New Legacy

Hello, My name is Tara, the daughter of the amazing man that once started this site. My father, David passed away in July, Friday 13th. In the past months my mother and I have been trying to close Dad's accounts that will no longer be active. While in the process I logged on to my dad's blog here, and I can't bring myself to close this blog down. Blogging is something I can't not remember my dad doing and I want to continue in his footsteps and keep this blog running in tribute, and in memory of the greatest man I've ever known.

Starting today "New Legacy" will be up and running. Well up and running once I know what the password to this account is... the computer automatically logged me in so I need to do some digging. ^_^'''

And Dad, you are the most amazing person I've ever known. I love you with all my heart.

Yes, I still blog!

Don't mind me, I just spent three weeks in a hell of brain fogs, and have only now gotten back home.  I am euphoric!

Hmmm... what's going on?

ED-E (Enclave amnesiac)

Enough of this valetudinarian nonsense!  But it's given me an opportunity to replay Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas beyond all bounds.   Obsessional, almost...

However, I've hit an imposed limit in FNV.  At Level 30, I can't earn perks anymore, so I'm recruiting all the companion characters one at a time, and expunging the generic location markers on my map with the been-there-done-that version.

Veronica Santangelo (BoS)

Right now, I'm playing with ED-E and Rose of Sharon Cassidy,  even though most of the tour was with Veronica, cooling her heels with Raul Tejada, the ghoul mechanic,  in the Lucky 38 Presidential Suite.  Rex was upgraded with Violetta's brain in Jacobstown and is back with the King, Lily is in Jacobstown, Boone's in Novac.  Arcade Gannon is still in the Old Mormon Fort, a no-show so far.

Rose of Sharon Cassidy (Ind)

Cass is interesting.  Nearly indestructible, her perk is Whiskey Rose, meaning if you jolt back a slug before battle, you will feel no pain (and feel invincible too, for that matter).

With the exception of Dead Wind Cavern, all the deathclaws have been eradicated.  It's tough to take them on in enclosed spaces with no way to keep our distance.

A little morbid lately...

Bad liver = bad outlook.  Normally, I transcend those moments, but every once in a while the clouds descend upon my brow and I am lost in fogs yet again.

Aye, aye, I!

I've been playing through Fallout 3 again.  At Level 8, my groupie shows up to give me a stimpak or bottle of Nuka Cola and pray these random items will help to keep me safe.

Thanks.  I take it personally, you know... :)

Two years and counting...

Parivirvana

One of my crew of doctors informs me that my liver is essentially shot (Meld 15), and my odds of living five more years is roughly 10%.  More likely, I've got two years left with an outside chance of croaking this year.  If that score hits 40, I have three months.

That kind of information gives one cause to pause and rethink one's options.  I've elected not to receive a liver transplant, for example.  And I've already had one NASH-related episode of mental confusion (hepatic encephalopathy).  An unexpected turn of events.  What, no aneurysm?  No stroke or heart attack?  No car crash?  Strange!

Oh well.  My other complications mitigate against wasting somebody's perfectly good (by comparison) liver on yours truly.

I meditate on these things. "When it's hot, I sweat.  When it's cold, I shiver."

Absurd "features" about Mac OS X Lion

If you set up your Mac for several users on the same Mac, and you're using Mac OS X Lion, you have a puzzle.  To wit, how to copy your Form 1040A from your side to their side, so everybody has a copy.  Not AirDrop, or another Mac.  What you have to do is set Finder Preferences... so everybody shows up.  That's a gotcha, because the feature is hiding.

Good luck!

Consolations of Philosophology

Milton

Ok, there are two ways to learn from another scholar, either coolly and dispassionately, or else head first in full immersion. The latter approach is learning by heart; the former learning by humor.

I think the first rule of scholarship is to recognize that learning from somebody else's book is self abrogation; unless one can raise a Spocklike eyebrow no learning occurs and no reference to the Real has transpired, not even when that reality is a mere hell imagined by clever poets. Dante. Milton. Fun minds who entertain. Or Einstein, unapproachable without years of frozen meditation and no fun at all without epiphany.

Whatever.  The truth is, I'm searching for a good recipe for lentil soup.  The rest is inconsequential.

SQLite Manager is back in my good graces

SQLite Manager 0.7.7 is a Firefox add-on that I used to use extensively, mainly because it's free and because it handles a great deal of personal information I really don't want to try maintaining with sqlite3, the CLI.

I couldn't use SM on Ubuntu for years because of some obscure bug or other. Very nice to see my data back on Mac OS X Lion.

Star Ocean Second Evolution (PSP)

Lots of replay value in this very retro-seeming game.  I finally remembered how to find the idol that sits on the altar in the Field of Courage, where it summons yet another Guardian.  On the lookout now for the Symbological Weapons Laboratory...

Update 2-9-12  I accidentally beat Gabriel (and recruited Noel, but missed Chisato and Opera Vector), so I never got back to Virtual Expel or the Maze of Tribulations.  A bit premature there...

Unhappy with TurboTax

I paid $30 at Best Buy for my copy of TurboTax.  They then dinged me another $30 for the Iowa state taxes download version.  I efiled my return(s) -- federal and Iowa -- and they billed me yet again, for a third party to collect charges for efiling -- an amount deducted from my refund!

Good lord, federal  efiling is supposed to be free.  I don't know why I had to pay the third party "fee" but it will  never happen again.

TurboTax is a sharp practice artiste.  I do not, can not, and will not recommend them to anybody.

Browncoats

The novel cover shown is pure fiction, but a lot of us would sure like to read it!  (It's at deviant art somewhere.  Personally, I think the tv series was tons lighter than the heavy-handed movie, Serenity.  I'd be happy with pulp fiction, or well written fan fic if naught else.

Star Ocean Second Evolution (PSP)

Wouldn't you know it?  I forgot how to recruit Precis! She's in Linga, and Bowman is there to send you (usually to your death) in the caverns for some weed or other.  But not Precis, after the initial foofarah with Robbie!  Hmmmm...

Hospitalized by NASH!

Hepatic encelphalopathy, i.e., confusion, apparently mild.  My mind jitterbugging on the altars of entropy --  I forgot I was going cold turkey from pain patches (Duralgesic.)  It's been five days now,  and I can sleep without waking up  in a space ship.

Nash is not a get out of  a jail free card.  It's still liver disease, and bacterial ammonia in your gut will do nasty things to your illusions of Selfhood.

Pithy Comments

Was gonna.  Pithed out.