streamtorrent and mac os x in china

Watching sports is never easy. bulls bowing out in the conference finals. the mls at anytime. it just doesn't get any easier when you move to china. last night i tried to load up the iowa vs iowa state game, but the only way to view it was through a stream torrent link. initially i naively hoped to find it via some flash streaming site on the web. first of all, many of the popular flash sites are blocked. second of all, the big ten network is vigilant about protecting their investment. most of the old faithful aggregators dont even list games shown on the b1g network anymore. what they have done is come up with an almost reasonable plan to stream games to paying customers around the globe with no territory restrictions. well, that would be nice if i still had some way to pay, but i dont. so that leaves one option: streamtorrent.

streamtorrent is infamous among mac users. until now there is no mac port of the software which means we have to create some ridiculous workaround to view the torrents. it took some fiddling but in the end, after 3 quarters of football plus pregame, i figured out how to make it work. the first method i tried was to use Wine. wine allows users to run windows executables within os x without needing a fully licensed copy of ms windows. the best thing about wine is that it is reliable and free. unfortunately, after installing the newest version of stream torrent and windows media player 9, i couldnt get stream torrent to connect to a channel nor could i retrieve a list of channels even though i could browse through internet explorer. after much frustration with wine, i tried using CrossOver. crossover is very similar to wine, but it is more feature-rich than wine. in fact, it runs on the same idea as wine. crossover isnt free, but you can get a fully functioning free trial from the interwebs. in crossover, i also installed windows media player 9 and the stream torrent. this time, it loaded the stream player, but it never connected to the stream host. the only option left i could think of was to try virtualization instead of "emulation."

 there are lots of different virtualization programs out there. at the suggestion of wiziwig.eu forums, i went with the free program, Virtualbox. the only problem with virtualbox is that you need a copy of windows, which is the reason i avoided virtualization in the first place. then i found this website. it is a blog with some great instructions on how to get streamtorrent up and running on os x. the process simply contains the following steps:

1. download virtualbox
2. download microxp-stv2.ova
3. install virtualbox
4. import microxp into virtualbox
5. start the virtual machine with microxp
6. load up a streamtorrent link

unfortunately i didnt have time to wait for twinkilling's premade version of microxp so i downloaded a different basic version. i dont know exactly what he did to microxp, but i simply installed windows media player 11, streamtorrent, firefox, and vlc. i loaded up my stream and everything worked as it should. after a few minutes of buffering and adjusting the buffer time, i got to watch some of the game. then it really began to give me problems buffering. after a few minutes passed it began to buffer indefinitely even after it reached 100% and 120 seconds buffered.

in the end, it was pretty disappointing even though i *kind of* got it to work. now, i'll try to download twinkilling's version of microxp and see how it goes. check out his step-by-step tutorial if you need more in-depth guidance. it has clear instructions along with pictures and links to virtualbox and microxp.

twinkilling's - how to get streamtorrent to work on mac os x

seagate momentus 500gb 7200rpm

wow. i just finished a bitchin upgrade of the hard drive in my macbook2,1. first, the two hour cloning process gave me a kernel error. but fortunately, it didnt happen on the following try. successfully cloned, i installed the new hard drive, and i ran into some problems. the original hd came out easily, but when i tried to slide in the momentus, i felt some resistance as it slid in. i was able to screw the battery bracket back in so i assumed it was okay. i booted up via the external drive with a cloned os x, and it didnt recognize the new internal drive. crap. i tried several searches and flipped through some 50 odd pages of google results over the next couple hours for the macbook not recognizing/detecting the drive to almost no avail. no searches related directly to the problem i encountered.

i did happen across one page that mentioned it may not be seated into the sata connection well, so i really pinched the f'er hard like a sloper on a v6. surprisingly, it resisted softly. after some trial bootups, it still didnt recognize the seagate. i pointed a flashlight down there and experienced my moment of zen. i saw some bunched up rubber next to the hd's sata connector and realized that it obstructed the hd from seating correctly. i was relieved that it wasnt a problem with the drive. the hard drive slides in along two rubber guides that help absorb vibration and shock to secure the drive. the adhesive lost its grip from trying to force the new drive in and bunched the rubber guides near the connector. after a quick macbook case disassembly, i adjusted the guides, slid the new drive in, and reassembled the case. after booting up via the external drive, it recognized the momentus and asked for initialization! one gyro from tommy's, one Hercules Double IPA by great divide, and one Horn Dog barleywine ale by flying dog later, the macbook is asking me to initialize the new drive. here's a link to what happened.

final note: cloning the original drive to the external via usb 2.0 puttered along at 13mb/s. cloning from the external to the new 7200rpm is humming along at 25mb/s.

