life:/straightup

Reflections on Pennsylvania

John Kingsley — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 02:34:05 +0000

I have, for the last two weeks, been in Pennsylvania traveling around for work. I have lived in hotels and eaten out everyday. Driving, working, and sleeping has been my sole activities during that time. It has been, in some respects, everything that I had hoped for and in others an eye opening disappointment. So without further ado…

For the most part living out of hotels is pretty great. No cleaning up, fresh sheets, and awesome accommodations. All of that is great until you realize you experience it all alone. Having a partner would have made every good thing about hotels infinitely better and every drawback reduced to nothingness. Without such a companion the beds get lonely and the meals even more so.
As I briefly mentioned, eating alone is a real bummer. I ate most of my meals at the bars of the eating establishments, so that perhaps the mere presence of people will make it slightly more bearable. I had some interesting conversations with people occasionally but mostly I sat alone and my only conversation was with the bar tender. Lets focus for a moment on those interesting conversations I alluded too, in my first hotel in Erie I ate at the bar one night and sat between a Marine and a salesman. The three of us chatted for a good while. We talked of many things but what stood out to me, was that during the conversation the topic of our ages came up. Unbeknown to them I was the youngest at 25, the Marine was 28 and the salesman 35. Before I told them my age it was agreed I looked equally as old as the salesman. So to them I looked 35. I have gotten 30 before but not 35. I pressed them as to why they thought I looked so old; they explained I was dressed much better than your average 25 year old ( I was wearing a sport coat and a button up shirt), also I appeared to have been through some stuff in my life. I have had a less than perfect life but I hope that is not the first impression I give off. It is really here nor there but like I said, it was interesting. Secondly, I had conversations were I lied about my work, to a) see if I could get away with it, and b) perfect my skills at lying and thinking on my feet. It is always interesting to pick a career that I know little about and then attempt to sound credible. I believe I did a very decent job.
Pennsylvania is quite beautiful. Driving around has been a lot of fun. For the most part the weather was perfect. There was some rain and it was a little cool some days but I couldn’t have asked for better weather. My first stop was Erie. Lake Erie still had ice on it, and the area was quite nice. Hermitage was nice as well but a little small for me. Pittsburgh was great I had no idea it was so hilly. I have decided that if you learn to drive in Pittsburgh you will either be a great driver, or you will be dead, there is no in between. Indiana and State college are both college towns and as such seemed cool, but I spent very little time there. I would love to come back when spring is in full swing and tour the state, until then I say that Pennsylvania is a beautiful state and I highly recommend it

That is a brief summary of my experiences traveling in PA. But the story does not end there, my trip was filled wither personal disappointments. It seemed every it was some new personal disappointment. I will not sit here and whine and moan about them, what I will say is that I have been forced to look on the bright side and move on. I am no where near where I wanted to be at this point in my life but I am working hard to get there. I will not let set backs keep me from moving forward. I have a great internship and a wonderful family, perhaps I will find someone to share it with but I won’t worry about it. I have been blessed with more wonderful women in my life than any man should be. I will leave it at this, I am certainly ready to come home and get back to my semblance of a normal life.

Coffee Shops

John Kingsley — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:23:26 +0000

Coffee shops are interesting places. I’m sitting in one trying to write but the people around me are far more interesting. I purposefully sat amongst a crowd of people because a) it affords me an opportunity to observe people, and b) it is less awkward than sitting in a corner alone. Let me introduce you to the cast of characters filling this particular coffee shop. To my right is a father and daughter pair. He appears to be helping his daughter with her school work. Grammar and spelling are all well and good but what I find more interesting is the snippets of conversation between homework problems. He’s asking his daughter about her mother, presumably his ex-wife. He’s asking her things bout what the mother has said. When he does it makes his daughter noticeably awkward. From the way he talks it seems that the breakup was fairly recent or that it is ongoing. I want to tell him to shut up and leave his daughter out of it. He doesn’t need to make it worse by making her choose sides. It is not fair to drag his daughter into the petty disagreements between him and his ex-spouse. It is already a painful and awkward time for her. The two have just left, I’m trying not to listen to their conversation too intently but one last thing stood out to me as the girl gathered her things to go. She made some comment that I didn’t catch but then she added the phrase “no offense” after it. When you feel it necessary to add the phrase “no offense” after a comment it is most often because the preceding comment was offensive, and you are trying to absolve your self of responsibility for it. There are a couple of things that are odd about what she said a) when did kids, who are clearly in middle school, learn to sat “no offense” and b) what kind of parent allows their kid to talk to them like that with nary and admonishment? Man parenting sure isn’t what it was when I was a kid, but that’s a subject for another time and place.

