Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in nadmonk's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
10:13 am	So we have a half-baked, home-made accounting system that is utter crap.  I was up all night trying to generate a discount PRN file.  It's supposed to take 3 hours to run.  However, they have it running from a webportal.  Meaning your page times out.  So you have to refresh at the 3 hour mark, hoping that it is actually done.  Then you are prompted to save the file.  Fubar all around. No sleep, much fail. Also, if you want to see the absolute worst way to manage any department (and especially an IT department) come see my supervisor in action.  Truly and insecure, petty man.  Micromanages to the nth degree and doesn't want to admit that things he is not familiar with are best handled by those with expertise in those areas. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
2:20 pm	Minifig scale SW Rebel Blockade Runner I know Theliel has shown me a pretty damn big Star Wars Rebel Blockade Runner. That was impressive. But now someone is building a minifig scale blockade runner.  It is in progress, with perhaps the first 1/3 of the ship done.  It is currently 12 feet long. Look on in awe: http://gizmodo.com/5260864/crazy-guy-making-huge-minifig-scale-lego-corellian-corvette (Comment on this)
Monday, April 13th, 2009
9:53 am	How awesome is UNC Hospital? Awesome enough that they made L undergo a procedure as a diagnostic test that's never actually used as a diagnostic test. Awesome enough that the doctor that initially suggested that she go there for a second opinion hasn't spoken to her since her first follow up appointment. Awesome enough that the department she was referred to wants to have her undergo a treatment plan that is strictly diagnostic in nature, and oh yeah, was found to be inconclusive and of no use 10 years ago.  They are also the only ones in the US still trying this.  They basically want her to be a case study. Awesome enough that the department that was supposed to schedule the drain tube to be taken out this Thursday never did. So should you find yourself in central/eastern North Carolina and becoming ill, go to Duke Medical Center. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
8:46 am	I LIVE Since before Thanksgiving has been near-constant insanity. The latest, is for the past few months L has been having gallbladder issues.  We didn't see them as such, since she thought it was back pain from her car accident in '06.  That is, until the pain turned excruciating.  Turns out that her common bile duct was dilated to 1.6 cm (normally something like 2-4 mm).  One hospital recommended taking it out.  She called a doctor at UNC who thought she should come in.  He wasn't of the school to take it out.  Instead they put in a tub into her gallbladder that drains to a bag (externally) to drain the bile and ease the pressure.  Normally a fairly straight forward quick procedure.  Except someone fucked up and didn't give her the versed with enough lead time before they started.  So she was awake, conscious, and felt the entire thing as they threaded a tube through her side, through her liver, and into her GB. That was followed about 5 days latter with excruciating pain that lasted about 4-5 days, caused they thought, by the tube pressing on a never. So three stays in the hospital of about 5 days from February 18 through March 10. The purpose of the tube was to see if it really was something that would require the gallbladder to come out.  It may not, as it turns out there is an abnormality in her pancreatic ducts that may be preventing the common bile duct from draining appropriately.  And this would explain the dilation as they found no blockage, stones, etc.  They may be able to correct the pancrease issue with a stent.  Apparently this abnormality is evident in something like 2% of the population, but a majority develope no issues from it.  So Friday next week they take the tube out to see if her symptoms return, and then more than likely put in a stent.  We're still waiting for word on that part as the doctor is consulting with the liver/pancrease specialists. So fun stuff.  She's been out of work since Feb. 16, so that's been pretty hard, but a few of her coworkers are complete biotches, so that break is kind of nice.  Of course she's had lots of people from her work call and stay in touch, except for those couple of coworkers. (Comment on this)
Saturday, December 6th, 2008
8:58 pm	Now living in NC, it's probably inevitable that I would have to start paying at least marginal attention to college basketball. Also, it may be a bit early to declare this season a success for UM basketball, however, considering they set a school record for losses last year (their current coach's first season), already having two upsets against top 5 teams (and a respectable loss to a top ranked team) is promising.  And it is definitely something UM football fans should keep in mind for next season. (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
8:31 am	Intelligence is identifying the source of the problem.  Knowing the solution, not implementing it, then being surprised when said problem still occurs because you forgot that you didn't implement the solution. I'm seriously so frayed right now.  As put quite well in the Hobbit: Like too little jam spread over too much toast (Comment on this)
Monday, December 1st, 2008
