Month: May 2007

Up and Down Again

Published by NiteMayr on May 28, 2007

NiteCat, NiteGirl and I went up Skinner’s Butte today. No Mean feat. Well, not really, it’s a short walk but NiteGirl and I are pretty out of shape, so it was good exercise either way. This was yet another excuse to take pictures and generally gawk at Eugene as we will be leaving ever so soon.

I reward your patience with a picture:

Water can be Goopy

This was taken at the water fountain at the top of the Butte, where the water is apparently the only chlorinated water in the whole city. It tasted awful, but it takes a nice picture nonetheless.

Additionally, here is a nice picture from Alton Baker park, taken the day before:

Profile

Taken amongst a crowd of goslings, awwww.

Anyway, if you are interested here’s the skinny on my Car “The Batmobile” (Which is nicer than the Fatmobile)

NiteGirl, NiteCat and I were leaving the theater after the ignominious “Third Movie” when we realized that the car felt a bit odd on the passenger side. Looking at the wheel, we confirmed that it was a little low on air and we proceeded to fill it up, at which point I noted that the metal from the inside of the tire was coming through; but on the INNER edge of the tire quell surprise.

So, off to Firestone we go. Look, I’m aware of the issues they have had in the past, so I make the same assumption there that I make at Jack in the Box; due to their past bad press they HAD to clean up their act. Also, they were close and I have done business with them in the past.

After their initial inspection they also found that the passenger-front ball-joint and Driver-Rear wheel cylinder needed work. I assented to the work and they proceeded to perform these and OTHER repairs *for free* on top of the aforementioned tire replacements (4) and wheel alignments (lacking a lifetime guarantee, but I may never see another Firestone) and for good measure an oil change with the extra fancy high-mileage stuff.

I’m going to be scrambling to pay the Credit Card bill that comes along with this, but I can’t argue with the results. I was planning on getting this work done before the big move anyway, the power steering needs work and it needs a tune up; but an annoying squeak that I have been hearing for about two years is now gone and I feel more confident in the wheels (as they used to feel a bit, um, loose).

So there it is, the skinny on the Bat mobile. We also had a nice lunch at Red Robin, who still make crappy fries.

Movie: Arr the third one's okay

Published by NiteMayr on May 26, 2007

I wanted to record this earlier; but car troubles prevented it.

Anyway we went to see the third Pirates of the Carribean film today. My expectations were pretty low after the second one put me to sleep, twice. I’m happy to say that I did not catch up on any missed sleep during this episode.

The plot of this installment is as deep as you might imagine and the fight scenes are as racaus as one could hope for when magic squid men and drunken pirates are in the fray. It could have used more ninjas, but I digress.

Jack sparrow doesn’t come off as drunken as he did in the first movie; which makes the film more the poorer as his drunken antics added to the excitement. My point is that Jack came off ‘planned’ which kills his uniqueness. The lack of the kind of random success that made Jack so charming really hurt the film.

Other than that the movie was okay; excepting the conclusion which sucked, and besrs no discussion.

On Privacy

Published by NiteMayr on May 26, 2007

By way of a response to 007Ben, I’m posting here on Vox.

I used to run my own blog using wordpress, I had a custom layout and wrote my own plug ins and had a great time of it. I used a paid hosting service to run it and I was in total control of the blog. This meant that my own web space was in my control and that I could control who read my blog. This meant that beyond the odd friend who found it, hardly anyone visited the damn thing. I could point to Google and see that I was the number-one site for NiteMayr and usually “Kevin Wardrop” but it didn’t translate into visitors. I wrote in my blog to share with the world; caring or not.

I don’t have a private life anymore, not really. I share myself on Twitter and my blog, I syndicate all of this on my webspace (http://live.nitemayr.com) I have a personal web space, true; but that is based off publicly available links from Digg, delicious and various other sources. I leave a digital trail about 10 miles wide and do not care who knows what about me. I have no secrets.

I share Ben’s qualms about being spread across too many places, but isn’t that what our new social lifestyle is all about? The web lets us share ourselves in so many ways, and we control the message.

I think that sums it up, while I share myself, I control the message.

Did my reflection go crazy?

Published by NiteMayr on May 23, 2007

As I arrived at the office this morning, I was shocked to see a strange reflection looking back at me as I swiped into the building. Something was wrong with my reflection! It was the wrong color and I was taller!Uh, it wasn’t me. There was another fat guy on the other side of the door, and for whatever reason he mirrored my movements on the other side of the door. Strange.

Dinner and a Movie

Published by NiteMayr on May 19, 2007

Went out for Dinner and a Movie with Karl, 007Ben and NiteGirl. (We brought 007Ben’s SO and NiteCat along too)

WE had two boats at Sushi Domo and then went to the Regal for Shrek 3 (For NiteGirl and NiteCat) and 28 Weeks Later (Again)

Seeing 28 weeks later for the second time only compounded my belief that it was totally awesome!

