After looking over some nice pictures of my car down on Galveston Island, and realizing that I was quite bored on this Sunday afternoon, I decided to put together a site just for my car.

Lo and behold, http://lancer.skudd.com/

Enjoy.

I just got back from my first bike ride in 2009. I think my last ride was sometime prior to August 1, 2008. The route I took was just over 6 miles long, and it was a pretty easy ride... That is, after I got past the "I can't do this and I want to vomit" stage.

I'm going to get into this thing slowly again, riding once a week for the next month or so, then stepping it up in both frequency and route distance.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go pass out.

Yep, you read the subject correctly: I got a new car. And by "new", I mean a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer. It only had 20-some miles on it when I drove it off the lot.

Everyone keeps asking me what prompted this purchase. Here are a few reasons:

• The Saturn had over 100,000 miles on it
• The transmission in the Saturn was starting to slip really bad
• Not long after having dropped $800 into the Saturn for a new water pump, hoses, and thermostat, and after having changed the EGR valve, the "Service Engine Soon" light came on
• The Lancer was cheap :)

Now though, I really have no excuse for not driving somewhere... although I do have a lot of studying to do before April 2nd...

Another quick rant: Turkey bacon sucks.

Why does it suck?

• It smells nasty
• It's "cooked, chopped, and formed" to look like bacon
• It tastes nothing like bacon

Down with the cheap impostor!

I've spent about the last 2 hours trying to get Ubuntu 8.10 installed on my desktop. I opted to use the "Install Ubuntu Inside Windows" feature, which seemed to be pretty straight-forward. Then I found problems. Before I get into those problems though, I want to point out that this was intended to be a quick "Let's install Linux and see how it does on this system" run. From the word-of-mouth reviews I've heard from others about Ubuntu 8.10, I figured it would be a very simple process: Wrong.

First off, let's go to the sound. I like listening to music when I work. The first thing I wanted to do after I got everything running was to listen to some tunes. The problem though is that my on-board sound card isn't supported natively. I'm sure there are kernel patches out there that I can use, but let's say that I'm not the Linux "guru" I am, and that I'm an average user. This would be a very frustrating event and would probably cause the user to be soured on Linux.

In the course of trying to fire up some tunes, I tried to access my RAID, since it holds my MP3 collection. No go. I'm running 2x500GB drives in hardware level RAID-0. The hardware is provided by nVidia, just like everything else in this system. While the nVidia graphic drivers are easily available, the RAID drivers are not. Even a quick apt-cache search nvidia shows nothing RAID-related. I did find one article that discussed how to recompile the kernel to add dmraid, but again, think of the average user.

And lastly, let's touch on the nVidia graphics drivers. I was able to get them installed pretty easily, and I was able to configure my Multi-View monitor arrangement, spanning my desktop across both of my Acer x193w+ monitors. The one super annoying thing I found though was how the effective center of my desktop is the actual center, but instead of opening on a single screen, new windows open right there at the center. I even tried one of the available 3d games, and I couldn't read the menu because it was split by about 2" of monitor bezel.

If we want to look at it with all those issues aside though, the system is running really smoothly and I have no additional complaints (yet). Since I'm not able to survive without my music though, it's back to Windows for now.

Right now I'm wondering how realistic my previous panic attacks have been, with the exception of maybe one.

I was just violently awaken after having been in bed for no more than 1 hour (gauged by the current time and the time I sent the last message to a friend on AIM). The feeling I had the instant I was awaken was mostly confusion, but I certainly couldn't get myself back to sleep. I sat up in my bed and that's when the feelings started: fear, confusion, trembling, difficulty breathing, sweating...

I'm not so certain at this point that these are panic attacks. I fell asleep on my couch Saturday evening when I was watching TV. About an hour after falling asleep I woke up because I was gagging for no valid reason. I'm sitting here right now and I can't stop convulsing and my hands are sweaty. I'm also having trouble making much sense of what I just typed, even though I'm fully awake.

For lack of a better term, I'm going to call this a panic attack. However, I'm not fully convinced that this is what they are.

