Day: March 30, 2007

Well, I got the itch. I realized that waiting to set up a PC-BSD comp til I built another box was just silly. I have too many other projects I’m behind on already. *heh* Sooo, took an Ubuntu/Ichthux box and partitioned the hard drive (yeh, this box has only one hard drive). Slapped Disk 1 of the PC-BSD install set in and re-booted.

Hey, nice! Easiest full install of an OS yet*. Less than 15 minutes and the install CD’s ejected and it’s time to reboot.

…

Boot Loader gives me a choice of Linux (F1) or PC-BSD (F3), as it ought to. Boots cleanly. Nice desktop, but resolution’s set too high for this 17″ monitor. Popup immediately informs me how to use the KDE Control Center to modify my environment. Since I’ve been off KDE machines for a while, that’s nice.

Next popup tells me there are updates available (since I downloaded the OS last week? Yep.) OK that and they just install.

OK, back to the Control Center. Oh, you noticed I didn’t have to configure my network in any way? Right. It just works, apparently. Back to the Control Center. I’ll just set the translucency levels and set the auto-raise to mimic the way I like to work for now.

Tramslucency levels? Yeh, kinda like Mac OS X and Vista. [Update: Yeh, I told the thing to emulate the Mac GUI. The Almighty Dock is on top of my screen, and just as with Mac OSX, it’s unmovable. *heh*]

OK, I’ll put a purty picture up for a desktop background, too.

Well, apart from having to use the crappy (but still worlds and away better than Internet Exploder) Konqueror browser to download Opera and install it (*heh*), everything Just Works and does so quite well indeed.

And yeh, download, CLICK and Opera’s installed. Oh, and getting to a download of Opera? Easy-peasy, in fact, even easier than the Freespire Click N Run system. Really easy.

I’ll live with this for a while, dual booting between Linux and PC-BSD, and see how I like it over the course of a couple of weeks. So far, though, no onions, only orchids for PC-BSD. I need to see if the software I use in Linux to manage my Palm will work in this OS, but since it’s touted as able to run Linux apps, it might well do just that.

Looking really good so far…

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*Note: Puppy Linux is still all-time champ for shortest time to a usable desktop. But then, it just lkloads itself into memory and creates a dogone good-sized swap file without doing an actual install. Great lil OS. Fits on a credit-card sized CDR or a USB drive, easily.

Not today, at any rate.

When we bought this house 12 years ago, it had all we needed going for it: 4BR–enogh room for two teenagers and us; two baths–again, juuust enough (heck, the kids could share :-)), other amenities like good neighbors (not so much any more *sigh*), and the pool and fenced yard were icing. I thought to myself, “Self, I could live in this house til I die and be satisfied.” And I meant it.

But there were little things.

The cutsy flowered wallpaper in the kitchen, dining room and carried on down the hallway to the “master suite”–*yech* Yeh, that went long ago.

The french doors to the deck were still in gray primer. Fixed years ago, as well.

Other little things.

But the doors. *sigh* All of them were hoolow core–including the front door! Made no sense whatsoever.

Well, I’ve dealt with some of them–front door war first, replaced with a nice 8-panel solid wood door. But the upstairs doors have been down on the list too long. Found a door for that bath–raised panels, only 1/8 inch too tall *heh*

Soooo, lunch was installing that door and getting it painted, “new” hardware (well, new to that door and location).

Big deal: it’s been so long since I used my hole saw that when I went to the place I knew it was… it wasn’t. An excuse to buy a tool. *Whoopee!* Bought a door ijstallation kit that replicated much of the same functionality and added a nice lil reusable plastic lock-on template. Nice. Sure, I could have used one of my routers to route out the places for the hinges, but with setup and teardown, well, for two hinges it wasn’t worth it. besides, the kit came with a new 1/2″ chisel, and I really enjoy shaving wood with a chisel.

So, hardware try-mounted and door works. remove hardware and paint.

Looks good. Install (quick-drying semi-gloss latex enamel).

