Phoon is currently certified at Journeyer level.

Name: Benjamin Geiger
Member since: 2000-11-07 23:58:07
Last Login: N/A

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College student. Programmer wannabe.

You can reach me at: benjamin_geiger at yahoo.com.

If you're interested, my "personal" diary is at LiveJournal.

GnuPG/PGP Public Key: D32E 9B9F 54AC 30FB 676D CB88 0A88 1958 3951 AA08

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7 Jan 2002 (updated 7 Jan 2002 at 10:54 UTC) »
name change
Well, I've decided that my account name just isn't cool anymore. I'm still using it on IRC, but I realized that I want the things I do on this forum, and indeed in most places, to be associated with me, not with someone I pretend to be.

To that end, I've created an account under my usual login name: bgeiger. If you've certified this account, please transfer your cert over to that one.

I'll be copying my diary entries over soon.

Update: If I had certified you, the new account is currently certifying you. I did not change any... yet.

2 Jan 2002 (updated 2 Jan 2002 at 04:00 UTC) »
Afternoon.

music for thought

o/~
So what would you do if you wake tomorrow
There's no more sorrow, your dreams came true
So knock on wood and cross your fingers
Now count your blessings, it might be you
What would you do if you wake tomorrow
And all your gray skies have turned blue
How many days do you think you're given
So get on living, it's up to you 
o/~     -- LFO, "Life is Good"
happy new ears
2002 years ago... nothing happened. (The best authorities on the subject claim that Christ was born somewhere between 4 and 6 BC.)

Anyway, it's a time for celebration. I spent yesterday at Epcot. It was simultaneously a fun and painful experience: fun because I enjoy being there, and painful because I now have at least five fairly large blisters.

I have a small Trip Report up on my LiveJournal.

projects
Still none. I really need to get off of my butt and get that weblog system done.
diet
It's starting again, soon. My New Year's resolution is to lose 40 pounds by the time I graduate, May 3.
radio
One of my favorite radio stations, WJRR, just changed its name, and apparently its format as well. The rumor is that they fired their entire staff of DJs and stopped playing much of their older collection, focusing instead on current songs.

I hope it's not true; if so, they just lost a listener.

games and networking
I'm still trying to figure out why my network doesn't cooperate with network games. I'm tempted to create a crossover cable and see if running full duplex can improve matters.
cleaning
I need to clean up my room again. Oh, joy.

"Where do you think you are, Disney World? Get your strollers in gear and hustle!" -- General Knowledge, "Cranium Command", Epcot, Walt Disney World

28 Dec 2001 (updated 28 Dec 2001 at 22:29 UTC) »
Noonish.

ho ho humbug

I'm still bummed that Christmas is over.
disney (again)
Another trip to MouseWorld a couple of days ago. Started out in Epcot, stayed for a half hour or so, then hopped over to the Contemporary Resort to visit the arcade.

Beat the snot out of my friend in air hockey.

Played a boxing game that senses your movements. You grab these huge red glove-looking things, and actually swing at the screen. Thing is, though, I forgot to take my vest off, and it was hot anyway... I played through two rounds, until I mercifully lost, then I staggered over to a seat and tried to regain control of myself. I'm sure everyone's felt nauseated after overexerting themselves; thankfully, I was able to will myself back to normal.

Finished off the day in the Magic Kingdom, but left before the fireworks.

All in all, a mostly decent trip.

In other news, I'm probably going to be at the Adventurer's Club at Pleasure Island this Saturday.

gifts
I received some nice gifts this year, not the least of which are a JamCam digital camera and a portable CD player from Mom and a Premium Annual Pass to Walt Disney World from Dad.
new year's eve
If all goes well, I'll be in Epcot for New Year's. I was there for the past two, but it's likely going to be more difficult this year.

First of all, my primary advantage, access to the Cast Member overflow parking lot, has been blocked. This means that I'll have to join the crowd and wait in line. Actually, I'm not worried as much about getting in the park as I am about getting out. There are always traffic jams long into the morning. If you're going, remember to fill up your car, because people actually run out of gas while waiting for the jam to clear.

