Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in dug_whatever's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Saturday, January 17th, 2009
12:57 pm	I suck Seriously. I suck. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, September 19th, 2008
11:22 am	Just a quick Little message from work You won't catch me posting often from work it at all. I just thought that maybe some of you would like to help us out. One of my coworkers has a child who has Brain Cancer. He has spent a considerable amount of time between a couple hospitals. His birthday is tomorrow, and he has this webpage for people to visit. You don't have to do anything more than just click the link and let it load. The families goal is to get it above 1000 before his birthday tomorrow and its almost 900 now. If you would like to leave him a comment on his page great! But a simple page view is all the family is looking for. So please, take 5 seconds and just let the browser load the page so they can reach their goal of 1000 by tomorrow! Please and thank you http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/alexblom (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, September 12th, 2008
7:14 am	Writer's Block: 9/11 What were you doing on September 11th, 2001? How do the events of that day hold meaning for you now? View 500 Answers I had just moved to Grand Rapids Michigan from Duluth MN. We go into town really late on the 8th of Sept. and stayed at a hotel. The morning of the 10th, we met our landlord, got all the papers signed, moved our car load of "essentials" in and relaxed for a bit. We then went to get food and explore the area. We wanted to find some places around town we would need to know about including the insurance agent where we would switch the car insurance and pick up renter insurance etc etc. We get back home that night, eat dinner, and huddle around a laptop on the floor where we will watch Xmen and then go to sleep. The rest of our stuff won't arrive for 2 - 3 more days. The morning of Sept 11th we wake up with no radio and no TV. We have an apt with the insurance agent, and we get ready to go. We leave and head on our way. We forgot the faceplate to the car stereo, but its a short trip so we leave it and continue on our way. The whole town seems quiet. Not like it was the day before. We thought it odd, but forgot as quickly as we had noticed. When we get to the insurance agent there is one car in the lot. Good, this means we should be quick. We go inside and there is no receptionist. We ring the bell we get no answer. There is an office door slightly cracked, and its dark in there with the slight light from what was obviously a Television or computer screen. We go in and say hello, and the man sorta just waves. I look over to see what is so captivating that he can't properly greet us. It was then the second plane hit the second tower. Ignorantly I ask, "what movie is this?". "It's the news", as he turns the volume up. My girlfriend from the time and I sat down, and said nothing. We too were zombies now. We had no tv to go home to, so we eagerly sat in that office for hours just watching, not speaking. It made a confusing time even more confusing. It made the need to have all our stuff there in Grand Rapids with us, change to the need to have just one TV. We bought a small used TV that night and watched. There was nothing else to do. Just watch. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, August 11th, 2008
10:36 pm	My Turn the new job is going great. I was worried that I wouldn't like what I do or the people I work with and went forward knowing this is the best option I have for my future. Well the people I work with are great, and I really dig my job more than i thought I would. Thats enough of that, Time for some LJ mem stuffs. I asked Patrick for an artist, that I would have to pick a top ten list from. I knew it would be one of the Beatles but which one. Would he ask for Ringo? Did Ringo have 10 songs worth mentioning? Could I even think of ten post Beatle Ringo songs? Would he put me on the post with George and what limits would I have? Could I get away with my favorite Beatle John, or would he do something REALLY EVIL and offer up Pete Best? Then again, he might not give me The Beatles at all. What I did know is that Amber got the Beatles, so I would not be getting the same. He did his list, and now I do mine. I got Paul McCartney, post Beatles, Wings is ok, but I will go the Extra mile and exclude Wings, cause that would be too easy and too common to have that list available. Here is my top 10 McCartney List 1 Maybe I'm Amazed (cheezy and long sure, but I still get goosebumps) 2 Fine Line (its a diddy, and I sing it in my head often) 3 Song We Were Singing (just pretty) 4 Flaming Pie (Pauls magical return came with this song) 5 Calico Skies (ahhh) 6 Heaven on a Sunday (great song, especially on a lazy sunday) 7 Uncle Albert/Admiral Halmsey (you can't deny the power of this song) 8 Beautiful Night (just is) 9 Dance Tonight (its so damn catchy, and so upbeat) 10 Pipes of Peace (Classic, and timeless) (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