in circles + sidewalk ends, 5k

in circles + sidewalk ends by mthongva at Garmin Connect - Details
this was my first 5k with the garmin 305 using some new heart rate zones calculated using the karvonen method. the weather was absolutely perfect. the pace felt slow but the run was really enjoyable. i noticed that my heart is pumping at 90% even when i'm running at such a slow pace. it's incredible to have that kind of feedback. i know i'm not in running shape, but it makes me wonder about my max heart rate. i think i'll be adding some hard sprints during my runs to make sure it's right. i also noticed how easy it is to become preoccupied with pace and mile splits during the run. so, i'm going to remove them from the display. i'll go with distance and heart rate for now. i figure that the health of my heart and how hard it pumps is my major concern at this point. don't get me wrong, i'm still obsessed with the nerdy aspect of timing and mile splits. they will be great for measuring progress over time.

garmin 305

so i just picked up a garmin 305, and i have to say... It Is Rad. I chose the 305 because of the voluminous great reviews and its popularity among folks over at runnersworld.com forums. first and foremost i wanted a heart rate monitor, but i also wanted it to record my heart rate constantly and upload that data onto my computer. most of the entry-level HRMs only display average heart rate, max heart rate, and elapsed workout time and no option to upload. the 305 is one of most inexpensive options available. it has loads of other features that were on my non-essential feature wish-list. some of my favorites are:

-auto split marker by the mile
-distance calculation
-route tracking
-heart rate max/min alerts

despite being ugly, it is an amazing tool. i like the mapping aspect and ability to create workouts a lot. then, the breadth of data it records just floors me. i'm actually excited to run so i can track my progress and create this body of data i can use to judge my health and tweak my regiment. so far i've discovered that my route is one mile shorter than i had estimated with my truck's odometer. also, my target heart rate translates into a much slower mile pace than i had anticipated. the suggested pace seems to fit 5 mile runs, not the 2 mile jaunts that i've been going on so far. so, i'm gonna shoot for longer runs.

the software and website it integrates with is pretty exceptional. if you like to see visual representations of the data like me, it's right up your alley. one thing that i'd like to see though are overlays of graphs on top of each other so i can better see the heart rate in relation to speed, distance, and elevation.

here's my first run where i tried to ascertain my max heart rate. after ten minutes of jogging, i sprinted for about 20 yards, ran another half mile then sprinted again. it peaked at 195 which is actually close to the "220 minus age" estimation.

quotes on translation via lloyd haft

lloyd haft has written a few blog entries that resonated pretty deeply with me on the experience of studying chinese. he's also included some great quotes that reassure me despite my feelings of inadequacy translating chinese. i recommend reading all of his entries tagged "scrapbook."

the first quote reminds me of a conversation casey and i had (one that i've had on several other occasions with several other people) after i told him about a great passage i read by mo yan likening something (i don't remember what) to tracks impressed on wet sand by a crab scampering off. it had to do with creating words that might capture a sentiment, rather than finding that specific word that carries the exact meaning for a specific thing, or an exact translation.

here are some of the quotes i liked most...

"As for the criticism that might be made of a translator ‘superimposing’ such an individually distinctive style of his own on a Chinese poet, hence obscuring his supposedly unique language – I wonder how many of us sinologists, or how many Chinese readers, could reliably tell the diction of one classical Chinese poet from another in the original." full entry

[On his first translations] "My knowledge of Chinese was pitifully inadequate, but this did not deter me from doing the best I could with Bian’s poetry. I took comfort in the words of T. S. Eliot (one of the writers whom Bian translated): ‘I was passionately fond of certain French poetry long before I could have translated two verses of it correctly.’ " full entry

"I remember once many years ago when my colleague the Polish sinologist Zbigniew Słupski was asked by a British editor how much time he would realistically need to write a decent scholarly article on one of the great traditional Chinese novels. Zbigniew took a sip of vodka, peered meditatively into the distance, and said: ‘Three lifetimes. One to learn Chinese, one to read the whole novel, and one to write and revise the article.’ " full article

Open Letter: Kenneth Goldsmith and Conceptual Poetics

I read a pretty insightful quote by johanna drucker. It echoes something I've thought but never vocalized.

