each of my fears but here they are in no particular order:
1. snakes
2. the unknown
3. water beneath me in lakes and oceans (may be related to #2)
4. dying alone
5. sterilizing myself or developing cancer from use of electronic devices, specifically cell phones
6. sticky hands (not so much a fear as a manifestation of OCD - see also sink eater/trash eater for those familiar with the terms)
That's all I can think of but it's been a long day. I'm in Italy now.
1. snakes
2. the unknown
3. water beneath me in lakes and oceans (may be related to #2)
4. dying alone
5. sterilizing myself or developing cancer from use of electronic devices, specifically cell phones
6. sticky hands (not so much a fear as a manifestation of OCD - see also sink eater/trash eater for those familiar with the terms)
That's all I can think of but it's been a long day. I'm in Italy now.
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