6:14 am	Still Busy - but see the end for something important Ok, first off, you might see my previous journal of "St". Thats because LJ keeps doing this weird thing lately where it just posts automatically when I start typing. It has done this the last couple journals I posted, and so I have had to re-edit the journal. This morning I don't feel like messing around with it. It also seems to have a problem with anything in the "Rich Text" so I can't ever do links the easy way, I type my journal out in HTML mode. Bleh So the fast update is that I haven't been playing Disc Golf. Even if i had time to play, I couldn't I did something to a muscle in my right arm, and it isn't happy at this moment. Its better than it was, but when I tried to play before it was better, I only made it worse. So now, I don't work on the course or play it until my arm is better. I tell you what though. I could really use a nice relaxing game of Disc right now. So I am no longer under a conditional offer for employment, I passed all the tests and start working with the County on Tuesday. I will be working my current job right up through Tuesday. My first day of training is gonna be at night, just cause thats when this particular class is going on, then I will be 8-4:30 Monday - Friday. I am very excited about this. Other than that, I have done nothing with photos lately, don't have the time. Hopefully I will again soon. NOW. GO HERE http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/2474180/Harry-Potter-and-the-Half-Blood-Prince-trailer-unveiled.html and watch the Half Blood Prince teaser/trailer. ABSOLUTE GOOSEBUMPS!!!! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
6:13 am	St (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
6:11 am	Another Harry Potter Band This is done by a friend of mine from Deviant Art   MaybeInLegoLand Here is the link to his new band on Myspace  Hagrid and the Angry Skrewts.  Check em out, its entertaining enough. Enjoy kiddies (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
1:34 pm	Life Linux and Windows OK.  So LJ just weirded out there for a second and posted this before I was done with the subject line.  It apparently added some crap as well. So Bill Gates has stepped down!  Awesome.  Or is it?   I wonder if maybe he was the one force that kept the company from being entirely evil.  I want to believe this cause he has big and wonderful plans for helping the world, you just wouldn't know with the way his company operates.  So here is to hoping things don't get worse with Microsoft and here is wishing luck to Bill Gates in his philanthropist endeavors. While on the topic of Windows, allow me to say that I love LINUX.  This is no secret.  The control and the security are awesome.  There is a downside however.  The lack of support from major software companies.  While there is a TON of great open source software I have run into 2 hang ups that I can't really get around.  Its one full hang up and 2 half hang ups, totally in at 2 full hang ups. 1)  PTGUI.  It is the best panorama software I have ever used.  Nothing else in Windows and nothing in linux can handle the 100+ photo matrixing I need to create the Polar Panoramas.  I can run it in Linux, but then I can't select all the photos at once.  So its one at a time, and for 100 photos is mind numbing.    So I really need it in Windows to run efficiently.  2) Game support.  There are a ton of fun games made for free in Linux.  I love them.  But some of the games I purchased won't run in linux, even when ran in a Windows emulation.  So to enjoy them, having Windows available will be handy.  Funny enough though, the Windows Programs and Games that I can use in Linux, run better in Linux on an emulator than they do in Windows, which is what they were designed for.  So those games will remain in Linux. 3)  Flash.  There is great support for Flash in Linux.  but now that Adobe has finally offered support for Linux, its changing too much on the linux side and is a bad time to be working on flash in linux.  So Windows, while not neccesarry is gonna help here. So basically, after all my who-haw about linux, I will be providing a room for Windows today.  Nothing great, probably only a 7-10 gig partition, but I will have a dual boot computer with both Linux and Windows.  While most of what I do will be in Linux, there will be moments when I am in Windows.  I don't like it much, and I tried hard to get around everything, and I almost did it.  But until there is more commercial support of Linux (which is happening more and more, especially since Adobe announced their support) I will have to live in the dual boot world. Other than that, I have been playing with Amy's new camera some and man o petes is that fun. Don't get me wrong, I like working my little point and shoot camera to get the things that I have, but WOW.  Here is some recent photos I took with her camera.  All of them at 250mm, manual focus and no tripod! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