"No violation of the protocols of literary production or identity can even register as novel. Not now, not any more. Not since the mad dash 20th century self-conscious modern assault on all convention and then the assault on the assault as its own convention and so on enacted endlessly iterative upping of the continual cycle of violence against established protocols."

from "Un-Visual and Conceptual - Johanna Drucker" via ubuweb

grangers performance waterproofer review

after one full year of continuous wear, the dwr pretty much wore off of my "stretch element" shell and the surface was absorbing water. i'd be dry on the inside, but you could tell that the outer layer wasnt shedding water as it should. probably to be expected due to buying it in china.

i tried out the grangers performance waterproofer wash-in. the first time i washed it in 2 cap fulls for one h2no 3-layer shell. after the wash, i put it directly into the dryer @ tumble dry, low heat since the shell says to only dry it on low heat. i pulled it out and only SOME of the water repellency was restored. some spots beaded and repelled as it should, but some spots still absorbed water.

i washed it again today with 2 cap fulls of grangers and set the dryer to MEDIUM heat as the bottle suggests for 40 mins, despite the shell's care instructions. this time it completely restored the water repellency. in one of several forums i browsed about the topic, it looks like the right amount of heat was the key. apparently the heat helps to spread out the grangers solution evenly over the shell. now, lets see how long it lasts once i start wearing it again... which wont be for another month or so. stay tuned.

upcoming shows

october looks to be a great month for shows in iowa, for now we've got:

10/01: the thermals, the mill in iowa city, $12
10/28: joan of arc, vaudeville mews in des moines, $10
10/31: the books w/ black heart procession, grinnell, free

80-35 music festival, des moines, july 3-4

The 80-35 Music Festival looks to put Iowa and Des Moines, in particular, on the independent music radar with some big name rock bands. July 3rd is the date I'm most looking forward to. I can't wait to see Spoon and Yo La Tengo up on the stage in Des Moines rocking out in the swampy Iowa humidity. I've been captivated by YLT's "Ride the Tiger" this past month, so the timing is great for me. (Something about the live rendition of Crispy Duck really grabs me, i guess it's the detached vocals and paced guitar that build intensity as the vocals, guitars and drums all find each other and take off.)

Between those sets Slightly Stoopid will jam out and offer something up for all those jam band folks to feed on. I've been waiting to see these guys ever since Chris Adams raved about 'em on long Friday nights that bled into Saturday mornings. On a minor note, Modern Day Satire will be playing on the second stage at the start of the day. An up-and-coming band out of the Des Moines area, I've seen some vids posted of these guys over at the Vaudeville Mews website and I am glad I'll see them live. They play smooth brand of melodic, fuzz rock. I really dig the vocals which find that half-sung/half-spoken, i'll-be-falsetto-one-day range that's particularly hard to make work, reminiscent of Elf Power's vocals.

The 4th of July will see The Walkmen and Modest Mouse take the stage, but I am not too hip on seeing either of those bands. I'd really like to see Califone play on the second stage though. I'm not familiar with any of the other bands playing during the day, so I'll probably stay at home, grill, and watch some World Cup action if it's goin' down.

July 3rd and 4th, Western Gateway Park, Des Moines, Iowa
Tickets: $60 for two days / $35 for one day
Maps/Directions

chocolate bomb cake truffles

yesterday's goal was to make a 'ježek [yayge-ek]' or porcupine. it's a dense chocolate cake with an outer layer of chocolate. it is the proverbial SHEEEET. there are countless variations around slovenia and here's a picture of our take.

we took devil's food cake exploded it to bits+pieces, and reconstructed it into chocolate covered golf balls. the recipe is handy because it doesn't include shortening or self-raising flour. overall instructions:

make the cake. let it cool. tear into pieces. add cream cheese frosting. make yr bombs. chill in fridge. cover in chocolate. refrigerate overnight. devour until you puke.


devil's food cake (via 500 cakes by Susannah Blake)
170 g (6 oz) butter
240 g (8 oz) caster sugar
80 g (3 oz) unsweetened cocoa powder
300 ml (11 oz) milk
3 eggs
200 g (7 oz) plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt

1. preheat oven to 180C (350F). grease two 9" round cake tins.
2. beat butter and sugar until creamy. take the cocoa and add milk bit by bit to make a smooth paste. add butter/sugar to the cocoa/milk.
3. beat eggs in one at a time.
4. combine flour, baking powder and salt in separate bowl. fold half of that into the chocolate mix slowly. stir in the remaining milk. fold in the rest of the flour mix.
5. pour the batter into both of the pans.
6. cook for 25 mins. test with the ol' toothpick to see if it sticks or not.
7. let it cool for a few minutes, then turn it onto a wire rack to cool completely (~30 mins)
8. for the little bombs, crumble up the whole cake. proceed to make the cream cheese frosting...


cream cheese frosting
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cream-cheese-frosting-ii-2/detail.aspx - i made half the recipe (12 servings, not 24)

after making it, mix it into the crumbled cake. make yr chocolate bombs and chill in the fridge for an hour or longer.


