Sunday, November 30, 2003

The Gollumization of Frodo Baggins The movie version of The Two Towers made the relationship between Frodo and Gollum seem more complex than I remember it from the book.  Frodo starts to act a bit more like Gollum as the ring takes hold and starts to feel more kinship with Gollum, who is a fellow ring bearer.  Kind of like Sancho Panza starts to act more like Don Quixote. When I was 12 and reading this book, I never questioned why Gollum would help them get into Mordor.  Now it seems that something in Gollum wants to see the ring destroyed 7:07:41 PM    comment []

and neither does my wireless network I have a TRENDnet wireless USB network adaptor  (TEW-USB) and a TRENDnet wireless base station.  I know the base station works because my brother got connected to it last night.  My wireless client does not work, however, and the documentation really is lacking.  Can't find any troubleshooting information on-line or in the PDF that comes with the driver.  TRENDnet online support does seem to be responsive, though, so have a problem ticket and I will wait for them to get back to me.  Meanwhile, I have another box with pretty lights and a donut shaped electromagnetic radiation field encompassing my house and yard.  11:30:57 AM    comment []

minivan doesn't work We have to take our Mazda MPV into the shop.  It has a rough idle that can get dangerously jerky at times when the car is in drive but not moving.  A concurrent problem is a loud hum at low speeds which went away when the rough idle started.  Now that it has gone away, the power brakes don't work at really low speeds.  My prediction, based on my 6 months internment at the Minneapolis Technical College Automotive School, is that there is a leak in the vacuum canister of the power brakes.  The engine works to suck air out of the power brake vacuum canister and if there is a leak introducing extra air into the engine, causing a rough idle.  And the leak must have grown to the point that the power brakes can't maintain their vacuum at low engine RPMs.  The Mazda dealer must have sealed the leak with scotch tape before selling it and that seal has broken. 11:22:29 AM    comment []

Rivers Edge is a homeschooler in South Minneapolis who maintains a blog. 10:37:13 AM    comment []

pain Owwwwww.  I cheesed my back.  Again.  It has a lot to do with my weight, which has been trending upwards.  I now weigh more than I ever have before in my life.  Yesterday was the Dunkirk of my fight against obesity.  Matt and Kara came over last night and brought these wonderful brownies.  Picture logs being processed by a saw mill.  In meditation, the goal is to be aware.  The first things you encounter as you practice this awareness are your own automatic responses.  During dinner, I became briefly aware of myself smashing food into my face as fast as I could.  There was little conscious thought involved and very little enjoyment, just automatic processing. To paraphrase something that John Cowan wrote, the way we often try to experience food is to catapult ourselves into a hot fudge sundae.  The alternative is to become very aware of every bite and sip while eating, so that a chocolate cookie and a cup of tea can be savored one carefully considered bite and sip at a time and make for a full experience. 10:20:09 AM    comment []