Dreamsnatch,,,,

July 25, 2008 12:00 AM

Rural setting. I was going into the deserted barn to get something.

The barn was long and converted for use as a large mechanics area. Kind of like the old style airship hangars.

I started back and jokingly leapt into the air to float back towards the door as if something was at my heels.

And something was. It grabbed both legs at the ankles trying to pull me back into the barn but I kept jerking it forward dragging it into the light. All while having both feel in the air - it was like a flying superhero tugging something along.

I gave one mighty tug and woke up feeling as if I’d been exercising or had worked a long day of outside labor.

Creative spraying triumphs...

July 25, 2008 11:17 AM

So remember how I sprayed the vegetables in my garden with “tobacco tea”? I sprayed the vegetables but not the weeds.

The Japanese beetles are now weeding my garden for me. I’m still going to buy the traps though.

I ordered the replacement mower engine this morning for my riding mower. I’ll be going from 12hp to 18hp so that will be nice. It’s a different engine design but all the connecting/mounting stuff should match up just fine.

I’m going to pick up my scroll saw this weekend because we have the money for it from my bonus. I think that’s the last personal thing I’m going to get until next check. I just want to get it now so I can construct the new shutters among other things. I also want it before I organize the garage so I can make a space for it.

On the garden front I have actual cucumbers growing as well as beans that I’ll harvest this weekend. No sign of actual watermelons yet but I’m patient. I’ve really let my peppers down in the weeding department so despite my wrist I’ll have to do that this weekend. There are tons of those jade-plant-looking weeds around my peppers so I suspect those are being crowded out. This whole garden is definitely getting plowed under come fall...

So after correcting my own stupidity in my noping-reboot script (I was using the wrong house code for the X10 commands) it seems to have worked just fine as of today. So that’s one thing off my list. I will likely put all the servers on X10 modules when I put them in the rack so that I can remotely power cycle them via an ssh session. I don’t know if X10 signals can travel through a UPS or not but I’m not going to take that change. I’ll be putting a filter on the plug of the power strip going into the UPS. That way any of the server related X10 commands don’t mix with the rest of the X10 modules in the house.

Need to pick up a full length ladder a couple weeks from now. I’ve been seriously looking at getting one of the funky folding kind because that’s all the height we need around that house.

I’m hoping that the rest of the solar lights will be here this weekend so I can finish installing them. They just seem to fit the house so well that I had to get more. My wife will bug me about it but I bought 8 this time. That will allow me to line the walkways at least though I’m still wondering how the ones under the maple tree will do over time. They don’t take much to charge but I’ll have to see how they do. And like I said I can easily convert them for standard low-voltage use. Though I will leave them LED if I do that.

Adjusting better to the added vitamins in my diet but I definitely have to remember to eat something when I take them. Forgot that today and was slightly queasy on the way to work. Thankfully I ate well last night so it wasn’t too long since I had food in my stomach.

Checked into prices for the replacement battery pack for my UPS and the best price I can find is $79. Since that’s about the price of a much smaller replacement UPS I will likely order that. I’m still kicking myself for not taking the extra external battery module when I picked up this UPS from the recycling place. Anyway I’ll get that ordered soon and get it installed so I can go back to having actual power-fail functionality on my systems again. I’d love to get a rack-mount UPS unit but they are damn expensive...

Holy Time Lords Batman!

July 25, 2008 10:30 PM

Just finished watching The Stolen Earth - the season cliffhanger of Doctor Who - and I’m pretty damned impressed with the writing that’s been applied to this season’s story arc.

I won’t give spoilers...promise.

The trend for this run of Doctor Who has been to write the doctor as more of a triumphant tragic character and quite honestly they’ve hit the nail on the head. For the first time in many iterations the Doctor is proven to be not as infallible as he has in the past, not as aloof, more...human...than Time Lord. And for what it’s worth I like the feet of clay. They suit him.

David Tennant in my opinion had a bit of a rocky start playing the character but thanks to what I can only describe as a natural talent for mercurial emotional displays he has put a face on the Doctor that will be remembered for quite a while.