chocolate covering
melt cooking chocolate in a double boiler (or bowl put over boiling water. metal mixing bowls from ikea worked great for us). cover yr bombs with chocolate and put 'em on wax paper. chill in the fridge for several hours, overnight if you can resist.

two shows i'm looking forward to in june/july

Sat 06.26 / Crooked Fingers @ the mill in iowa city w. So Cow
After the Archers of Loaf disbanded, noted songwriter and indie-rock icon Eric Bachmann took his music in a different direction when he formed CROOKED FINGERS in 2000. Instead of the clamorous, angular tock of old, he began creating the sumptuous and delicately melancholic songs that have come to define the band. DIY pop band, So Cow (from Ireland!) // Time: 9:00pm. Admission: $10. Age restrictions: 21+ After 10 pm.

===============================================

Wed 07.14 / Lightning Bolt @ gabe's oasis in iowa city w. the Tanks, Supersonic Piss, and Living Ghost
Price: $8 / Ages: 21+
Door: 9:00pm / Show: 9:30pm

basic spaghetti sauce recipe yr dog could make

a very basic recipe for spaghetti sauce - 2 servings

ingredients:
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 onion finely chopped
6 oz tomato puree
0.5 cup milk
extra virgin olive oil
basil
oregano
salt (try one teaspoon at first)
pepper

prep:
1. heat garlic and onions in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil until yellow.
2. on medium/high heat add the tomato puree and milk.
3. add remaining ingredients.
4. mix frequently while heating it until the milk begins to evaporate and sauce thickens up.
5. serve hot.

----------------

i use dried basil and oregano, so i sprinkle a healthy amount into the sauce. i also like to add a teaspoon of crushed red pepper to liven things up. further add some pancetta and we are headed into amatraciana territory. dont forget rosemary if you've got it on hand - i usually dont, just because i dont have it around.

you need to add just the right amount of salt to fit your palate. it'll take a bit of experimentation to find whats right for you. too little salt and it turns out pretty bland. add a bit of freshly grated parmesean or some cubes of mozarella and you are in for a solid pasta.

money playlist for walking

ipod shuffle treated me to surprisingly awesome background music for a walk to BTC last week. being pretty new to the whole ipod gig, i havent tried out shuffle too often. i try to listen to complete albums as often as possible to get a feel for how a band's music works within the context that they pieced together. also, i've been listening to a lot of poetry as i walk/bus about the town. i like to hear george oppen or ted berrigan talk about their cities as i walk around mine. with these tiny little quirks in my listening habits, it made hearing a great playlist all that much more affecting. just to note, the ethiopiques contribute to half of my music collection, so it comes up quite a bit. that's a good thing because i havent listened to most of the songs from the 12 or so odd albums that i have. and here it is...

'track' - artist (album)
'mela mela' - seyfu yohannes (the very best of the ethiopiques)
'yebeqagnal' - girma beyene (ethiopiques 08: swinging addis '69-'74)
'the fox in the snow' - belle & sebastian (if you're feeling sinister)
'kulun mankwalesh' - mahmoud ahmed (ethiopiques 06: almaz - mahmoud ahmed 1973)
'come back baby' - fred neil (echoes of my mind: best of '63-'71)
'tchero adari ngen' - alemayehu eshete (ethiopiques 05: tigrigna music)
'7 variations on Bei Mannern Welche Liebe Fuhlen..." - beethoven (the five cello sonatas)
'feqer feqer new' - alemayehu eshete (ethiopiques: alemayehu eshete)

project gutenberg's audiobooks

the title of the post says it all. yesterday i discovered project gutenberg's list of audio books. if you dont know anything about PG, it's an electronic collection of books that have entered the public domain. you can use the books for basically whatever purpose you intend because the copyrights have expired in the USA. admittedly, i'm not the least bit interested in most of the books. i mean, come on, who wants to hear The Essays of Francis Bacon read aloud? nonetheless, there are some great finds on the list: austen, balzac, dickens, willa cather, just to name a few. you can see that the authors are all dinosaurs considering their copyrights have expired.

many of the books are actually read by users over at librivox.org. several books have multiple formats like ogg vorbis, mp3, and itunes audio book. i downloaded the itunes version of moby dick and it totaled 43 files @ 180mb. these'll probably take about a bazillion+1 days to finish, buuut summer vacation is around the corner and i know my fellow teacher-friends aint got nothin to do besides laze about on a lawnchair somewhere.