Oops. Used the wrong paint. You see, we have two yellows. One that’s really light, almost Gurnsey cream colored (with a touch more yellow, maybe). Another is a richer yellow, used in the livingroom (really brightens the room!).

I had grabbed a can of the livingroom yellow. Really stood out next to the other yellow on the walls around the door.

*heh*

S’OK. The paint was already dry. Slapped on another coat very, very quickly, of the right paint.

Now, see, there’s this about me and painting: I don’t like to do it. Oh, I like the results, but doing it… not so much. Still, do it right (even with the wrong paint *heh*) and there’s some enjoyment in the act for me anyway, because I learned much of what I do when I paint from my paternal grandfather.

Granddaddy was a “show and tell” kinda guy. Grew up as a working cowboy on the family ranch and became a far, far more literate man than I am. He made his living as a farmer, a carpenter and, for nearly 40 years, a postal worker. But it was as a handyman that he shared most of the times we spent together. He taught me how to hold a brush, and how to use the right brush for the job. So, today during lunch, when I used a 1″ natural hair detail brush to brush in the panels and a 2.5″ brush to do the frame (the stiles and rails), I held my brush as Granddady showed–and told–me to: like holding a pencil or pen, not in the “handshake” grip most folks use. (Try it: you’ll find it less tiring and the brush easier to control.)

And as I painted (and re-painted *VBG*) the door, I remembered times spent with Granddaddy and, as always when I paint trim or walls or suchlike, it made the job go easier.

Man! I think I want to paint some more now.

Maybe.

😉

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By conservative (not Conservative) estimates, illegal aliens make up approximately 8% of the workforce and number anywhere between 12,000,000 and 20,000,000 in total population (yeh, some big families there), and of that number nearly 70% are Mexican.

Yep: 70%, or anywhere between 8,400,000 and 14,000,000 of the illegal aliens in this country are invaders from Mexico. I say “invaders” because the Mexican government actively sponsors and aids their defiance of our borders. Surely cassus belli for war, if ever there were such a thing. That’s between 8,000,000 and 14,000,000 criminals (border violation, identity theft, and more) the feddle gummint is doing damn all to protect its citizens from.

I’ve had subliterate morons suggest (suggest, hell! Outright flame!) that I am a racist for posting the following picture of the American flag flown upside down UNDER a Mexican flag–on American soil, no less!–and then suggesting that the proper response to that disgusting display would be to burn and trample the Mexican flag.

Of course, accusing me of racism for suggesting a measured response to those illiteratti who shout “Aztlan!” while disrespecting the American flag (on AMERICAN soil!) and waving Mexican flags ought to have their flag burned and trampled is a measure of just how very stupid these idiots are. I’d suggest they have someone read a dictionary definition to them, but then finding someone with words small enough to explain such a concept to idiots within the limited time frame of their wee little attention spans would render the task impossible. Heck, even attempting to drill through thick skulls to explain that “Mexican” is NOT a “race” would make the labors of Hercules pale in comparison. *sigh*

But all that’s not necessary, you see, because their charge of racism is disingenuous, false on its face, an attempt to discredit without making an argument or addressing the essential immorality of their position. Realizing this, it becomes readily apparent that arguing (or even “discussing vigorously”–which is what argument really is *heh*) with such cretins is simply playing tarbaby. The only possible argument with such as these is to SHOUT LOUDER AND LONGER THAN THEY DO.

Seriously. Not one single solitary self-made idiot who slings false charges instead of arguing their case will EVER be persuaded by honest argument. Indeed, honest argument will simply encourage them to shout liuder with ever more vigorously asserted false statements. With such persons, the ONLY remedy is force, even if only forceful words, repeated until THEY are shouted down.

Don’t get me wrong. As long as someone wants to make an honest argument, I believe the only right thing to do is listen and address their argument reasonably. But that is not what I have seen and heard from the open borders/”transform America into Mexico del Norte” crowd.

“They are doing jobs Americans won’t do.” Lie.

Continue reading “Lies, Damned Lies and “Racist” Lies”