8:50 pm	More good news as promised I know the following looks long, but iPod users should read this. If you have another type of MP3 player, but want to see what the excitement is about and skip the iPod BS, start at the paragraph before the bullet list. So I have my 1st gen iPod nano, which is beyond the Apple warranty. I named it Slam Betty. I love it. I love it soo much. It has served me for years at this point, and has been worth every penny. Even though I have used it most every day since I got it, the batter still holds for the full day with no problems whats so ever. However last fall Apple started sending iPods out that are programmed to not work with ANYTHING but iTunes. If you run linux, you can't use their product. They have sued companies in the past for making DRM's for their MP3's so that they would work on ipods. Basically they sued another company for trying to stop their monopoly on a digital right. But there are some fucked up laws, thanks to lobbying that allow this to be legal. There might be some linux software that will talk to the newer iPods, but by doing that, they are breaking another section of that same DRM law that protects Apple. For this reason, I will never buy another iPod again. If I buy something, I should be allowed to use it how I want to. I don't want to be told how to use my computer, my camera, my tv or my toaster. It should be my choice. So lets pray Slam Betty lives for a long time cause I found something that makes it WAY MORE FRIGG'n COOLER than it was before. Its sad that companies like Apple and Microsoft feel they need to control ever aspect of my digital life if I have any of their products. I should be able to have a computer and put whatever software I want on it, and not be restricted cause Bill Gates thinks so. I should be allowed to own a MP3 player and be able to buy my music anywhere I want, not just iTunes. So I changed the firmware on my iPod. For those of you who use iPods this is a safe thing to do. I tested it with my Nano, and following the easy instructions, I was able to able and disable the new firmware with a very very simple procedure. It sounds like it is even easier for Windows users. I don't know what software will work in windows for sync'ing up with your podcasts, or managing your music, so I can't make suggestions there. But one neat thing about this is you can manage your music and files with drag and drop in your file manager. Just open it up like a USB drive, move the files in and bam they are there. NO SOFTWARE REQUIRED. You can make folders on your computer, set them up the way you want, move it in your music player and thats how it is seen in the new User Interface. Some great features I now enjoy on my 1st Gen iPod Nano are as follows: I can now play a multitude of audio formats. Not just Apple formats and MP3s, but I can now play FLAC, WAV, OGG, MIDI, or a whole list of other I can play a bunch of games. Mine came with Solitaire, some parachute game and a music game. The solitaire game ran real slow when I had music playing. These games don't slow a bit while I listen to music, and there are more of them. there is Chess, solitaire, Jewel (bejeweled knock off) snake 1 and snake 2 and more. If that wasn't enough, I also have PACMAN and I have DOOM. Thats right. I can play the 3-d Shooter DOOM on my ipod. I can now play VIDEO on my ipod. I watched a 10 minute short at work today. It looked and sounded great!!!! In Apples world, I don't deserve video on my ipod, cause I chose the nano over the video iPod. At that time, it was a 20 dollar difference between the iPod I chose and the Video Ipod. Mostly because I chose flash memory over a hard drive. I wanted something I felt safe to run around with. NOW. I have video Everything sounds better, because it has a better EQ. I can set up presets, or I can adjust it to fit my needs. It even has a graphical EQ built in. Customizable UI (User Interface). I can change the look of my iPod. I can change the background, the colors, the fonts and the icons. I can even make my own. I can change the look of any part of it! This is good for me, cause I love customization. I like flashy stuff sometimes, but I prefer simple. To have simple and to have choice at the same time really makes my day! There are even more options that I will let you look at yourself www.rockbox.org So go check it out if you like.  Expand your capabilities and enjoy.  You can follow a link from that page to see the many existing themes out there that you can choose from as well. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