the audio books i checked out were:

joseph conrad - the secret agent
aldous huxley - crome yellow
okakura kakuzo - the book of tea
immanuel kant - on the popular judgment: that may be right in theory, but does not hold good in the praxis
herman melville - moby dick

小词典 Small Chinese Dictionary

absolutely sweeeet. i've finally stumbled across a chinese dictionary for os x, 小词典 Small Chinese Dictionary. now i can lookup chinese definitions through the normal context menu while disconnected from the web. that means translation from anywhere - regardless of wifi availability. i've been waiting on this ever since os x had a prepackaged dictionary integrated into the operating system.

my translation relies pretty heavily on nciku and zdict. that'll never change, but it's awesome to finally have native chinese lookup.

apparently, 小词典 Small Chinese Dictionary has been around for awhile. it uses the great CC-CEDICT so you can also add and edit entries. you need 10.5+ and it will occupy about 85mb on your hard drive.

http://xiaocidian.com/xiaocidian-desktop/

quote of the day

Earlier this year, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US would be supporting the development of new tools to enable citizens to circumvent politically-motivated censorship.

Any country which restricted free access to information risked "walling themselves off from the progress of the next century", she added.

--"US eases Cuba, Iran, Sudan sanctions allows freer web" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8556341.stm

march shows in central iowa

grinnell / the picador / the mill / mshop / vaudeville mews / ames progressive


and here are some march shows. it's just the combined calendars of the 5 venues listed above. mostly indie rock bands and local acts.

click on the venue name above to find out more about the shows and bands listed for example, the mews site has prices, links to artist websites and vids posted. check out the mill's calendar for more events not listed here, misc events and so on.

highlights include: fruit bats, a sunny day in glasgow, vivian girls, haiti relief fundraiser and the mission creek festival launch (xiuxiu at the end of the month and david bazan on apr01)

Mar 2 2010  8:00P    Ames Progressive Office
Hearth, Bisonhearts, Pink Kodiak, Julie Hallman

Tue 03.02 9PM
TUESDAY NIGHT SOCIAL CLUB
w. Dr. Manhattan, Bald Eagle Refugees, Happy Chromosomes PLUS, JUST ADDED: midnite set by mandlebrot & 'skyy (members of Drip House and Rene Hell)!!
Dr. Manhattan returns with their rowdy rock antics. Awesome pop weirdos Bald Eagle Refugees support alongside Cedar Rapids freewheeling indie popsters the Happy Chromosomes. The pop will come to an end with a much-anticipated midnite set by mandlebrot & 'skyy at midnite / FREE

Wed, Mar 3rd 5:30 pm
Toki Wright, Omaur Bliss, Haziq Ali, Maxilla Blue

Wed, Mar 3rd 9:30 pm
Summer Camp: On The Road 2010 

access garageband install package on os x 10.5.6 system restore disc 2 (applications disc)

i have some original 10.5.6 system discs designed for macbook pro hardware. it is fairly common knowledge that you cannot use the discs on another model of mac. i didnt know that. suffice to say, the OS X install failed on my macbook. no big deal as i have 10.5 installed anyway. out of pure curiosity, i tried to run the installer from the applications install disc. naturally, it failed. of course, all of the install packages are still hiding there on the disc somewhere. through the magic of terminal and "ls -a" i found them with some minor digging.



1. Insert the disc.

2. At the apple menu located the top of screen, select Go -> Go to Folder.


3. Enter this path "/Applications Install Disc/System/Installation/Packages/.packages/" and click ok.

4. Run the garageband installer package.

Kong Gejian @ Under the Banyan Tree

this week, Kong Gejian's poetry collection, "Peanut Hill" (花生坡/空格键), has received the most weekly clicks in the poetry section over at Under the Banyan Tree (榕树下). it's also one of the top hits for the month. out of curiosity for what Chinese people are digging, i decided to read some and translate a few. more after the break.

露珠　文/空格键 谁将黑夜 浓缩为这晶亮的一滴？ 风合上回忆录 惊讶了一分钟，然后 蹑手蹑脚的走了。 阳光铺排过来。 花朵和命运彻底醒来。	Dewdrop by Kong Gejian Who condensed night into this clear, bright drop of dew? Wind closes the memoir Surprised for a minute, then It tip-toes away. Sunlight arranges to come. Flowers and fate awaken completely.
http://www.rongshuxia.com/chapter/bookid-5009427-chapterid-14957.html

hacienda, those darlins and garageband ('strangers'-kinks)

drum track to "strangers" by the kinks and i'm also working on "this time tomorrow" by the kinks. drum rolls are prickly and tedious.

