Ubuntucat

I don’t really listen to much contemporary Christian music these days. I’m still in love with some Christian bands from the 90s (Dakoda Motor Co., PFR, Caedmon’s Call). As a matter of fact, even with non-Christian stuff, I’m still in love with the mid-90s (Poe, Portishead, Toad the Wet Sprocket, the Fugees).

I still remember the first time I heard Acoustic Shack. It was after some youth group meeting on a Friday night, and one of our youth group counselors was going to give me a ride home. Before we drove off from church, though, he asked me to listen to something. I liked what I’d heard, and when he told me it was a Christian band, I was like, “What?!” (At this time, Michael W. Smith, DC Talk, and Amy Grant were pretty big; and Petra and all the Christian “heavy metal” bands were just cheesy).

So I got the CD (Fret Buzz) from the nearest Christian bookstore (which was 45 minutes from my house), and I loved the whole CD. When a friend of mine lent me a tape (yeah, what we had before CDs and right after records) of Acoustic Shack’s first album (which was self-titled), I loved them even more. Yes, the drums were all pre-programmed on the first album, but I liked the guitar solos and melodies a lot better than on the second one.

For years I listened to those two albums over and over again. I wasn’t too impressed with the third album A Distant Bell, and I never got to hear the fourth album.

Recently, I got nostalgic for Acoustic Shack and tried to track down more information about them. I found out that Michael Misiuk formed some band called The Kreepdowns, and I wasn’t able to find much about it at all online, so I gave it a shot.

I found a used copy of it for sale on Amazon (clearly no one else cares about The Kreepdowns, because the CD was less than the price of shipping, and the shipping was only a couple of dollars).

Well, I finally got the CD today, and it’s okay. It’s no early Acoustic Shack. It’s actually quite a bit heavier (a lot more electric guitar and screaming). I just gave it a quick listen, and so far “Cello” (the second track) is the only one that’s half-way decent.

If, like me, you’re nolstagic for a bit of good mid-90s Christian rock, there are a couple of YouTube “videos” (watch the album cover while you listen to the music) of Acoustic Shack:

“Radio Play”
I love the little multiple-guitar dance that happens between 2:10 and 2:50.

“It’s Good to Know”
2:15 to 2:50 on this song has a nice little acoustic guitar solo.

“Torment Party”
No real guitar solo here, but the song just has a nice sound to it overall.

Too bad Lisa and Michael Misiuk aren’t making any more music. I wonder what they’re doing these days.

Just spotted this “article” on ZDNet called Ubuntu allies with Amazon and Dell. It opens

The next Ubuntu release, dubbed Karmic Koala (k is the 10th letter of the alphabet and this is officially release 9.10) is drawing attention for its support for clouds and its improved desktop.

[Emphasis added]

And apparently

Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983.

Uh, the letter k being the 10th letter of the alphabet has nothing to do with the release number. Ubuntu 9.10 means it’s the version of Ubuntu released in October (10th month of the year) 2009. Ubuntu 9.04 will be released in April of 2009. Ubuntu 8.10 was released in October 2008. And so on.

Some things don’t change, I guess. Further reading:
Linux – stop holding kids back… so wrong
Enough with the sensationalist Linux headlines
Bad Journalism

I’m more or less a non-violent individual. I’m generally a turn-the-other-cheek kind of Christian. I punched a friend of mine once in high school by accident when I thought I was chucking him on the shoulder. I also threatened a bully in middle school, and he scared me a bit, because I thought he was actually going to call my bluff, but it never came down to actual fisticuffs.

Still, I am the master of misheard lyrics, and at least on two occasions I heard something about beating someone. Is it just me?

Misheard lyrics: Well, you done done me in, you bet I felt it. I tried to beat you, but you’re so hot that I melted.

Actual lyrics: Well, you done done me in, you bet I felt it. I tried to be chill, but you’re so hot that I melted.

[from Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours"]

Misheard lyrics: ‘Cause then I would let you know that I love you so, and if I was your man then I would beat you. The only lying I would do is in the bed with you

Actual lyrics: ‘Cause then I would let you know that I love you so, and if I was your man then I would be true. The only lying I would do is in the bed with you

[from Pharcyde's "Passing Me By"]

Of course when you actually look at the context, the real lyrics make a lot more sense in both cases. Chill is the opposite of melting. Beating doesn’t really figure into it at all. And why would you say you would beat someone if you were trying to win that person over in a love letter?

My aching ears. Excuse me while I kiss this guy, Jimi.

Since most of my blog readers aren’t people I know in person, I rarely write posts about my everyday life (and most blog posts about “What I did today” are quite boring to read, so this may be too).

Seeing as how I don’t have a rant related to feminism, pets, racism, religion, or computer operating systems, I figured I’d just share a few funny moments from the past week:

• My wife and I bought a large appliance from Best Buy. I wanted to get it from NewEgg instead, because I hate Best Buy. But my wife’s reason prevailed, seeing as how we live in an apartment building, and waiting all day for a delivery would be annoying, and if something was wrong with it, we’d have to mail it back at our own expense. I love it when the Best Buy employees, who supposedly don’t work on commission, try to push X, Y, and Z on you. We just had to keep saying “No” repeatedly. We stood our ground, though, and I’m glad we did.
• I gave myself a papercut while filing stuff at work. It was dumb. I hate getting papercuts. And this one was under my fingernail, too. Ouch.
• I started doing our taxes online and put in the wrong letter for something, so it appeared we owed the government some insane amount of money. I started to despair. Then my wife caught the error, and we both sighed in relief. Seeing as how I pride myself on meticulousness in data entry, I hung my head in shame for a good hour afterwards.
• When I was walking home from work one day, I was singing quite loudly along to my Sandisk player, and just as I got to the bridge of Michael Jackson’s “You Wanna Be Startin’ Something,” a runner passed me, turned to look at me with a smile, and gave me a thumbs-up.

I’m a moderator on the Ubuntu Forums, and we have a policy about log-in-as-root tutorials (especially logging in as root graphically), which is basically that they’re banned. We don’t let people post instructions for logging in as root graphically. You can read here about the justification for that.

It’s a little odd, though. I’m in favor of the policy, but I also know that if someone does a simple Google search, she can find instructions for logging in as root graphically in Ubuntu. So we’re not, with our policy, preventing people from logging in as root. We’re simply not helping them to do it. Does that matter?

I don’t know if it does, but I still refuse to help people do what I think they shouldn’t be doing. I filter my help. I love helping people out. The internet is a wonderful place, because I help tens, hundreds, possibly even thousands of people I don’t even know by just typing a few sentences.

If, however, I get the impression someone is trying to get me to do her homework for her, I say “Do your own homework.” Of course, I could be inadvertently doing someone else’s homework for her—someone who’s clever enough to rephrase the question instead of copying the homework question verbatim into an online forum. I don’t know if I am.

Likewise, if someone says “I forgot the password to my computer. How do I get in?” I don’t know if that person is a kid who’s trying to find out her parent’s password to get around a parental filter. And I don’t have a foolproof method of thwarting malicious password cracking requests, but I generally tell people how to reset the password instead of telling them how to crack the password (even though I know how you can crack passwords). If you reset a password, you have access, but the person who used to have that password knows you have access, since the old password no longer works. If, however, you crack the password, you could stealthily be using that person’s account without her knowing it.

Do you filter out your help? Or do you figure information is so easy to find that if you don’t tell someone how to crack a password, she’ll just do a Google search and find it herself? Does it matter who pulls the trigger or not if the trigger gets pulled?