I Can Feel One Of My Turns Coming On

The song One of My Turns by Pink Floyd is a very...Interesting(?) song.

There was a man I worked with at Arby's a long, long time ago.  He was telling me one day when we were listening to The Wall that he always thought the guy was a psychopath until he found out that axe was slang for guitar.  Based on the line "into the bedroom, in the suitcase on the left you'll find my favorite axe."

He thought the guy carried around a legit axe until he found out it was actually a guitar. Then he felt better about the song.

I explained to him that the guy was still a psycho.  That was the point of the song.

The previous song on the album (Young Lust) is about Pink picking up a hooker. One of My Turns is about him beating the hooker, and if that doesn't scream psycho then he really needs to get his head checked.

He conceded after actually listening to and paying attention to the song.

Eclipse

All that you touch
All that you see
All that you taste
All you feel.
All that you love
All that you hate
All you distrust
All you save.
All that you give
All that you deal
All that you buy,
beg, borrow or steal.
All you create
All you destroy
All that you do
All that you say.
All that you eat
And everyone you meet
All that you slight
And everyone you fight.
All that is now
All that is gone
All that's to come
and everything under
the sun is in tune
but the sun
is eclipsed by the moon.

She Don't Care

I really hope the rest of the expansions eventually show up on the app in some form.  They are all fun in their own ways.

But Stay Off Of My Blue Suede Shoes

I work at The UPS Store.  There is an amazing/alarming number of boxes of shoes we ship back every day.  

Makes me wonder if Douglas Adams had it right... 

Shoe Event Horizon

---

The Shoe Event Horizon is an economic theory that draws a correlation between the level of economic (and emotional) depression of a society and the number of shoe shops the society has.
The theory is summarized as such: as a society sinks into depression, the people of the society need to cheer themselves up by buying themselves gifts, often shoes. It is also linked to the fact that when you are depressed you look down at your shoes and decide they aren't good enough quality so buy more expensive replacements. As more money is spent on shoes, more shoe shops are built, and the quality of the shoes begins to diminish as the demand for different types of shoes increases. This makes people buy more shoes.
The above turns into a vicious cycle, causing other industries to decline.
Eventually the titular Shoe Event Horizon is reached, where the only type of store economically viable to build is a shoe shop. At this point, society ceases to function, and the economy collapses, sending a world spiralling into ruin. In the case of Brontitall and Frogstar World B, the population forsook shoes and evolved into birds.

Brontitall

On brontitall, the Shoe Event Horizon was exploited by the Dolmansaxlil Galactic Shoe Corporation who made shoes that were always too wide or in some way would never fit anyone so people were always replacing them. This is why Brontitall, whose inhabitants have now evolved into birds and will never mention shoes, has a geological deposit of compressed shoes. The deposit dates back to when the civilization, which is now made up of birds, once existed on the ground. The Dolmansaxlil Corporation now guards the ground of Brontitall using Foot Warriors, armed robots whose shoes do not fit, causing them to always limp.

For Peace And Trust Can Win The Day Despite Of All Your Losing 4

Finished A Game of Thrones this day.

Thus so far the two previously mentioned kings met their demise and Lord Eddard Stark, possibly the most moral and honorable character in this whole book, died.

My thoughts so far?

It's an interesting story.  Engaging enough. I will probably continue to listen to it, but at a total of 198 and some change hours so far (there are still a minimum two books plus several prequels Martin has planned), it will be a huge time commitment.  I'll probably be done with them sometime in the spring.

Characters I like?

Jon Snow.  He is interesting and flawed but developing his own moral code modeled after that of the man who raised him.  Jon's lineage is interesting and believable enough if such a big deal of Eddard's honor and morals hadn't been established.  Which makes you wonder who his parents really are.

And it is all there. In that. the first book, if you actually read between the lines and think about Eddard's character.  Would be be so dishonorable to father a child out of wedlock? I think not. Would he be so honorable as to honor the wish of his dying sister, even if it means lying to his wife and king to keep that promise? I think yes. If it means actually being able to fulfill the promise.