on another note, those darlins and hacienda put on a pretty great show tonight in grinnell. hacienda opened and played a pretty straightforward set that walked a country/rock line that swayed a little bit more to the rock side. what i really really dug were the rock songs that carried a strong oldies/beach boys feel to it. it's like they borrowed some of those melodies and guitar work and dirtied up the sound a bit. (http://www.myspace.com/haciendaspace, check out "hear me crying" [been listening to some blondie?] and "shake ya" to hear what i'm talkin about)

those darlins played a rockin show and the crowd really got their dance groove goin on, but i had a hard time hearing anything that stood out about them. the girls have some amazing chops and can play guitar as well as anyone else, but nothing about the music really set it apart from other bands. they had great stage presence and really seemed to enjoy being on stage. it was fun to watch and i think they had a lot of fun playing. but there's a certain kitsch factor to seeing three short girls up there on stage really jamming, saying naughty words and singing twangy songs about lost love, drunk driving and eating chicken. what i'm going to take away from the show is that they are good musicians and excellent performers, but the image of a guitar being as big as a girl is probably going to eclipse their musicianship in my memory.  the "girl band (*drummer is a guy)" thing is a tough road to take. on one hand being a girl-fronted band you gain some acclaim because of that simple fact, but come on, they want to be taken seriously as musicians, which erase errata has pulled off in a most bodacious way. spice girls and cheetah girls or whatever group it is this week dont make their effort any easier. when its all said and done, those darlins have great potential, and considering they are a young band they still have time to grow into their own.

final word, thanks to katherine and the three other guys who helped me push my car out of the snow.

garageband ('test pattern' by the thermals)

i finally started messing around with garageband. it's a fun little app and if you had the right devices you could really get creative. i'd like to mess around with a guitar input and keyboard input. but without a i/o device or keyboard etc its kind of cumbersome to use. the musical typing is only half way useful. despite that, i made a dead simple drum kit backing track for 'test pattern' by thermals. i cant imagine tackling anything more complicated.

'test pattern' - thermals (garageband drum track)

on health care reform by the NEJM

"Today’s system usually pays for volume rather than value, and we get what we pay for: more tests, exams, surgeries, and appointments. “Good doctors” are celebrated for their unwavering dedication to doing whatever it takes to care for their individual patients, which often means swimming upstream against the system, rather than relying confidently on it." Cottage Industry to Postindustrial Care — The Revolution in Health Care Delivery - from the New England Journal of Medicine

the above article is pretty excellent in outlining some major problems of health care today. it's written in language that is pretty easy to understand, so i recommend it to anyone who would like to learn more about how experts look at the issue.

i do not have insurance, so this health care debate going on has a bit of relevance for me. chuck and i were talking about the whole hullabaloo going on and we were both pretty disappointed at the lack of a public option. another thing that really bothers me is that i do not see current health care reform addressing some more pressing issues. the "pressing issues" were something that i hadnt really fleshed out and it's probably the most important aspect of taking this kind of stance - defining specifics of frustration. some things that really affected me before were the horror stories of friends getting payment from insurance companies for care and the numerous stories out there about pharmaceutical companies influencing doctors with various gifts. i think the article contains some inspired ideas. "Chaos confounds constructive action, whereas wise standardization is a foundation for effective variation, efficiency, reliability, and rapid innovation."

it made me think about going to the doctor. there is not a lot of transparency in the health care industry. you generally do not know what is going to happen at the doctor's office. personally, i hate that. i want to know what to expect. that's where the internet has been so helpful. by online users sharing their experiences, it has increased transparency about procedures and costs. the downside is that it creates know-it-alls who want to decide whats best for themselves just because they read a few articles on the internet. i trust doctors and they go to school for a reason. but i still like to be informed about things. that's why i really dig the increased transparency from the internet.

shows around central iowa

grinnell / the picador / the mill / mshop / vaudeville mews / ames progressive


i thought i'd put together a list of shows goin on around central iowa and iowa city for the month of february. it's just the combined calendars of the 5 venues listed above. mostly indie rock bands and local acts, but as you can see there's a lot going on.

updated: i added february shows from the ames progressive. it's a center for "music, arts and community." sounds like a great outlet for ames as well as the rest of central iowa.