Nearly a week after the official diagnosis, I am here to report.

I went to the doctor's office last Tuesday morning for what I figured to be a simple consult with the doctor. This turned out to be a bit more, as they took my blood pressure reading again (it was still in the 140's/90's), took my body temperature, measured my pulse, listened to my heart, listened to my breathing, and after I had the consult with the doctor they rolled in a machine for an ECG!

Before I left though, the doctor wrote me a prescription for Lisinopril, 20mg daily. She also asked me to schedule a fasting lab for this next Tuesday, and a follow-up for sometime around the end of the month.

I took the prescription to the local pharmacy after I got home from work that evening and received my order in about 15 minutes. I took the first dose after I got home, and the next day I felt dead. I don't know if it was due to the stress of getting diagnosed with something, or if it was from the medicine, but I really did not feel like myself. I made it through the week though, and I'm almost back to feeling normal.

The reading today was 148/92, and I have an appointment to see the doctor on Tuesday morning, when I will be issued a prescription for blood pressure medicine.

A few weeks ago, I went to see the doctor about this nagging cough I had. It turned out to be Bronchitis, but the doctor seemed far more concerned about something else that came up when she checked my vitals: My blood pressure.

That day, the reading was 144/94, which is fairly high. She told me to come back for 2 more readings over the next few weeks, which I've tried to do but haven't had the time for thanks to some drastic changes at the office. Today though, I was able to break away from my work for a few minutes, and had the reading taken again.

Today, the reading was 148/96, which is quite a bit higher than normal. The nurse who took the reading made note of it and said that I needed to come back at the end of the week for another check, at which point I would most likely be placed on blood pressure medicine.

This is where I hate medicine. Not so much the fact that they found this problem and are able to treat it, but the whole bit of them saying "you're blood pressure is high, so stress over it for a few days and come in for us to tell you it's even higher." Fun. I had a very tough time focusing on my work for the rest of the day, and even tonight I'm feeling pretty "out of it" with everything.

I'm wondering though, if the ringing I've had in my ears for a fairly long time, or if the headaches I've been having are related to this. We shall most certainly see!

This post is kinda twofold. The first point is based on the previous car troubles I've mentioned.

I received my federal tax refund last week and decided I would go get a quote for the necessary repair, which turned out to be about what I would have expected to pay for doing it on my own. I had a feeling the actual price would be a bit higher when the work was done, so I went ahead and left the car at the shop last evening. They claimed they would be able to finish the job in about 2 hours, so I told them that was fine. About an hour and a half later, I got a call from the service manager, who informed me of what I had feared to be the case; that more work needed done, which would push the cost up about 250% of what they had previously quoted. Knowing that the guy wasn't just trying to make a sale, I told him to go ahead and take care of the rest of the work. Today, I went to pick up the car and pay my tab, and it turned out to be almost 300% of what I was quoted. When I looked at the invoice, I spotted no inconsistencies, so I just paid the dues. The price I paid was about 75% of my tax refund check, which made me sad, but here's to helping the economy.

Speaking of the pit we're in, today was an amazing day on the stock market. So amazing that I'm going to be one of the people who causes economic turmoil in the coming weeks. That turmoil being any shareholders waiting to break even, then dumping their investments. I don't know that I'll be doing that for everything; In fact, I may re-invest. However, the transportation and finance markets are not where I want my money to hang out. Yeah, I'm the one jerk who bought some FNM and FRE shares when they were on the way down, and I'm waiting for them to rebound to make a (relatively) quick buck. All they need to do is break $10/share.

I remain doubtful, but I really hope this economic stimulus package will cause enough of a jolt to get things back to normal.

For about the last 2 years I've listened to my Pandora radio station, and here recently it's given me some pretty kickin' new choices for music that I have labeled "really good".

The first band will kinda make you raise an eyebrow, mainly because they have a very grassroots feel, just barely clinging to the edge of the "country" genre. The band is called Son Volt. The few people I've shared their style with say that it's very strong sounding like old-school R.E.M. I can pick that up a bit in their sound, but it's not something that permeates the entire series of their albums.

