Modern Soapbox

The fact is that you can never have enough hard drive space. From backing up your DVD collection to expanding your MP3 collection, you won’t want to find yourself running out of disk space.

The good news is that storage has gotten very inexpensive. I remember paying more for a 40GB IDE hard drive about six years ago than I did for a 250GB SATA hard drive about a year ago. The prices keep getting better.

I found a Cavalry 500GB 3.5″ 7200RPM USB 2.0 external hard drive for an excellent price. For about $80, you can be a proud owner of one of these must-have storage devices.

Let’s look at the advantages of having an external hard drive. You can put everything you have on one of these and have it safely backed up. You won’t have to worry about your computer crashing and losing all of your files. They will all be safe on your external hard drive.

USB 2.0 means that you’ll have a fast transfer rate for an external device. You can network the drive to share with every computer in the house to back up all of your important data.

500GB may seem like too much space, but knowing that a dual-layer DVD holds about 9.4GB, the hard drive can hold about 53 discs worth of them. You may have more than that many DVDs in your collection, so maybe you might want to consider purchasing more than one external hard drive.

This 500GB external hard drive is a wise investment, and the price tag makes it irresistible. Going to your local electronic store, you may see that they might be asking for double that or even more.

Even if you went with buying the hard drive itself and then getting the external enclosure, you might still end up paying more. Then, you’ll find yourself having to assembling the two pieces which will costs you time and a possible headache. Is it worth your time?

This is an all-in-one external hard drive package that you shouldn’t pass up. You’ll even get Free Shipping. With gas prices going through the roof week by week, why not save yourself time and money by ordering it online? You can own this marvelous piece of hardware with only a few clicks.

[ [ [ Countdown to 3hirty Posts in April: ONE! ] ] ]

The challenge has been conquered. With a less than two hours left in the day, I am writing the thirtieth post for April.

I’m gonna try to keep this short, and I’m sure I will since I didn’t post too long ago. This month went by fast as expected.

I’m gonna wrap April up with a small list of this month’s highlights from my perspective:

• K$ made the Pluckers Wall of Flame.
• I purchased and received enough comics to probably last me ’til 2009. (But I ain’t stoppin’!)
• I turned 26.
• My sister gave me a Buddy Christ bobblehead.
• My brother put together an excellent BBQ birthday party extravaganza equipped with burgers, bratwurst, and keg.
• Two words: ROCK BAND.
• The third and fourth volumes of Thrice’s The Alchemy Index was released.
• Sleepercar’s debut album, West Texas, was released.
• Alkaline Trio released their Agony and Irony EP with a catchy single, Help Me.
• I told Pluckers about how awful one of their waiters was by filling out one of their comment cards, and they apologized by sending me a $25 gift card.
• Uncle Sam gave me some of my hard-earned dollars back plus approved me for one of his bonus checks.
• Two ‘Zas of the Week.
• I was excused from jury duty and had a fantastic half-day off.
• I saw these great bands in no particular order: Thrice, Dynamite Boy, Cruiserweight.
• I experienced why I do not like performance art.
• Two words: ROCK BAND. (listed twice intentionally ’cause it r0xx that hard!)
• Rivers Cuomo stole the main riff from Portside Scout’s R2D2 song to use in his single, Pork and Beans.
• Working where I work wasn’t so bad for the 21st month in a row.
• I purchased a new machine, c0rey foldman, whose creation is strictly intended to contributing to the Folding@home project.
• I spent way too much time in the MoSo WP CMS by challenging myself to write thirty posts this month and successfully pulled it off like the über g33k that I am.

This is the most posts in one month on Modern Soapbox which matched last June. Maybe I’ll go for 31 in July. I’ll be taking it easy from this next month to concentrate on my other projects that matter more, but I won’t abandon y’all. I promise. Peace out.

[ [ [ ZERO! ] ] ]

[ [ [ Countdown to 3hirty Posts in April: TWO! ] ] ]

A DVD is backed up over the network. The data is transferred to Diode, the alway-folding Debian system that hums quietly all day.

Work went by fast, but it was busy enough to be considered a stressfest. I’m glad to be back at the apartment, but Mare and I still have to make a stop by the Bust before our free DVD coupon expires as well as exchange a title after the backup completes.

Tomorrow is the early day, and again, I’m not looking forward to it. I will be in bed before 1AM, but I still have one more post to promise you after this.

I’m eagerly waiting for my new machine to arrive. I’m ready to assemble it. I’m ready to stay up all night relaxing to bringing something to life. It’s very therapeutic. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be building another one by the end of the year.

