Tag: Links

Deflated

Today the RCA Dome, better known to all as the Hoosier Dome was deflated.

This was done to assist in demolition, as it has been replaced by Lucas Oil Stadium (In the background).  The space occupied by the RCA dome will become yet another expansion of the Indiana Convention Center.

Many memories were made in the dome, but no more will be made there.  Rachel and I purchased a piece of that roof as a keepsake.  I highly recommend to buy one yourself if you have any fond memories of the dome.

I took this panorama picture the last time we visited the dome during ISSMA marching band finals.  We were there to see my niece Sabrina play the clarinet for Forest Park.

To get a better grasp of the scale, look at the 1/2 size version here.  I had to make the picture that much smaller just to fit within flickr’s size limitation.

Back in the day, J&B on the ROX did an episode based on the changing of the dome’s name.  It’s called “The RCA State” and definitely good viewing.

These are the changes I don’t really like to see.  I still miss Market Square Arena.

In these times, I’m really starting to hate corporate sponsorship of whats seems to be everything under the sun.  Can you believe that the Verizon Wireless Music Center’s (formerly Deer Creek) box office is sponsored by Taco Bell? 

My Neurotic Tendencies

I have a problem, which showed itself in a bad way last night.  I can’t help tinkering with computers.  I need help.

Rachel had a meeting with My Sisters Closet after work, so I was home by myself until about 8:30.  Because of the current issues with our main computer, we only have the laptop right now.  When we purchased the laptop it came with Windows Vista Home Basic pre-installed.  Neither of us had any experience with this new (at the time) operating system.

After a day or so of tinkering and trying to figure it out, Rachel decided that she wanted XP on it.  I was fine with this, as she was going to be the main user of the computer anyway.  I wiped the hard drive and put a clean install of XP Pro on it.  Not til later would I realize that doing this would void the warranty on the machine.

I went on a hunt for drivers for the many devices a new laptop has and came up short.  When I contacted dell for help, that is when I found out about a interesting clause.  If you downgrade the OS on a machine purchased from them, all support is rendered void.

At first I didn’t care at all.  Since issues have occurred with my other machine, I’ve become somewhat paranoid.  I wanted to get the computer reverted to it’s original state.  I contacted Dell again, and they sent me a set of discs that actually re-imaged the machine to it’s original factory state.

Rachel and I had talked about this, she was very hesitant about the change.  Since I have some experience with Vista under my belt now, I feel much more comfortable with it, if  you didn’t know it’s just XP of a different color.

When Rachel arrived home last night, I was about an hour away from finishing this changeover.  She was furious and actually made me think for a minute that she was packing up to move out or something.  Over the years I have done several things to computers that have hurt her.  I deleted (on accident) a majority of her papers for her masters degree and other various files that were important to her.

The sad part is that I do this with out even thinking about it, like it’s just a everyday sort of thing.  The whole time I was doing this, I thought she would be happy when she got home.

I was wrong.

Fit For a Princess, Almost

Over the weekend Rachel and I painted Taylor’s room “Pink Gingham.”  We also installed a new 6 panel door to her room.  Her door was the only one in the house that would not latch.

I wanted to do some other things to her room, but we really did not have the time.  Hopefully we can get this done soon.

I will have some pictures as soon as I get my  main computer back from the shop.

Phase II of her room includes painting her trim and door “whipped white,” and installing new baseboard trim and a new bi-fold closet door.

Next home project on the list:  Basement remodel.

The only task that really worries me is the wiring work I want done.  I need to hire someone to pull some cable and cat-5e wire from the attic to the basement.

We plan on gutting it to the block walls, and starting fresh.  I need  to re-wire some outlets and switches.  We are also going to rework our old and tired brick fireplace.

I hope to have this done by next spring.  Hopefully my wife will release her kung-fu grip on our checkbook so we can finally utilize our entire home.  Since we’ve moved in our basement area has been only used for storage.

I Give Up

Yesterday, the new motherboard I ordered arrived.  I spent the majority of last night replacing what I believe is a bad motherboard.

The new one is significantly different than the old one, as the connections are in different places and it has different ports, i.e. PCI Express.

After connecting and tightening everything I plugged the power in to test, nothing.

I’ve gave up.  I’m tired of spending countless hours upon hours to try to fix it.  I’m taking it to an expert in a few hours.  I hope that the new motherboard is fine, or my old one is okay.

I’ve also given up on something else.  I’m not going to build any PC’s anymore.  In this date and age, and since we get educational discounts through Dell and Apple, we have decided to now purchase computers instead of build.

I hope the costs to fix this problem aren’t huge.  If that is going to be the case, we are probably going to just buy a new computer.

Almost a Decade

Almost a decade ago, I became a father, a father to a beautiful baby girl.  How can I raise a child when I’m just a kid myself?

Many things change in almost a decade.  Your mother and I have since went our seperate ways, but the seperation has added two families who love you even more.  Instead of having 1 mommy and 1 daddy, you have 2 of them.

3rd grade was a tough year for me, I hope it’s a good year for you.  I got a burr haircut, I hope we don’t have to go through anymore hair dramas with you.

We discovered a shared interest recently, golf.  We had such fun at the driving range, hitting golf balls.  I hope this is something we can do for years to come, and I’m on the hunt for a golf club set made just for you.