Let’s move on shall we? There is a woman sitting directly behind the pair that just left, she is a middle-aged overweight lady. From the moment she sat down she stood out. Everything about her is big. That’s the only way I can describe it. Her hair, her earrings, her dress, all big. Not only did she stand out physically but she also has a big voice. She has answered her cell phone several times and even if she didn’t have an obnoxious ring tone, her conversations would still be distracting. That is because she speaks in a loud high pitched voice that grates on the ears. Everyone around her is speaking in hushed voices so her voice penetrates the quiet much the way the first rays of light disrupt the morning darkness. As she is jabbering away the only thing that would be more annoying would be if she were talking on one of those abhorrent bluetooth headsets. Thankfully, she is not. As she talks she blankly flips through a magazine with a large photo of Robert Pattinson staring out from the cover. An annoying middle aged woman reading a magazine about Twilight, let me count the things wrong with this scene.

There are of course other folks in the coffee shop. There is the creepy old guy that looks more at the other folks than the magazine laid out in front of him. He then conveniently finds a reason to leave moments after the father and daughter leave. Draw your own conclusions. There is the gaggle of school girls with their hushed giggles and innocent smiles. The guy buried in his laptop oblivious to those around him. Then of course there are the baristas behind the counter, yelling out orders and happily gossiping to each other. They move from work to conversation as effortlessly as a bird soars over the earth. Then enters what I submit is the most interesting character there. He is an old man wizened with age and hardship. He hobbles over to a vacant table his cane doing precious little good helping him navigate the forest of furniture. As he sits down my mind can’t help but wonder who is this man? What kind of a life has he lead and what sights have those eyes seen? Does he have a family at home worried as he clings onto his fading independence? It is easy to imagine an extensive backstory for this man I will never know.

The coffee shop does provide a wealth of interesting characters and I have been here barely twenty minutes. We so often don’t really look at the people inhabiting the world around us. They briefly intersect our lives and then as quickly as they appear they are gone. Each person leaving as unchanged by our presence as we are by theirs. We might as well be miles apart. Alone in a crowd is certainly the loneliest one can ever be. Surrounded by people but unnoticed. Our presence unimportant to anyone save ourselves.

Windows Live Writer…

John Kingsley — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:20:46 +0000

I’m writing this post from Windows Live Writer on Windows 7. My first impression is that it is relatively impressive for a free piece of blog posting software. I am writing this in the “Editing” window, and when I switch to preview, it shows me what it will look like when I actually post the story, and much too my surprise it has downloaded my handmade theme and it looks exactly what it will look like, well it looks right insofar as It moves old posts down and renders my css correctly. I can’t say it’s pixel perfect but it seems good enough for government work. I will have to add a photo and try other more advanced features but so far I am impressed. Let me try to post this and see if it actually works and I can give you a real opinion on it soon.

How to install and configure OS X 10.5.8 on a Dell Mini 9

John Kingsley — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:08:36 +0000

Now I know Snow Leopard (SL) is out and you may be wondering why you would want to put the archaic Leopard on your new Mini 9, but support for SL is somewhat spotty. The installation itself seems to work but some hardware is not yet fully supported so the next best thing till we get a full solution is to install Leopard and update it to its final version.

My configuration:

- Dell Mini 9 (BIOS v.A05)

- 16gb stock STEC SSD

- 2gb of Crucial RAM

- Stock Wifi card

- No Bluetooth or WWAN card

- Retail copy of OS X 10.5.6

If you have a configuration similar to mine it should work exactly like this guide. If you are outside my specs, all indications point to things working exactly as this guide describes but I can make no guarantees. All I can say is good luck and enjoy.

To install on the Mini 9:

Prep Work-

Before you do anything else make sure you have your Wifi and Bluetooth turned on in whatever operating system you currently use. (When I first tried to install OS X I had Wifi turned off in XP and was unable to reactivate it in OS X.)

