Take 2...

So two and a half days of reinstalls and XP still isn't working right. IE 7, windows update and other things just aren't working. The deal breaker is when I can't get any anti virus or Quicken to load.

I make some calls. I talk to some people who assure me that indeed I have to push the Big Red Button. They told me to do this originally but I though I could do this half-assed. Several friends admit that they do a re-install twice a year. I back up 72 GIGs of info onto a portable hard drive. I scan it with an online virus scan. I triple check for info I need to have. And then, I wipe the drive.

While the system formats I take a shower. It's a spiritual as well as physical cleansing. I have lost almost an entire week because of my mistake. And there is NO guarantee that my work, pictures, music or anything will still work when I restore it.

When it's done I start the reload. This time it goes much faster and workes much better. I get a LOT of hard drive space back. I download 82 security updates to XP. I restore my documents and so far (knock on wood) it all looks good. One of the most annoying things is trying to remember user names and passwords from various sites.

It is done. This system is clean.

Epic Fail

All it took was one second to click on the wrong file. And then... it was a slow decent into FAIL. Despite antivirus I contacted a host of evils and was forced in the end to reinstall Windows XP. On the plus side, my internet connection and other parts of the system are running nice and fast again. On the down side, it's been two solid days of reinstalls and patching. Joy.

Outlook is back but my account settings are AWOL.

Unrelated but good news, my friend Grimm seems to have found a buyer for his house. It looks like he'll get a good price tool.

Also unrelated but important is the arrival of a new addition to the family. Feel;ing that Little One could use some company we went to the local vet and picked up a young cat who had yet to be named. I'll post pics soon and maybe even solicit name suggestions.

Back at it

We cruised down to Chattanooga, TN for Chattacon. It's held at the...wait for it...Chatanooga Choo Choo hotel, which is actually several hotels and buildings lumped together. The main building is an old train station that is very beautiful if you (like me) love rivets and girders. Several train cars are actually rooms you can stay in. There are three hotel buildings and the convention rooms.

The facility has seen some wear and tear. I imagine it takes a lot to maintain this place and it needs a little TLC. The event itself had moderate attendance at best. We had a good spot in the dealers room, which is rare. We were only open for a short time on Friday but by mid-saturday several dealers were asking us "So, how ya' doing?".

Dealers rarely divulge how much they are actually making at an event. I never give numbers as it seems to be poor taste and you never know who works for the IRS. But one can take the above statement and discern a great deal by HOW it is asked.

If you're chatting with a dealer and he eventually asks "How are you doing? He is having a pretty good day and hopes you are as well.

If a dealer comes and talks to you and asks "How ya doing today?" He likely had a good first day but is slow second day."

And if several dealers ask"So, how you doing?" It means "Are you sucking as bad as I am, please say yes so I don't feel like I'm doing something wrong god why did I ever do this crappy show". The 'So' is the telltale sign that everyone is just hoping to cover hotel costs, food and gas to get home.

Of course, if you don't have time to chat, things are actually going great. You're making money.

Somehow, we managed to do fairly well. This was in contrast to everyone else we spoke with. There were four tshirt vendors, an over saturation by any definition. There were two other corset dealers but our selection, quality and superior sales technique helped us out.

The very cool Nigel deSade was there as well as Jenny Breeden from the web comic The Devils Panties.

After the long Saturday sales day we wandered over to the Con suite and did a little impromptu drumming and dancing (I drumming, Rossana showing the younger generation that she has forgotten more than they will ever know)

We then wandered over to a room party with a Firefly theme run by some dedicated browncoats that was pretty cool. There was punch and chinese food and they had decorated the room with props and cammo netting. A guy even gave me some prop colonial money he'd designed. Sweet.

Help!

I am cleaning my office. This may not sound like a big deal. Unless of course you know me or have seen my office. When I was a young man my nick-name was 'Packrat'. It was aptly chosen.

In the course of emptying boxes of crap I an finding all kinds of CD's worth of data. Music, pics. drivers, software, old games. I'm having a hard time determining what to keep and what to pitch. And one I;ve figured out what to keep, what do I keep it in?

What do you use to keep things neat and organized. What's your system?

Giggle

If you haven't bookmarked Wondermark I have no idea what you are waiting for. It's f-ing hilarious. If you're into laughing, you may also want to check out Married to the Sea, which is also hilarious, although the language and humor is rougher. A small sample:


marriedtothesea.com

77 Drummers

This the kind of thing I would love to help make happen. A collection of 77 drummers who came together to create one large musical instrument. There is no profit motive. There is no product tie in. There is no CD. There are no sponsors or celebrity talking heads. Just a cool idea. If you've ever played in a drum circle you know it can be a total blast.

