Half-baked opinions, served lukewarm.
After a brief downtime due to a move, if you’re seeing this blog entry, barnson.org is back up again. Thanks for your patience!
After a brief downtime due to a move, if you’re seeing this blog entry, barnson.org is back up again. Thanks for your patience!
Now, there is a headline you don’t see every day, eh?
Here’s the deal. For a long time we have debated the question of copyright law and music downloading and the ways to stop it. An assertion I have made for a long time has been that the music industry needs to go the way of the motion picture industry (via DVD’s), and make it so simply downloading songs doesn’t give you the whole album experience.
So, the other day, i went to pick up the newest album by my favorite band (and the most versatile band since the Beatles for my money), Barenaked Ladies. The name of the album was “Everything for Everyone”, and as I went to purchase my 15 dollar album, I noticed the album in different packaging for 20 dollars. Looking at the album, I noticed the difference.
Now, there is a headline you don’t see every day, eh?
Here’s the deal. For a long time we have debated the question of copyright law and music downloading and the ways to stop it. An assertion I have made for a long time has been that the music industry needs to go the way of the motion picture industry (via DVD’s), and make it so simply downloading songs doesn’t give you the whole album experience.
So, the other day, i went to pick up the newest album by my favorite band (and the most versatile band since the Beatles for my money), Barenaked Ladies. The name of the album was “Everything for Everyone”, and as I went to purchase my 15 dollar album, I noticed the album in different packaging for 20 dollars. Looking at the album, I noticed the difference.
Included in the second package was a second disc, a DVD to be played on a home theatre, with the album in 5.1 surround sound. 11 tracks of the album available in 5.1 surround and acoustic versions, DVD video of the band recording the acoustic tracks, behind the scenes video and an extra music track.
I promptly purchased my 20 dollar copy and brought it home to enjoy on my home theatre system. The point is this: The band does ask its listener to buy and not download. But the band doesn’t join the Lars Ulrichs and Dr. Dres of the world by suing the listeners, and inadvertently alienating the fans. This band offers a package that is worth buying, in the same way that the movie industry maked DVDs worth buying, with extras, commentaries, and an onslaught of extras that go beyond the main feature.
Oh.. and the album rocks my friggin world. 20 bucks well spent.
Christy and I are busily reading “The Color Code”, by Dr. Taylor Hartman. This book is amazingly illuminating for me — I’m realizing that my attributes are not uniquely mine (plusses as well as minusses), but that they can be easily categorized and from that point I can figure out what positive and negative traits from other personality types I have.
Dr. Hartman has a “personality profile” test that one takes to begin reading the book. After taking it, most people have attributes from each of the four “primary colors”, since personalities are a rainbow of different attributes, but nevertheless one will generally win out. He has you take the test according to your earliest memory of yourself, rather than the way you are now, which definitely skewed my results heavily in one direction; that direction, though, helped me isolate which color I am.
Christy and I are busily reading “The Color Code”, by Dr. Taylor Hartman. This book is amazingly illuminating for me — I’m realizing that my attributes are not uniquely mine (plusses as well as minusses), but that they can be easily categorized and from that point I can figure out what positive and negative traits from other personality types I have.
Dr. Hartman has a “personality profile” test that one takes to begin reading the book. After taking it, most people have attributes from each of the four “primary colors”, since personalities are a rainbow of different attributes, but nevertheless one will generally win out. He has you take the test according to your earliest memory of yourself, rather than the way you are now, which definitely skewed my results heavily in one direction; that direction, though, helped me isolate which color I am.
The amazing thing to me about this approach to understanding one’s own psychology is that in taking this profile exam, you cut through the layers of bullcrap regarding birth order, sex, upbringing, and so forth. The classic “Myers-Briggs” personality profiling is less relevant too, because those talk more about thought patterns, how you relate to the world, and not the thing Dr. Hartman calls “Core Motive”.
The core motive is, fundamentally, what’s most important to you. There’s a whole lot more to it than this, but the quick summary from what I gather:
Hmm, take a guess which one you are, then I’ll share mine.
Ready?
The picture of me on the right as of the day I posted it — my “avatar” — says it all.
I’m yellow. I mean, ALL yellow. When I took the exam, compared to my wife’s scores, I was so yellow it would be like squinting at the sun. However, I have many of the negative personality characteristics of other colors, with few of the positives. I think I know where that comes from, too — trying to be somebody I’m not for the last thirteen years.
Christy turned out to be a Blue, with a strong component of Red in there as well. Hartman provides an enlightening comment about the Blue/Red combination:
The most difficult color combination within one individual is the mixture of Red and Blue. If you are strong in both categories, you will often find yourself stepping on someone’s toes to get a task completed (Red), but feeling guilty afterward for making that person unhappy (Blue).
