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3/1/2010

Things are not always what they seem to be

Tonight just like every night I put the dogs out so that they could go do their business. I got one of them back in his crate and then I heard the other one that was still in the backyard barking like crazy. That meant pretty much only one thing; he had cornered some animal. I got a flashlight and stood on the deck and with the flashlight located the what was causing all of the commotion. Sure enough there was Loki and a bewildered looking opossum suffering the wrath of a pissed off boxer dog.

I started to think how stupid this animal was. It was next to a tree yet it didn't even try to climb it. It had sharp claws and lots of fairly big teeth and yet it decided to just stand there. Hell, it didn't even play the "playing dead" card. It just stood there. You dumb freakin' beast I thought. How did your kind even evolve to allow for one of your species to be in my backyard on this night?

I was finally able to get Loki by the collar and get him in the house. After a quick check to see if Loki had received any cuts or bite marks, I decided to go back out and check on the poor beast to see if it had suffered any wounds. Yep, the critter was still standing there just as dazed and confused as I had left it. It hadn't even moved an inch. It didn't appear to have any wounds inflicted upon it either.

And that is when I noticed it. The opossums eyes were all milky gray colored and not the typical dark black they normally have. It was obvious it had cataracts in both eyes. I shined the flashlight away from its eyes and then back again. No response. I did this a few more times. Again, no response. The poor thing was blind. I could tell it could hear as its ears perked up when I made a noise and it was constantly sniffing the air.

I started to look at the creature a bit closer. It was obvious this critter had seen better days. Its fur was really matted. It was underweight. It also had a few scars on its ears and down its side where some fur was missing. I started to wonder how many other animals had attacked it.

I left the animal to its business and purposely didn't bring in the dog food bowl that had a few kibbles left in it so that this old and busted up marsupial could have its snack that it had earned and almost lost its life over.

I learned something in all of this. It might sound funny, but it was almost a religious experience of sorts. What I had thought was just some stupid animal causing me frustration and didn't deserve to live as it was so dumb to not even try to flee or defend itself in any way was actually doing all that it could. In my mind I had condemned this creature to suffer and die because it was annoying. As it turns out, all that it was doing was trying to survive the best that it could with what it had to work with. It amazed me how quickly I had made all of these assumptions of what this animal should be doing when it was doing exactly what it could do. Sometimes all you can do in life is sit where you are and take whatever life presents good, bad, or indifferent.

Yes, tonight I learned something from an old blind opossum. Things are not always what they appear to be.

Posted at 10:49 PM by Brady MacDonald | Category: Spirituality; Home/Family | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/28/2009

The little computer that could

Cassandra’s computer has been starting to show its age. It is about 6+ years old. It has started locking up recently, so time to get something new.

Since there was no money budgeted for this project, it would have to be done fairly cheap. I set the original target at $300. We already have a working monitor, so we didn’t need to buy that. I also had confidence that the current hard drive (IDE Western Digital 160GB) wasn’t the cause of the system issues, so I could probably save some money and use that.

Cassandra uses the computer for surfing the web, email, and chat, and we have a few educational games for the kids on the system. The system isn’t taxed very much with her normal usage. I tried to load Vista on her old machine and it would run, but not very well. I didn’t expect it to with it being such an old system.

After a lot of research, I came across a few articles about the Intel atom processor. This dinky little chip is

VERY small as you can see with the picture at left (I believe this is the 230 single core chip).

I purchased the Intel 945GC Mini ITX motherboard for about $80. The motherboard comes with the CPU already attached. It is using the Intel 330 atom processor which is a dual core 1.6GHz processor with hyper threading and is 64bit capable. I also purchased a single stick of 667Mhz DDR2 2GB Kingston memory for $20. I had a couple of old ATX cases around the house, but this motherboard uses the ITX form factor cases. I purchased the Rosewill, RS-MI-01 BK for $55. The case comes with a 250 Watt power supply which is more than adequate for this size of a system. I also already had a DVD ROM from the old system to use with the system, so I didn’t need one even though I could have just used my system’s USB DVD to build up the system and then removed it.

It took me about 30 minutes to put the motherboard/case/hard drive combo together. For testing, I first loaded Ubuntu 8.10 64bit. The system was very responsive with full Compiz desktop effects. Since I had a copy of Vista 64bit to use, I installed that next. Again the system is very responsive with full Aero glass effects. Some forums state that Apple OSX runs on this setup as well.

All in all, I am absolutely amazed how much grunt this little computer has. It is light on the power requirements using 55W when fully cranking along and 8W idle. It does all of the things Cassandra needs and does them very well. The case is small and unobtrusive too being only 8.7”x5.1”x13”. It is fairly quiet as well. This setup would make a great home server.

I am quite pleased with the results of this project. I only spent about $170 total for the project and came in way under budget. Cassandra is pleased with the system’s responsiveness even though after building it up and asking her what she thought, she said, “It is just a computer”. Yin and Yang we truly are.

I named the computer “pea-brain”, but that isn’t quite fair as it actually is more of a “mighty mouse”.

Posted at 6:15 PM by Brady MacDonald | Category: Tech; Home/Family | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

12/6/2008

Planet killing crayons

Cassandra came home with a couple of packs of Crayola “Twistables” crayons for the kids as stocking stuffers. You really can’t see it very easily in the picture, but instead of the ol’ skool type of crayons I had as a kid with the crayons wrapped in paper, these things are wrapped in a very thick clear plastic. The crayons themselves are thinner than the original ones as well, so you are getting less crayon.

