Pentankh Eternal’s Blog

As usual, when you see a post with equal signs in category ‘Blogmail’ it’s =
when I blog from my mobile phone ( cellular phone for you foreigners! =
).

Wednesday night I checked a new club not far from home. They have Texas =
Hold’Em Poker tournaments Thursday and Sunday nights. Wednesday night I =
got half priced a’la carte food so had Surf n Turf for $11 Woo! I also =
tried Keno for $5 but won nothing. I found $1 on the floor so put it =
through a Pokies machine.

I went back last night to play Poker. I had fish n chips for $9.90 then 3 =
games of pinball. Then the game began. I had signed up Wednesday night to =
save time, but they forgot to assign me a game card number so I had to sign =
up again quickly. We played lots of hands, changing tables often. I played =
from 7pm to 8pm when I got out and came 25th out of about 90+ people. I =
think so anyway. I was on one of the last few tables and they wrote my =
number down next to line 25 on the page. I wanna go Sunday nights =
too!

Rebecca is very sick so I took today off work to look after Sienna since =
she doesn’t have kindy Fridays. I picked her up after Poker last night. She =
was already asleep when I picked her up and we didn’t get home until 9.30pm =
since there was road works going on. I put her in bed when I got home and =
she got up to watch two episodes of Little Einsteins before bed.

Today Sienna and I did the washing and we went for a bike ride through the =
dirt tracks across the road from my home. We got back home and drove to a =
nearby Nursery. We looked for some plants but saw nothing interesting nor =
any staff. I figured they must have been at lunch or something and there =
were only a few crappy looking plants around. We hopped back in the car and =
as I drove off saw the real entrance to the Nursery around the other way! =
Oh well.. we got some nice flowers for the garden at Kmart after lunch. We =
had asian food for lunch. Sienna had rice and chicken and peas.=20
I stopped at the pet store to enquire about some fish. $220 for a smallish =
tank and a kit. ack!

We picked up some groceries and chucked them in the car and headed home. I =
unpacked the car while Sienna caught up with a new episode of Little =
Einsteins. It was almost over by the time I looked at the screen so I hit =
the Record button on the remote and got the whole episode recorded. I love =
the Foxtel IQ! Even if you miss most of a show you still have a chance to =
record it so long as you haven’t missed more than an hour.

We planted the flowers in the garden out the front of the house near the =
front door. Sienna put some plants in the ground then watered the flowers =
with the new little watering can I bought. She loved it!

Now she’s vegging out in front of the TV. I think nobody is home. She’s =
looking very sleepy.

It doesn’t seem right to be sweating in Winter. Although I did have a =
coffee and walk a few kilometres. Still, it’s not THAT cold here even =
though it’s Winter.

I was talking to a friend from the UK the other day and she was having =
trouble trying to sleep due to the heat wave over there. I saw on the news =
it’s also reducing the population there which ain’t that good either.

Winter never gets TOO chilly here at any rate. Sienna and I just had shorts =
and Tshirts on all weekend. We kicked the doona off as well since we didn’t =
really need it.

You can probably guess the answer… Novell’s SUSE won out. No surprises, I =
guess since it’s backed by such a big company.

Here’s the list.. SUSE (now to be called openSUSE), Morphix, Belenix, =
Ubuntu, Games Knoppix, Simply Mepis and Gentoo.

I liked Morphix the least, followed by Belenix. Ubuntu and in fact any =
gnome version of a Linux OS were just too confusing. I fully agree with =
Linux Format magazine’s opinion that it’s too ‘dumbed down’. Now, I =
wouldn’t say I’m dumber’n a bag O hammers, but maybe I’ve been using KDE =
and Windows and Mac OSX too much as I couldn’t for the life of me find any =
kind of Control Panel to set up Networking or any other =
configuration.

Belenix couldn’t display a menu or Start button type icon. In fact, it gave =
errors saying it had problems with menu items.

SUSE was just the easiest, with auto detecting of more devices than any =
other distro and first time wizards offering to configure them for me, =
along with warnings of anything I did which would be insecure to my system. =
It looks beautiful and runs nicely. SUSE gets my vote. Now to wait for the =
next beta and the rebranding as openSUSE.

Ps. Distros were from Linux Format magazines over the last two =
months.

Incidentally, the Linux distros also detect my Canon Pixma printer as a =
storage device.