And I think I know why that is. It’s because of all the actors that have played The Doctor he’s the only one who _wanted_ the part. He’s wanted to play the part for years and has said so on numerous occasions.

If you got to be the one fiction person you’ve always wanted to be wouldn’t you do a good job? ;-D

To be even more honest here I would love to be The Doctor.

It’s a little embarrassing but I carry a Tardis key with me wherever I go. I’ve always owned one since the late 80’s. The original one I got said Spirit of Light on the back of it and as worn as it is I still have it in my possession. I buried one - I’m not going to go into where or why. I currently have a modern pewter one (no lead content) that I wear that will go to a local fan once I get the other gold plated one in the mail.

Stop looking at me like that - I’m not nuts. ;-)

I don’t keep the key expecting a blue police box to appear out of nowhere. While the infinite randomness of the universe says it’s possible the odds are far more likely that I will gain super powers from a mutated popcorn kernel and be able to fly to another planet. Got it?

I keep a Tardis key to remind me of what’s possible. Because that’s what Doctor Who is all about - what’s _possible_.

The Doctor has traveling companions and has always had them. If you watch them instead of the doctor you notice one thing about them that is consistent.

They’ve all become more than they would have ever been had they not met the Doctor. There is not one companion that failed to grow in one manner or another. (Even Adric grew as a character before he died on the show.)

And while the growth companions experience can be attributed to just being “out there” it speaks to something in me and likely in all of the Doctor Who fans “out there”.

It gives us hopes. It gives us dreams. It gives us the ability to see beyond the end of our nose. We wouldn’t be attracted to the Doctor otherwise.

Heck even fans of The Master or one of the other Doctor Who villains are dreaming beyond the horizon - they just dream at the other end of the spectrum.

But they’re dreaming. And they don’t stop. And they shouldn’t. For even in dark dreams can come the flowers of inspiration and light. Decay of matter breeds fresh energy. One dream dies, another dream flares into life bright and shiny!

Some people try and convince me that we only go around this earth once. One life and that’s all you get.

They’re wrong. I’m sorry to be so blunt but they’re wrong.

Theology will run us in circles so let’s try science here.

I’m of the opinion that the universe we inhabit is ever changing but _complete_. Okay?

According to the rules of the universe as we understand them energy can be neither created nor destroyed - just transferred from one form to another.

So where does the spirit that inhabits a newborn come from?

Many theologies tell us that it’s created from scratch by whoever created the universe. I can’t believe or abide that.

That would mean that in essence the only way a new person comes into being is the maker(s) creates them. And when it comes down to it that makes us fish in a fishbowl. We die and whoever it is that runs the joint just adds more fish.

That’s a horribly wasteful system don’t you think? I can’t believe anything that would have created this universe would be so thoughtless.

Some would argue that we get “re-absorbed” into “The Whole”. And while that’s not nearly so wasteful it means that any individuality that we were is lost in some manner. That’s just another version of the fishbowl in my book. Worse yet it’s sad because we become small parts of a larger being that is either playing with itself or forgotten it’s grandness.

Nope. The only one that makes sense to me is that when we pass from one physical body we move on to another physical body. Now I’m not going to limit people so I won’t say what kind of body - I’ve met some awfully smart animals in my time - but most of the time it’s human to human.

Nothing is lost and we continue to grow with each cycle. As to why we don’t recall this completely you might want to think for half a second on what you had for breakfast 5 years go on a Tuesday.

See what I mean? Hard to remember right? If you can’t remember what you had for breakfast 5 years ago is it any wonder you can’t remember a previous lifetime?

In some ways we’re the mayflies of the universe...but we do all right when we put our minds and hearts into it...good or bad...

And in the end that’s how I judge us as a whole. Do we reach a balance.

The current score?

I see brilliantly bright shiny spirits out there. People with a core of brightness that illuminates all that they touch. And they are beautiful.

I see dark spirits out there. People with a core of darkness that engulfs anything nearby. And they too are beautiful in their own way.

The extra bright ones burn themselves out quickly. The extra dark ones turn in upon themselves.

And in the end...the balance remains.