Psych Me Out!

There’s a pretty woman that works at the public library here is Sick City. Every since I first saw her I thought she look familiar, like a movie star or something, but I could never place her. Then, one Friday night I was watching one of my favorite new television shows, Psych on USA. There she was! The actor, not the librarian, but they do look a lot alike. They look so much the same, they could pas for sisters. It’s even better because of how cute they are. 😉

Pros and … Cons?

On June 24th of this year I purchased an external DVD writer. Though I would have preferred firewire, I was limited to USB. No worries though, with my dilapidated laptop, I doubt firewire would have sped things up a noticeable amount.

I love Linux. It doesn’t matter what I buy, I just plug it in and turn it on and it works. In the case of the DVD writer, I did have to install writing software (I tried many, and settled on k3b as my primary GUI burner), but other than that, hardware recognition and accessing was effortless.

There is one stipulation with the burner. When I was shopping for it I happened across a technology known as Lightscribe developed by Hewlett Packard and standard-I think-on all HP DVD writers. So that’s what I bought, only a cheaper one on sale at Staples from I/O Magic. The problem? So far, there is no free Lightscribe software available for Linux. Nero sells the software, but since Lightscribe ain’t all-that, I’m not in the least bit interested in it.

On August 5th, of this year I went shopping for a PCMCIA network card and a PCMCIA modem. I found a combo unit at a Surplus Computer Depot in Pocatello, Idaho.

As I looked at the card I noticed the Xircom brand, which I did not recognize as a popular brand. I made a comment to the sells rep. asking him if he thought I would be able to get Linux drivers for it. Big mistake. I don’t know what I was thinking, after all, I have never been in a computer store where the the sales reps knew anything about computers.

The idiot said well, Xircom is made by IBM so it is unlikely that they will have Linux drivers because IBM is kinda in bed with Microsoft. He went on to misinform me that I would have the same problem with ‘winmodems’. He concluded that the network adapter part might work under Linux but that the modem part would not.

Now, I had already been aware that Linux has support for every PCMCIA modem card out there. What I didn’t know was whether the network card portion had as strong of support. But as soon as the salesman said Xircom was made by IBM, I knew I wouldn’t have much problem with Linux drivers if any at all because, even though Microsoft used to be a subsidiary of IBM, IBM manufactures software-independent hardware, all tested on Unix/Linux type computers. It’s a major mass-market, worldwide brand and that guarantees Linux support.

And what the guy said about “winmodems” well, I knew right then he didn’t know anything at all about Linux. We in the Linux community refer to winmodems as linmodems. All they are is software driven modems. The whole myth about software modems (winmodems) not working in Linux has been debunked almost since the myth was first start.

As it turns out, I couldn’t get the combo card to work in Windows (I have a dual-boot system with 98), but for my Debian Sarge, it worked immediately from the first boot. I can even remove it or insert it any time without crashing the computer, unlike windows.

It took me several hours to get the Xircom REM56G-100 RealPort Ethernet 10/100+Modem 56 to work under windows. I was able to do so only after a bit of research proved that the driver program on the store-made CD provided the incorrect drivers. I had to download the correct self-extracting driver program from IBM. The store provided XBEM_314-2.exe, which extracts into a few incorrect drivers, but the correct file is xem_270-1.exe, which extracts into a 14 MB installation CD structure.

Next on my list of purchases? I need to get an external hard drive, or at least a external caddy for a hard drive. I think I’ll go with the former.

Serpent Tide

Where have I been? Sorry I haven’t been posting. My interest in this blog is roller-coaster to say the least. Back on July 17th, 2006, I even started an entry, that I never finished. It’s an aggravating topic and I was quite angry when I wrote it. I had decided that I should calm down before posting it.

It follows:

Liar Liars

Well, yesterday kicked off a week long family gathering for my mom’s family. It started with a “reunion” of my great-grandfather’s (that’s my mom’s, mom’s dad) descendants. This years, there was only around 175 to 200 of us there. It seemed to me that many of the people my age were missing, which is understandable considering they’re probably married and busy with their own young families.