We’re not through the book yet, but I heartily recommend reading it, particularly reading it with your spouse. I hate to admit it, but I skipped ahead to Yellows (we’re still reading about Blues tonight, having just barely finished Reds). It’s really, really hard admitting some of the negative characteristics, but oh my golly do I have those in spades, too. And realizing they are simply an innate part of my personality, rather than some fearful force to fight against, suddenly is liberating and makes me more willing to be a whole me.
I’ve been a Yellow trying to be a combination of Blue, Red, and White for too long. So many of the attributes taught both in my church and in employment or social circles as “desirable” attributes turn out to be core attributes of entirely different personalities: Harmonious, disciplined, or serious are attributes of White, Red, and Blue.
None of them are me. And realizing I don’t have to aspire to be like something I’m not… it’s like opening the blinds and curtains after a long winter. Time to embrace the core me a bit more I think.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Do:
Don’t:
Apparently, I’m in the same camp with Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Elvis Presley as far as core personality (or, apparent core personality). Both Ronny and Bill have very, very Red wives though — and Elvis did not. Maybe that was the cause of his flame-out. Anyway, lots of cool tips for handling one’s own personality and being able to be productive despite being “the way I am”.
One thing that really really stuck out to me in the description of Yellows, is that we have a hard time sticking to a job. We get bored easily, and frequently end up in lots of different jobs simply because, although the job may remain interesting, we quickly become disenchanted and lose interest in it. That sounds an awful, awful, awful lot like me. Seven “real” jobs in nine years? Time to settle down this time, hombre, and give a hard look at perhaps finding a job where I can continue to remain interested in it.
I recently ran into problems with postfix running inside of a FreeBSD jail. It would constantly report “file too large” errors, and other errors in that vein. Since there appears to be no documentation for FreeBSD “newbies” on fixing this problem, it seems like most people default back to sendmail or exim, rather than using the excellent Postfix MTA on their virtual file systems.
I love postfix, so that is a situation I’d like to change! Here are the directions on how to get postfix working inside a FreeBSD “jail” system.
Well, the basic problem with Postfix in a FreeBSD 4.8 jail is the disconnect in the setrlimit() call in Postfix versus the kernel. You end up with spurious “file too large” errors when sending and receiving messages, which just sucks.
I recently ran into problems with postfix running inside of a FreeBSD jail. It would constantly report “file too large” errors, and other errors in that vein. Since there appears to be no documentation for FreeBSD “newbies” on fixing this problem, it seems like most people default back to sendmail or exim, rather than using the excellent Postfix MTA on their virtual file systems.
I love postfix, so that is a situation I’d like to change! Here are the directions on how to get postfix working inside a FreeBSD “jail” system.
Well, the basic problem with Postfix in a FreeBSD 4.8 jail is the disconnect in the setrlimit() call in Postfix versus the kernel. You end up with spurious “file too large” errors when sending and receiving messages, which just sucks.
There’s a patch at http://www.kozubik.com/published/misc/postfix_patch_fbsd45jail
Here’s how I do this without using the above patch:
IMPORTANT NOTE: A generous reader left a clarification in a comment below this entry that may be more useful for you. My procedure works fine because you’re running “make clean” inside the postfix work directory — using Postfix’s built-in Makefile — and thus not destroying the source file you’re going to edit. However, running “make clean” from the /usr/ports/mail/postfix-current/ directory would blow away your work/ directory, nullifying the effort you’re putting into patching 🙂
1. cd usr/ports/mail/postfix-current
2. Run “make” — I normally just leave it alone and let Postfix go ahead and build itself. Not a big deal.
3. cd work/postfix-(version)/src/util
4. using your favorite text editor, open “file_limit.c”, and go to the SECOND instance of this line:
struct rlimit rlim;
(This is the one followed by “rlim.rlim_cur = rlim.rlim_max = limit;” — if you don’t see that, you’re at the wrong one)
5. Paste this line immediately after the “struct rlimit rlim” declaration, then save and exit:
limit = RLIM_INFINITY;
6. Now cd /usr/ports/mail/postfix-current/work/postfix-(version) again.
7. run “make clean”
8. run “make”
9. cd ../.. (or /usr/ports/mail/postfix-current)
10. If you’ve already installed postfix, then run “postfix stop” and “make deinstall”. Otherwise, just run “make” and then “make install” and YOU ARE DONE!
I decided that I’m finally sick of hunting through my cabinets for our family recipes, and that I wanted a place to put them that’s always available — even barring a move or a fire or whatever.
I decided that I may as well set it up so that any registered user of the site can add their favorite recipes, too. So if you have a few to swap, just log in on the right-hand side (or create an account, if you haven’t already), and post a few favorite recipes!
Without further ado, here’s my first one, for our family’s Favorite Rice Pudding! (Named after Kirsten Favorite, now Smith, of course!)