This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day. I’m excited. Mare and I will be on the road by 9AM to be one of the early birds to snag up some of that good stuff. The comic-collecting community is made up mostly of very nice people, so I am happy to be part of it. Now, I haven’t had experience on the creator standpoint, but maybe some day soon.

Mare and I had some amazing T. Bell. Their bacon club chalupa is awesome. I don’t care what anyone says. I love it. It was missing for a while, but they brought it back. I know it’s a specialty item that’s only around periodically like Whataburger’s T&H, but when it’s around, I’m on it. I’m gonna eat it at least once a week ’til it disappears from the menu again. If it becomes a permanent menu item, then it’s on!

73%. This disc’s copying over quick. I’m gonna end this rant here, and one more will follow before midnight. For now, peace out.

[ [ [ Countdown to 3hirty Posts in April: THREE! ] ] ]

April has come and gone.

I’m hoping that May is more productive in my realm of creativity. I would like to do more writing that doesn’t involve spending more time on what you’re reading here than I should. Then again, I offered up the thirty-post challenge that I surely can’t allow to defeat me.

I’m hoping to be in the process of churning out something involving comics next month or at least be very close to making something happen. I also have a small video-like project that will be put together next month that you should be seeing posting here.

I’d also like to get caught up on my comic-reading, but it seems like I buy more than I should and create a huge backlog that will take me a very long time to work through. It’s the collector in me.

I haven’t been watching a whole lot of movies lately. Sleepytime involves putting on some classic cartoons and fading out to them. They bring back memories of my childhood. I thought I’d never get to see some of them, but fortunately the dollar DVD industry has picked them up and released a bunch of them.

Rock Band would definitely consume my time if it was here at the apartment.

Mare had a test that went on ’til 9PM, and Neil and the gang went to a Spurs game. Pluckers was canceled this week. I hope it resumes next week. We had that terrible waiter last time. He was so bad that I wrote a review about it (see: the pluckin’ good time 4/15). I also had the nerve to fill out their comment card online and refer the post to them. Surprisingly, the general manager of the location we went to responded and also hooked me up with a gift card. Bonus!

Work is going well. Our mainframe was upgraded and going faster than ever. This is helping production and making my job much easier. We also got a new director of operations, and he’s a cool guy. He listens and offers solutions. Our last boss seemed like he was going along for the ride and only lasted something like six months. Then again, that particular position seems to have a tremendous turnaround considering that it’s had the most people fill in the place since I’ve been there and it’ll only be two years this July.

I’ve done my rant for the night. Today’s the last day of the month. I have two posts left to go. Peace out.

[ [ [ Countdown to 3hirty Posts in April: FOUR! ] ] ]

Over the weekend, I went over to my favorite computer-shopping heaven on the www, Newegg.

For the past couple weeks, I was itching to build a Beowulf cluster, but the passion died down a bit after reading through some of RGB’s Beowulf book. The assembly will going to be very expensive, and I am unable to construct one of these beasts right now.

I still really want to move up in the ranks amongst the Folding@home community, so I purchased another machine.

“c0rey foldman” (I am naming it this.) will be built with the following:

• ASUS M3A78-EMH HDMI motherboard
• AMD Athlon X2 BE-2300 processor
• Kingston HyperX 1GB DDR2 SDRAM
• Kingston DataTraveler I 1GB flash drive
• A black mid-tower case with silver trim and a 350W PSU

I was going with absolute simplicity and low-power consumption with this configuration.

Where’s the video card? Integrated on the motherboard.

Where’s the hard drive? I don’t need one. The flash drive will be loaded with Knoppix and F@H.

The parts should be arriving tomorrow and/or the next day. I am excited to build this computer, because I haven’t built a desktop this simple before. I hope all goes well. I’ll post pictures when this baby is born.

[ [ [ Countdown to 3hirty Posts in April: FIVE! ] ] ]

[ [ [ Is he gonna pull it off? ] ] ]
[ [ [ Why is he writing about himself in third person? Go! ] ] ]

After the Dynamite Boy show, Neil, Mare and I drove back north and stopped by Wally World to pick up the XBox 360 version of the Rock Band Special Edition set that includes the guitar, drums, mic, and game. We planned on picking it up over the weekend, so then was the time.

It was already half past two by the time we were back in the car, and we still needed to pick up Neil’s car, drive back his place, set up the game, and have at it. Following Neil back to his place, I was definitely feeling major fatigue like I didn’t want to set up the game and wait ’til Sunday.

When we finally got to his place, it was close to three. Gunner was on the couch playing his advanced copy of GTA4. I was definitely getting a second wind while we set everything up Once we were ready to go, we played well into the night. By the time we were way too tired, it was already past six in the morning.