[grinnell] Feb 13th

Those Darlins

[vaude] Sat, February 13

prettygirlhatemachine w/ MC Genetics and DJ Blocko, Ryan Nixon, The Renegades of Sound

Doors: 5:00 pm

Show: 5:30 pm

All Ages - $5      

[vaude] Sat, February 13

Aqui Estamos Landing Party featuring

Cashes Rivers, Canby, Flatform

Doors: 9:30 pm

Show: 10:00 pm 

21+ - $5 

[mill] Sat 02.13

Ha Ha Tonka

w. So Much Fun, Beast Wars
It's fair to say that Ha Ha Tonka shows are spiritual. There's a lot of energy with this group and they are certainly conjuring up something. Self-described as "foot-stomping indie rock" the band takes elements of straight-up roots and folk (kinda like Will Whitmore) and unleash it with a fiery, down-home rock n' roll wall of sound (think Drive-By Truckers). 9PM / $6

Web site: http://www.myspace.com/hahatonka

mosaic news - news clips from the mid east

while snooping around for info about the recent suicide bombing in iraq on the road to karbala, i found this great news program through youtube called mosaic news. linktv.org collects news segments from the middle east and puts the original segments together with an english translation dubbed over the top. the original language is not completely dubbed over, so it's still audible. it is about 30mins long and looks like it airs every other day.

10.4.11/vista network sharing problems

i was having some trouble logging into vista from 10.4.11 tiger. it turns out that you cant have an empty password for your login. it will always give you can incorrect login error when you try to get in. just add a password to your vista machine and it should work fine.

problem solved via www.macwindows.com

2nd hand ibook g4

i picked up a used ibook g4 the other the day for $100. the specs were about as nice as possible for a ibook: bought in 2006, perfectly working lcd, 1.33mhz and 1.5gb of ram with a 30gb hard drive. of course, there were a few things wrong with it. it was listed with an unknown boot problem and missing backspace key. there was also a bit of wear on the top case.

the boot problem sounded pretty funny because it would boot from the disc drive and run perfectly but it would not boot from the HD. after wiping the HD and reinstalling the OS i discovered that it actually could boot up from the hd. i ran it for awhile and BAM, os x's babel box: the gray box of death. otherwise known as a kernel error. i only discovered it was a kernel error after i tried to boot into verbose mode where it shows you what steps it is taking. it displayed a message very, very similar to this "Darwin Kernel Version 8.8.5: Mon Dec 11 19:42:29 PST 2006; root:xnu-792/16.5.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC
panic: We are hanging here. . ." and hung. after booting into safe mode there were no problems whatsoever. eventually, through some more research i discovered the "french fix" by warren lejeune associated with the same kernel panic error on a forum and decided to give it a shot. so that meant i had to take apart the ibook case... a daunting task according to many netizens. and i concur.

i went through the ifixit guide and at about step 25 where it says to unplug the speaker connector and the power connector i really fucked it up. apparently on some ibooks the power connector is not soldered on very well and countless DIYers have made the same mistake i did. as i was unplugging the connector it came out with a bit of a struggle... along with its female adaptor piece. it broke clean off the board. apparently when i was gently jostling the connector from left to right, the solders joints on the casing broke. i immediately googled "ibook g4 power connector logic board" and realized how fragile that piece is. hopes shattered at this point i went to bed and thought about what to do.

a. sell it for parts
b. do a home solder
c. take it to a pro solderer
d. other

after seriously considering b, i smartly decided against that considering i have no prior soldering experience. i chose d while a and c will forever be options. after cruising the forums i found stories of people jump-starting their ibooks. apparently when you press the button it just completes the power circuit and it turns it on. so people have been sticking screwdrivers into their ibooks to start them. so it got me thinking, the break was pretty clean, maybe i can just reseat the female piece. after some more google research i discovered that it is not uncommon to use superglue to affix things to a circuit board. so, i took my all-purpose cement from my shoe making project and tried to glue the female piece back onto the board several times. it never stayed. the cement did not hold well enough. then i thought, maybe i better test to see if it actually works before i waste three more days doing this. so i connected the male and female pieces and i lined up the adapter on its old place and pressed down while i hit the power button a few times. after realigning it a few times i found the sweet spot and it powered on with the button. i tried to glue it down to the sweet spot but the glue just wouldnt hold it tight enough. so, i decided to put something on top of it so the top case would press down on it.

in my closet i have an old model house we made in mr baker's 8th grade trades class. we made these models out of 1/8" foam board. i took a piece of that fourteen year old foam board which had been sitting untouched ever since eighth grade and cut out a smaller piece to put on top of the connector. i pressed down on the foam board and voila. money. so i used the all purpose cement to hold the adaptor in the sweet spot and taped the wire down. next i placed the foam board on top and taped that down tightly. its okay if it protruded above the case because the middle is foam and it has some give. in fact, its good if it rises up above a little because it'll give a firm press.

at this point i actually did NOT know if the kernel problem would be fixed by the french fix and i almost forgot about fixing it because i was so pumped i got the power button working again. but, i took some more of that foam board and cut out a piece roughly the size of the airport card and just put it on top of it. i reassembled everything and gave her a whirl. everything worked and is working as i type this entry. no kernel errors after 4hrs of continuous usage. i'm still down a backspace key though.