Arya Stark.  She started as a little tomboy.  Made it to King's Landing, ended up on the run.  She's growing up fast, and sadly, I fear, she's going to grow up mean.

The Stark boys. I like them well enough, but for the most part they all seem like bit parts at the moment. Yes, even Rob...The recently crowned King of the North.  His story is starting to pick up and get more important seeming, but I have the suspicion that it will be a short one.

Tyrion "The Imp" Lannister.  He really isn't what he is supposed to be.  That is what makes him an outcast in his family.

Lord Eddard Stark.  As previously mentioned. Most moral person in probably the entire world.  He was deemed a traitor basically because he knew too much.  He figured out the Lannister's secret. That led him to (correctly) contest the line of succession which led him to being named a traitor to the crown.  Cersei was willing (I find that hard to believe, but that makes no nevermind here) to let him take the black and live out his life on the wall, where he would be no threat to them.  Joffrey decided to ignore his mother's advice/command(?) and have him killed instead. With his own sword. I feel that Cersei may have been more or less okay with the execution as well.  Given what he had figured out. Even though the Watch doesn't involve itself with the affairs of the outside world, I cannot imagine Stark's threat level being at all decreased so long as he would have lived. Especially given what I am pretty sure is Jon Snow's lineage.

Daenerys Targarian. She has had a rough life. Her parents being murdered while she was very young, her brother being so much of a jerkbag that he married her off to some guy in exchange for an army and thereafter proceeded to call her a whore for doing it. Watching the husband she came to love very much suffer to the point where she was the one to kill him. Their child being a stillborn, malformed thing as a result of a woman's cruelty.  She is getting very bold and very cold, but she remains a likeable character.

Characters I don't really like.

Lady Stark.  She is made out to be this strong, intelligent woman who knows what she's about and shouldn't let emotion cloud her judgement.  Then she goes and kidnaps Tyrion because her childhood friend, Lord Shifty Finger (more on him further down) told her he had lost the weapon that was used to try and kill one of her sons to Tyrion in a bet.  Here is the deal, Stark.  You have met Tyrion. You know he's not an idiot. Seriously. Why did you have to go and basically start a war? You aren't supposed to be that rash.

Sansa Stark.  Don't care much for her gullibility or her "go with the flow because my future husband blah blah blah even though he doesn't make much sense" attitude.  Granted she has started to wise up...Post execution of her father.

Cersei Lannister. Scheming, conniving wife widow of King Robert.  Her family is very power hungry and wealthy.  Basically made out to be the villains of the piece.  But for some reason I cannot bring myself to outright hate her.

Characters I despise.

King Joffrey.  Because seriously? Who makes a barely literate 13 year old pompous jerkbag king and doesn't expect some serious problems? Cersei. That is who. I seriously cannot wait for this king to die.

Petyr Baelish. AKA Little Finger AKA (in my mind) Lord Shifty Finger.  This guy seems to be the one moving the pieces around the chessboard more than anyone.  I cannot stand him. I cannot understand why Lady Stark was stupid enough to take him at his word about Tyrion's dagger. He was the one who sold Eddard out.

I left (with the exception of Eddard) the dead characters out of this list. Also most of the supporting bit players. Not that I really did or didn't like them, but they really aren't fresh enough in my mind at this point. There was a king that would have been on like list and another king on the despise list.  But again, they had such small roles it didn't seem to matter.

Anyway. There is so much that happened that it is hard to keep straight.  I basically omitted everything that happened to Jon on the wall so far. Which is pretty interesting and worth writing about, but this is long enough already.

The Stark's journey to Kings Landing, also very eventful. The War in the North. Arya's "dancing" lessons. Bran's fall. The Kingslayer. Benjan Stark. These were also important things I decided to skip over.

Again. It was worth it, so I will keep going I guess.

In Fact, It's Cold As Hell

As part of my ongoing exploration of the various iterations of Microsoft Windows, I have decided to do something very drastic.