8:45 am	I hope all had a good turkey day (or non-turkey as it may be for some).  We made up for the fact that we have no family down here by celebrating Thanksgiving twice with two different friends' families.  The first was on TG day itself.  Another teacher in the county had us over.  I've brewed beer with him before (that batch wasn't ready yet, but he had made some truly delicious pomegranet brandy).  His method of cooking the turkey?  Rub it with a mixture of equal parts flour and butter.  Then broil for 30-45 minutes, then bake as usual, for about 3.5 hours.  Stuffed inside were rosemary, bay leaves, chopped apples, and sliced lemons.  The results, a tender, juicy bird, with a nice little crust. I made the requesit pumkin pie cheesecake (which I had originally thought of as a new creation, but turns out to actually be a southern thing). The second was with the family of a friend L works with.  Didn't actually make anything for that one, but still good. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
8:36 am	Karma in action www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/25/ann-coulters-jaw-wired-sh_n_146248.html (Comment on this)
Monday, November 24th, 2008
12:35 pm	Holy Fuck R.E.M.s album Document is old enough to drink. Edit: And their first album, Murmur, turns 25 November 25th. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
8:09 am	I think I'm finally coming to terms with living in the NC.  I've been wondering about where we should buy a house.  The best candidates seem to be Chapel Hill (like Ann Arbor, both in atmosphere and price), Carrboro (Chapel Hill's next door neighbor, smaller, similarly liberal, little less expensive), and Hillsborough (small town, good atmosphere, less expensive than Carrboro, but still more expensive than your average NC small town).  Of course we could get a house where we are now, it is a nice little town, but there isn't really much here. That being said... Dogfish Head brewery is known for making eccentric beers.  For example, their flag ship brew is called 120 Minute IPA.  Meaning, it is an India Pale Ale, it is in the boil for 120 minutes, with hops continuously added.  Then, while fermenting, it is dry hoped daily.  This leads to a rating of 120 IBUs (international bitterness units).  To put this into perspective....a typical pale ale, has an IBU rating of 40-60.  This has lead some to call it "undrinkable" and "an excurcise in extreme brewing".   Others love it, but it goes without saying that you must LOVE hops to love that beer. So at some point, the owner heard of certain peoples in S. America adding palo santo wood (iron wood) to brew beverages, giving it very unique flavors.  He decided he wanted to do a beer fermented in a cask made from palo santo wood.  So he built the largest wooden cask since prohibition from iron wood (the wood so hard, that you can't chop it down, that shooting it with a .38 will not embed the bullet in the wood).  It cost him +$150,000.  All this for a beer he will make in small batches and have limited distribution. Edit: They have a pilsner called "Golden Shower Imperial Pilsner". (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 21st, 2008
8:23 am	Am I the only one that thinks Neal Stephenson looks like a real life Mr. Gone from The Maxx? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
8:07 am	www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/19/somalia.pirates/index.html I think the name on that link at CNN says it all: "Pirate 'mother ship' destroyed, official says" So apparently life is like a video game. All I can picture is an 1941 style scroller with some big bad ass pirate ship with various guns you have to destroy in a certain order before the ship either sinks or runs away.  The fact that it was destroyed rather than got away says to me that this is probably just a level boss, and not the main boss. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
8:33 am	A day of many positives At least for me. Obama won, and unlike Bush's "mandate" in 2004 (at 286 electoral votes), Obama should clock in with 364 electoral votes (if NC and IN go his way, which they should).  Put that in your mandate pipe and smoke it. My partial theory on why NC swung to dem this time around?  Because so many frickin' people from Michigan have moved down here. Also, my mother may or may not have been drunk when she called to celebrate after it was annoanced that Ohio went to Obama. Also, in more immediately impactful news: we now have the car back.  New engine, new clutch installed.  The oil pan may have indeed had a slow leak before, but there was actually something that impacted the oil pan putting a good sized hole in the bottom, leading to no oil, leading to a much larger hole in the side of the engine. (Comment on this)
Monday, November 3rd, 2008
8:50 am	More eventfully, and I forgot to mention, voted early Saturday.  We originally tried to do it Thursday late afternoon.  We probably would have only had to wait about 45 minutes, but L had grading stuff to do, so we left. We got to the polling station at 8:55, they opened at 9:00.  We left at 11:15. I think part of this was the unanticipated early rush. I think another part was the electronic voting machines they were using.  Each person voted required one of the poll workers to put their little management card in, pull up the appropriate ballot, select the correct zone that we were from, then approve the station to start polling.  All of that took longer than it ever took me to fill out a paper ballot.  Then the actual voting also took about twice as long (admittedly because I didn't trust it and was confirming that each vote was recorded correctly via the paper receipt). Voting UR doin it wrong. (Comment on this)