I hope you know that daddy and Rachel will always be here for you, and you will always have a place to call your own with us.

I hope you enjoy your birthday present this year, a complete room makeover.  We are painting your room pink, giving you a new door and closet door.  New trim painted white with pictures on your walls make it complete.  Your room will be the first room complete in our home.

It’s amazing what almost a decade can do, and now I’m starting to feel old.

Final Diagnosis

While diagnosing my computer last night, the real problem revealed itself.  My motherboard is cracked, or broken in some way.

I was testing my 4 RAM chips individually, to ensure my RAM was the problem when something happened.  The computer just quit.  It wouldn’t turn on, nothing.

Since I’ve had many power supply failures, I thought it was worth a shot to test it.  I found a thread on how to test a power supply by running a jumper between the green and a black wire on a power supply.  If it is good, the power supply will turn on, if it is bad, it won’t.  My power supply came on.

Since I know my processor is good, and I have tested most of my RAM, it’s just a matter of deduction from there.

Finding parts for a computer built 3 years ago is surprisingly hard.  Newegg only has 2 motherboards available, but both seem very cheap.  Looking around the internet, I found many suppliers but most of them were out of stock.  So I went to the “last resort,” eBay.

We found a OEM model that includes 8x AGP.  The auction ended in 10 hours, but I decided to “buy it now.”  Hopefully this thing will be as good as the reviews I’ve seen for it.

I also purchased a new IEEE 1394/Firewire card and 3 new 80mm cooling fans.

Now it’s just a matter of delivery and assembly.  I wanted to dis-assemble everything to prepare, but Rachel wants me to relax tonight as we have a early start tomorrow.

We are now discussing purchasing, dare I say it, a Dell for our normal “personal” computer.  This way we can separate everything physically.  I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but finances have dictated otherwise.

This wouldn’t be possible without the help of Editor B.  I want you to know that I will always feel in your debt for the things you have done for me.

I hope to keep on track for Holiday season availability for ROX season one.

Preliminary Diagnosis

After doing some research about what could be wrong with my computer, I have come up with 2 possible problems.  Either my motherboard is bad in some way, or my RAM is bad in some way.

I found some software to test the RAM, and sure enough it found some “problems.”

But it can’t tell me for sure which chip is bad, so I have to do further testing to discover which one it is or if it is the port and not a chip.

I hope there aren’t any problems with my motherboard, if that is the case I will need a new PC.  My processor’s chipset has been obsoleted and I cannot find many parts to fit it.

Harvest for All

Over the weekend my in-laws came up for a get together to celebrate my daughters’ upcoming 9th birthday.  They also had fun picking apples from our apple tree.

My mother-in-law took 2 five gallon buckets that were almost halfway full.  My niece Sabrina got a nice amount in a box.  After the festivities were over I wanted to go pick some, not for me but for my ROX family.

This is what I could reach.  It may not look like much, but believe me it’s a grab.  I do not fertilize or spray my tree, so these are completely natural treats the entire family can love.  There is still this many or more near the top of the tree, but they are not ready for harvest yet.  When they are I will be ready.

I couldn’t keep my mouth shut about what I was going to do, so I posted about this earlier.  The only problem is that the apples weren’t ready yet.  They are now.

This is what you will be receiving in the mail (in 2-4 days).  A sheet with greetings and instructions on what we think would be a good use of the apples, a mason jar containing apple crisp mix, nutmeg and apples,  there is also extra apples in each box.

We divided the apples in the big box pictured above into 4 equal parts.

B:  If you want to find out what variety of apple these are, please do!  I’d like to know for myself.

I don’t feel it’s appropriate to let this great natural resource of mine go to waste.  You have all been like a family to me in one way or another.  This is just one of many ways for me to say thanks.

P.S. MF and Kelly:  You’ll be receiving another “surprise” gift once I get a shipment in the mail.

The Old Just Got Older

Today is my dad’s 57th birthday.  Happy birthday dad!

I’ve really lost count of my dad’s age since about 1999.  It just doesn’t really matter to me anymore.

While he won’t be receiving any gifts right now, he does have something coming.

Bill Cosby is performing at the IU Auditorium in September, the first thing I thought of was dad.  When I was a child he spoke constantly of listening to Bill Cosby albums when he was a teenager.

Dad’s health hasn’t been too good recently.  I hope he can feel like a kid again, if just for one night anyway.

The Long & Short of It

Tomorrow is our 4th wedding anniversary.  Much has happened since that wonderful night in Bedford.

We didn’t really do much for our anniversary last year, so this year we are at least going out to eat at a nice place.

Rachel will have a surprise in store for her as well.

Sometimes it seems like we’ve been married forever, but then I look at people like her parents and B & XY and realize we’ve only just begun.

Coming from a broken home, I try as hard as I can to ensure I don’t fall into the same trap my parents fell into.  My father has been married to someone he hates for 21 years.  My mother has been married 3 times, she’s said that she’ll never get married again, and so far has kept up with that statement.

When I see the differences in our upbringings, I realize why I am the way I am, and why Rachel is the way she is.

Sometimes it makes me depressed that I wasn’t as lucky as her, but then I realize that I wouldn’t be who I am without what I had to endure.

Rachel, you are my rock!  Without you, I’m not sure exactly where I’d be right now.  I love you.