Dear Time Machine,

Why must you start from scratch when I move my backup drive? It’s the same drive, but accessed over the network (connected to my MiniTV) versus direct USB. I have a feeling my initial backup will take a while… luckily I’m starting it tonight and don’t need my laptop to be anywhere tomorrow.

WTH is this cursor?

It’s popped up in Safari a few times now, and I don’t know what to make of it. Definitely related to a certain page as I can still browse my other tabs and the app doesn’t freeze up. I had a screenshot to post, but it didn’t capture the cursor!

Basically, it’s a smaller black arrow with a blue ‘pinwheel’ that is similar to the rainbow pinwheel (but only one color). Anyone else witness this?

Fighting the urge

I blogged about this song a while ago, but damned if it isn’t catchy. I am resisting my irrational urges to download “Right Round” by Flo Rida.

It’s number one on iTunes right now, which either means that my subconscious needs to give in, or that America has terrible taste. Probably the latter.

San Francisco :: The Trip

It’s Midnight on Sunday, and I’m finally sitting down to write this all out. No pictures on here – check my Facebook for an album with 50+ pictures of the trip. This may get lengthy, wordy, etc. and I don’t really care much. Enjoy!

San Francisco :: Tired

I promised to blog about this trip, but I’m exhausted after Day One. We covered quite a bit of ground today, from typical touristy spots to Mom’s apartment from 32 years ago. Cool stuff. I’ll legitimately write more later, I promise. Until then, I will leave everyone with a single photo. Cheers!

Spring Break has begun.

Yesterday, around 3:30, I packed up my car (literally, as the photo shows) and hopped on I-81 for the drive home. Flip flops on, top down, hair blowing, music cranked. Good times, even though the traffic kinda sucked for a while. Every car was from Tech, Radford, or JMU. I met Mom & Dad at Tortilla Factory for some of the best Mexican food ever, then we headed home.

Today was my first legitimate “wrench day” for the Miata. I met up with five or six other Miata guys in Sterling, and we worked on a few cars. I finally replaced the O-Ring that has needed replacing since July, along with the valve cover gasket. Easy enough work, plus some of the guys knew just what to do from past experiences. Hopefully I’m not leaking oil all over the driveway now – or at least, leaking less. I think my rear main seal leaks or something as well. Sigh. That’s what comes with owning a 14-year-old car.

We are flying out of Dulles tomorrow morning to San Francisco! I’m pretty pumped for the trip and all the sweet stuff we’ll be seeing, doing, etc. while there. Mom and I reviewed the FAA regulations for carry on liquids and stuff. It’s confusing. I’m ziploc-ing my stuff and putting it in my checked bag. Not worth the hassle in the security checkpoint. Apparently I could take down a plane with my bathroom kit:

We’ll see how the whole “checkpoint” thing works. I don’t think I’ve flown since Hawaii, which was senior year of high school.

Keep watching my blog and my Twitter for updates as the trip progresses!!

This is why I <3 John Woody

I Facebook’d him around 11:28, asking if he knew of anything special to do while visiting Apple headquarters in California over my spring break. I also mentioned how cool it would be to get a peek past the traditional ‘public’ viewpoint at HQ. Not even ten minutes later, he replies with this:

JMU has no idea how lucky they are to have him on their faculty. Damn he’s good!!

New music sucks (Mildly NSFW)

I’m laying here on my bed, with 93.7 on the radio. I didn’t feel like messing with iTunes tonight, and figured I’d get some of the “party vibe” without leaving my room. This has led to mild anger. The cause?

Flo’ Rida’s new “song” – which is a blatant ripoff of You Spin Me Round by Dead or Alive. The stolen beat wouldn’t bother me so much if it weren’t for the obscene lyrics. Okay, Flo’ Rida, we get it. Your lady friend gives amazing head. Apparently, you do a good job with her as well. But what in your right mind possessed you to write lyrics about it, set it to a bizarre 80s beat, and put it on the radio for six-year-olds to hear?!

It’s not just this song that frustrates me. I heard another catchy song on the radio a while back. I Shazam’d it on my iPhone and decided to download the song after hearing it on the radio a few times. Addicted by Saving Abel is as bad as Flo’ Rida. What’s with the obsession of singing about your significant other “going down” on you, in between the sheets? At least Saving Abel had the decency to release an edited version (that says “rolling ’round with me” instead) for the radio to play.

I’m sure many people take no issue with the lyrics of this new “music” being released. I’m kind of divided, really. I think for people my age, it’s just fine. Taking into account the extremes (aka 7-15 year-olds and the 55+ age range) though… I’d have a difficult time if either song came on and they heard the lyrics. Older folks would probably be offended, and the little kids want to know what “going down” means.

My point is not that we need to censor our public from the realities of the world – oral sex included. I just find it hard to believe that the artists have exhausted every other topic already.

O-Ring: Purchased.

To preface a bit – my Miata has a camshaft angle sensor. This sensor is located near the back of the engine, and has an O-ring that eventually dries up as all rubber parts do. Mine is very dried out, as evidenced by the blown heater hose a few weeks ago. How do I know? It’s located right above the hose, and drips oil onto said hoses, causing them to burst.

After saying I’d replace this O-ring since I bought the car last June, I finally got to Advance and bought the part. It cost me 62 cents. Now comes the hard(er) part – the actual install. I’m hoping to do it on Sunday and take my time. I’ll be going off of pictures from this guy’s Flickr and will document the process myself as well. I figure I should do this before I ruin another heater hose from neglect… though in fairness, it’s been leaking since before I bought the car, so three or four weeks on this new hose hopefully hasn’t damaged it yet.

Wish me luck!

Website :: Almost Done

This is getting exciting! I finally (with Ben’s help, of course) got the Design page of my site working properly. JavaScript is confusing. I need to sit down and work through the syntax a bit. Until then, I will leave it up to the pros.

I just have some minor changes and tweaks to make before I announce the URL to the world. Give me one more chunk-of-time between classes and I think it will be done.