Boy, I just don’t update these days, do I?
I was thinking about that on my way home from work today, moving along a few feet at a time on the 10 freeway.
I think a big part of it is that it’s summer, and I’d much rather be outside, and I’ve been travelling A LOT since the middle of July. I’ve been to SLC, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Vancouver, Alaska, Sacramento (twice) and I’ll be heading to San Francisco next week for the EFF event.
So when I have some “free” time, I’ve been giving it to my wife and family, and when I have some creative energy, I’m giving it to Arena.
It’s not like I don’t have stories to tell…there’s the trip to Alaska, the trip to Chicago, Camping with Anne and the boys last week….and boy do I ever have NEWS!
I’m going to give the news items their own entries over the next couple of days, because we just finished 2 episodes of Arena and I’ll have time while Anne’s at work (the boys are with their dad for his part of summer vacation.)
However, here’s a very exciting New Thing In Wil’s Life(tm):
A few weeks ago, my computer blew up. Smoke and everything. So I freaked…and just as I was about to go run the damn credit cards up to get a new machine, one arrived in the mail…this cool Sony VAIO thingy, that has a cool story all it’s own, that will get told later on, too. Trouble was, it wouldn’t start up. Or more correctly, it wouldn’t load Windows. It’d just choke.
So as I was starting to freak again, another computer arrived in the mail. This time it was a gift from many, many people, who all pooled their resources together to replace the old POS 5000 that had recently blown up.
This new computer was a gift, and it worked as soon as I plugged it in, internet and everything.
The thing is, it was running Lindows.
Now, I’ve been toying with dumping Windows for almost a year. The Open Source movement really appeals to my anarchistic and individualistic tendencies, and everyone I know who uses Linux tells me that I won’t miss Windows at all. I don’t really use any software that’s windows-specific, except Dreamweaver, and I’m told that I can run that under WINE, or find a comparable OS editor.
So I’m running this Lindows for about 3 weeks, and a couple of days ago, I break it. 100%. I messed up some dependencies, and even with the help of some really smart propeller heads, I just couldn’t fix it.
So last night, I crossed the rubicon and installed Mandrake 8.2.
This install was the easiest thing I have ever done, and there wasn’t one single problem. The only glitch came when I was trying to get my soundcard to work, which was hammered out quickly and painlessly, thanks to the monkeys in the soapbox.
I’m using Gnome, and I’ve never been happier.
I am now going to become the world’s number one Linux cheerleader.
I’m off to Think Geek to get a sticker for my car, and a T-shirt for my huge pectoral muscles.

Well, I just found out that FHM named me one of their sexiest cover girls.
Not too bad, considering that I haven’t worked out in over a year, wouldn’t you say?
FARK is totally responsible for making this happen. You can read about it here.
Seriously, I love it that I can be part of something so silly and fun, without having to wear a bear suit and sing patriotic songs.
The family and I successfully found our first geocache yesterday, which I will write about at length later today.

Hoo Boy!!
This is absolutely hilarious.
Fark is doing a photoshop contest, and the subjects are me and Drew.
Really, really funny stuff. Most of it is very creative, and has been passed around my office all day.
Enjoy!
Thought for today:

“A narrow-minded, self-centered attitude is the basis for negative emotions like fear, anxiety, and frustration.”

This notice only affects Soapbox users, but everyone else is free to read it, if you want, because I’m all about the love.
We’re having database issues, which are currently being sorted out.Basically, you can read stuff, but you can’t add any new posts in certain forums. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s time consuming, and I don’t think I’ll have time to work on it seriously until the weekend.
Sorry.
As long as I’m making a big deal about the site update, though, I’ll point your attention at the FAQ, which went a fairly big revision about 10 days ago. I added a buncha new questions, and all that stuff, so…I know it won’t occupy you for 4 days…but, hey, at least it’s something.
You could always go bug Russ until it’s fixed.
Oh, and I’ve seen the satirewire piece. About 15000 times. 🙂

I say it all the time, and I’m going to say it again: my favorite unintended consequence of this website is the community we’ve built here.
That community started in the GM comments, moved to IkonBoard, then to eF, then to eF again, and finally is living in the soapbox (powered quite nicely by phpBB2.)
However, in the last few days, the database has gotten all stupid, and we’re trying to figure out wtf the problem is, so I’ve had to turn the soapbox off, temporarily.
It should come back online today or tomorrow.
Now you know. So there.