What you will need:

- Netbootmaker (NBM)

- Netbookinstaller (NBI)

- A retail copy of OS X 10.5.X*

- 8gb flash drive

- Intel Mac running OS X 10.5.X

list all prep steps mention that the optional in stall folder can be deleted to make room for update

Installation-

Insert your flash drive with the OS X installer on it. If you have the settings correct it should automatically boot from the flash drive into the installer.
Once there select your language. Click the arrow to continue.
On the next screen click continue. Then agree to the EULA.
When it asks you were to install click on the menu bar, under utilities select disk utility from there click on your SSD drive (not on the partition but the drive itself).
From the tabs in the right pane choose partition.
Under Volume Scheme choose 1 partition.
Click the options… button under the graphical partition diagram. In the resulting screen choose GUID. Click ok.
Click ok in the name box name it whatever you want (I believe but have not thoroughly tested this) but keep in mind the name must be in caps and there cannot be spaces. I have had no issues with the name MINI9.
For the format box choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Once the partition has been configured and named click apply.
After all the partitioning finishes click the red box in the top left to close disk utility.
Back to the drive selection choose the freshly formatted SSD. Click continue.
On the install summary click Customize. Deselect everything except Essential System Software.
Click continue to begin installation.

During install it hung on about a minute time remaining for a little while but be patient.

When the install is done it should complete successfully let it restart normally. Restarting can take some time so be patient.
Upon restart choose to boot from the SSD.

You are now done with the initial installation of your new operating system. Take a breath, we aren’t done yet, but we are closing in.

Post Installation-

It may take a little time to startup but once it does you should see the welcome video and hear the music.

On the 1st screen that comes up choose United States. Click continue.
Now choose U.S. continue.
Do not transfer my information should be chosen leave it as is and click continue.
If you have a wireless network it should show up in the selection box. Choose your network and enter your password if needed. Click continue.
It will ask you to enter your apple id (I didn’t I’m not sure what it will do but I would advise against it). Just click continue.
On the registration screen click continue.
In the box that comes up click continue.
Then on the account creation screen enter your information. Click continue.
On the account picture screen either take a picture using the webcam (which works) or choose from the default pictures. Click continue.
If it asks you to try mobile me click “I don’t want to try mobile me” and click continue.
Click go to finish configuration and enter your new desktop.

Updating and Basic Configuration-

Once at the desktop, run NBI. (NBI can be found in your applications folder.)
Choose your SSD under volume.
Under Install options choose install chameleon 2 rc2, install dell mini 9 extensions, generate a system specific dsdt.aml file and enable remote CD (optional, if you want to use a CD drive on another computer). Click install.
When asked enter your password click ok.
Download the 10.5.7 combo update from apple.com
When the update is downloaded. It should mount and then you can install the update.

You may be wondering why I don’t just go straight to 10.5.8. Well I have a 16gb SSD and managing disk space is essential. I tied to jump straight to the newest update, 10.5.8 but the installer informed me I did not have enough disk space this necessitated installing the 10.5.7 update fist.

When the install is complete click restart. It may take a minute to restart, be patient.
At the bootloader you will see a blue bar regressing, push any button and you will see a choice of where to boot from. If your flash drive is still inserted you will see that along with the SSD. Use the arrow keys to highlight the SSD.
Type –x and it should show up in the lower left hand part of the screen. Then hit enter to boot into safe mode.
If the boot fails then try it again. It should only fail once.
Once at the login screen enter your password to get to the desktop.
Run NBI again. Select the same options you did before, after installation completes restart normally.
Once back in at your desktop download and run the 10.5.8 update. This time you will have enough space.
Once the install completes, restart and boot back into safe mode using the steps above.
Once at your desktop, run NBI again with the same options as before. (I’m not totally sure this is necessary, but it won’t hurt.)
When you restart if you have any issues booting up e.g. stuck at blue screen etc. this is what I did to fix it:
1. Hard shut down and then boot back into safe mode (this will start with no problems).
2. Under the utilities folder run Disk Utility.
3. Click on your partition and choose First Aid.
4. On that screen choose fix permissions. The utility will run for a while and once it is done you should be able to boot back into your OS normally.
5. Enjoy your new OS.

In the next post I will talk about more advanced configuration. Stay tuned.

* If you use a CD that is 10.5.5 or lower you will need to follow some specific instructions

Screen on the “Green”

The Frugal Awesometect — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:39:52 +0000

Atlanta’s popular Screen on the Green made its debut last night in its new location at Centennial Park. Those from Atlanta know that this popular series of older movies, such as Ferris Buller’s Day Off, was formally shown at Piedmont Park in the lawn next to Park Tavern. On a Thursday night you could grab your blanket, gather up some wine and cheese bought at Trader Joes or Whole Foods, and walk down to the park. It was always a challenge to secure the best spot and colorful balloons and aisles were scattered around so you can meet up and find your friends.

Those were the days and I took it for granted.

Reason 1: Centennial Park.