If I had to pick one album out of their collection (which I picked up from Amazon last week), I'd say it's "Okemah and the Melody of Riot".

The second band is of a different sound entirely, and is probably much less likely to be known. Their name is Intercept, and they hail from the Indie side of the house. Their music is made up of a number of power chords, and the vocals have a very strong Paul Simon influence. Their lyrics seem to be full of messages of relationship experience, unlike Son Volt's lyrics about life in general, with lines such as:

All my friends say "you're crazy, Chris, You shouldn't move straight for her, You've built up your castles, and she's building up her castles, too..." And I know that I shouldn't but I will 'til I win!

This is from their song, Berlin.

I strongly recommend checking these groups out. I know I'm going to try and catch the Son Volt show that's coming to town later this month. :)

This is a big fad on Facebook right now, and I've been tagged in many notes from friends who have also done this. I'm not tagging anyone, and I'm posting it on my blog. Without any further adieu, 25 random facts about me:

1. I like pie
2. I lived with my parents until I was 23
3. I didn't get my license until I was 18
4. My first car was given to me
5. I have paid for all the vehicles I have owned by myself
6. I worked in the automotive industry for 7 years
7. I have worked in the IT industry for 2 years
8. I have been fired from a job once
9. I have never quit a job on bad terms
10. I have literally broken my back before
11. I have arthritis in my hands and back
12. I still have my tonsils and appendix
13. I hate aspargus
14. Tea makes my stomach upset
15. I moved 1500 miles from home last summer
16. I have only been to Wal Mart once since August
17. I've not had KFC in about a year
18. When I don't feel like cooking, I'll normally order Chinese food
19. I don't have cable or satellite
20. My name is listed on the charter for at least 2 LLC's
21. I turned down a Google job recruiter
22. I don't smoke
23. I own an XBox 360 and a Playstation 2, but I rarely make use of either
24. I enjoy bike riding
25. I own 6 pairs of blue jeans, but normally cycle through just 3 of them

I'm looking at getting a VoIP account so I can have some sort of normal-ish phone in the apartment. The two contenders are Vonage and Packet8. I need opinions though. Is one of these providers better than the other? If so, how?

Fail.

This rant is an exercise of free speech. If you have a problem with it, leave.

Our country inaugurated its 44th president today: Barack Obama. The name, as its stereotypes imply, is that of a black man. Yes, the country populated by the racist rednecks have put a non-white in office.

I'm not racist. I've stated this many times before. I have absolutely no beef against anyone who holds legal citizenship of the country they occupy. I did rant a couple years ago about the influx of illegal Mexican immigrants to my home town, where they filled many jobs that were promised to the unemployed residents of the community. That was an entirely different agenda though.

I attempted to watch the inauguration speech today, and I was quite annoyed about mid-way through it, when the new president began making statements with very strong anti-racism overtones, and was whining about the history of the black man.

A friend of mine made a rant on his Facebook notes about the benediction that was offered by Reverend Joseph Lowery. This benediction hammered on racial equality, which in the current day and age is meaningless. Why? Because there is no "minority" anymore.

Sure, the census data shows that the white man holds a very strong market share in the population of the country. What it doesn't show though is how strongly concentrated these supposed minorities are in the urban areas. It doesn't show that probably 60-70% of my neighbors are Hispanic; It doesn't show that the pharmacist I saw yesterday was a black woman. In these areas, there is absolutely nothing indicating that a particular race is being oppressed, that one race is greater than another.

Being a white man, it's easy for me to make this rant. But why, 46 years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I have a dream" speech, do we continue to overemphasize the rights of the non-whites? Are they still being forced to take their laundry elsewhere? Are they still not allowed to sit in the same theater as the white man? Are they not hired for a job because their skin color is not white?

We have laws to protect these people. These laws are very reasonable, and as far as I know are being followed everywhere. Why does the first impression we get of our new president have to be that of a man who feels as though he and his people still aren't being treated fairly?