web log - saturday, august 11, 2001

day 28. some days peanuts, some days shells.

last night wasn't too bad. we both got some decent sleep but less then the other two "good" nights. hannah has been either awake for almost an hour at a time today or out cold. in fact, she's having trouble falling asleep in her bassinet. i'm not sure i like that trend. she needs to learn to sleep in her bassinet without either of us rocking her to sleep, in our arms, for an hour. it takes time, i know, but i will be very happy when she finally sleeps through the night.

i had my 15 year high school reunion today. very weird. most people just got older, more wrinkled and/or fatter. go figure. :) i saw a few people that i hung out with but nobody worth meantioning here. a couple of same-sex partnerships, a few has-been pro sports guys and the various "pretty girls" that aren't really all that pretty anymore. it wasn't a complete waste of time but the 2-1/2 hours we were there was more than enough for the next five years.

no reply from microsoft yet regarding the reactivation of my office xp 30-day trial cd... so i took the liberty of finding another way to finish my "trial period". suffice it to say that finding what i needed was *very* easy. it's pretty sad that the activation "protection" that they have in place is so easy to break. makes you wonder how the hell microsoft got to be such a major player in the pc market... other than by some really sneaky and underhanded contract writing. i honestly think microsoft is a joke when it comes to "creating" anything. their modeus operandi has been and is to buy-out or "swallow" any compeating innovation or software. and their own products are complete peices of crap. look at iis and the recent code-red worm. talk about your it/is nightmare. if they could just get their products half as secure as some of the *nix o/s's out there, they never would have had this problem. but no, they have to push their own brand of everything and extend everything beyond neccessity (and the standards), thereby creating loop-holes and security flaws galore. [sigh] enough of this rant... suffice it to say that i am not a fan of microsoft. unfortunately, so much of the world has been "monopolized" by them that i need to use their products to even be able to communicate with the outside world.

i tendered my "resignation" from ut nexus last night. [sigh] i really enjoyed playing and reviewing ut maps but the wife doesn't want me to play anymore fps's since we now have a baby girl. since my wife and my daughter come first, i respected her request and said farewell to the site. i'll leave the links to all of my ut map reviews on my reviews page. if you happen to play (or create maps for ut), be sure to check out ut nexus. thanks.

peace, spudwrench


web log - friday, august 10, 2001

day 27. and they say there is no god. bah.

wow. last night was pretty good. we both got some decent sleep again. talk about a pleasant surprise. i was up from 3:15am to 5:00am but that actually wasn't due to hannah. i was just really warm and my knees (both of which have seen better days) decided to just ache. i can only hope that this is the beginning of a new trend for hannah. i know that it might not be but one can hope, right? :)

hannah had her one week check-up today at the doctor's office. she's gaining weight and nothing that we had questions about are abnormal or out of the norm. yea. :)

i finally installed microsoft windows xp rc2. since i installed rc1 a couple weeks ago, i pretty much knew what to expect. still a nice o/s. far more stable than windows 9x/me. windows me... what a joke. anyway, i also installed my 30-day trial of office xp. to see how well they work together. unfortunately, since i already installed it at work for a week, it appears that i might not be able to install it on another machine. even though i completely uninstalled it from the first machine. i even called microsoft's activation hotline. talk about another joke. "something went wrong with the installation, you'll need to completely uninstall and reinstall the product." what kind of stupid mumbo-jumbo is that? i know the real reason i was told that... twice. the stupid people at the activation hotline don't know how to do their jobs if the situation falls outside the cue card they're staring at. so now i appear to have spent $20 to get a legal 30-day trial copy of office xp and i only got the chance to install it on one desktop. how lame is that? staroffice, here i come.

peace, spudwrench


web log - thursday, august 9, 2001

day 26. and you thought staying out all night was hard...

last night was pretty good. we both got some decent sleep. hannah is getting into a reasonable schedule somewhat. but we both can't wait until she's locked into it. but since last night was good... tonight might be another story. neither of us were really looking forward to tonight. in fact, i think my wife is getting downright apprehensive about the "bad" nights. basically, she doesn't get a chance to sleep. and that leads to her being overly sad and depressed. i'm doing ok but with her being less than the upbeat, easy-going woman that she was before, it's a little disheartening. i hate to see my wife this way but i can only do so much. i just want her to feel normal soon.

i updated my videos list real quick again. just a couple more videos added.

peace, spudwrench


web log - wednesday, august 8, 2001

day 25. life is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're gonna get.

i'm beginning to see a pattern here. we have one "good" day and then one "bad" day. lather, rinse, repeat. last night wasn't that great. hannah wasn't wanting to go to sleep and the wife and i were quite tired. add to that that her umbilical "stump" was almost ready to fall off and a little bloody (which i didn't know would happen) and you get a weird combo of worry and exhaustion. not a good thing. so today was similar to monday. but the wife is taking some extra stuff to smooth her roller coaster hormones out. let's hope that it helps and we all get back to feeling normal soon.

i updated my videos list real quick. just a couple more videos added.

we've had some co-workers of mine helping out by making us dinner every other night. tonight was a killer pot roast with potatoes and carrots, summer lettuce salad and fresh hot-cross buns. yummy. :)

i still haven't gotten a chance to install windows xp rc2. i'm starting to wonder if i'll actually get it installed before microsoft actually releases it to the general public in october. :)

it's only 8:45pm here but i'm gonna go to bed now. i'd rather get some sleep and be coherant tomorrow than play for a few more hours and be a zombie. i'm kinda missing my friends in the ragradio chat room. but i'm pretty sure that they'll understand and not worry about me too much. ;)

peace, spudwrench


web log - tuesday, august 7, 2001

day 24. aye carumba.

ouch. sunday night wasn't a good one, which is why i missed a couple days. apparently, after about a week, babies experience their first "growth spurt". which means they need to eat almost every hour. i got about 6 hours of sleep and my wife got about 3. needless to say, we were beat and not in the best of moods on monday. last night, hannah slept from 12:30 to 3:30, from 4:00 to 5:45 and from 6:30 to 9:00. so we both got about 7 hours of sleep. so today was much better than monday. it's pretty amazing that a few hours sleep and a little less stress can have such an impact. i knew these days would be here... i just wish they weren't as gnarly.

i still haven't had the chance to install windows xp rc2 yet. i wanna do it asap but it's a little hard with all the extra housework i have to do.

yes, i said "housework". again, with the baby, my wife has her hands very full just trying to keep her fed, in clean diapers or asleep. and if the baby's asleep, i told my wife to try and sleep too. since i can't feed the baby (something to do with the absence of mammory glands or whatnot), my wife is the sole provider of food. and she needs rest to be able to do that.

woohoo! i sold my 1967 plymouth satelite today. $800 and that thing is gone. the guy that's buying it is buying it to restore for his daugther. he's almost finished with his 1972 plymouth but she really likes it. so he bought mine for her. he was surprised that it pretty much started after sitting in a garage for 5 years. lucky me.


peace, spudwrench