leenuxg33k.pecknet.com

I'm writing this blog entry from inside Google's Picasa and its running on Linux!

It seems there are new cool desktop apps for linux coming out every day. Like the Democracy video player which is shown to the left.

Yes these apps have been available on Windows and Mac first. But the fact that they have been made available on Linux at all is a sign that we have come a long way.

I'm not sure Linux will ever replace Windows on the desktop but rather it will become irrelavent.

Only time will tell. :-) 

I finally went cross country skiing Today. Rob and I both went and bought skis a couple weeks ago but the weather has not been cooperating and Rob has freakishly large feet so he doesn't have boots yet.

I can only remember going cross country skiing once in my life, I think I must have been around 13 or so. I had absolutely no rhythm in my stride, I think I must have looked like a giraffe on ice. All the little things you don't think about, you need to lift the ski obviously but not too high, you need to snap at the right time, keep that ski pointing straight, ugh! :-D

I did have a lot of fun, its just totally unfamiliar to me right now and will take a while to get the hang of. It really is amazing exercise though! Oh! I fell three times, one time I was going downhill at a pretty good clip and had no idea how to slow down. The normal snow plow was not working, might be because everything was more ice than snow.

Hopefully we get some more snow on Tuesday like they are predicting because its going to hit 50 Today and will ruin most of the trails. Maybe Rob will have his boots by then too. :-D

Baseketball

After a week of getting up for work I really wanted to sleep in Today, but James and Madeline had Basketball practice and a game this morning. It was certainly worth it because James scored not one, not two, but three baskets during the game!! yay James!

I had fun clearing ice from the roof Today as well. Strange since we have a ridge vent and should never get ice.. But I guess the weather has been on the edge of freezing enough to make a problem. As I was at the top of the ladder I thought back to Spinale building his house and one of the many times he hurt himself. This particular one involved an apple picking ladder on top of ice. The ladder gave out and the top started clacking against the house all the way down. Dan had a box of roofing nails in his hand which he put down nicely on the porch before slamming feet first into the ground. He looked fine except that the force of hitting the ground had caused his liver to move half an inch or something. Evidently this is bad. Luckily this did not happen to me, of course the bottom of my ladder was not rounded either.

new blog applet

So I finally installed Seth's blog applet on my desktop. Maybe now I might be inclined to keep my blog up to date. ;-)

This week was tough going to back to work since we had a week and a half off for break. Of course I got sick almost immediately and stayed that way until I went back to work. Stomach is still not feeling 100%.

I've been trying out a contact in my left eye. Took a little while to get used to putting it in and taking it out, but once you learn a few tricks (look away) its actaully not too bad.

Thats all for now. Hopefully this won't be the last post for months!

Vicky and I have been very blessed. We have three lovely children and we have no intention of having anymore lovely children. ;-)

So yesterday was the day for the snip. I met the doctor and he went through the typical questions to make sure you really want to do this. The procedure can be reveresed but its still not something to take lightly.

So I neglected to take a vallium. I kind of forgot that I could have and I don't think he bothered to offer it because it would have taken a while to kick in. So off I went to the changing room to strip down to the buff and put on a paper gown that immediatly starts to disintegrate.

I am now lying on the bed and the doctor and his nurse are "preparing" me for the procedure. (This is where I warn that all children should stop reading) The first thing he does is tape my willy to keep it out of the way. I just have to mention here that its very awkward to have your bits hanging out and especially have someone else moving things around and taping them down no less! Its even more awkward when you realize that for no reason you feel yourself moving. Lets just say there was a breeze in the room.

Now the doctor obviously realizes how uncomfortable this is and makes an attempt at a joke. "Are you ready for your shave, Shampoo, and Wax?". I laughed for a second until I felt the razor going down my balls. I can't believe another man is shaving my balls. The shampoo was an iodine wash. Luckily there was no waxing.

The most painful part of the procedure was when he injected novacaine into the vas deferens tubes. Once that was done the rest of the procedure was easy. I did feel the puncture that was made through my skin but that wasn't bad. The only other notable part of the procedure was when he cortorized the tubes I saw and smelled the smoke.

Overall it wasn't too bad. It was more awkward than anything. Its the next day now and it hasn't been very uncofortable. I've only taken one pain pill and that was just to make sure I slept well. I did put some frozen peas on in the begining but haven't needed to since.

Well, I've decided to set myself up with a blog service. I'm going to feed this into pecknet and produce my own look and feel. But I'll rely on the blogging service for gathering the info. This will mean that pecknet will really turn into a planet web site. You say what? Typically a planet web site is a site that aggregates multiple blogs onto one page. So everyone else will be able to publish onto pecknet in this way if they so choose. :-)