The most...

Disturbing AND beautiful thing you may see today.

Taking a deep breath...

Ok, I've calmed down after my previous rant. Watching this video helped. Then I went to this site which has all kinds of pics of microcars. Sweet!

I loose...

Well it looks like we won't be at Gulf Wars this year. (GW is the third largest SCA event around) Apparently we aren't good enough. We were good enough for four years, but in a terse email we were informed that our products didn't meet with the SCA pre-1600's time frame. It is true, our most popular selling corset is a Victorian pattern. We use period colors and material styles and make matching skirts, shirts and more. They look good. Also, many women wear then under their more period garb. We do make a more period design, but it doesn't as well because it's A) Not as pretty and B) Not as comfortable to wear.

I appealed to the Autocrat (the person who is in charge of the overall event) and asked for some leeway. But he seemed to have no testicles and meekly agreed with the period nazi who is in charge of merchanting. They claim that they are 'tightening up their standards' and I wasn't the only one who was reviewed. Really? I know at least one other merchant who sells stuff out of period and they haven't been given the boot. I think I will be sending my spies out to check on this situation to see if indeed anyone else is missing this year. I really suspect the reason we weren't asked back is that we had an argument with the Merchantocrat about a sheet wall she insisted we erect behind out booth last year. It was a stupid demand and we objected but in the end gave in. I try to be as polite and accommodating as I can.

And where did that get me? Hell I'm one of the most honest merchants I know. Really. I take my business very seriously. I bought a very nice tent to do this event specifically. I built a more period portable rack last year for this event. Meanwhile merchants who buy crap from China set up in barely disguised carports. Ahhhhrg.

I love the SCA and I have many friends in it, but sometimes people get way too high and mighty. It shouldn't bother me. There are other more profitable events I could do that don't involve two weeks on the road or camping. But I AM bothered. To be frank I take it as a personal insult. We own booths at three large Renaissance Fairs but aren't good enough for this event. Bah.

Awesome Disclaimer...

Really, you need to read it for yourself.

I am old

Warning! Geek Speak ahead

So I'm playing a Half-Life Mod called Insurgency online with some pretty cool people. An Aussie, a German some froggers and some Amuricans. Great. We kick the snot out of the enemy team and do a little victory dance. Cool. The game at this point should load up another map and we should continue to crush our enemies. But the game seems to just stall. It doesn't crash. But we're all sitting there waiting. We have voice chat and begin to wonder what's up with the server.

"Da suhrvur, eet must have locked up I zink" said the German.

"They're probably running some shitty P2" chimes in some kid who sounds like he's 9.

"No," I say "It's a it's a 486 with an add on math co-processor".

There is a moment of silence.

'What ze 'el is a math co-processor?" asks the Frenchman.

"I'm sorry to admit I do" said another American.

"That's because you sir, are 39 years old I'll bet. You are I are ancient ones here. We walked the earth on 640k of ram and got our pron over 14.4 modems from BBS's. We wrote our own autoexec.bat files to load our CD-Rom and sound drivers in to HIMEM. And none of you young bastards know what the hell I'm talking about do you?".

There was much laughing.

Then the next map loaded and we prepared to crush the other team.

"That was great mate" said the Brit. "But really, what's a math co-processor?"

Hot priest on priest action...

No, not THAT kind. It seems that there's a new Ultimate Fighting Organization forming right in the Holy Land. Several different Christian faiths share responsibility for maintaining the Church where Jesus was supposedly born. When some Greek Orthadox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceiling after the X-mas day mass, the Armenians claimed the ladders encroached on their part of the church.

The result? Holy land Iron Cage match.

To let you know how stupid this conflict was 20 Palestinian police came in to stop the fight.

The Palestinians were the calm voice of reason. Awesome.

Go read the article, there are even pics! So, whose side do you think Jesus would fight on?

Happy swag day!

Yes, I got some very practical gifts. A winter Tilly hat and some thick socks. I got some books (which I always love). But I have to admit that my two favorite gifts were given to me by my sweetie. One was the Firefly ships papers I blogged about a few days ago. They're lovelier that I could have imagined. The other is a simply massive and completely impractical lock made in India I believe. It takes two keys to open. It's huge! I have NO use for it, but I love it dearly. I am already thinking about how to decorate it with brass and other gunge.

So, what neat swag did you get?

The Ho-ho-horror

This has to be one of the best claymation parodies ever. It combines Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and Apocalypse Now. Really. It is a warped bit of genius.





On a side note- Back in Jr. High this film was some kind of fixation for me. I remember my friends and I had a tape recording of it and we could recite most of the movie from memory.

Greatest Nativity Play EVAR!

No really. It's painful AND it's funny.