Dallas’s version: Due to grading and drainage, the landscape is slopey, bumpy and a good portion of the screen is not fully visible.

John’s Version: Yeah, I agree, Centennial Park is rather lame. It does not have the beautiful lawns of Piedmont. It was my first time visiting CP and I was not impressed at all. Bad move changing locals.

Reason 2: No outside alcohol allowed.

Dallas’s version: Not that I have the financial resources to bring along a wonderful Bordeaux or Napa red to the movie, but the fact that that option is no longer available takes away from the experience for me. The event is now more commercialized and simple joys have been replaced with having to shell out $7 for a beer.

John’s Version: $7 for a fricking beer, ridiculous. I expect this at a ball game but at a park, when I’m there to watch a free movie, is outrageous. Not only do I expect a free event to have relatively priced concessions for obvious reasons, there are a ton of sponsors for the event. Clearly beer prices aren’t high to help fund the event they are high for no particular reason.

Reason 3: The sound sucks.

Dallas’s version There is a good view of the screen from far away but good luck hearing the movie! If you can’t read lips you might be in trouble.

John’s Version: All I can say is more speakers. If given the choice between hearing or seeing a movie I’d go with seeing. The view in the back is much better than the front but as you go towards the back the sound volume degrades quickly. Setting up more speakers is easy there is no excuse that they didn’t.

Reason 4: People are rude.

Dallas’s version People standing up and walking in front of you after the movie has started for no apparent reason.

John’s Version: Not only that but people bring laptops which they leave open to entertain their small children. Rude people are everywhere but when everyone is there for the same reason (to enjoy a lovely evening and a movie) have some manners and some common sense.

Reason 5: Pepsi is a sponsor.

Dallas’s version Really Pepsi? The screen is right in front of the World of Coke and the Coke Headquarters! The LED coke bottle was obnoxiously lit up behind the screen in an attempt to exert its presence and dominance over the Atlanta soda market.

John’s Version: All I can say is really?

On a positive note, it was nice to catch up with John after he was on vacation all week and being surrounded by the downtown architecture was a pretty cool backdrop. Since we bounced early we didn’t have to fight our way onto a crowded train on the way back home.

We will be back but we’ll be better prepared, stake out a better spot, and bring more friends. Maybe for Ghostbusters.

RC1 Design

John Kingsley — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:23:52 +0000

So as you can see lifestraightup looks a little different. This is a new theme that I have been developing for too long. As I’m sure you can tell it’s not perfect yet but as the saying goes “Art is never finished, only abandoned”. So in the interest of just getting it up there to get feedback, here it is. The theme is called “Modern Classic”, if you can think of a better one, let me know. The comments do not work yet so send me an email, johnekingsley@gmail.com. I will update theis theme as time goes by so bear with me. I hope you enjoy the new look!

New Design Update

John Kingsley — Tue, 05 May 2009 23:21:13 +0000

Okay, here’s the deal, the new design is close to being done. I ran into some issues with both my testing WordPress installation as well as this WP as well. My testing server was shredding my design when I added a “read more…” link. I tried the theme on here, where there already is read more links and it seemed to work fine so hopefully tomorrow I will get the design finished. Second, it is not Evan who has been writing these last posts, it has been me, John. For some reason when I write posts it does not allow me to specify that I am the author. I will investigate this more thoroughly soon.

Finally, I am preparing to install the Windows 7 RC in a few minutes. I apologize I never posted a thorough review of the beta, I will post a through review in a few days. So that’s it for now, I’m off to try Windows 7!

New Look For Spring

John Kingsley — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:07:09 +0000

There is no denying that this website has gotten off to a slow start. That is completely my fault. My initial excitement quickly wore off and my attentions drifted elsewhere. Despite Evan’s best efforts to post new, interesting, and relevant information, the volume of posts aren’t what they ought to be for a site that is almost 4 months old. I intend on rectifying that.

Part of my plan involves a new design of the site one that is days away form being completed after far too long in development. It is quite a bit different from the current design. At the same time I am creating another site focused on testicular cancer. Anyone who knows me knows that testicular cancer is a subject that I have had quite a bit of experience with. It’s going to less serious and more focused on fun and openness. I wont go too in-depth into what it is right now but you can check out a site mock-up at its URL: playwithyourballs.org.

So this is going to be a short post. Here are the highlights:

New design coming in the next few days.
More posts in the future. (sorry)
New side testicular cancer side project (playwithyourballs.org)

Hope everything is going well with you!