12:54 am	Rest in Peace A brilliant free thinking mind Rest in Peace http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25322638/ (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
11:46 pm	Also, a Meme So you go to www.urbandictionary.com and look up your name. Then post the definition here. I have a couple variations on my first name, so I did all of them. I provided links for those who want to see the definitions I didn't choose. Some are quite fun. Douglas: A older lad who hangs out/in a relationship with younger kid/s hoping they will look up to him because he's older. Doug: To beat off. Spanking your hampster. Dug: Ya Dug is ya cock Dale: A word used in Bloomfield Hills for any person, place, thing, or any other word you want to use it as, or verb, adjective, or adverb. Derives from Julia and/or David Dale. Patnaude: Not defined yet Jr: Stands for "Johnny Rocket." When a place gives you bad service, you just shit all over their bathroom and piss all over the walls. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
7:47 pm	Hello there friends ***Edit*** The links are now fixed. I had to actually add them in the HTML cause LJ is denying me the ability to let the "Rich Text" do what its supposed to do. Time for my occasional check in.  Not a whole lot to report.  Doing a lot with photos.  Doing a lot with job hunting.  I passed the Civil Servants exam, so hopefully that can land me a job.  I destroyed the computer testing, and got 85% or so on the written exam, which is passing.  They don't give better details than that, but I am ok with it. I want to retake the test so I can try to score a 90% or higher.  I can't retake it for another year.  Sigh. Amy is doing better with her feet, but got Tendonitis in the process or healing.  But there is drugs to help with it, and the boot casts are back on. For geeks out there, if you haven't seen it already, then watch "The IT Crowd".  Its a British Sitcom about an IT department at a company.  Its brilliant.   I am late on seeing it, but oh dear god do I laugh my ass off. In the news, a few points of interest. Who knew Kid Rock was so cool?  Well cool until he went on about stealing gas, but read for yourself If you are Bill Gates you can buy your friends.  Seriously.  Adam Boulton is my new hero.  Go here and watch the video or listen to the audio.  Just past 12 minutes in, you will hear him make George Bush look like a bigger idiot than he already does on his own.  Also, you get to hear Bush admit to working "around the constitution" GO SEE IT NOW. Other than that.  Linux is still rocking my world.  Also, I am replacing the firmware on my iPod.  Slam Betty is a getting a face lift.  Details to come soon. Firefox 3 releases soon.  I like it in some respects, and not in others.  It is the default browser for my current Ubuntu, but I downloaded FF2 so I can get around the few bugs that are yet to be fixed.  Thats all for now. I hope everyone is doing well. I will have other good news coming in the very near future. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
10:42 am	E Amber was playing, and I volunteered my free time to play along. She gave me E Please read and follow these rules i. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter ii. List five songs that start with that letter iii. Post them to your journal with these instructions (I will avoid Beatles songs so as to make this more fun for everyone else) 1) Everybody Knows - Leonard Cohen This song will forever remind me of sitting in the theatre with Latuska and Shawn with Cherry Skoal, Dr Pepper and watching Natural Born Killers about 2-3 times a week 2) Exhuming McCarthy - REM Nothing special, I was just trying to think something up i did have to look it up to make sure though 3) Everyone Was There - Cars & Trucks Keepin it local, keepin it real 4) Empty Garden -  Elton John Its not a Beatles song, but it IS about my favorite Beatle 5) Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town - Pearl Jam Easy no brainer, not sure why it wasn't the first one I thought of (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
12:31 pm	This is amazing check it out (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
10:21 am	Linux Update and Stolen Memes Ok, so linux is going well. There is still some learning curve here and a few settings I am learning about, but with everystep I become more and more in love with this set up.  I have a ton of software now set up and will begin doing my multimedia stuffs in linux.  I am looking forward to this! ###EDIT ---- Check this out   Stupid LJ won't let me add the link right, so it don't work for you go here http://ementhal.deviantart.com/art/Tuesday-Afternoon-70302300 Now behind the the cut, I present to you Memes, stolen from susiegrapefruit ( Memes taste better when they are stolen )    Current Music: the Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust (Comment on this)
Friday, April 25th, 2008