I pulled out my old Acer Aspire 5050 laptop.

I am currently installing...

So that I may install Virtual PC 2004 and emulate some early versions of Windows (NT 3.51, 9x, possibly Nashville, ME) so that I can carry on with my silly project.

It has spent almost an hour formatting the hard drive...It has been so long since I've used anything but a flash drive or a virtual CD to install anything.

Just wow.

For Peace And Trust Can Win The Day Despite Of All Your Losing 3

So today.

Two kings bit it.

(The Usurper) King Robert Baratheon
(The Beggar) King Viserys Targaryen

It looks very much like one Eddard Stark is on the way out too.

I have the sneaking suspicion that young Robb Stark will be meeting a bad end at some point too.

You've Been In The Pipeline Filling In Time Part 1 - Preview

Windows 2.03.

THIS TIME THERE IS A MOUSE THAT WORKS!

Windows 2.0 is a 16-bit Microsoft Windows GUI-based operating environment that was released on December 9, 1987, and is the successor to Windows 1.0

Windows 2.0 allowed application windows to overlap each other unlike its predecessor Windows 1.0, which could display only tiled windows. Windows 2.0 also introduced more sophisticated keyboard-shortcuts and the terminology of "Minimize" and "Maximize", as opposed to "Iconize" and "Zoom" in Windows 1.0. The basic window setup introduced here would last through Windows 3.1. Like Windows 1.x, Windows 2.x applications cannot be run on Windows 3.1 or up without modifications since they were not designed for protected mode. Windows 2.0 was also the first Windows version to integrate the control panel.

New features in Windows 2.0 included VGA graphics (although 16 colors only). It was also the last version of Windows that did not require a hard disk. With the improved speed, reliability and usability, computers now started becoming a part of daily life for some workers. Desktop icons and use of keyboard shortcuts helped to speed up the work. The Windows 2.x EGA, VGA, and Tandy drivers notably provided a workaround in Windows 3.0 for users who wanted color graphics on 8086 machines (a feature that version normally did not support). EMS memory support also appeared for the first time. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_2.0

That is Wikipedia-ness.

Couple of screens now then some actual stuff later on.

 The front box art from Windows 2.11.  We aren't going to be looking much at this version at the moment because DosBox cannot handle the memory requirements.

So here we have the directory readout and software version. Thirty-one files and a whopping 1.3MB...Seems kind of sparse, eh?

Here is the same screen from Windows 7, just for the sake of comparison.  35 files, 56 directories and a whopping 6.6GB for this install.  I realize this is not stock, but the installation DVD is almost 4GB.

My understanding is that this version of Windows is the last that is able to be installed and run from a floppy disk(gasp!)

Have a splash screen!

Anyway, real content to come later.  Maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after...Who knows.

I feel good about being able to get through all of these though.

Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End Part 5 - Applications Part 2

This post marks (I'm pretty sure) the end of my playing with Microsoft Windows version 1.04.  It is interesting to see the evolution of some of the programs we take for granted...Notepad and Paint are the two highlights of this post for me. I would probably have enjoyed it more if I could have actually gotten a mouse to function.

Anyway, here we go.

 

MS-DOS Executive.  A graphical way of opening a DOS program. Might be more useful than that, but I don't think so.

Notepad.  Nothing new here. Nothing really different from what we all know either, come to think of it.

 In the beginning there was Paint. 

The graphic creation/manipulation program we all love to hate on.  In these days it wasn't actually capable of colors.  Or jpegs. Or cat gifs.

 How far we've come!

 Reversi. The first game for Windows! Not only do I not know how to play the game, I'm not entirely sure how to pronounce the name.

 The Print Spooler! How exciting!

 Terminal...Not what I was expecting it to be.  Not really sure what it actually does.

 Good old Write!

Once again, I got stuck on the Desktop(ish) screen.  Again, not having a mouse or the motivation to look up the keyboard commands to get myself unstuck, I just killed DosBox and am ready to move on.

