Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Blessed Samhain to everyone.

By the way... It's not pronounced: "SAM-HAIN" okay??? It's pronounced: "sow-en" And yes... It's also known as:

HALLOWEEN!

All Hallow's Eve. And I'm not a big "celebratory fellow" so, no, I'm NOT getting dressed up in a costume. However...

Tonight My Lady and I have an appointment with "The Wicker Man" Muahahahahahahahaha...

No, seriously. We were invited over to a dinner at our friends Seamus and Kim's house, and a few minutes after Seamus had called to "invite us" he called back saying, "Shit, it's Halloween on Tuesday. Can you bring the "Wicker Man" over? We've been wanting to see it."

See... My Lady's been talking the film up to like, EVERY American she's run across since arriving here in the States, and so... LOTS of people now want to see it.

I should mention... We're talking THE BLOODY ORIGINAL HERE, not the sure to be SHITE American version soon to be on video and DVD. No... The REAL one... With dodgy audio and screwy acting. The GOOD version.

Anyhoo... We BOUGHT the original. That's right... We couldn't FIND the damn thing in the rental stores, so... We crossed the road to Borders, and bought the thing. Yes... My Lady and I like the film enough to "own it" on DVD.

However, we also RENTED "The Grudge" 'cause... It's ACTUALLY scary, and you have to be scared on Halloween, not just "freaked out" like the "Wicker Man" is bound to do to you.

Anyhoo... We're off. I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween and following days... Smiles,

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Plugging for ART!

Gentle readers, if any of you fine folk are in the Twin Cities this weekend (Saturday) I have a treat... My Lady is performing an original performance piece titled: Untitled 0.1, Saturday at 7:30pm at the Soap Factory in North-east Minneapolis. This performance is part of the Volunteer Biennial Exhibition.

Here's a great "teaser." Cinematography, by Me... Directed by and starring: Fiona.

Check it OUT:



Please come if you're able... A big audience will go a LONG way at proving to My Lady that Minneapolis is HOT for art, and that we'll be able to do art here, and make a living at it. By the way... The performance and exhibition is FREE! Come one, come all...

Please.

I'm begging you.

Come.

Here's a Map with MapQuest. Soap Factory Map

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Busy, busy... Gah... Me so BUSY...

But, really, that's not necessarily a bad thing, I suppose.

My Lady is gearing up for her performance to take place on Saturday night at 7:30pm at the Soap Factory Volunteer Biennial Exhibition We're really happy about it. My Lady's taken off a week of work, and has been diligently working towards getting her space ready (with help from yours truly, of course) and preparing the world for her work.

I'm still working this week, and it's been fun with 1/3rd of the "team" gone to L.A. Gah.

All is well, though. Smiles and kittens!

-- T

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Linky Day TWO...

Greetings my children, how are all of you today?

I'm doing well. I've been at work pretty much all day today, and I've still two and a half hours to go. However, since I don't work on Friday, today is the end of my work-week. Therefore, I really can't complain, now can I?

I was honoured by My Lady when she told Christopher Eccleston to "watch out" and discussed her love of "well endowed profiles" (a.k.a. Guys with big noses). It's funny... I spent the first 30 some years of my life in the States, and women were always a bit put OFF by my nose. It took moving to England to find women who can appreciate a sturdy oxygen-intake-organ like mine. Thanks Lovey!
  • This was pretty H.G. Wells-ian... Human species 'may split in two' The paragraph that stood out to me was this one: "The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures." Hmm... I seem to be a member of the "genetic upper-class" already. Too bad that doesn't help my pocket-book at all. Ger...
  • Well, Windows is at it again, with: IE 7. Why is this linkable? (Especially as I have this Stop IE button:
    StopIE.com - Stop Internet Explorer
    on my sidebar...) Well, 'cause at L.O.L.A.U., we've been told in no uncertain terms to NOT install the thing on Campus computers. According to the I.T. staff, it's crap... It doesn't fix any of the security errors that it had from BEFORE, and it actually adds a few "holes" into it's software, thus making it even MORE unstable, unsafe, and generally useless than before!
  • The Foley scandle just keeps getting better... That's right, the guy was an altar boy, and was diddled by his priest! Well, according to the priest anyway. Man. See... If you were abused, you're going to be an abuser. Or not. (Sorry, I'm not going to get into that one today. I hate it when criminals use crap like that for "an excuse" of their own damn crimes. My father was CRAP! Doesn't mean I have to be crap to my kids! Ger...)
  • Borat is invited to Kazakhstan that's right... The country is cheesed off at Cohen for his constant "misrepresentation of the Kazakh people!" Um... Folks... Chill. It's comedy. Sorry that Kazakhstan was picked instead of Uzbekhistan. But it really wasn't to "pick on the Kazakhs" okay?
  • Okay... Bidets in Florida?!?!?! What the? But then, it's 'cause of all the "damn furriners comin' over 'ere and f-in' up our land!" Or not. No... I think it's great that people from Europe (with money) want to come over here and "live in Florida." I don't 'get it' but I think it's fine. I personally LOATHE Florida. Not because of Floridians, I'm sure they're great people. No, I hate the place 'cause it's hot, humid and has big lizards that EAT PEOPLE! I mean... Why in all the gods' names would anyone want to live there?
Well... Hope you liked at least "a few" of the links today, readers! I'm off like a prom dress...