11:54 am	Its official Both my main computer and my file server are 100% Micro$oft free!  The new release of Ubuntu is pretty sweet.  Its a tad slow on the file server, and while I enjoyed Xubuntu on there, I just wanted a few more options.  I plan to put a server edition on there in the near future and set up for remote access as well. This makes my Friday a happy Friday. Hope everyone else is having a happy friday as well! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
12:10 pm	Another neglected Journal on the triple dub gets a random update Ok. So I have had a hard time keeping up with the LJ thing.  I have found time here and there to read other peoples entries, but life has just been uber busy.  Things didn't lighten up much after the birthday, they just sorta shifted focus I think.    So here is the update in all its glory, summarized to allow you to keep most of your Sunday afternoon available. Amy and I have outlined our goals, created a budget and made a time line and plan to go with it all.  In order to achieve this, we have had to make some financial changes, lifestyle changes and there are more on the horizon.  This also includes me looking for a different job.  My employers know this, and I will keep them in the loop at all times.  I love where I work now, and I love the people that I work for.  They understand that in a perfect world I would just continue to work there.  However, I need to make more money, and will be looking for some mundane position doing grunt labor for more money.  In the job search process I have noticed that I need a degree to really be able to make more money and have any hope of doing something I enjoy.  So hopefully this fall I will go back to school.  I am thinking I will get a basic degree in programing and hash out code for a living.  Its not a grand thing to do, but its the best thing I can do with the shortest amount of time in school and the smallest acquired debt in the process.  There is a need for programmers in this area it seems, and they all require schooling or minimum 2 years professional experience.  I have neither in coding and don't know much about the languages that are paying good money.   If I got a job doing basic programming I could be making over 50K a year in Duluth.  Photography has been going good except that we haven't gotten out much for it.  Surprise surprise Amy has found herself in another physical set back.  Currently she has labyrinthitis.  Basically some fluid or whatever in her inner ear or sinuses has solidified, so she gets motion sickness lying down and vertigo moving around.  We saw the doc about it and they gave her drugs to keep her from throwing up, but there is nothing they can do about the dizziness.  All we can do is ride it out.  Good news is that it isn't permanent, and after the CT scan it isn't MS, tumor or stroke!!!  It will go away with time, and it could be a result of a new allergy.  Possibly our cat.  We are working on making our photographic debut so to speak.  If things get better soon enough we expect to be apart of the Art a Whirl show in the TC.  Anyone got a spare bed in the TC they want to give up for a night or two?    It goes down in May.  It will probably be a near last minute thing before we know if we are gonna make it, but there has been wall space offered to us for our photos and we want to do it.  Also, we have been working on our website.  There is a lot to be done, but the first viewable version will be up this week while the final version will be worked on after that.  I will provide that URL when the site is up. My sisters dog died last Thursday.  Cody was a 2 year old Golden Retriever that got sick the last couple weeks.  They determined it was Lukemia (sp?) but as it turned out, it was a far worse condition that is almost always mistaken for other cancers, and is rarely caught in time to do anything about it.   Because of this it is known as the silent killer.  It even gives a false glimmer of hope cause the dog will appear to get better and then its all over a day later.  We will miss him.  He was a great pup. Geekiness in my life will go threefold this Thursday when the next release of Ubuntu is released.  I have downloaded the beta version cause it will be near impossible to get a good DL time when it is released.  The beta version however will update to the final version automatically after Thursday, so its my best plan of action.  I plan to be rid of Microsoft all together in a week or two.  Right now I am installing Xubuntu to my file server.  Neil, you should check it out.  It is like Ubuntu but requires less system to run, and is a more basic version of Ubuntu with out all the pizazz.  You of course can add in the pizzaz, but its just a basic Linux Desktop Enviroment.  Great for servers it seems that you want to have a desktop enviro on.  I will be able to access it from my computer, thus getting rid of the keyboard, mouse and monitor.  I look forward to gaining that desk space. Thats all for now. Dug (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
