Nov 23

Have You Ever Done Something So Fookin Stupid

That the very micro-second you do it you wonder “What The Flying Fuck Was I Thinking?” Followed immediately by “What The Fuck Did You Do?” I had one of those moments yesterday.

Blond12bYesterday I swapped out that bad hard drive in my desktop for the 5-TB drive I had “laying around.” Linux didn’t recognize the thing. Started up GParted and it recognized the drive but would make only a 1.9-TB partition. Well, this ain’t gonna work.

Rebooted into Windows 7 and started the Computer Management thingie. Found the drive. Clicked on my WorkDrive (where I have (had) a butt-ton of video that I’ve downloaded or converted (and some other things), and everything looked good.

Right clicked and chose “delete partition” just as I realized I was still on my WorkDrive. Fuck! And Windows would not undo the delete. Double Fuck.

So I lost everything on that drive. Eventually got everything up and running (after running Photorec & Testdisk) but still, I lost everything on that drive. Damn! Photorec did manage to pull some stuff off but it’s all weirdly named. TestDisk couldn’t rebuild that partition either. GParted just laughs at all of it.

Fixing My Computer

So, If y’all don’t hear from me for a couple of days, don’t worry about it. Gonna completely rebuild my computer and reinstall Linux Mint KDE. Will use that SSD for the boot part. Backing up my data right now. Will have to re-setup mail and reinstall all the programs I usually use, and re-download/install X-Plane and that other program, but I’ll have a fresh system to play with.

I was so upset with myself I went and got a Taco Salad (without rice) at Taco Bell. Had to get out or I’d have thrown this computer out into the lawn. (Not really.)

Damn, I can be stupid sometimes.

Sep 13

Oh, Joy. I Broke The Bloody Tractor

Tractor got here right around 0730 and, after a quick breakfast of a bowl of cheerios, I got out and started learning how to use the thing. Spent a good 6 hours going over the driveways and our road. That box scraper thing works pretty good.

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Got all that done and went to the back of the property to do the path back there. Just wanted to level it out. Put the “teeth” down, lowered the box scraper, and headed out. I don’t know what I tried to dig up, but it damned near tore the box scraper off the tractor. I have no idea what I hit as I was watching the front of the bucket to be sure I didn’t run into a tree. (It is rather “tight” in there just walking; much less driving a tractor in there.)

When I noticed the box scraper just hanging on I stopped the tractor; and then it died. Would not stay running. Gas gauge wasn’t moving at all when I turn the key on so I figured I was out of fuel. Off to Safeway for fuel.

Got back to the house and started pouring the fuel into the tank. Poured about 2 gallons in and it overflowed. Big time. Got a bucket of water to rinse the extra fuel off. Turned the key. Nothing. No movement at all. Tractor still won’t stay running. I think it has something to do with the box scraper.

So, called the rental place and they say that the tractor won’t just start; there’s some kind of “trick” to starting it once it’s ran out of fuel. I don’t think that’s it, but okay. So I’m waiting around for them to show up.

2016-09-13 14.27.36

Bent the bottom bar that holds the box scraper to the tractor. I don’t know what I tried to dig up, or if a cotter pin came out somewhere and that let it loosen enough to bend the thing. I just don’t know. But I’ll bet you it’s gonna be expensive to fix! Just what we need at this time. (We’re leaving on vacation next Tuesday and I don’t want to spend all our vacation money on tractor repairs. Damn!)

GAs02aThe guy from the rental place finally showed up. He couldn’t get the tractor started either. Power is not getting to anywhere but the starter. So, it’ll start, but it won’t stay startted.

Don’t know how we’re going to work this “rental” out. Sure, I’ll pay for the bar I bent repair; but, if the tractor lost power through nothing I did, well …

The MCARC 10-meter Tuesday Evening Chet Net went well even if we didn’t really have a Net. Our usual Net Control didn’t show up so the rest of us just kinda shot the bull for a few. Was fun.

I am beat from bouncing around all day. I’m gonna go lay down. After I shower.

May 08

Can You Say–Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn?

BullshitMeterWas cleaning my counter’s up and accidently knocked over my 5-TB backup drive; you know, the drive where I back up all the movies/music I’ve ripped over the past year+. Now all it does is sit there and click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! And FUCK!

I’m not going to work on it today. Too pissed. Tomorrow I’ll take it out of the case and mount it in my computer (or one of the other I have) and give it a whirl. But I’m not going to get into that today. Luckily, it is a backup drive; so I have everything on the NAS (MediaDrive) in the big room. But I did have it set up a little differently and some stuff on it that I didn’t put anywhere else. Damn.

#Desiree

It’s Mother’s Day! So I’m going to strap on a happy face and BBQ some chicken for my lovely-young-bride of almost 30 years. Add some Tater Salad and BBQ Beans and you got a meal.

http%3A%2F%2F38.media.tumblr.com%2F1204ee4bfd2562991a2e73684dd02925%2Ftumblr_nf3ulsNYs91rsrggao1_r1_500Other than that: pretty “normal” Sunday around here. Laundry day. Got all my usual chores done. Too cool outside for me, but not too bad. Not like the dead of Winter or anything. Thank Goodness.

SWMBO enjoyed the dinner and the crispy peanut butter cookies I made. Cool!

I was Net Control for the MCARC 2-meter Sunday Evening Chat Net tonight. I had 13 people check in! Wow. Cool! And, mostly, I got good signal reports. Unusual!

Anywho, that’s it for tonight. I’m still up in the air about maybe climbing on the roof after dark to see if we actually are able to see the Aurora tonight. Or maybe I should just set my camera up and see it it gets anything. I don’t know. I’m a fairly early to bed, early to rise kind of person.

Oct 27

Totally Totally Discouraging

The first half of Chapter 6 in the Extra Class book. Didn’t understand a thing (except for the blurb on crystal’s) until I got to the Digital Signal Processing part. Everything after that was somewhat understandable. Might have well been reading Klingon until then. Guess I really am a “computer” type of guy. As long as I don’t have to build the parts for one, that is.

137

Assembling a computer from component parts is pretty straight forward. And easy. Getting them up and running isn’t really that hard if you have some understanding of the OS you’re installing. Getting networking to network; easy (mostly). Learn a new program without reading the manual. Easy.

Hell, I “figured out” how to use AutoCAD once upon a time; well enough to teach Engineers how to use it. But the theory of electronics and circuits might as well be molecular science or astrophysics when I read it. Klingon.

femjoy_110618_007

And having to know this stuff is not going to make me a better radio operator cause I will never build a radio. If I can’t buy it off the shelf, plug it in, and use it, then I just ain’t gonna do it.

The FCC made a good decision to not require anyone to know Morse Code. That way you don’t have to learn it unless you want to learn it. This electronics stuff should be the same. Why does the book tell you what a Magnetron tube is, explain the way it’s made and what it does, when the only place you’ll see them is in your microwave oven? (And why is it called a oven when it doesn’t bake?)

So, yeah. Frustrated.

Knowing-knowing

Class tonight so posting early. Everything is SSDD around here. Gotta remember to stop by and get milk on the way home or I’ll be having dry cereal for breakfast. But I’ll forget tonight and have bacon tomorrow. (BACON!!!!!)