Muahahahahaha!

-- Tuckmac

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Whoa NELLY!

Furtado... Please stop singing.

Anyhoo... Hello my fine, able and rather dashing readers!

I started up my computer to a GREAT quote today:


From the 'quotations page'
.


I mean, darn, if that isn't a good quote. I'm not even a fan of Terry Pratchett, but occasionally, the dippy author says something vaguely apt.

Anyhoo... Just a "linky" day post today, although, I think they're fairly good/funny/interesting links.
  • Blue eyes are a rarity I'm one of the few, now a days. I find that wonderful.
  • Steve Perry from the City Pages has a bit of fun with our arch-conservative, Jesus-lovin, gay-haten, prayer-sayin candidate for state representative Michele Bachman. Michelle Bachman is HOT YouTube Video, spoof campaign ad...
  • Okay, Matthew McConaughey pisses me off. I mean, I really really hate him. If he WERE gay, I'd like him more.
Well, kids... That's it for today. Love and kittens...

-- Tuckmac

Monday, October 16, 2006

It's bloody early.

Hello fine readers... I'm back after a rather slight hiatus of fun. What fun, you ask? Work. Lots and lots of work. With my two "bosses" out for the week, I've been 50% video-guy 50% technical guy, and 100% busy! However, I really learned quite a bit from this experience. I tend to be a bit of a "baptism by fire" learner. As long as someone's around to hold my hand, I just can't bring myself to "let go." However, as soon as I'm alone, I tend to "learn" everything at a highly accelerated pace.

And I have. I've done stuff in the past six days that I never knew I could do! It's been a great learning time for me, and I feel really pretty darn good.

That's not to say there haven't been a few issues. One being the hours that I've had to wake up in the morning... I know, boo hoo, right? Well... Sorry, but I'm frankly not used to getting up at 4:30am in order to get to work before 7:00am! That's just a really sick time to have to wake my butt up! Coffee is my friend, but even it's gentle caress can't lift me from my lethargy at 4:30 in the morning.

I think I'm on cup 12 now, and I'm still a bit dizzy. I'm hoping that I get through this "last day" of being the only guy in the department.

It's "term-break" at the moment... Meaning that the students are not here today, and classes are not being held. I'm hoping that that means that my day (after having to get here at 7:00am to set up a conference) is slow.

Other than that news... How about some more cheese sandwiching, hmm?

My Lady and I have had a nice few meals, cooked by yours truly. Last night a particularly grand meal of tilapia in bread-crumbs with a special glaze, garlic-basil mashed potatoes, and fresh organic broccoli. The night before? Chicken in a garlic-celery cream sauce with rice. Hmm... I'm good. My Lady's had to work all weekend (Sat. and Sun) whereas I was "off" which was nice for me, not so nice for her. However, she's now having "her weekend" as she's not working today or Tuesday. I'm also off on Tuesday, which tends to be the only day our "days off" actually coincide. So, I am planning on enjoying at least MOST of the day with My Lady.

Other than that, um... Not much. Sorry... We're both keeping busy with the upcoming performance at the Soap Factory Volunteer's Exhibition. It's mainly My Lady's performance, however, I've been collaborating with her in very limited ways... I sometimes think that being a "domestic goddess" whilst she works is a pretty hefty contribution in itself... However, I've done some writing and recording for the piece as well.

And... Um... Yeah. That's about it for this Monday morning. For all of you who have sent "chin-up Tuck" messages and comments... I thank you. I HAVE survived, you were all correct in your assessment of my abilities. Thanks for the support!

-- Tuckmac

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Gah.... Stress sucks.

Hey-o fine readers, I'm here today to do a wee bit o' bitchin', if you don't mind.

Well, if you DO mind, then stop reading and go check THIS out. Cheers!

;-)

Sorry, I have to be evil every now and again.

Anyhoo... It's been a very busy weekend. Lot's of art-making with My Lady and... Um, our Anniversary. Yep... ONE YEAR MARRIED!