Add comments to the recipe, please, not this blog posting 🙂
I decided that I’m finally sick of hunting through my cabinets for our family recipes, and that I wanted a place to put them that’s always available — even barring a move or a fire or whatever.
I decided that I may as well set it up so that any registered user of the site can add their favorite recipes, too. So if you have a few to swap, just log in on the right-hand side (or create an account, if you haven’t already), and post a few favorite recipes!
Without further ado, here’s my first one, for our family’s Favorite Rice Pudding! (Named after Kirsten Favorite, now Smith, of course!)
Add comments to the recipe, please, not this blog posting 🙂
“Matt, I’m going to make your tooth cold. I need you to raise your hand when it feels cold. Then rub your tongue over the tooth, and tell me when it feels normal again.”
Dr. Aaron Stobbe, my dentist, held an ice-cold Q-tip against one of my teeth. Within three seconds, I raised my arm, and after he removed the Q-tip, lowered it again about fives seconds later.
“Good, that’s a normal tooth,” he informed me.
Now the second tooth, immediately behind the one that was feeling some pressure sensitivity. Again, within three seconds, my arm was up, then down about five seconds later.
“Another normal tooth. Now let’s check out the one that’s having problems,” Dr. Stobbe said.
“Matt, I’m going to make your tooth cold. I need you to raise your hand when it feels cold. Then rub your tongue over the tooth, and tell me when it feels normal again.”
Dr. Aaron Stobbe, my dentist, held an ice-cold Q-tip against one of my teeth. Within three seconds, I raised my arm, and after he removed the Q-tip, lowered it again about fives seconds later.
“Good, that’s a normal tooth,” he informed me.
Now the second tooth, immediately behind the one that was feeling some pressure sensitivity. Again, within three seconds, my arm was up, then down about five seconds later.
“Another normal tooth. Now let’s check out the one that’s having problems,” Dr. Stobbe said.
He held the Q-tip against my tooth. And we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
After about fifteen seconds, he explained to me that this test told him that the nerve inside this tooth is probably dead. X-Rays were inconclusive, but the cold-test was: an earlier filling had led to the death of the root.
I would need A ROOT CANAL!
“Well, we have some time right now, if you like,” Dr. Stobbe said, “we can always skip lunch”.
“Sounds good to me!” I responded, and sat back in the chair.
Now, according to Aaron Stobbe, for root canals they usually use a “Dental Dam”. This is a piece of rubber stretched over a frame to isolate a tooth from the rest of the teeth. But since the tooth was obviously already infected and dead, there was little need. He numbed me up (including a shot to the roof of my mouth that stung rather painfully), and then began the drilling.
Those of you who have had fillings before know what this is like. Really, at this point in my life, thirty years old, it’s not nearly as traumatic as it used to be. No big deal.
But something was different this time. He went deeper. And suddenly, my mouth and nose were filled with the most disgusting flavor I’d ever encountered. However, I knew it well.
“‘at hells like ro’en hotatos!” I exclaimed past his fingers.
“That smells like rotten potatos, huh? Yeah, it’s pretty gross,” responded Dr. Stobbe. “I think I mentioned, though, that there is usually a little outgassing when we break through to the nerve.”
Then he began pulling out the files. Each file is about the size of a sewing needle, with a fat, round end about the width of your pinky to hold on to. He’d use each file for just a few seconds, then get a new one. He explained that these got down into the root of the tooth and scraped out all the gunk there.
Oy, veh, and gunk it was. That stink persisted the whole time. I mean, I’ve farted good in my time, and had some really ripe ones, so I know it’s possible for my body to contain some repulsive smells. But this was just beyond imaginable, a combination of rotting fish with rotting potatos and terrible intestinal distress. I found it hard to believe my tooth harbored such foulness.
Once all the files were done (which took about fifteen minutes), he inserted a long, bended needle with a syringe of yellowish liquid. He explained it was basically bleach, similar to that used on clothes, to help disinfect the tooth. Given the smell, that makes perfect sense to me… I wouldn’t want any of that cruddy stuff sticking around.
He finished up, after putting in the disinfectant, by capping it off with a soft Plaster-of-Paris like substance. He informed me this plug was just temporary, and he’d need to see me in two weeks to “build it up”. I scheduled the appointment on the way out, rinsed with a glass of water to attempt to clear the lingering taste/smell from my mouth, called my wife, and got a ride home.
Ahh, then yesterday. I hope this story is moderately entertaining for those of you who haven’t had a root canal!
Yesterday I saw the dentist again. This time, they used the Dental Dam because it is most important that no germs make it down into the tooth. It was actually kind of cool, like a little Dream Catcher made of rubber… well, OK, there are no holes or anything, but I could kind of talk around it. I also opted for the Bite Blocker, a piece of plastic to wedge my mouth open, because holding my mouth open for that long aggravates my Trigeminal Neuralgia horribly.