The reunion was enjoyable. The mutton wasn’t as good as it should have been, but It was nice to be there again. In a previous year, one of my nephew’s fell off the tree swing that had been enjoyed by generations before, so, because of the idiocy of modern idiots, it had been taken down. I suppose it’s just as well, since the majority of descendants no longer attend any way, making my nieces and nephews and a few of my younger cousins the majority of the kids there.

I became angry last night when, after we (that would be all my grandma’s descendants who are here this year) left the main reunion at the ranch early to come to grandma’s house. The kids were all told that they were going to be roasting marshmallows after they got home and cleaned up. Well, after sitting with the kids in the backyard for an hour and a half waiting for the marshmallows and sticks, and being pressed by one of my nieces for them, I went into the house to see what was going on. It turns out the “adults” had just flat-out lied to the kids. They had never intended to uphold their promises.

Typical.

This week, my mom’s sisters planned what they are calling a “heritage” week to “honor” our ancestors. Most of what they have planned this week has nothing to do with heritage at all, but involve skills our great-grandparents implored in times long past. A more fitting word would have been legacy, since none of what we will be “learning” was passed down to this portion of the “family”, it still doesn’t work for these events.

I wonder, however, if one thing was passed down to this family through blood and false traditions. Compulsive lying.

Today, I am infuriated. The lies that five very special kids are being told and brainwashed into believing insults me, insults the kids, insults their parents, and offends me a great deal. It really pisses me off. They’re my four nieces and a nephew from a sister who went through a divorce that subsequently separated them from their parents and ill-placed them, divided, into the homes of two of my aunts.

That’s as far as I got before taking the much needed break. I went to the library and happened across a book titled The Serpent Tide. It wasn’t written very well, but for some reason I was drawn to it so I continued to read. As it turns out, the main character is struggling with similar lies. What a coincidence.

In the book, Wesley stumbles upon the secret that his parents aren’t really his biological parents at all, and that he may have been kidnapped as a baby. It was a fun story with lovable characters and a predictable end, but despite the fact that it was written by a Mormon woman living in Sandy, Utah, I would recommend it to LDS readers and other family oriented people.

In reality, my sister’s kids were “legally” kidnapped. Thanks to false doctrine and unrighteous counsel from a certain meddling mother and her sisters, the state was unwisely invited to intercede the delicate situation, where they had no right or authority be. As a consequence, the kids were unlawfully removed from both parents and placed in the guardianship of the aunts.

We all make decisions, and shit happens. I can handle the situation, and although it disappoints me that so much righteous counsel from the appropriate religious authorities was rejected, I still have hope for all those involved. One day, I hope that they will all prayerfully recognize their mistakes that were due to their satanic pride, jealousy, and vanity, and come clean with everything.

But, that’s not the problem that angers me concerning the situation. It’s the false doctrine and lies that the kids are being told that upsets me. The aunts are teaching my nieces and a nephew that they are the kids’ true eternal parents and that their real parents are nothing more than “birth-parents”. Through this false doctrine, the kids are being taught that their mom is really their cousin and I and my other sisters are also cousins.

Why?

Why would these aunt’s, who purport to be LDS, seek to destroy the truth of their grand-nieces’ and nephew’s family? What’s wrong with teaching them the truth: that their family got separated and now they live with their grand-aunts until their own family can be reunited. It’s simple. It’s easy. It’s the truth.

So much of reality has been taken from these kids. They are so confused about it. I don’t know how many times I’ve had conversations with them as they struggle to remember how we, my sisters and me, are related to them. This from kids who knew me from birth as their favorite uncle. They have lost so much of the knowledge they were taught when they were little. They are being told that everything they know to be true, is wrong. All for the satanic greed of very selfish, and compulsive-lying aunts.