8:32 am	Eventful weekend.  Saw a band play.  The lead signer is a coworker of L's.  He looks like a younger Ozzie (with brown hair) and sounds exactly like Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused.  They were quite good.  Played a lot of classic hard rock.  L got up and sang backup for a couple of them.  Very fun. Prior to that, I had been attending my first meeting of the beer club.  Another teacher in the school district runs an informal beer club.  Which I've learned equates to: he brews the beer while other people who enjoy beer sit around and drink it.  So this time he actually had someone to help him. And coincidentally enough, the beer he was brewing?  A Bell's Oberon clone.  It's definitely one of those things that appeals to me.  It's an interesting intersection of cooking, chemistry, and biology. Also replaced the fog lights in the Xterra, seeing as the originals were only kind of water tight.  Water got in and rusted out all of the interior.  So I got a cheap set of new lights.  Although I didn't actually replace them with fog lights, this time I used 55 watt driving lights.  People already thing I have my brights on now, and these are brighter.  I think I'll be very popular. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
9:31 am	Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
9:03 am	So there's this type of traditional Belgian ale called a lambic.  Now when people usually think of Belgian beers, often they think of wheat ales and the such. A lambic is a different beast altogether. Traditionally, brewmasters will cultivate their yeast lines.  Carefully preserving them and avoiding contamination of both yeast strains and the wort (beer after the boiling but before the yeast).  This is a necessity as external contamination loves the nutrient rich environment of the wort.  This is why, when you see commercial breweries, they are fermented in giant, closed top copper kettles. Lambics on the other hand, undergo their primary fermentation in open top containers (ie spontaneous fermenation).  Why?  Lambics rely upon wild yeast, indigenous to Belgium, and floating around in the air. The resulting beer has a flavor that is very un-beer-like.  The flavor is sour rather than bitter.  Often they will add fruit to balance the sour out. The aroma of a true lambic, has been various described as fruity, citric, earthy, acidic....and my personal favorites......barnyard, sweaty, and "horse blanket". Yes, a beer, that if properly crafted, should evoke the smells of a sweaty horse blanket. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
9:07 am	I previously had no desire for a PS3.  Then last night I saw the gorgeous commercial for Resistance 2.  Holy crap. I really hope they release it for XBox 360.  Not that I have one of those either.  But I can much better justify spending $200 on a system than $400. Besides, I still haven't played Halo 3. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 20th, 2008
10:41 am	I've been intentionally avoiding any blogs, forums, etc regarding Rodriguez and Michigan.  Because of how stupid and reactionary some people can be, I'm sure there's already people going off about the hire being a mistake.  I feel Michigan made the right choice.  Even if Carr were still coach, this would be a tough season.  Rodriguez is a proven coach, who has shown he can turn programs around. Here's a quick run down of what he's done: 1988 (youngest college head coach in the country at 24) Salem State 1990 First year as Glennville State head coach went 1-7-1 By 1993 they were 10-3 The next 3 years they finished as WVIAC co champions. 1997-1998 went to Tulane as their assistant coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterback coach. Prior to his arrival in 1996, they were 2-9 In 1997, they were 7-4 In 1998, they were 12-0 1999-2000 went with Bowden to Clemson in the same capacity. 2001, became head coach of WVU. 2001 was 3-8 2002 was 9-4 2003 8-5 2004 8-4 2005 11-1 2006 11-2 2007 11-2 Keep in mind, that when he got to WVU, they were not able to draw the talent they are now.  This ability to draw was due in no small part to Rodriguez. So Michigan faithful, have hope.  This season will be tough, but in the end, we will be drawn out of the mediocrity that has plagued us of recent.  It is painful now, but the payoff will be awesome. (Comment on this)
7:56 am	So they've got these nifty new things in classrooms now called smartboards.  Of course when I say classrooms, I mean the classrooms for the smart kids in the schools with good funding.  We were still using chalkboards when I graduated. They are quite cool.  The board is basically a big digital pallet that you project onto.  So you can "write" on it with a special pen, and the projector will put that drawing up.  It's interactive, and there are basically limitless possibilities as to what you can use it for (movies, interactive lessons, etc). So why do so few have it?  There are three main components: a laptop, a projector, and the smartboard itself.  The smartboard alone costs over $2,500.  Throw in the laptop and projector, and you have a pretty pricey piece of equipment. Enter Johnny Chung Lee, Wii hacking wizard.  This is the guy that hacked a Wii remote and receiver, to make a completely awesome 3D VR display (www.youtube.com/watch). He has created software that allows the Wii Remote to act as the tracking sensor.  So basically all you need is his software, the remote, a Bluetooth receiver, and an IR transmitting pen (along with the laptop and projector).  Set the remove off at an angle, and you can use the pen to drag and drop (edugamesblog.wordpress.com/2007/12/30/using-the-wiimote-as-a-cheap-smart-board/).  So the total cost (assuming you already have possession of a projector and laptop) is about $80. (Comment on this)