An absolutely riveting account of a KICKBALL game!

I hate to be a killjoy, but 1,880 people hopping for 5 minutes does not a world record make, at least not in my eyes.

One of the participants is quoted as having said: “It’s a chance to be in the history books.”. Yeah, uh-huh…..I’m sure they plan on listing almost 2000 names alongside those of real recordholders.

They didn’t even list the names of the 70 scuba divers who set the record for Extreme Underwater Ironing. What the hell is that?!

They should make it a policy to preface these sorts of “world records” with:

“A whole lotta morons got together and……..”

I’m going to start posting configuration notes here on my blog, mostly because I’m getting old and am forgetting things more and more lately. If anyone else finds them useful, that’s cool too.

Each time I install an Ubuntu box, I find myself reinstalling the same sets of packages. Some of these are security-specific, and some are simply there to make my desktop a bit more usable. I’ll add to these as I install them. Hopefully, in time, I’ll have a list of packages I can reference to quickly get a machine to a usable state.

• nmap
• tcpdump
• tcpflow
• ethereal
• tethereal
• minicom
• screen
• msttcorefonts
• gsfonts-x11
• remind

Use the following in a terminal to grab all the packages listed above (and their dependencies):

apt-get install nmap tcpdump tcpflow ethereal tethereal minicom screen msttcorefonts gsfonts-x11 remind

I took some guitar lessons last fall at Guakia in Hartford. They operate on semester schedule, so the lessons went through Christmas. Since then, I’ve been practicing on my own, picking up learning materials here and there.

Anyway, I’ve been teaching myself a song for about three weeks now (House of the Rising Sun, a staple of many a beginning guitarist), and I’m slowly getting it, which was pretty satisfying. Until my daughter, Bri, decided to give it a shot, that is. She picked up the guitar three days ago and is pretty damn close to matching me. In fact, while she can’t play as much of the song as I can, what she does play sounds better!

Don’t get me wrong, as a parent, I’m thrilled! Jen and I are hoping she decides this is something she’d like to explore. And I’m sure Jason, Jen’s cousin who bought the guitar for Bri’s 8th birthday almost three years ago, would be happy to hear it as well.

But, as a guitarist, it’s a little bit of a kick in the nuts.