Hit the street, dog!

Just because I can’t scold my dog for leading me on a neighborhood chase Tuesday doesn’t mean I couldn’t exact some revenge! So, yesterday afternoon I hopped on my mountain bike, leashed Rocket up, took my life in my own hands, and took off through the neighborhood as fast as he could run.

My original plan was to take him on the Middle Crabtree Creek greenway, where I could ride and he could run for 11 miles without turning around. Instead I turned him around before we got within a quarter-mile of the greenway. He was winded and not used to this kind of exercise. On the trot back home he was putty in my hands: something I haven’t seen much of since we got him.
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Jailbreak

Tuesday afternoon Travis had gone outside to sweep the driveway, with me about a minute behind him. The dog had been with me, and as I rounded the kitchen corner I saw the outside door had been left wide open. Rocket was galloping gleefully down the street.

After calling him a few times with no effect at all, Travis and I hopped into the car and followed him. I parked Travis and ran through neighbors’ backyards while our grinning dog happily raced ahead. Very Bad Words were forming in my head as I stormed back to the car. If he wound up at the troubled apartment complex a few blocks away I would have to abandon the search.
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A shower of feathers

I walked onto our deck this morning just in time to see nature at work. Some sort of commotion was taking place in the trees in front of me. Before I could blink I saw one bird flying terrified out of the woods with a much bigger bird in pursuit. As I stood dumbfounded, the bird of prey sank its talons into the smaller bird, sending a shower of feathers raining to the ground. In an instant it was all over.

Yeah, I thought as the reality sunk in. Its true that bird just became breakfast, but what a spectacular way to go out.

The balance of nature. The circle of life.

Moments later I saw the victor return: a Great Horned Owl that settled onto a branch in my neighbor’s yard. He looked around casually as a juvenile hawk nearby complained loudly about the invasion of his territory. I’d heard the owl one night this past summer but this was my first look. There’s no recession for this bird: he obviously is eating well.

No wonder I’ve not seen as many birds at our feeder as I used to.

The Byrne Identity

I thought there would be at least one David Byrne sighting when he played in Raleigh yesterday and I was right. N&O music guru David Menconi gave Byrne directions to the Raleigh Times yesterday, where Byrne ordered a salad. No word on whether Byrne brought his bike with him.

While I would’ve been thrilled to meet him, I certainly couldn’t afford the $47 ticket price, especially after my concerns in mid-October about the economy came personally, painfully true. Still it would’ve been interesting to meet a talented, unassuming, veteran rock star like Byrne up close.

Probation series

MT.Net readers know I like to take swipes at the News and Observer, but I have to applaud the paper for spotlighting the state’s broken probationary system. Far too many convicted criminals go back to their criminal ways upon leaving prison. While probation officers can’t turn those ex-prisoners into saints, they can at least keep tabs on them – information that might prevent the next crime.

I hope the attention the probation system is getting spurs our legislators to fix it. Thanks, N&O, for spreading the word!

Mythbusted

I have to say I think I’ve exhausted all the potential bottlenecks to try in my attempt to turn my MythTV box all-digital. The Avermedia A180 HDTV card simply doesn’t get along with my motherboard/CPU. I spent some time over the weekend adjusting the PCI latency times for the system’s peripherals, including removing and/or disabling unused devices. I also upgraded to the latest ivtv driver. These changes seemed to help: I was getting far more of the signal than I used to but I could never completely eliminate the dropped frames.

My tinkering did reveal that the CPU is only an Athlon 850 MHz when I thought it was at least a 1 GHz. That matters little as I place the blame on the bus speed or memory speed of the system. It just can’t keep up.

I also noted a conflict between the Avermedia A180 and the PVR-150 Plus. When the PVR-150 Plus is present the A180 will claim to be tuning channels but it won’t receive any signals. I read about this behavior with the PVR-150 and different card and it seems to be the same thing with the A180 and the PVR-150.

I don’t want to go back to the analog setup as I want to drop basic cable, but at this point its either that or invest in a new motherboard/CPU. I’ll come back to it some other time.

The Reality of Pearl Harbor

I found this DailyKos posting an interesting read yesterday, Pearl Harbor Day:

The Reality of Pearl Harbor (updated)
by railsplitter
Sun Dec 07, 2008 at 12:12:42 PM PST

Note: I originally posted this on 12/7/07. Several folks have emailed me to re-post today. Minor updates are included

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This is one of several diaries today on Pearl Harbor. If you’re looking for a syrupy retrospective, stop reading now.

First, the good news. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was an unmitigated failure. Of all the ships damaged during the attack, only three were total losses; The Arizona and Utah remain where they sank, and the Oklahoma floundered being towed to the West Coast after re-floating. All other ships damaged in the attack were repaired and returned to active service before the end of the war.
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Dinner party weekend

It has been a good weekend: full of social stuff!

Friday evening the whole family went to the Padgett’s annual holiday party. It was our first one and boy, was I surprised at the multitude of people at that party. It was wall-to-wall friends. I didn’t get to meet nearly everyone I wanted to meet but I had some good conversations with people I already knew.

Saturday’s dinner party was at my friend Scott’s place, where we had pizza and a good time. We finished the evening at the Peace Street Starbucks for some coffee and talk. And tonight we hosted some friends from the neighborhood for a dinner party. Its a lot of work to host a dinner but its always fun.

Got in some good exercise with Rocket in the back yard both days, too, and yesterday I cleared the back yard of leaves and pine straw with the leaf blower.

There’s a few more interesting jobs for which I want to apply. I’ll put in for those this week and wait for the phone to ring. And even though I’m between jobs now I have a few lunch meetings this week with friends and fellow volunteers, as well as meetings and holiday parties for the boards that I’m on. I may be jobless now but I’m sure not bored!

Some good job leads

I’ve got a resume in with a well-known virtualization software company and know someone there who works in a similar role. It would be doing what I did for Zenoss: implementing the virtualization software at the customer site.

Hopefully I’ll get an interview out of it.