Up next...Windows Version 2!

Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End Part 4 - Control Panel

Time for the Control Panel.

This thing really doesn't do much. Granted, there isn't much to be done here.  Since I really don't have much to say, I'm just going to let the screens speak for themselves.

 You'll notice that about the only hardware you can configure here is the printer.

You can mix your own colors for the "theme"

So yeah.  Extremely rudimentary, but to be expected.  Windows was just getting started and not even top of the line for this stuff in the mid to late 1980s.

More applications coming soon.

For Peace And Trust Can Win The Day Despite Of All Your Losing 2

I am now about halfway through this book.  First and foremost, I feel like this series is an excuse for George R.R. Martin to explore some of his more twisted ideas.  That disturbs me.  There is entirely too much incest and underage exploitation.

I realize that this is "how things are in this world" but seriously?

Anyway.  The book itself.

Lady Stark.

She is set up to be a strong, intelligent woman from pretty much the get-go.  I realize someone tried to kill her son.  But going off the deep end and kidnapping brother dwarf?

Seriously?

Just because your friend Lord Shifty Finger said the knife belonged to brother dwarf?  You met the man...You know he's not stupid.

I get that you are trying to set up a war, Georgie-Boy, but having someone do something at insanely out of character is just nutso.

Anyway.  Cannot wait to see what the morrow brings!

Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End Part 3 - Applications

Here are screens of some of the built-in applications.  Interactivity is limited due to the lack of mouse support that I am able to figure out.

Honestly, I have no more than 3 more posts on this particular version of Windows after this, so I don't expect to care too terrible much about it.

 The MS-Dos Executive is the main screen. Not sure if that is true for everyone, or just me and my mouse-less self.

 Pretty much everything is full-screen.  The calculator makes this most obvious.

Here we have a basic calendar.

What would later become the Desktop that we all know and love.  Also, looks to have loosely inspired Windows 3.x with everything minimized.

Cardfile...I don't know what the heck this does or how to use it. I'm probably missing out.

Clipboard. Derp.

Good old Clock! Pity I cannot figure out how to close it once opened.

There are the first few apps in alphabetical order.  Control Panel next time!

Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End Part 2 - Setup

I opted for DosBox on this one since it doesn't need much in the way of anything to work, and this OS cannot need really that much in the way of resources.

Downloaded and installed DosBox.

Mount a folder for the drive. 

Set the DOS version to 3.31 so that it doesn't just crap out (which it does at the default level).

Here is where things get interesting.  DosBox, at least the version I am using, doesn't allow you to mount multiple floppy images and scroll through them.  It implies that you can do it with a CD-Rom ISO image, but I didn't feel like converting 7 floppy disk images into 7 ISO files.

I ended up extracting all of the disk images into one folder and mounting that folder as A: with the "-t floppy" parameter.  Just mounting the folder as A: didn't let me do anything but a loop on the installation.

That was irritating.

Moving right along.

There really isn't any sort of graphical based setup program.  At least they give you clear instructions regarding what button to press as you go.

Press "C" and carry on.

Tell it where you want Windows to live.

It intrigues me that they have everything seperated out by disk.  I don't remember how they have the Windows 3.1 disks broken up, but they actually tell us what lives where here.

I like it.

Asks about a pointing device.  I haven't gotten one to work with this OS yet, but I'm still trying!

Graphics adapter...Just go with #6 if you are using DosBox on any kind of at all modern PC.

Go ahead and press "C" every time it prompts you to do so.

Three disks later I was able to nab a screenshot of what was going on with the disks.  DosBox on modern(ish) hardware makes this process go so much quicker.  Using files already on the hard drive rather than using 5.25" floppy disks probably help the whole speed thing too.

Microsoft Write...Last disk!

Installation complete!

That is the most tricky part of this I have encountered thus so far.  I spent about an hour trying to get out of the loop between the first and second setup screens.  Like I said, that floppy parameter seems to have made all the difference for me.