I slept in the next day. I slept in hard. When I was fully awake and functioning again, the clock read half past five in the afternoon. I was supposed to accompany my bro to bring my dad to the airport since his short vacation in town this past week ended. My mom ended up taking him to the airport. I think my bro had a Spurs game to watch, but I’m sure he slept through his alarm as well.

Around six, Neil texted me to see if I wanted to play some more Rock Band. They had already started, and K$ brought the second guitar.

That Sunday, K$, Gunner, MJ Carmichael, Neil, Mare, and I were troopers that played Rock Band for six more hours straight. That game is amazing. I love it. It’s very entertaining, and the multiplayer aspect makes it all worth spending so much time playing.

I’m sure we may get down and dirty on it this weekend. I’ll definitely be down. We need to conquer that game no matter how difficult it gets. It has already thrown us a few left hooks but nothing we couldn’t beat down. Demon Semen will conquer the world with its rock! That’s our band name. ; )

Dynamite Boy played a reunion show this past Saturday at Emo’s. They were greeted by a venue full of fans that was impressive for a show featuring all local bands. They’ve been one of my favorite pop-punk bands, and I’ve seen them multiple times over the years.

We showed up a little late, because parking in downtown Austin on a Saturday night is a nightmare. When we got to the door, Cruiserweight was already about fifteen minutes into their set.

I didn’t get too many pics at this show like I did at the Thrice show. This is one of the few pictures I took where you can see Dusty on the left tucked away in the corner. He was in the shadow where I was standing most of the show.

This was one of the fun black-and-white photos I took where it looks like history being recorded.

Sean pulls off one of his amazing solos.

Stella and Yogi (with cowbell in hand) from Cruiserweight join the fun on stage.

Adrian rocks out on the bass. He is one of the members of the first band to go on, The Armour.

Again, I have to apologize for the low-quality blurry photos. The DSC-T33 can be a hater when it comes to taken pictures under low-light conditions.

During the evening portion of work this past Friday, one of my co-workers was leaving early to participate in what she called a play. She showed me the flyer online and invited to go. I was reluctant to attend ’cause I was under the impression that Mary was going to be getting out of work around 11ish and the performance was taking place at 10:30PM sharp.

Who shows up at the apartment earlier than expected? Mare! So we decide to go to the 10:30PM show.

We enjoy a meal at Sonic where by this time it’s raining cats and dogs. It had started coming down by the time we hit the road. After our delicious drive-in food, we head down to the east side of 35 where the “play” was taking place.

The venue, Historic Victory Grill off 11th, was neat. The area seemed to have gotten a makeover, since the city decided to clean it up to make more room for the indie folk that invades this mecca.

Of course the show starts fifteen minutes late. I didn’t know what we were in store for, but I knew my co-worker was going to be doing some presidential bit poetry dilly.

My co-worker’s set lasts no more than ten minutes. The entire show turns out to be some performance art assembly where no-talent hacks of Austin unite as some faux superpower to put on a show that gets videotaped to be replayed a week from when it was played. I can’t even explain what I witnessed, but it just wasn’t good. I had such a bad taste in my mouth after we left which was a few acts after my co-worker had gone on.

Maybe the bad taste was from the complimentary Lone Star beer I drank but I’m sure the show also influenced it. The performance art scene is not for me. Witnessing that train wreck explained to me why art scene elitism exists.

I am only expressing my opinion. I do grant them props for stepping up to the occasion and actually getting a production together. I just feel that more passion and rehearsal needed to go on with most of the participants involved. I felt like I was at some house party and mediocre entertainment was going on in the background.

Last Thursday was a headache. I couldn’t get to sleep the night before, because I was dreading having to get up at 7AM to be at work by eight.

I made to work fine. I was going in for a half day, because I was selected to attend jury duty at 1:30PM that day. I did the impaneling online and tried my best to get out of it but to no avail. The correspondence was through email, and the night before I notice that I had to reply to confirm that I received the information.

They ended up calling me at 11:30AM the day I was to attend and told me I was excused. Thank goodness. Not only was I dreading going to work so early but I was definitely dreading wasting my time in a court room for some little case.

I was über tired from not getting enough sleep the night before and was glad that I was only in for a half day. With the joy of being excused from jury duty, I went out and spent some of my paycheck that I would be getting the next day.

Thrice played an amazing show at Stubb’s BBQ on April 23rd. Their next two volumes of The Alchemy Index was released the day before, and the set they played a great selection from their three latest albums: The Artist in the Ambulance, Vheissu, and The Alchemy Index.

I was being a total shutterbug at the show. This was something like my tenth time to see them live. I stopped counting a while back. I first saw them back when they were promoting The Illusion of Safety, their second record released on Sub City Records.

Riley rocks out on the drums.

