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March 28, 1998
News
Information about Ty Davison straight from the horse's mouth.
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Years worth of mind-numbing details, ponderings, and events.
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March 28, 1998
We took a day-trip to Oakdale today to visit Erin's grandfather, Ben, for what will probably be the last time. He's in failing health now, recently moved into a nursing home where he can be attended all hours of the day as the need arises. A priest gave him his Last Rites on Thursday night. When we visited he seemed coherent, pain-free and at peace, though considerably weakened from when we saw him last Thanksgiving. It's unlikely he'll live much longer.And so I think, "What a thing is man?" Is this scene to be replayed for me years hence? I doubt I could ask for a better death than to be first visited by family and friends, yet I comprehend and feel the "quiet desperation" which rule men's lives.
What, if any, regrets will I have when my turn comes? Will I have accomplished everything I desired? Will I have left a mark on the world? Or will mine be a life whose memory is slowly erased by the steady march of time, like the now-nameless soldiers of Gettysburg, Gallipoli and Verdun?
Even in the most normal, natural, blessed of deaths, I've yet to find anything but questions.
March 26, 1998
Began work on a new song, tentatively titled "Self-Made Man." It's a little more loose musically and less serious lyrically than perhaps everything I've written before. Stylistically, it's kind of running against the grain of my normal writing, something that's making it a little bit difficult for me to assess the merits of the work. Of course at this stage that's not something I should be worrying about anyway.March 25, 1998
Dragged my tired and sore body around the complete 5 to 6 mile loop at Rancho San Antonio for the second time this week. Now that I'm relatively healthy again after the wintertime cold/flu debacle, I figure it's about time to get back into shape. Man, are my legs sore.March 22, 1998
Did a fair amount of chess work aimed at determining what openings I want to study extensively for the rest of 1998. I'm not giving out hints, though if you end up playing me that oughta prove pretty telling. I will say that if I'm White, I'm fairly dedicated to playing 1. e4.Looks like Erin may be in charge of the cheerleaders (aka the Spirit Group) at St. Francis next year. Despite the seeming incongruence of this appointment, it's an excellent opportunity for her to help shape the character of teen girls (and boys) who have a definite influence among their peers.
March 20, 1998
Packaged up and sent my Power Mac 7500 and G3 card to Bottom Line. I hope to have everything back and working within a week, but until then me and Henry will just be hanging out like old times. Since I've already configured Henry for the work Erin will be doing and since I'm loathe to re-install everything, I'll probably just go without an Internet connection for the next week. Hopefully the withdrawals won't have killed me by tomorrow morning—I'll be really disappointed if I don't make until Sunday at least.March 19, 1998
I spoke with Chip of Bottom Line this morning. I'll be shipping my system and G3 card to them (at their expense) so that they can figure out what's wrong, fix it, and send it back.Started work on the 1997 taxes and it looks like we'll owe another fortune. Beats loaning the government money interest-free, I suppose, but it's gonna definitely delay my home recording studio plans by an extra month.
March 16, 1998
More joy in computer land. I went to return the PowerLogix PowerForce 275/275/1 MB card which hasn't worked since I ordered it two weeks ago, and Bottom Line Distribution wants to charge me a $300 "re-stocking fee" because PowerLogix lowered the price on these cards on Saturday. I've called PowerLogix about this (particularly since they supposedly have a 30-day money back guarantee), and I'm waiting to hear the results. Obviously I'll contest the whole thing via VISA if I have to, but I'd really rather not.March 14, 1998
My luck with computers continues. I installed MacOS 8.1 and what a goofy-looking mess my screen has become. Since I first ran a MacOS (System 6.0.7), I've never had a bad system upgrade. That's System 6.0.7, System 7.1, System 7.5.1, System 7.5.3, System 7.5.5, System 7.6.1 and System 8. What's up with System 8.1? Everybody I've talked to says it installs fine (so long as you don't load in the HFS+ formatting stuff), so it must be something on my end.All right now we debug: Now Startup Manager says that the AppleShare extension crashed on startup, and removing that did help the Appearance problem. Read through the 8.1 report on MacFixIt and apparently the ObjectLibSupport extension (which many programs install as a matter of course) must be removed for MacOS 8.1. Now removed, everything appears fine.
First impressions: Assuming the system stays stable, MacOS 8.1 looks like a very nice upgrade. Programs are loading and closing considerably faster than under 8.0 or 7.6.1. OpenTransport 1.3 (system-level modem software) is definitely faster as well. If my problems stay fixed, this looks like a good upgrade.