I'm feeling pretty good about myself, I'll tell you!

Also, had my 15 year high school reunion at Kieran's Irish Pub which was interesting. Thank the gods for buses and taxis, as I definitely wouldn't have been able to drive!

It was very fun to see friends from high school. Everyone is married or "in a partnership" and/or has a bizillian kids... Or...

Well, you get the idea. The fun fact of the entire event was my LACK of children, and my wife's firm: "No, we're not having kids yet, if at all."

Catholics don't understand a phrase like that. Poor little things...

Anyhoo... After a full-bore weekend like that one... It didn't stop. I had Monday and Tuesday off from L.O.L.A.U., and we shopped... We SO shopped... And made art, and MORE art... And I did laundry... SO much bloody laundry... It just didn't stop.

Now, I've been at work all day at L.O.L.A.U., and spent most of it preparing for Thurs, Fri and Monday. See... At the department, there's three of us... One guy is the "technical guy" who troubleshoots all the failing and icky hardware issues around L.O.L.A.U. The other guy is the video-presentations sort of guy. Well... BOTH of them have just left for a conference in Austin, Texas. Leaving ME to be "both" guys. Which means I have to get in at 8:00am, (after a 1hr 30min drive) and I'm here until 9:00pm. Which is a long day, really... And I get to do this through Friday. Gah.

I'm a bit nervous about the whole affair, really... I'll be able to do it, I'm sure of it, and if there's HUGE problems, I can get a hold of either of the guys via mobile phone, so... It's all good. However, although I can say it's all right, and think that it's all right... It doesn't mean my BODY believes me. So... I have a break-out of zits... My ulcer's acting up a bit, and if I weren't already grey-haired, I'd be white by now.

Och weel.

So... Wish me LUCK, fine readers... And if you can... Some words of hope for this tired guy in Minnesota, via the comments would be very appreciated.

Smiles and kittens...

-- Tuckmac

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Uff da!

That's a bit of Minnesotan for you. Uff da. My grandmother always used to use that one. She also used to say to my cousins (and myself) this interesting phrase, which I'm going to have to spell somewhat phonetically:

"Uff da, nafey fón"

The phrase "may" mean something in Norweigian, but I don't know what it means. She told me once, that it sort of means, "Oh, you're a dirty devil" or something like that. Whatever.

Yeah, so... The hard drive is working, and My Lady is in a MUCH better mood. Meaning, of course, that I am in a better mood as well!

I have my 15 year, high school reunion tonight. I'm looking forward to dragging My Lady to the event, as being a British lassie, she's unused to the idea. They don't have high school reunions in Britain... At least they're not common, and she left her high school at the age of 16 (finishing early), so she didn't actually graduate with her class. Therefore, she's never going to have a reunion of her own. As we've been talking about moving back to England in a few years... I realised that I MUST take her to this reunion, as I'll probably never be able to go to one again. Oh, I know... "Never say Never" blah, blah, f-ing blah... However, it's going to be highly probable that I won't be able to afford to come BACK to Minnesota in October in five-year increments, simply to see a bunch of folk that I frankly wasn't that close to when I was 18, and am FAR FROM being close to now-a-days.

There's a great article in the City Pages this week... It's about my least favourite politician in Minnesota... Read the article (Brits, you folk too) and see just how SCARY the Religious Right is getting. 'Cause I am very freaked out by the fact that a screaming bigot like THIS chick is actually swinging almost HALF of the polls in her district in Minnesota. I mean... It's one thing for a nut-job like this to be found in a state in the Bible-belt, like Alabama, or something... But in Minnesota???

Vah.

Brits - it's really nice to know that your guys lie too.

However, it's nice to know that vaguely controversial things DO happen in Britain, that obviously won't happen here.

And finally... I want to say congratulations to my friend Seamus, who has recently discovered he's going to be a father (and told me with a rather shell-shocked expression, no less). Better you than I, my friend. Congrats!

That's it for today, readers... Next time, thoughts from the High School Reunion!

-- Tuckmac

Thursday, October 05, 2006

I'm in a GRAND mood...

It's wonderful working at L.O.L.A.U., as I am a Technical Associate in an Information Technology Department. Duh... I think to myself...

Okay, so... In Yesterday's Blog, I wrote about my external hard drive going on the "fritz."

I spoke about how my friend N8 has been helping out. Well... We've been preparing for a "final solution" where N8 was going to do some Linux magic, and try to get stuff off the drive. As he was concerned with the safety of our files on the drive (and if N8's concerned, you better damn well be concerned TOO.)

So... I sent out a "help" e-mail to a few of the major techies here at L.O.L.A.U. and guess what...