Weekend of Fun

Published by NiteMayr on May 14, 2007

Pow Wow Dancer

Due to the fact that I am leaving soon and that I have a finite bank of off time, I have taken a long weekend, which means “I have all the time in the world for doing stuff”

Some of the stuff we did this weekend

Hiked up Spencer’s Butte
Ate at PF Changs
Took Pictures of a Peace March
Watched 28 Weeks Later
Attended a Pow Wow at the U of O

Here is a Quick Rundown of my opinion of each:

Spencer’s Butte: A Fun drive out there. very long hike.

PF Changs: Sucked, too expensive no ambiance. The outdoor eating area is next to the fricking road.

Peace March: I was surprised by it but took tons of photos:

Peace Cowboy

28 Weeks Later: GREAT! Thrilling! A worthy sequel. I was worried that the lack of the formers cinematographer and director would hurt it, I was very very wrong. I’m going to see it again tomorrow!

The Pow Wow: Despite living near to a reservation for most of my life, I never actually got to see one of these up close. You cannot begin to imagine how amazing it is to hear the signing and drumming live like that. Don’t hesitate to attend at least one.

Oh, one more thing. NiteGirl had her first Mojito, she loved it!

He Spins a web like a Dork

Published by NiteMayr on May 5, 2007

So, Spider-Man 3; what to say about it?

First the negatives: It’s very very cheesy. Nacho Cheese Cheesy. From the stupid “wolf walk” scene with Tobey, to the Flag scene later in the film, it’s chock full of cheese. Small children will enjoy the easy-to-read jokes that are splayed about in this film. In a movie that is supposed to be about the Dark Side of Spider-Man, we are laughing alot.

The fight scenes were great, and the big redemption scene was sufficiently emotional. Tobey turns in a good EMO-Peter performance (if any reader was at the showing I was at, I was the guy who called out “Now I’m EMO!!!” when the big hairstyle change came down, you’re welcome).

It was predictable, and cheesy; but I won’t hesitate to buy it when it comes to DVD and I will recommend it as family viewing, as it is clearly a family film.

If I was a reviewer, I’d give it a thumbs up, if only for the popcorn movie factor.

Luxury Wish List

Published by NiteMayr on May 4, 2007

If money were no object, which five luxury items would you rush right out and buy?
Submitted by lorilyn.

The Entire Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures Back Catalog
A new Home for my family, and pay off future taxes ad infinitum.
A Set of Tablet/Convertible laptops for my whole circle of friends and Family.
A new car (just new, I haven’t ever owned a new car)
A prepaid plane travel voucher (fly for free to anywhere forever)

Luxury Wish List

Published by NiteMayr on May 4, 2007

If money were no object, which five luxury items would you rush right out and buy?
Submitted by lorilyn.

The Entire Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures Back Catalog
A new Home for my family, and pay off future taxes ad infinitum.
A Set of Tablet/Convertible laptops for my whole circle of friends and Family.
A new car (just new, I haven’t ever owned a new car)
A prepaid plane travel voucher (fly for free to anywhere forever)

How to test an IP address against an RBL/DNSBL list

Published by NiteMayr on May 2, 2007

Hey There; this post is a technical post about how to test to see if your IP address is on an RBL list.

Locate an RBL provider or if you know you are on their list determine their zone name: for example the zone names for SPAMHAUS are sbl.spamhaus.org, xbl.spamhaus.org and pbl.spamhaus.org
Once you have those names, you need your IP address. For this example we will use a fake address:
212.122.234.565

(For those of you not in the know, this IP address can’t exist in the IP v4 numbering system)
Now reverse the IP address!
565.234.122.212
Now we need a command prompt; from windows XP, 2000 or Vista go to START -> Run and type cmd and enter. In Linux or another *nix system open a terminal. On Mac OSX, uh, open the terminal.
At the command prompt type nslookup 565.234.122.212.sbl.spamhaus.org and hit ENTER
You should see something like this:

Server: dnsserver.yourdomain.com
Address: xx.xx.xx.xx

*** dnsserver.yourdomain.com can’t find 565.234.122.212.sbl.spamhaus.org: Non-
existent domain
If you DON’T See “Non-Existent domain” and instead see something like:
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: 565.234.122.212.sbl.spamhaus.org
Address: 127.0.0.1

It’s a good bet you are on the RBL (in this case SBL) list.
You can repeat this test for each DNSBL zone (ie nslookup 565.234.122.212.xbl.spamhaus.org)
If all the tests come up as “non-existent domain” you’re clean!