2:57 pm	hello http://xkcd.com/113/ (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
8:29 pm	The List  So I got my letter from Amber.  The way it works, is she got a letter from someone else, and posted 10 things she likes that start with that letter.   Then you can request a letter from her, and do the same.  I got "J".  Now I make a list, and if you want, you ask me for a letter and you can do the same. 1.   John Lennon (not only obvious, but I am thinking, this is why I got J to begin with) 2.   JK Rowling 3.   JRR Tolkein 4.   Jello 5.   Juice 6.   Jabberwocky (only way I could think to sneak Lewis Carrol in) 7.   John Steinbeck 8.   Jack-o-Lanterns 9.   Jeans 10. John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt As for politics, the Clinton campaign released a photo of Obama in clothes they know rednecks will associate with terrorism, and they are now playing dumb.  Hillary said she has nothing to do with it.  Of course not.  And we should believe her after the first 3 things her office did that she had nothing to do with.  I see a pattern and call em like I see em.  I call her a liar and a power hungry egoist.  If indeed she didn't have anything to do with it, then I ask you this.  How can we let someone control our government who can't even control her own campaign staff?  Seriously?  This is the  websters classic desperation.  Maybe she should be an english teacher instead. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
9:10 am	Weekend update with Kevin Nealand Or instead get Weeds on DVD from Netflix and watch Kevin smoke a shit ton of Weed. So here is life as witnessed by me.  I got sick earlier this week.  Apparently I had a head cold.  This is unique for me, as I don't get sick.  This will be the 3rd time in my life I have been "sick" if you don't consider the long list of things I am allergic to.  The last time was just under 11 years ago when I had a fever for 4 hours, and then felt better, ate food, showered and went to a wedding reception.  Needless to say, I still don't like being sick, and am most certainly not used to it.  So I never react properly in the beginning of it. Enough of my simple medical complaints however.  It was sweet to watch Amy attempt to take care of me, considering things haven't gotten much better for her.  She back to the Doc to have her legs checked out some more, and they decided to put an actual cast on one of her legs, and told her to wear the boot cast on the other when she isn't sitting down.  This has added extra strain on her already pained back and she pushes on with only small bouts of crabbiness which leads to her apologizing almost immediately after.  She is sweet.  She will go in every couple of weeks to have it checked out.  Each visit will be bundled with the hope that  things are improving in such a manner that the casts will go away and with them the pain.  The casts have her so limited that her cabin fever this winter is becoming an epidemic.  Mostly because we can't just go out and shoot the kinds of photos she likes to shoot.  On a bright note however she has taken to contacting local galleries about their criteria and such.  More to learn where she needs to be going in her photography than to get in right away and got a pleasant response from one gallery director who looked at the photos she had online and started asking a bunch of questions about it followed by a big compliment on her work.  She wants to know more about the quality and the available sizes for print.  This is really good news cause this is the gallery director and co-owner of Craig Blacklocks Gallery.  Amy adores this mans work and to get this kind of response, even if it goes nowhere from here has added a slight pep to her hobbled steps the last two days. Other than that, work is great.  I love my job for both the people I work with and for as well as the work that I do.  It has slowed down for most my co-workers, but has kept a steady run of things for me to do that leaves me working a lot more than everyone else.  Needless to say my days at work remain more interesting than theirs because of it. The city of Duluth is interested in getting more Disc Golf courses.  This is leading into more volunteer time that I don't think I have.  We are still working on some of the details from the first course and they are talking about 3 others to go in.  The Duluth News Tribune called yesterday to interview me about it and I look forward to reading what they have to say and how they take what I say out of context. To finish things off, I will create a LJ cut for a stolen meme and to showcase some of Amys photos.  I need not say who the Meme was stolen from cause it looks like everyone has participated in it. ( MEMEs and Pictures ) (8 Comments |Comment on this)