Plans

John Kingsley — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:46:32 +0000

** This is a post I wrote for www.godesignhappy.com which is my girlfriend Dallas’ website. Please enjoy **

Plans are tricky things. You can spend quite a long time planning how things should go but it often seems that at the first opportunity life seems to throw something in to disrupt your carefully crafted plan. I have been thinking about plans or lack thereof a lot lately. You see, I was laid off one week before Christmas. At the beginning of the week I had a feeling it was coming but I did not actually think it would happen, or perhaps I did. It all felt so strange. I had a plan for the way I thought things would go and all of a sudden that plan had be indelibly ruined.

It seems that December was a month of changing plans. At the beginning of the month I became involved with a beautiful girl. I had not been too seriously looking for a relationship but it seems that’s when the most wonderful ones spring up. My December bore no resemblance to the one I had imagined I would have even a few days earlier. Everything seemed to be going well and then I was forced to join the ranks of the unemployed.

Once I was laid off I made a plan that I would begin blogging and find a new job in a few weeks and everything would be right as rain. Boy was I was wrong. I did begin a new website, you can find it here, but it seems finding new gainful employment is more difficult than I expected. I have been searching and networking for going on three months now and have had very little luck. Don’t get me wrong not working is pretty awesome, not having work every day is very freeing, but that gets old fast. When the majority of your friends have jobs it can get pretty lonely.

Since most of my friends have jobs they have a hard time sympathizing with my plight. A notable exception though is my girlfriend (the proprietor of this website), she unfortunately is also laid off. So predictably we end up spending a good amount of time together. It’s been great for the relationship but still work would amazing. I have digressed back to ruminating on plans.

While plans are rarely followed to a T there is still a use to making them. Since I have been laid off and much to the chagrin of my girlfriend, I have not made schedules and plans for each of my days. When I was working the majority of my daylight ours where devoted to work so that portion of my day was planned for me 5 days a week. Now with no gainful employment my days are wide open, and I not being the most disciplined person with my time have squandered much of it. Now I have endeavored to make more plans and more importantly goals. Without plans and goals it is easy to float through life. Its easy to lose sight of the big picture. Don’t get me wrong it is useful to cast aside ones plans and live free every once in a while. But plans provide structure and give one hope and a since of accomplishment when quantifiable goals are reached, and when you are laid off and close to losing hope anything that gives you a feeling of accomplishment is a good thing. So to sum up plans are important but be prepared for the unexpected and often times the the things you don’t expect are the best things in life.

What Bipartisanship Isn’t

Evan Butts — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:30:11 +0000

Dissatisfied politicians and wonks (mostly non-Democrats) are busily opining President Obama’s failure to even attempt the bipartisanship he had promised. These folks may be right to some extent, but certainly not to the extent that would warrant all of their whining.

It is clear why they moan, however: their concept of bipartisanship is ridiculous. They think that bipartisanship means that they actually end up getting their ideals manifested in law, or that they more generally just get something that they want. Perhaps this operating definition of bipartisanship is best seen in Mr. Rush Limbaugh’s proposal that the stimulus bill be 51% spending and 46% tax cuts, to reflect the proportion of people who voted for each of the two main candidates. (I don’t recall exactly the figures used in Mr. Limbaugh’s example.) However, I must reiterate: bipartisanship is not everyone getting what they want in proportion to the representation of their opinions in the legislative body. Instead, I submit that it suffices to qualify as bipartisan if one seeks the advice of people in the opposing party and seeks to garner their support, as opposed to concocting something without consulting the opposition and without seeking to sway them. Of course, such activity is consistent with the opposition still not getting a single thing that they want.

Now, I do not know to what extent Obama et al. are consulting the opposition on their projects (viz., the recently passed stimulus bill). It may be that they are not carrying out their promises. However, I would guess that there would still be much weeping and gnashing of teeth even if serious consultation and legitimate persuasion were going on; indeed, I guess that those now griping would not actually be happy until bills looked exactly as they wanted them to. Of course, I think that whichever party is the minority (or on the losing side of a particular debate) will cry this foul to some extent, so I am not casting dispersions generally on one party for this.

In short, bipartisanship need not lead to any compromise, nor should we want that to be a constraint on the concept. Imagine that one party were egregiously and dangerously wrong on a particular point–certainly we would not want the other party to actually concede an inch to them if they didn’t have to by way of practical exigencies. Bipartisanship is the political analogue of open-mindedness and/or tolerance, I think. This is just to say that it is mostly (if not entirely) an intellectual phenomenon.