http://www.andysocial.com Gary's random musings and clippings Thu, 15 May 2008 11:56:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Although I've been battling a cold since Sunday, yesterday was an especially good day for Us.  Kat first drove down from Lubbock to see me one year ago, on the 14th of May.  To commemorate this momentous occasion, we went for a bicycle ride to the river with The Boy, ... http://www.andysocial.com/archives/2008/05/15/year-the-second Remember when the MSN Music Store shut down over a year ago? Remember that Microsoft said that songs you "bought" from the MSN Music Store were going to be yours to keep forever? Guess what, sucker? After August, you can't upgrade your computer without losing your music. Yet another ... http://www.andysocial.com/archives/2008/04/27/plays-for-not-much-longer I've been using a WD MyBook 500GB USB-attached drive for my nightly backups for about a year now.  This week, it stopped working reliably (SMART errors intermittently).  Of course, it's out of warranty, so it had to die.  :-) I'm looking into a more reliable storage system, perhaps a RAID or ... http://www.andysocial.com/archives/2008/04/21/backup-hardware After a great ceramic show at the museum, where Kat caught up with several fellow artists (and a few students who want extra credit), followed by a wonderful dinner downtown (despite the best efforts of the most inept waiter ever seen), there was a presentation. Kat insists that I ... http://www.andysocial.com/archives/2008/04/19/life-can-be-so-nice The estate tax only affects estates valued at above $2 million today, and maybe down to $1 million if things are allowed to lapse in 2011 (not $675,000 no matter what your talk radio told you). How much do you expect to leave in net worth for your heirs? More ... http://www.andysocial.com/archives/2008/04/17/why-do-so-many-people-hate-themselves Following Wayne's tip on Gear Diary, I requested a "free" Senseo coffee maker (just pay for shipping) last week.  Guess what's in my kitchen right now?  Oh, yeah, baby.  I'm not a big coffee drinker, but someone else is and for fifteen bucks, what the heck? I guess I didn't read ... http://www.andysocial.com/archives/2008/04/15/near-free-senseo You may have heard a story or two on the news recently about the peculiar group of polygamists down the road from me. After attending a school function for The Boy next door to Fort Concho, I had an encounter with a Texas State Trooper. School function, so I took ... http://www.andysocial.com/archives/2008/04/13/circus-is-in-town The movie Expelled is coming out in just over a week. According to every reviewer who isn't an right-wing fundamentalist, it sucks. Of course, I assume it will play here in San Angelo (as seen on "FLDS Watch"!), because we always get that stuff. Have fun with ... http://www.andysocial.com/archives/2008/04/09/expelled This must be the worst case of senioritis ever. http://www.andysocial.com/archives/2008/03/28/no-supervision-at-underage-party My most linked-to post ever, yesterday's denialists missive, has attracted the usual suspects. Not surprisingly, Akismet's spam filter blocked them and I don't feel like unblocking them. Typical tactic of the denialists - overwhelmingly loud shoutdowns instead of actual scientific evidence. In lieu of opening up my blog to becoming ... http://www.andysocial.com/archives/2008/03/26/didnt-take-long