I can’t stress enough how thick the plastic is on these things. Now I know why they are doing this so that you don’t break the crayons, but isn’t that part of the fun? I used to love snapping new crayons in half and looking at the inner core. They made such a satisfying “snap” sound.

I digress. These crayons can’t be refilled once they are used up, so all you are left with is these plastic crayon exoskeletons. I am betting these casings can’t be recycled either, so they will just end up in a landfill somewhere which is completely unnecessary.

Needless to say, these crayons are getting sent back to the store for a set of old fashioned crayons (wait did I say OLD fashioned? Crap…).

Posted at 5:18 PM by Brady MacDonald | Category: Home/Family | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

11/16/2008

Cleaning gutters

It is that time of year here to clean out the gutters on your home. The leaves haven’t all quite fallen off the tree, but it was a nice sunny day and it is somewhat easier to do this chore on a nice day rather than in the wind and the rain.

While doing this task, I noticed a few things. One, the goop in the gutter is quite “fragrant”. It has an earthy, damp, rotting smell. Second, I noticed how the gutter is its own little ecosystem. There were all kinds of critters living in there. The largest species was a spider about the size of a small pea. It was bright orange and had a very small yet ornate web. There was also some little squirmy worms. They were worms as opposed to the other squirmy things in there which were mosquito larvae. I suppose the mosquito larvae were using the squirmy little pinkish/white worms as a food source. I also noticed a few different types of beetle species and a couple of ants. I am sure there were other things growing in there, but they were too small for the unaided eye to see.

It is amazing sometimes what you find doing the most mundane of things like cleaning out gutters. There was a whole ecosystem that lived just a few feet above my head that I didn’t know anything about until I got up close and personal to it.

What did I do with all of the crud I cleaned out of the gutter? I kept it! Yep. It was enough to fill a bucket and looked like it would make a great compost for some seedlings in the Spring.

Posted at 6:34 PM by Brady MacDonald | Category: Home/Family | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

7/13/2008

July 08 Desktop

I haven't done one of these in a while. Here is a snapshot of what is on my desktop.

Left side:

Desktop wallpaper: Great Wave
JRiver MediaCenter Mini View Blacklight skin
Yahoo Widgets: Weather and digiclock
Windows Gadgets in Gadget bar (top to bottom) Hibernate button, All CPU Meter, MSN Messenger gadget

Right side:

Alt Desk set to max transparency using Trinity Black skin
Firefox browser with Unofficial Dublin Theme
Hidden at bottom - Rocketdock

Posted at 4:52 PM by Brady MacDonald | Category: Home/Family | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/13/2008

Jizo Bodhisattva statue arrived!

Our Jizo Bodhisattva statue arrived today. We placed the order for our statue last July. It was made in China. It took about 6 months to make and a few months to ship to the place where we bought it and another week to ship to our house. We have been waiting for him for so long now, I can't believe he is finally here.

Here are some more pictures of the un-crating.

The picture makes the statue look more shiny than it really is. It is finished in more of an antique look. The statue itself is about 3 1/2 feet tall. The pedestal the statue rests on is about another foot tall. Altogether with the back part it is about 6 feet tall. There are four parts to the statue itself which is made out of a solid piece of wood and I would say weighs probably about 75lbs at least. The back part or "Nimbus" is another part. The base technically is two parts and swivels around on a peg. Normally Jizo Bodhisattva is portrayed carrying a staff in his right hand. Although a staff came in the crate, it was broken about half way up the shaft. We are going to need to call the company to see about replacing it as it is also cracked up at the top as well. I have placed a crystal mala around his neck that we purchased especially for him.

Even with the cracked staff, I am happy with it. I have had a personal affinity for Jizo Bodhisattva ever since going to Japan years ago. You see images of him everywhere there. Our family really likes what Jizo Bodhisattva stands for. Among other things, he is a protector of travelers on the spiritual path.

We plan on having a special "Welcome Home" celebration this weekend with incense and things the kids have made.

Welcome home Jizo Bodhisattva!

Posted at 6:05 PM by Brady MacDonald | Category: Home/Family | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

7/31/2007

New Virtual Earth Pictures

That is our house in the middle there. Kind of scary what they are doing nowadays.

Our house

Posted at 10:46 AM by Brady MacDonald | Category: Home/Family | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

7/30/2007

My home desktop (test from my cell phone).

Posted at 8:36 PM by Brady MacDonald | Category: Home/Family | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/18/2007

Geocaching with the family

Out for a bit of geocaching with the family.

Posted at 12:16 PM by Brady MacDonald | Category: Home/Family | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

8/27/2005

Goodbye Zeke

Our wonder blunder hound "Zeke" died Aug. 3. I haven't been able to choke back the tears long enough to even look at pictures of him until now.

Zeke was an amazing dog. He was very much a true boxer. He loved being with his family. He was always wanting to be in the thick of things and could always be counted on. He barked when it was required and was a loyal companion. Sometimes pets seem more than just that. I have had pets before that I didn't really connect with. I definitely connected with Zeke. That was the great thing about Zeke. He pretty much made a connection with everyone he came into contact with.

One of the reasons why Zeke's death was so hard on my wife and me was we bought Zeke when we were living in Tampa Florida fairly soon after we got married. His death brought all of our years together rushing back all at once. We raised him from since he was about 6 months old. It is also hard to hear my 3 1/2 year old daughter asking "Where is Zeke Daddy? I want to play." Man, that just crushes you.

It is going to be a long while until I can get another boxer. Zeke definitely raised that bar pretty high.

RIP buddy.

Zeke 1996-2005

Posted at 4:09 AM by Brady MacDonald | Category: Home/Family | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)