So far I’ve tried Simply Mepis, Gentoo, Suse and Belenix and I have to say =
Suse is in front all the way.

The Suse live cd booted about 15 or so seconds faster. It detected and =
offered to set up my printer and bluetooth adapter.

It detected my wifi card (I have yet to try configuring it properly).

It warned me an adhoc wifi connection with no encryption is unwise and so =
was the way I set up the bluetooth adapter.

Hell, it even detected the model of my monitor and picked a nice high =
resolution with 75 Hz refresh rate.

I have a few others to try out when I get back home, but I think I know the =
winner already. Incidentally, I used to run Suse years ago, after a =
recommendation from a friend, PreZ. How it has matured since then!

By the way, I was pleasantly surprised this morning as I left the train =
station only to be greeted by two young blondes dressed in police woman =
type uniforms, handing out brochures or something. I don’t know what it was =
they handed out. I just knew I really wanted it!! (and the brochures too =
).

I’m atm at the local rissole having a nice meal and VBs.. yum!

I am trying to decide on a legitimate desktop OS for my main PC.

Vista is very nice but will probably be $500+ Australian dollars.

Mac OSX is very nice but would cost a minimum of $999 for a Mac Mini.

So now I am evaluating my PC requirements and thinking maybe I should just =
install a Linux distro and be done with it.

My server runs Mandriva. Today I bought a Linux magazine with 6 distros on =
it. I have another dvd at home with another 4-5 on it so will muck around =
with those to decide.=20

It seems the main popular choices at the moment are Suse and Ubuntu.

Does anyone know a RELIABLE Australian web host company with CPanel =
support? They need to be competitive in pricing and hopefully do backups =
and allow 4 or more domains and allow account managing via WHM. This seems =
to be an impossibility in Australia.

Had a great weekend with Sienna again. She tripped over when we went
shopping and scraped her elbows and chest..  poor thing. She also tried to
get me to chase her down the hallway and went to hide under my bed and
banged her head on the bottom of the wooden bed=2E Strangely enough she
didn’t cry when it happened, only once I walked into the room and she said "Hi daddy!" then started crying… kids!

We did some shopping, painting, drawing, watched her favourite TV shows,
read some books, played with balloons in her room and also some other toys.

Her brother is heading back to Sydney today so it will be a bit quieter for
her around home. I think it might be a good thing because she gets so
overworked and uptight. Saturday afternoon she slept for about 3+ hours.
Yesterday when I was taking her home she fell asleep in the car as usual.

I just watched a fascinating show on SBS about epigenetics. It’s about your =
experiences affecting not only the next generation but also later =
generations. The show was called ‘The ghost in your genes’.
For example, the trauma from 9/11 affecting children born afterwards. The =
holocaust stress affecting grandchildren of people who were in it causing =
stress even though the grandchildren were not around at the time. In fact, =
since children were only one year old when the study was done it proved the =
stress was ot caused due to a re-telling of stories.
Famine affecting grandparents would create genetic changes in their =
grandchildren.
Toxins affecting mice causing diseases many generations later (3-4 and =
more!).
It’s all new science, but very interesting.
For women affected by 9/11 directly it only passed on a genetic message if =
the woman was in her third trimester.
If a man is affected during his puberty he would pass on the genetic =
record.
They discovered IVF can turn off certain genetic sequences which can cause =
syndromes and also pass on problems to the IVF person’s future =
generations.

Lucky weekend

I’m back at work today. I had planned for today as a TOIL day to have =
Sienna for an extra day but once I got to work yesterday morning they told =
me they had to send most of the guys far away for updates and installs (we =
support most of QLD) so they needed me to come in after all. So I told them =
I’d have yesterday off instead. Unfortunately I didn’t get back to my train =
station until 10am but at least I got time off. I picked up Sienna and we =
headed back to my place.=20
I got the weekly clothes washing done and we watched some episodes of =
Little Einsteins. Sienna rode around the house on her bike and after that =
we rested.
She fell asleep at about 5.30pm and didn’t wake until after 6am this =
morning. I drove her back to Rebecca’s and caught the train to work. I saw =
the train arriving just as I pulled up in the car park and grabbed my bag =
and bolted for the train only to realise my phone was still in the car. By =
the time I got back to the car the train was leaving. It was the last train =
that would get me to work on time. The next one was 25 minutes away.. so I =
waited.

