Wanderings and Musings

I try to use a portable thumb drive with portable applications for all of my application needs wherever I go. This provides me with security with the fact that none of my data is left hanging around on any machine, security also with the fact that I use an SSH tunnel for my internet needs thus avoiding someone snooping my traffic on the network, and ease of use as all of my programs are accessible anywhere I am at as long as I have a windows computer to plug my drive into.

I’ve had a few requests from people to give them a copy of all the programs I use… however, this isn’t quite what I want to do as my personal data is often saved into the application folders of those programs. So I decided to create a post about the items I use and provide links.

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Hard times are coming… the only question is: How hard will they be?

The financial meltdown was predicted a few years in advance along with the mortgage crisis that precipitated it, and even though the majority of people want to remain positive (or blind) and turn their head from the coming years of hardship, the fact remains that there is no good news on the short term horizon. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.

I just don’t know how far “worse” goes down the ladder at this point. I mean, is this a worse as in gas costs $6/gal and people have to start tightening their belts, or is this a worse as in complete financial collapse and another great depression, or is this a worse as in zombies rule the world and you’re the only remaining human alive?

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Update on my Asus eee PC 900: (Note- I’m typing this post up on my Asus eee )

After traveling around with it for two months I really appreciated it’s size. It fit perfectly into my motorcycle tank bag and at less than 2 pounds it’s practically not noticed when carrying it around.

The size of the screen is actually not a problem at all for using the internet or doing most other normal work.

The only thing I found myself disliking are that the buttons on the touchpad don’t always work, and the low powered CPU can at times be slow enough to be irritating.

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September 18th, 2008 - This was drawn from a real object instead of a picture, which requires a bit more interpretation of the subtle light shades and proportions. It was a good subject to draw as the colors and textures are fairly simple.

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Update: A lot of fine people are working hard on creating subtitles in other languages for the movie. See their links below in the comments. And… if you watch the movie and agree with it. Do something! Anything! Even a small gesture. Spend a few hours contributing to the cause.

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I spent many hours transcribing the movie Zeitgeist: Addendum into text and marking up the quotations and speech with the speaker. I wanted to contribute to these ideas, and as I couldn’t find a full transcript online yet, I took it on myself.

This movie is phenomenal. Even if you don’t agree with everything in it, be open to the messages it has. Open your mind, think through what is and how it could be done in other ways. If you have questions or doubts… go research it, let others know about your research. Don’t react and yell and scream because it upsets you, give it some thought and some attention.

If you see errors in the transcript let me know. If you find references that I can link to within the transcript also let me know.
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October 10th, 2008 - It’s been another spell since my last drawing, but a water brother** of mine wanted to draw with me, so I asked her to pick a subject. She chose the Giraffes from an animal book of mine and I started drawing…

** (If you are unfamiliar with the reference it is from “Stranger in a strange land” by Robert Heinlein, but I haven’t found a description online anything like the true meaning you get from reading the book, so if you want to know what I mean… you’ll have to read the book.)

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For the last couple of days I’ve been having strange heart issues. My heart goes… beat, beat, pause… BEAT, beat. Maybe every 10 or 20 beats I get an irregular one. This has been disconcerting to me to say the least. Well as I’m driving in to work yesterday morning it was particularly bad and I was actually worrying enough to start some research into it.

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July 28th, 2008 - Another birthday drawing for Aleah. Knowing what I was going to do for her birthday, she asked that I draw her a picture of Niko. Well at first she had about 5 other suggestions that changed each time she mentioned it, but finally settled on her cat. She didn’t however know what picture I was going to draw from. This is a fairly common position for him. Draping his legs over the back of a chair and just hanging out. What a silly cat.

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March 14th, 2008 - Finding something to draw when you’re not really in the mood can be difficult. My daughters again wanted me to draw with them, so I randomly picked out a quarter and thought it would be interesting to sketch.

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January 20th, 2008 - It’s another birthday!! Briana asked for a tiger, and since my last drawing for Aleah was in color I wanted to draw this one in color too. I worked on it during a ski trip to Whistler and really focused on the face of the tiger. I was running right down to the wire on finishing it, so the body is a little under finished… but it helps to bring out the face and expression of the subject that much more.

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