I had a better picture similar to this one, but I couldn’t help but post this one up due to the heaven light interrupted by Teppei shredding.

Again, I had a better picture of Eddie but check out the awesome light pattern on the left!

Dustin looking mesmerized while a beam of light slips past him.

This was one of the better pictures taken with my DSC-T33. The camera really dislikes low-lit scenery and rapid movement. Fortunately, this one isn’t too out-of-focus since they were playing one of their calmer songs.

Dustin plays acoustic during one of the songs on the Earth record.

They played Stare at the Sun, Deadbolt, and The Earth Will Shake as their encore songs. We were disappointed that they’ve abandoned their faster, heavier songs like To Awake and Avenge the Dead but I’m sure they’ve grown out of the whole punk/metal hybrid not to mention that so many bands have given that style of music a bad name. Nonetheless, they played an excellent set that made the highlight of that week.

A short text exchange between myself and my good friend M2X:

Sig: Weezer ripped off your R2D2 riff on their new single Pork and Beans.

M2X: First we get raped with drinko* and now weezer’s kidnapping my baby r2?!

*Drinko refers to a drinking game we constructed out of wood and coasters that is much like Plinko from The Price is Right. The life-size board’s colour scheme was red with “DRINKO” across the top in white letters. On the following gift-giving season that year, some company made a home version with the same exact colour scheme but table-size and with shot glasses. We was robbed.

When your social circle has creative minds with prolific ideas, these types of thoughts will run through your head.

A mixture of passion and effort is a key ingredient to making something creative happen. Whether it’s art, writing, music or some other creative outlet, expressing talent to the public requires hard work.

When hard work is involved, most of us won’t pour blood, sweat, and tears into anything unless we know that a pay-off is guaranteed or some sort of reward or valued recognition.

Some of us think that the gold is easily obtainable and won’t invest enough passion, effort, or hard work to make the ideas solidify. This usually results in a million dreams that vaporize into thin air.

Some of us don’t want to put up with failures. Some of us don’t want to learn from mistakes. Some of us think initial efforts will result in obtaining the crown that we feel we deserve. Oh how naïve the princes can be.

I work a day job. It takes longer for anything I do creative to solidify. This may sound self-absorbed to some of you, but I feel I put forth more effort in solidifying my ideas than most in my social circle of creatives with prolific ideas. I’d have to say 448 and counting posts in this “living site” alone speaks for itself.

Let’s see who gets more done in a certain amount of time.

Don’t give up.
Don’t forget.
Don’t let go.

That’s what’s keep you behind and has kept you behind for years.
That’s why nothing has solidified.
That’s why you’re wasting your time reading this than getting business done.

That’s why I’ve reaped rewards from what I’ve already done.
That’s why I learned from my failures and mistakes.
That’s why I have a better understanding.

That’s why I’m happier.

That’s why I’m more prolific.

I may not be the most talented guy in the block and I may live in a city where all creative outlets are beyond saturated, but I feel I have the passion to do creative things. I’m not trying to change the world or please the masses. I’m not just doing my creative things for myself.

Sometimes I wish people could focus their creative drive instead of wasting the energy by soaking up other people’s creative efforts and being a useless critic to that which does not suit their tastes. Even though the scene is oversaturated, great and memorable efforts surface from it, raise the bar and continue the evolution.

What is all this creation going to amount to? Anything? Nothing? A line or two on a résumé? Money? Success? Making history?

Or maybe I am just trying to achieve what every aging being with an ounce of intellect on this planet is trying to achieve: a higher degree of wisdom obtained through experience.

What will you leave behind for everyone to remember you by when you die and the worms are burrowing through every hole in your skull?

My Debian machine completed a F@H work unit but wasn’t able to send it nor could it obtain a new work unit. I figured that Stanford’s F@H servers might be offline. When I checked, they were fully functional.

I figured that something was up with Diode, my Debian machine, when it couldn’t connect to the internet. This explained why it wasn’t able to send the work unit or receive a new one.

I did my search engine/forum hunt for a solution and tried the many command line solutions that the GNU/Linux wizards provided to no avail. It was time to bust out the big guns: call up my bro.

I really didn’t want to bug him so late at nite, but he helps me figure these kind of issues out and I was already not thinking straight since I had been tinkering without progress for a while by this time. I was able to access all of computers on the internal network, but Diode couldn’t communicate with the outside which was very odd.

My bro just told me to restart the router, and it solved everything. After digging myself into a really deep technical hole, the last thing on my mind was to reboot the router.

So I’m writing this on my Debian machine successfully connected to the internet as a way of saying thanks. All he really had to do was talk it through with me, and everything was fixed.

In other news, today was my mother’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!