Patrick had me bring the drive to his office, and within 10 minutes... It was fixed!

Holy crap!?!?!?!

After e-mailing N8, and cancelling the "raping" of the hard drive, he and I BOTH want to know how Patrick did it. I am DYING to know. Ger.

Anyhoo... As per N8's continuing advice... My Lady and I are going to have to get everything OFF the disk, and then re-format and turn on "journaling" (which, N8, I don't understand). And hopefully, the drive will be "safe" again. As for NOW... We've dodged a huge bullet, and My Lady's performance on the 28th of October is now saved.

So... Thank you to N8. Thank you to Patrick. And thank you GODS!

I'm off... Check out This Guy's photography... He's something else!

Cheers!

-- Tuckmac

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Well, it's all over the place...

So, I'd better write about it.

I was reading my fave "Techdirt" pages, and saw this entry:
Techdirt: If Terrorists Could Please Tag Their Blog Posts 'Death To America', The US Government Would Appreciate It
from the and-post-pics-of-their-hideouts-on-flickr dept


Yep... My marvellous gov, is attmepting to "Data-mine" or, I like this term: "dataveillance" and find "terrorists" and Al Qaida members on the web, blogs and e-mails.

Hmm...

You know, it's funny... I have this horrific image in my head. It involves me sitting here at work (or occasionally at home) typing away on my blog, and having the jack-booted thugs suddenly BURST in, and take me away to get "water-boarded" in Jordan, or something.

So... To help my government find me...

I hate Bush.

Bush is shit.

Down with Bush.

Down with America.

Hell with America.

I hate Cheney.

Um...

Death to imperialists...

Um..

Yeah. How was that? Okay... Moving on...

My external hard drive died.

It's one of these:



My Lady and I BOTH have our lives on the bloody thing. It's a bit worse for My Lady, as she has a performance coming up at the end of this month, and three months of her work FOR THE PERFORMANCE is ON THAT DISK!

So.

We've had a MARVELLOUS help from our friend N8 who has led me through "booting my computer as a single user" which means making my Mac into a Unix-box. That was interesting. If you're a "macuser" you would find it weird to see the screen come up with a "black screen/ white coded text" strange... I've disk warriored it... I've disk utilitied it... I've fsck-ed it.

I like that joke by the way...

"I'm fscked"

That's right... This blogger... A techno-phobe that I tend to be actually typed this:

sudo fsck_hfs -l /dev/disk1s6

I mean... WHAT THE?

Sad thing, is that after typing that I typed:

sudo fsck_hfs -y /dev/disk1s6

and

sudo fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk1s6

And none of it worked... It still says: Drive Gabriel is unable to be repaired.

I personally blame My Lady for "bad-lucking" the hard drive by naming it "Gabriel."

See... I've always had this thing about naming things with "demonic" sorts of names... My computer has been called "Beelzebub" to "Beelzebub A" and now I'm on "Beelzebub II" My iPod? "Beelipod" My wireless Airport name? "Lucifer" My network folder? "Screwtape" You get the idea...

But as soon as you name a computer-object something HOLY, it goes to shit.

So... Let that be a warning for you... Don't name your shit "good" names, or it'll break.

Bad names are safe.

Anyhoo... N8's going to try to "rape off" the information using his Linux Server this weekend, and hopefully we'll be able to save at least SOME of our information. Even if it doesn't... Doing something that sounds THAT deviant to the drive, makes me feel better about it. F-ing drive. F-ing LaCie!

Gah.

So... Yeah. That's my life at the mo'.

Oh, and I'm getting a cold. I don't DO very well when I'm sick... So... Sorry if I cheese anyone off in the next week or so... But I can't help it.

Bush is evil... Bush is the devil... Down with Bush...

(Just making sure the "Dataveillance" finds me.

Nyaahhh-Nyeahh... Bush!

-- T

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Occasionally...

Well, pretty much all the time... Others say things so much better than I, that I get nauseous.

In the International Herald Tribune there's a marvellous editorial piece...

The 'war on terror' that ruined Rome.

Mr. Harris, a history-scholar from Britain finds frightening parallels between recent U.S. Gov. legislation, and ancient Rome.

It's funny, I've been saying things like:
    "As soon as governments stop funding the arts, the civilisation is soon to fall. I mean, look at Rome."
And once again, another historian has found issue with Rome changing it's laws to counter a "terrorist threat" and how the people in power, in Rome, took the power that the frightened citizens of Rome gave them in response to this 'threat' and then, frankly, did not give it back. Hence, the beginning of the end.

I'll keep saying it again... Taking away our freedoms and our democracy, in response to some imagined or even real threat is NOT the answer to our problems.

-- Tuckmac