I've ignored the site, I know. It's been a crazy week and definately things have kicked into high gear since the last update. Here's the deal.

Dayton was a blast. I passed the FCC Tech test and can reach out and touch other hams. I'm known as KG4NRC in the ham community.

I came home with less crap that what I took up. My big scores include 2 Umax C500 Mac clones. These guys are as new as any system shipped around in their circa 1997 boxes can be. I had to unpack the mouse from one of them. A bargain at only $25 a piece, one of them already has a G3 upgrade chip on order and will become Jen's new computer. I also scored a Quadra 840av Mac for $5. I never thought I'd own one, let alone pick it up for that price. It works, and I look forward to doing some pretty creative stuff with it. I also have 6 Cabletron 12 port hubs I picked up for free, a Shiva Fastpath and a LANRover I picked up for dirt cheap. Add to that the 240 CDRom carosel/changer I picked up, and overall my Dayton Haul was pretty good.

Later today, I'll restorm the Mid TN airwaves on WRVU, 91.1 FM. We'll see how it goes. The thought of spinning crappy wanna be bands at the dictation of someone is not my cup of tea, but I'll drink it for now.

The DEC Multia is calling me, especially since it might contain some stuff its previous owner still needs. I'm trying to clean up my garage for the purposes of walking thru it and also under the guise of making space for a model railroad. I made a little headway today, but not enough to believe it will be clean by the end of the weekend. Once that is done, it will probably get filled up with all of the stuff in the computer area, so the circle still continues. It is a vicious circle I maintain. Where to start.

Thanks to SA again for today's quote. Alrighty. Things are winding down into RIMBoy's much needed vacation from it all, or, time to see a bunch of people geekier than me, or Hamvention. Don't get me wrong. Hamvention it cool. It's just some people mount cameras to their goats, thats all (see the picts section, Hamvention).

Congrats to my brother for graduating from SIUC yesterday. Not only did he make it out in 4 years, he did so while being a frat member. He's also the first in the family to make it out in 4 years in quite awhile. It appears that during that time, Jeff decided he did not like Tequila, as evidenced by the glass of approx 3 shots the waitress brought in celebration. I had a good laugh, but then again, that's what older brothers are for. That said, the process of graduation is becoming quite a joke. It is a disappointment on all levels. Let's start with the commencement address.

The address at commencement has become the most satired event in the entire process. In HS, we had 2 Validictorians. One went to Annapolis, the other went to work at Dairy Queen. The one that went to DQ got up and said "God is the author of my book" and sat back down. Navy boy got up, said a bunch of stuff, and as expected I don't remember a word of it. My point is, with few exceptions, we don't remember a word of whatever the person said, unless they do something outrageous. Yesterday was no exception. Jeff was "fortunate" to have a man who was involved with a morning beverage brewing company. You would think "Mr. Coffee" would be a peppy, refreshing guy. Why is it everyone thinks they need to give their thesis on life when they give a commencement address? It is a sure sign when they say they're going to keep it short, they won't. Period. This guy drooled on and on about what he believes are 3 key points and some crap about his 5 year old grandkid. The last thing any business major wants to hear on the day they get the hell outta Dodge is macro and micro. Heck, half of them were buzzing. Nothing like giving them a flashback to 8am economics class. Likewise, cut down on the scholarly speak. Your in the middle of a damn cornfield in S. Ill. I can tell you now that most of the grandparents and even some of the parents are not going to know a lick of your fancy pants Harvard-Postdoc-ease speak. Get-up, say somthing, shut-up, and SIT DOWN. Thank-you, drive thru.

And then there are the people that show up to this thing. Friends, family, and some homeless bum off the street hoping to get some extra clothing, like a cap and gown. Part of this can be explained on the fact that I was in S. Ill, where couth ranks right up there with IQ... not alot. For once in your life: Turn off your damn cellphone. Take the guy sitting in front of me. His damn cellphone rang right in the middle of the commencement. Guess who called? His friend wanting to know WTF they were sitting. This was then accomplished by him waving, while still talking on the phone. I dunno which was worse... the guy that answered the cell phone, or the guy that could not open HIS DAMN EYES and decided that, hey, because we have technology I can be a lazy ass, call my friend while the ceremony is going on and figure out where they are sitting. If you can't find your friend, take a damn seat and meet up with them later. I dunno how this country ever got by without their cellphones, but I'm betting our eyesite was much better.

So with that off my chest and out my arse, I give you RIMBoy's 2001 Commencement address:

Hi. I'm Sean the RIMBoy, a person who was once like you. I've got a lot of ground to cover. Shut off your cellphones, because I will leave this podium and WWF your ass like a bad back-yard wrestling fest gone wrong if the thing goes off.