March 13, 1998
Judged at a local high school debate competition—the first judging I'd done in something like 10 years. It was very enjoyable, though I had to repeatedly stifle my desire to yell out various possible arguments. Another highlight was seeing Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, in the judges room. Too bad I didn't get assigned to a judging panel with him—that would've been great fun.March 12, 1998
What a nightmare in computer land. Basically, A-link, my heretofore excellent Internet Service Provider, has decided to charge me for "extra files transferred" during the month of February. What this means is that a lot of people are coming to my web site (which is kinda what I thought the point was) and A-link wants to charge me extra for this. New web site and e-mail address coming soon.Secondly, Atwill Productions, also heretofore excellent, decided to drop their free web site counter program and not give anyone any warning. How kind.
Thirdly, I found out that revision A motherboards for PowerMac 7500/100's can't be accelerated beyond 150-MHz. Thankfully, Dave at MacGlobal (where I bought the machine) is helping me to find a replacement, but without MacGlobal's good graces I'd pretty much be up a creek. On top of this, DT&T Macintosh Services—the guys I had examine my system—replaced my 7500 motherboard without my permission. They were real dodgey about it when I called today (they've had my system for the past couple weeks), and when I got home and ran some MacBench tests, I found that my motherboard was entirely different. I'm certain this was because they had already plopped mine in another machine and sold it off. Anyway, this motherboard runs at 40-MHz (versus my old 50-MHz), but the processor card is a 604 at 120-MHz versus my old 601 at 100-MHz. Fritz now scores 187 versus 144 on processor tests, so I guess I won't complain, but neither will I be taking my machine back to those guys any time soon.
March 11, 1998
Back to Mountain View. No checked baggage equals no waiting. Just hop in the car with Erin and go!March 9, 1998—Salem, Oregon
Garr and I headed over to the Kennedy School, an elementary school which has been converted into a restaurant, theatre and pub. Took in the latest Bond flick, Tomorrow Never Dies. A little lacking in character development (nothing new in the series), it was nonetheless a solid addition to the pantheon, and better than I expected.March 8, 1998—Salem, Oregon
Travelling 4 hours in car so you can spend 2 hours with friends and then turn around and drive another 4 hours back home...well, it strikes me as pretty loopy. So Dave and I went for it. Neither of us had seen our friends Helana and John in years, and since Helana was 24+ weeks pregnant, our timing seemed perfect. Dave and I had a fantastic trip up to Kirkland, Washington, and yes, we're just crazy enough that we'll probably do it again.March 7, 1998—Portland, Oregon
Lunch with Mike and Joy and their almost 2-year-old son, Skylar. Joy and Mike recently moved to a new home, and though it's a slightly longer drive, their new view is absolutely spectacular. They've just moved in, so they've not had the chance to landscape, but I can only imagine that it'll be even more amazing when they're done.I spent the evening with a visit to Dennis' and Matt's house, and happily the whole Hee Haw gang of Joe, Ginger, Robin and Ybeth were able to join in the fun. Dennis kindly loaned me the Mac OS 8.1 upgrade CD, so now I won't have to spend half a year downloading it from Apple's web site.
March 5, 1998—Portland, Oregon
Had lunch with my friend Julie, aka the belly dancer "Aazura." Julie had a tough week, what with a no-injury, auto-totaling car crash on Monday. Still, dance is going well, and I'm inclined to say that life is always better if you're living your dreams.March 4, 1998—Portland, Oregon
Headed up to Portland to see Grandma and my "psychic sidekick" Garr. Garr's begun assembling a band, and I got the opportunity to be a fly on the wall as they rehearsed some Garr's material. Not having ever sat in on a rock band rehearsal before, I was properly awed by the proceedings.March 3, 1998—Salem, Oregon
Read the unbelievable news that Oregon has added physician-assisted suicide to its prioritized list of covered medical expenses. This means (1) that taxpayers in Oregon get to pay for doctors to kill people and (2) the State will pay to kill people before they'll pay to help other people get well. Clearly, I think this is a terrible idea.March 2, 1998—Salem, Oregon
A pleasant mid-morning 5-mile walk through Minto Brown wildlife preserve with Dad. Dad's officially registered as a park volunteer, which means he gets to carry mace, use a walkie talkie and make a fashion statement with a bright orange vest.March 1, 1998—Eugene, Oregon
The conclusion of a marvelous weekend at Dave's. Next visit he'll be moved into his new house (a great place I got a glimpse of today), and his cats will have increased territory to lord over.