Also, I'm bringing a friend with me. This ought to be interesting.

certs
Apparently OpenSourcesJapsEye certified me. Is there any way to reject a certification?
later
Gonna go run some errands.

like a slinky on an escalator

23 Dec 2001 (updated 23 Dec 2001 at 09:04 UTC) »
Very Early Morning.

dsl or lack thereof

Holy crap, this has been a frustrating week.

In the past week I've recieved no less than three separate telemarketer calls claiming that DSL is available in my area. The first two have been from Verizon, who provides my phone service.

I was wary at first, knowing that I had been too far from the CO the last time I tried to order DSL. So I specifically asked the sales droid if my phone line was close enough to the CO to receive service. Of course, she said yes.

However, I called back the next day to see when my installation was supposed to take place and the guy who answered (after many trips through their automated system and a long hold time) told me that I was too far from the CO. So not only was I bummed, I was angry that I had been lied to.

That wasn't enough to stop the telemarketers, though. Verizon called me again to advertise their service. Then I called Time Warner, to check on the availability of Roadrunner. Of course, I live in the one part of BFE that doesn't have digital cable yet.... and of course, they call to advertise.... and sent junk snail mail.

Today, DirecTV DSL called about their DSL service. I explained to the sales droid, as patiently as I could, that I was too far from the CO to receive DSL. "But we use a different set of signals than Verizon!" she said, trying to convince me that it would, in fact, work (and probably earn a commission).

I kept explaining to these people that yes, I would sign up for their service if I only could....

diz-nee
Thursday, I went to Downtown Disney. I soon found out why that was a bad idea.

Unbeknownst to me, Thursday night is a sort of traditional "gay night" at Pleasure Island, Disney's nightclub area. Disney is famous for being very pro-gay, and there are many gay Cast Members. I, however, am straight. At least it was fairly discreet; I saw a lot of same-sex couples holding hands or dancing, but nothing that a heterosexual couple couldn't do without offending people. It's not like most people make it out to be.

Anyway, I spent most of the night in the Adventurer's Club. Everyone should spend at least an hour in there, just to get the hang of the place... it's a laugh riot if you're in the right frame of mind, and pretty damn funny even if you're not.

gifts
Dad and I have been exchanging gifts gradually; we're both too impatient to wait until Christmas. He had already given me the Disney Annual Pass. Recently, though, he let me unwrap a new bookbag and a mirror. ("Uhh... thanks?" I'm kidding, I actually needed a mirror. It's one of those things you don't typically think about, but comes in handy.)

He had given me a variety box of Jelly Belly jellybeans, but ate about half of the licorice ones. When I realized that they sold them at Pleasure Island, I bought a small bagful of licorice and cherry ones for him... so he wouldn't keep eating mine. ;-) I also got him some Old Spice. I think he knew that one was coming because he didn't buy any when he ran out.

jerks
Sad news. Dick's father passed on recently. I think I'm just going to forgive him... even assholes don't deserve this much punishment.

However, I'm not deleting the evidence I already have, just in case. I just hope I never have to use it.

recent events
The constitution signing slash holiday party was a success. Lots of food, lots of camaraderie, and no one messed up while signing the constitution.

People loved the pickle wraps I brought... I made them because the dinner was potluck and I have absolutely no skill at cooking.

For your hors d'oeuvre-creating pleasure, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

  1. Dried beef
  2. Cream cheese
  3. Kosher dill pickles
  4. Toothpicks

Directions:

  1. Slice a pickle into quarters lengthwise. (You can buy them presliced but this is cheaper.)
  2. Spread cream cheese on a piece of beef.
  3. Wrap a quarter of the pickle in the cheese-coated beef. (The cream cheese should be on the inside, touching the pickle.)
  4. Insert two toothpicks and cut pickle in half.
  5. Repeat steps 2-4 for the remaining quarters of the pickle.
  6. Repeat steps 1-5 until you run out of something.

Mom taught me how to make these, a long time ago. Thanks, Mom!

projects
I haven't even touched the weblog project yet. I did, however, write a tiny script to turn Advogato's diary.xml files into long HTML files, almost suitable for printing. The fact that each entry is already in HTML made things a lot easier.
school
My Chemistry 2 class got cancelled. Luckily, they moved me into one of the day classes, since they realize that this is the only class I need to graduate.

