Welcome to the World of Tomorrow!

My oldest sister just had her first kid, Madelyn. She doesn't have a Wikipedia page yet, but the Olsen Twins, who share her birthday, do. So Madelyn has nothing to worry about.

Yahtzee

No more Monopoly stories. But I did play Yahtzee, rolled horribly, and nearly tied for second through good decisions alone. I was teased for thinking only my decisions are right, which is true, but only because everyone else makes stupid ones.

Remote Kernel Debugging

I finally got remote kernel debugging working, sort of. Set a breakpoint and it SIGTRAPs for no reason I can find, with gdb pointing at an errant line that is a comment. Skip the breakpoint and it runs fine, but my bug causes no panic. Aye yi yi.

Monopoly: Truly a Type-A Personality Game

From one railroad and Atlantic Ave. to owning everything. A three-and-a-half-hour Monopoly masterclass in rental agreements, immunity to rent, and a sugar-daddy opponent who bankrupted himself being nice. I think I'm done with Monopoly.

Potentially Explosive Atmospheres

Travel arrangements for the Mauna Loa hike are finally done, and I even talked a cousin into climbing an active volcano with me. Also, sage advice spotted in a product manual about potentially explosive atmospheres.

Hawaii Vacation Plans

Twelve days in Hawaii, but the beach can wait. There's a 19-mile hike up Mauna Loa to a 13,500-foot cabin before sundown. Tickets $46, room $50, pass free, pictures priceless, and about $1000 in gear. After that, I'll happily do nothing on the beach.

Hawaii, Part III

I missed my May 2005 vacation, and my May 2006 one too, but I'm finally going in October. Satellite imagery just doesn't do the place justice.

Hello ... Hello ... hello ....

I got a USB headset and a phone-like device for Skype, plus my own number. Naturally I called that number with Skype and conferenced the two together to see what would happen. The soft echo was funny at first. Then it got loud. Now you know.

Sales Blunders

Netflix happily overrode the USPS address-validation when their system didn't recognize my new address. Skype, on the other hand, said no override, no order. The end. Brilliant. Also, a duck committed suicide at the top of my neighborhood.

My Big Backyard

My first piece of mail at the new house was a Netflix DVD, a couple days late and looking carefully opened with a letter opener. Oh well. At least my mailman has a vested interest in my continuing to pay for the service.