Four score and seven year ago, I was just like you. Sitting here waiting for the guy in front of me to get on with giving me my diploma cover. So I leave you with these, "words of advice". More rock, less talk. That is all you really need to know. Oh yeah, for you liberal arts majors, do not forget these key phrases: "Would you like fries with that" and "Thank-you, drive thru". Life is not about money. It is about having a network of friends that you can exploit when you need to get work done. Likewise, be prepared to be exploited yourself as you exploit others in the name of getting ahead. It's a two way street. If you don't look both ways, your sorry ass will wind up living in a van, down by the river, smoking doobies, building bongs out of the steel members of bridges. You have been warned. Thank-you, drive thru.

Thanks to Rob H. for today's quote. You just had to be there. And there are picts to prove it. I've come to the conclusion that administrators of all types should get a serious brain job. I'm not sure which is worse. The fact that someone is still running IRIX 5.3 or the fact that they get any work done with it is a feat in and of itself. If I had my druthers, I'd like to toss that box over a very steep cliff. What do you mean my hard NFS mounts are not working? Be glad some of them are working. Trust me, if I knew what the heck your previous admin thought they were doing we'd not be having this conversation. In the words of Chris Farley, "Whoop de freaking do!"

And less we get started with the latest round of Linux and NIS. What can be so possibly hard about grabbing the IP address of the server name from the hosts file? Better yet, who screwed it up?

and while I'm at it, remember kiddies, man chgrp / chown and read up on the -r -R options under IRIX. Apparently the folks at SGI do in fact smoke crack. Why you want ../ out of a dir and recursively fubar other parts of your filesystem I'll never understand, but someone at SGI thought it was a good idea. Something tells me it is this way because of some milspec, back when ENIAC was computing trajectories for our boys in 'Nam.

If I could only be so lucky. My only claim to fame in grade school was the recess detention I got for chasing Ashley "the Booger Picker" around the playground. Seriously, Doug and Joey said they saw her wiping bugars on the water fountain.

Ever in the mood to slack, I took some boxes over to Ricks place so he can move to the Republic of Texas, or that state that keeps sending us crappy Presidents. Aside from getting every part of my phleghm infested self soaked from the downpour that only occurs right when you step outside, I picked up a DEC Multia and a dot matrix printer. Eventually the DEC will find a home playing MP3's somewhere in the house. Given the fact it has 2 PCMCIA slots, I'm thinking some wireless action would be the right answer to a wrong idea.

My brother Jeff graduates from Carbondale this weekend. This marks two events: The first time someone in the family has graduated in 4 years. It aslo marks the first time someone graduates from Carbondale in 4 years with a sane GPA and no failed classes. And being a Frat member no less.

NLUG B&P later today. Hopefully the doctor will not see fit to dialate my eyes for what should be a short visit today.

Tis a great day indeed! I read where Delicious Vinyl not only re-released Young MC's Stone Cold Rhymin', but also Tone Loc's Loc'ed After Dark. I always wondered what happened to Delicious Vinyl, whose mascot, the "Geek Guy" was pretty cool as record companies logos go. While I cannot vouch for Young MC's album (although I'll probably pick it up), Tone Loc's album is pretty good. There are a few tracks on there besides the airplay ones that are in fact good. I'm a sucker for the old school rap. There was a certain innocence before rap took some sort of turn. That's not to say today's rap is bad, but there was a little more creativity back in the day. Call me an old codger. I don't care.

What little I caught of "That '70s Show" was pretty good. Fox censors rule. Only on Fox would you ever hear the term "You stinky dillhole". Some of the old ads were funny as all get out. Speaking of old stuff, this has bothered me for quite some time. As I'm perusing the mouthpiece of Tower Records, Pulse, I come across this little gem: While interviewing They Might Be Giants, they dare to ask, "So, whatever happend to the Hamburglar and the Fry Guys?". While TMBG did not have an answer, I think there is a conspiracy. I mean Mayor McCheese, Grimace, Hamburglar and the Fry Guys just don't disappear all at once. I mean, its one thing for them to go on hiatus, maybe miss a commercial or two, it is another for them to take those characters in the shape of playground toys and replace them with the Chucky Cheese like Funland. Could they be in retirement? Where do all the Fry Guys go? Nevermind the fact that the McD's leaves a clown, the most hated object of any childern's life, as their mascot. If I were Micky D's I get the Delicious Vinyl Geek guy. At least he has that 50's greaser grill jockey look about him.

Not much else on the RIMBoy front. Just as it seemed my cold was over, I get part two. Sequels usually suck. I ripped out most of the chains that the previous house owners some how thought were "yard art". Obviously they never mowed their own lawn. After a summer of tripping over them I decided it was time. Note to self: If you ever set anything in concrete in the ground, do not use more concrete than is needed. Better yet, determine if in fact concrete is even needed. If self is putting poles to string chain in the yard, do not use concrete.