I went to the cinema on Tuesday and saw Cars. Man! That movie rocks!! I =
actually laughed out a couple of times. Gotta get it on DVD when it’s =
released. Still waiting for Da Vinci Code on DVD.

My bank stuffed me around on a new credit card so I told them I will keep =
my current one after all. They also tried to charge me for Home & Contents =
Insurance on the home I sold over a month ago!! I had my home loan with =
them. The bank just forgot to notify their Insurance branch of the sale.. =
they also forgot to pass on my new address!

A couple of weeks ago I cancelled my MBF membership. They got me to sign a =
form saying where to refund any outstanding membership payments. I filled =
it in and signed it. Today I rang to ask where my money was and they tell =
me they can only refund back into my credit card and I have to write a =
letter requesting such. I told them they should have told me that when I =
was in the branch!! So now I have written a letter and will take it in =
when I get the time.
Aaaaarghhh!!!!

Sienna and I had a fun weekend together. She was a bit fluey so we didn’t =
go out except to do shopping. I set up an oil burner with Lavender and =
Eucalyptus to help her breathe and it stopped her coughing in her =
sleep.

I bought her some paints and crayons and stickers to go in a colouring-in =
book. We spent Saturday and Sunday working on that. We also put stickers on =
her new table. Apart from that we also watched Little Einsteins on Foxtel. =
I’ve recorded about 8 or so episodes of that now. It’s so =
educational.

I found there’s a place nearby home where I can learn to fly glider planes =
so I might give that a go.

… for now.

I’ve been giving my computers a break. Haven’t even turned them on in days. =
It’s a refreshing change.

I’ve been catching up on all the shows I’ve been recording on my Foxtel IQ =
set top box. The A-Team, Remington Steele, Call for help. I flicked through =
Fargo, Napolean Dynamite and I heart Huckabees but could not get into any =
of them.

I still have Godfather Part something and Troy to watch yet. Haven’t seen =
either before.

I saw a new episode of Drawn Together and watched Stripperella which was =
better than I thought. I’ve put them on auto record along with Dead like =
me.

Oh yes! I’ve also been catching up on Crossing Jordan.

Last night I watched House, too. Love that show! So different to other Hugh =
Laurie shows. A pity it’s on channel 10 which Foxtel can’t re-transmit. =
That and channel 7 are the only reasons for me to have a digital set top =
box.

I used to always watch channel 9 morning shows but the channel 7 one seems =
more interesting these days. I still watch channel 9 in the mornings while =
having breakfast though because my channel 7 reception is not so good even =
with the high powered indoor antenna. A shame I can’t plug the TV into the =
antenna on the roof but there’s just no outlet in my lounge for a TV.

I get to pick up Sienna tomorrow night. Yay! I was hoping to put in for =
time off Friday and spend an extra day with her but work thinks they will =
need me to fix up a guy’s Blackberry phone and I’ve been nominated the PDA =
guy of Field Support. Maybe next week. Here’s hoping…

Some days you seem to cope really well, others you don’t seem to cope at =
all. Today has not been so bad. Life is full of ups and downs.

I went to a father’s support group tonight - a support group for guys going through separation. It was very helpful.

This morning I returned my beloved ADSL 2 modem to HT. No point in keeping =
it if I have no chance of an ADSL connection.

I’ve been cutting down on my internet usage anyway. Saves money and it’s =
not a good thing to waste your life away on. It just causes issues anyway. =
So I also canceled my 3 broadband account. I will stick with cheap dialup. =
I only need it to check email once every few days. I might join Beagle =
internet. They have outstanding reviews from current and previous =
customers. At $13pm it’s also very affordable.

Had a great weekend with Sienna. On Saturday I sold boxes full of books to =
a second hand bookshop. I also cleaned out and donated some clothes I never =
wear.

Sunday we went for a ride on my bike and stopped at a park to play on the =
swings and slide. We had a great time there. After that I drove her to =
Bec’s home and she fell asleep in the car on the way.

I get to pick up Sienna again tonight! YAY!

I love her so much!

Since I get home late-ish we might just have ‘ Chicken Chippies ‘ and go =
shopping tomorrow morning to get healthier stuff. I’m sure she won’t mind =
a bit! *grin*

If it’s not raining too much we will go for a ride on daddy’s bike to a =
park to play on the slides and stuff.

I phoned a local pool and they have swimming lessons starting again in =
August so I left details and they will ring me. Sienna LOVES ’swimming =
deeay’!