风声 (the message) 2009

i just watched the message and i was surprisingly entertained. i generally watch blockbuster mainland chinese flicks out of pure curiosity and rarely is it very good. while not a great movie, it has its moments and overall i'd say its worth a watch. its one of those spy thrillers where half the fun is trying to figure out who the spy is. in a loose comparison to infernal affairs, it has less action and poorer character development. poorer character development doesnt imply that the acting is poor though. its quite the contrary. the actors all played their roles extremely well. i assume they are more fleshed out in the novel which the movie is based.

f**k the usps (therapeutic venting)

i am seething with anger. it is palpable, and it is flowing out of my body like sweat. i stink of rage.

i am also observing that anger from a distance. it feels very alien, and it makes me laugh to see what kind of power it can have. i'm drifting back and forth between detached examination and being overcome by hatred at an elusive yet omnipresent force called the United States Postal Service. yeah, hatred is a good word. hatred for making me wait without any indication that anything is wrong. hatred for not accomplishing the task i paid you to accomplish. and in the end we are utterly helpless because no remittance or pacifying gesture can recover lost time.

a tour of some african capital cities

video footage from 10 of the cities.

morocco - rabat

nigeria - abuja

central african republic - bangui

madagascar - antananarvo

malawi - lilongwe (only a bit of lilongwe, but malawi looks like an amazing place to visit)

sierra leone - freetown

lesotho - maseru

niger - niamey

somalia - mogadishu (vid search only seems to return news footage about war)

senegal - dakar

al jazeera english news service

for quite some time now i've been wondering about al Jazeera and i finally picked up a link. you can check it out yrself. http://europe.real.com/smil/aljazeera_us_lo.smil

and

http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

ode to the plum blossom revisited

i happened across tony barnstone's translation. he's an incredibly accomplished translator who has published extensively, and his translation, in comparison to mine, shows why. i tried to take some poetic license and dropped some things. although it conveyed the feeling and sentiment i was looking for, it rendered the poem unrecognizable. so, for the time being, i will forget about ezra pound, and shoot for more accuracy.

edit: i also found james j.y. liu's translation in sunflower splendor. i'll put that up to.


"Plum Flowers" To the Tune of "Fortune Teller"

By a broken bridge outside the horse relay station
plum flowers bloom for no one.
Already it is evening and sad and lonely
and they are beaten by rainy wind.

They don't wish to compete for spring,
though other flowers envy their early blossoming.
When petals drop to the mud and are ground to dust
the fragrance remains the same

---Translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping


Tune: "Song of Divination"
On the Plum Tree

By a broken bridge outside the courier station
In silent solitude it blossoms without a master
Already grieving by itself at nightfall,
How much more so when wind and rain come!

Not wishing to compete bitterly for spring
It allows the other flowers to be jealous.
When its blossoms are scattered in the mud and ground to dust,
Only their fragrance will remain as before.


song of divination:
ode to the plum blossom
by lu you

near the fallen bridge
they bloom for no one
under a pale black sky
filled with loneliness
that swells with the wind and rain

the others envy its will
to battle the bitter early spring
and tumble to earth
to become mud and dirt
always exuding its same sweet scent

a young man's travels by liu yong (少年游-柳永)

i am becoming a bigger and bigger fan of song poetry every time i pick up the collection of 300 Song dynasty poems. the poem below is by liu yong. wikipedia doesnt have much info about him so i cant conveniently point you there. this poem has been on my plate for a month or so now. i've interpreted it as a man seeing chang'an and being reminded of his youth and contemplating the passing of time. if i get some time i'd like to translate the commentary for it as well as some info about liu yong. just a note about song poems. the poems are set to tunes and the titles indicate which tune it is set to. sometimes the poem doesnt have anything to do with the tune.


A Young Man's Travels

Horses amble along Chang-an's ancient roads,
And cicadas call out from towering willows.

The setting sun cuts silhouettes of mountain peaks,
and autumn winds sweep across the plains.
I close my eyes as darkness falls around me.

The people I knew have vanished.
Where has the past gone?

Days whiled away in fields have grown distant,
and drinking partners have dwindled down.
It looks nothing like my youth.


少年游 - 柳永

长安古道马迟迟，高柳乱蝉栖。

夕阳鸟外，秋风原上，目断四天垂。

归云一去无踪迹，何处是前期。

狎兴生疏，酒徒萧索，不似少年时。