November 2008 Archives

Feel My Pain

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My brother sent me a link the other day to a DVD set for the TV show "Sabre Rider and the Star Sheriffs." IT was a pretty bad 80's TV cartoon show. I'm not sure what it was even about really, however as soon as I read the email the theme song immediately started playng my head. How's that for sense memory? Then Styxlady posted that she was listening to "Pocket Full of Kryptonite and not one song but the ENTIRE album started going through my head.

I invite you to share my pain.

As a side note, you tube is weird.

Plugged in

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I'm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida this week, working. I got to the hotel tonight and realized I have a lot that gets plugged in. First I plugged the laptop into power and the internet. Then I plugged the cell phone and cell phone headset into their respective chargers. Next the mouse and headset got plugged into the laptop, and finally I figured my mp3 player probably needed to be charged so I plugged it in as well. Sheesh. That's not even everything. I could also plug the DS into its charger but I just charged it yesterday and it batteries last a while.

In Memory

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This is from the Service for Bill. I wanted to share it with everyone who wasn't able to make it. Attached at the bottom is also the pamphlet and slide show from the service.

We are here to celebrate the life of William Patrick Arpin.

Bill was born the eldest son to his grateful parents at Saint Luke’s Hospital in New Hartford, New York (Utica area) on June 27, 1971. He grew up in Sheridan, Arkansas, and graduated from Sheridan High School in 1989. He graduated from the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. He was a very caring, loving and devoted husband, father, brother, son and friend. He enjoyed spending time with his family and friends. He had a deep love of animals and was the proud owner of several dogs, cats, snakes, iguanas, gerbils, parakeets and Sam the turtle. He met the love of his life, Pam, on May 26, 2006. They were happily married on February 24, 2007.

Bill is survived by his loving wife, Pamela of Irving TX; Pam’s sons, James and Benjamin ; Pam’s daughter Madelynne ; his parents Helen and Gary of DeQueen, AR; his brother, Daniel of Albuquerque, NM; his paternal Grandfather, John of Cocoa Beach Florida; his Maternal Grandmother, Edna e of Stamford, NY as well as many cousins, aunts, uncles, and hosts of friends.

My name is Ryan. I am a friend of Bills. What you may not know is that I am a minister. I married Bill and Pam and our friends Eric and Tracey. Bill’s Family asked if I would say a few words today.

I thought I would start off by telling you how I met Bill. After I started thinking about it though, I can’t actually pin down the exact way that Bill and I met. We had a lot of friends in common and Bill and I just started being friends. And that’s how Bill was. If he knew you, you were his friend.

When I think back on the friends that we had back in college there were two or three groups of people that all kind of knew each other but everyone knew Bill. And Bill was that way no matter where he was.

After College We both worked at the same company in Tulsa. And I knew the people I worked with, but everyone knew Bill.

Even in the online games we would played together, he was friends with everyone. I’ve been getting messages from people who only new Bill online saying how much he will be missed.

Another thing about Bill was always he was always there to help whenever anyone needed it.

One time Bill and I were coming out of the engineering building at TU. And we saw our friend Layle working on his car. He was replacing the battery. Bill and helped him get it hooked up but somehow we had done it wrong. The battery cables burst into flames. I remember my dad saying that if you hooked up a battery wrong that it would explode , so I dove behind the car as did Layle. I turned around to see Bill grab a srewdriver and flip the battery cables off the battery. He then looked at us us disapprovingly and said "Thanks Guys." (If you know Bill you know ecactly the look I'm talking about.)

Bill had a very big heart, and he opened it to everyone. When Pam and Bill got together there was never any question that James, Ben and Maddy were a part of his family. Bill just wouldn’t have had it any other way.

James wrote a message to Pam and thought I would share it with you.

“I honestly have one important rule in my life, and that is that everything happens for a reason. Whether it be losing a game, being late for work, or even tripping over a rock. It all happens for a reason. In my opinion, Bill had completed his life. After Pam came along, he had wife that he loved, a couple of kids to take care of and have fun with, and some great times. Bill had fun the last couple of years and you can think about that whenever you miss him.
He's in a better place now. One without stupid drivers.”

Thank You


Program


Slideshow

Mobile

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I spent most of last week in Fort Lauderdale working on a customer's network and this week I'm headed up to Chicago for a day. Then in two weeks its Thanksgiving and three weeks after that is Christmas. Like I've always said after Halloween the rest of the year just goes by in a flash.


I bought Fallout 3 last week, right before I left for Florida. I only got to play it about 5 minutes before heading to the airport. I played it quite a bit this past weekend though. Its great. It really is a true sequel to the original two games with updated technology. It also HUGE. The strategy guide is over 600 pages. I played it all weekend and only did the very first part of the main story quest. You can literally just wander around the wasteland exploring.

I'd like it if the skills mattered a little more. The science skill allows you to hack computers but having a high science skill doesn't make the hard computers any easier. I really liked the way it was done in Bioshock. The hard computers were still hard but if you had a high hacking skill you got bonuses to make it easier.


Okay last thing Ken Hite, in his blog listed the westerns he thought everyone should see to be "Literate" in the western as a genre. Not necessarily the 10 best movies just the 10 movies that best represent the genre. I need to see some of these.

The Four Gospels:

High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)
Shane (George Stevens, 1953)
The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

The Two Commentaries:

Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks' 1959 response to High Noon)
Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood's 1992 response to Shane)

The Two Heresies:

The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976)

The Epistle From The Virtuous Pagan Samurai:

The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges, 1960)

The Weird, Hallucinatory Apocalypse:

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1967)

The Blogosphere:

Archives

Reading

I just finshed Codelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold which is the first book of the Vorkosigan Saga.
Very good book, but the Sci-Fi bits are really secondary to the story.

Right now I'm reading The Lost Fleet Series by John Hemry/Jack Campbell It's sorta Honor Harrington but not really, though Honor Harrington even goes downhill in the later novels.