However, the class goes from 10:00 to 10:50 AM, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the lab is from noon to 3:00 PM on Wednesday. My job is scheduled from 11:00 to 11:50 AM Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, on that campus. (It's the same time, Tuesday and Thursday, on the other campus.)

That simply means that I'll have to haul ass from place to place three days a week. I think I'm up to it, and I'm sure my Chem professor won't mind me showing up a few minutes late to lab if necessary. The two days I'm on the other campus, I have at least an hour to get from one campus to the other, a fifteen-minute trip, max.

arrangements
I rearranged my room a little bit recently. All I really did was rotate my bed 90 degrees and raise it up about 6 inches. However, it makes a huge difference in the available space. Hopefully I can find a decent desk to set one of my two workstations on, so I can get it out of the kitchen.

Why do I keep using my lowly 350MHz when I have a 1.33GHz? (Answer: all my files are on this box, and the OS is already set up nicely. Linux is a bitch to configure, but once it's set up, it stays that way perpetually.)

network woes
For some strange reason, my LAN doesn't like games. The client always seems to get disconnected rapidly. Also, when the player on the server fires a rapidfire weapon (in UT, think minigun or pulse gun), the other client can't communicate with the server.

It's a simple 100Mbps network, with a hub and three connections: two workstations and a firewall/gateway. All three boxen can communicate with each other under normal conditions.

I'm really getting confused, and no one I've spoken to has been able to make heads or tails of it.

trolls
OpenSourcesJapsEye: People like you are the reason I suggested negative certifications.

I don't want to say, "I don't believe he deserves certification", I want to say, "I believe he does not deserve certification." There's a subtle difference there, but a difference nonetheless.

By the way, you're not funny. You're simply disgusting.

car
Took my car in for its scheduled maintenance. Turns out my lower engine mount had broken, my front brake pads were down to less than 5% of their original thickness, and my wheels needed to be balanced.

Well, replacing the engine mount fixed a problem I had been having with the car "bucking" when I shifted into drive or reverse, and the mechanic machined the rotors, eliminating the pulsating brake pedal problem.

However, my car still hops at about 55 MPH. With a vengeance. Maybe it was originally this bad, but since the engine mount was broken, that absorbed the shock?

sleep
Sleep is good.

God's last name isn't Dammit

16 Dec 2001 (updated 16 Dec 2001 at 15:04 UTC) »
Night.

school

Woohoo! The semester's finally over!

I have my grades. I got a B in Wellness Concepts (for some reason, nobody does well in that class), a B in Calculus 3, and an A in Spanish (although I could have sworn I was headed for a B in that class too). I currently have a 3.800 GPA at my current school, and a 3.235 overall GPA. I'm finally recovering from all the goofing off I did at my first college.

work
I think I have a job for next semester. It's just a few hours a week, but it's easy work, and it's right on campus.

Basically, one of the professors is teaching Calculus 2 as a "telecourse", meaning it's sent from one campus to the other via dedicated video link. Anyway, she needs someone on the other end to do things like give out and collect tests, answer questions, etc. Since I'm done with Calc 2 (and 3), I figure I'm as qualified as anyone.

events
Today, I went to a Phi Theta Kappa picnic.... only about seven people showed up, including the two advisors.

Tomorrow, the PCC International Circle is having its Christmas party slash constitution signing. I'm basically under strict orders to attend, or else. ;-)

gifts
Man, have I been lax.... I haven't really gotten anyone anything. I got my dad some Old Spice, and my mom something (I can't say because she reads this). I already know what I'm going to get my brother, if I can find it.

Dad gave me one of my gifts early; it's a Premium Annual Pass to Walt Disney World. Basically, it's an unlimited admission ticket for a year (plus 100 extra days, due to a special they've been running). I also get admission to the water parks, Pleasure Island, and DisneyQuest.

I'm pleased. ;-)

projects
With the long Christmas break, I hope to finish my weblog system for PCCIC.

do not taunt happy fun ball

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