He broke out the drill to break up the Plaster-of-Paris-type stuff, then used some more files to scrape out lingering bits of nerve ending and fluff from down inside the tooth canals. There was only the slightest pain this time, other than that annoying “shoot the roof of your mouth” novacaine. Again he flushed it out with the bleach-like solution.
Now, this time, after filing and cleaning, he used tweezers and these tiny strips of paper. According to him, he needed to dry the inside of those canals for the next step. The next step was to inject a type of rubber into the canals. After he’d pump some in there, he’d use a sharp metal tool to push and spread the rubber more, then chop off the exposed lumps of rubber. I wish I could have watched 🙂
Once the rubber was in the canals, the rest of the operation was very much like your basic filling: pump in some filling material, use a little ultraviolet light to cure it, pump in some more, cure it, and more, cure it. Then, finally, he ground down the epoxy-like stuff to more closely resemble a tooth (I really have trouble seeing the difference, except that a dentist’s work now is a bit “smoother” than a natural tooth), had me bite on the test strip to make sure my bite was even, ground a little more, and said “have a nice day!”
Total price: $650.
A root canal definitely wasn’t the hellish ordeal I thought it would be. It’s no picnic, but the second half of the procedure was peaceful enough that, actually, I fell asleep partway through it! I woke myself up because I was snoring!
I’m going to remember the “cold test”, though. I think I may have a second tooth, that also had a “deep filling” that may have damaged the root, which may require the same treatment. This time, because so much of the tooth was saved, there was no need for a cap according to my dentist. We’ll see how it goes I guess!
Well, the fall movie season has begun.. and it leads so quickly to the Christmas movie season, that I now bunch it all together into one block. So..
Someone, somewhere discovered that this season could be the OTHER movie seaosn, stealing the summer’s thunder. Because of this, we are facing the onslaught of films that used to be reserved for summe, and in honor of that, I have decided to compile a few top 5 lists of movies, and I invite you to do the same… READ MORE BELOW!!
‘
Well, the fall movie season has begun.. and it leads so quickly to the Christmas movie season, that I now bunch it all together into one block. So..
Someone, somewhere discovered that this season could be the OTHER movie seaosn, stealing the summer’s thunder. Because of this, we are facing the onslaught of films that used to be reserved for summe, and in honor of that, I have decided to compile a few top 5 lists of movies, and I invite you to do the same… READ MORE BELOW!! ‘‘
These are all personal choices Top 5 most anticipated 2003 Fall Flicks 1. Lord Of The Rings: Return of the King 2. The Matrix Revolutions 3. Kill Bill vol. 1 4. The Last Samurai 5. Elf
Top 5 Best Summer Movies 2003 1. X2: X-Men United 2. Freddy Vs. Jason 3. Once Upon a Time in Mexico 4. Bruce Almighty 5. Pirates Of The Carribbean (Did not see Finding Nemo, but I was told it would be on here if I had)
Top 5 Biggest Disappointments Summer 2003 1. Hulk 2. Charlie’s Angels 2 3. Matrix Reloaded (But cool enough ending to make me want the 3rd to redeem it) 4. Hollywood Homicide (C’mon Harrison..) 5. LXG (I didn’t actually see this, but I wanted to until the TERRIBLE reviews)
Top 5 Favorite movies of All time 1. The Empire Strikes Back 2. The Abyss: Speacial Edition 3. Good Will Hunting 4. Kung Pow: Enter the fist 5. Bruce Campbell vs. Army Of Darkness
Top 5 BEST trilogies 1. Star Wars (1st Trilogy) 2. Lord Of The Rings 3. The Godfather (I liked 3) 4. Evil Dead 5. Terminator
Top 5 Favorite Scary movies 1. Nightmare On Elm Street 3 2. The Blair Witch Project 3. Poltergeist 4. Evil Dead 2 (I don’t know if this counts) 5. Silence Of the Lambs (and Red Dragon)
Top 5 Fave Comedies 1. Kung pow: Enter the Fist 2. Army Of Darkness (I Don’t know if this counts either) 3. Monty python and the Holy Grail 4. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back 5. High Strung (Super early Jim Carrey and Steve Oedekerk comedy)
Top Sequels that were better than Originals 1: Empire Strikes Back 2. Godfather 2 3. Aliens 4. Desperado 5. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Finally, top 5 Non Trilogy Series: 1. Star trek 2. Nightmare On Elm Street 3. James Bond 4. View Askew (Clerks through Jay and Bob) 5. Alien
So.. hows about you?
Christy and I just returned 45 minutes ago from Nash and Timi Granados’ 2003 Halloween Party. Unfortunately, it appears this is the last such party in Tooele City, as they are headed back to California to follow employment. We wish them all the best, and as always, fab party dudes!
Christy and I just returned 45 minutes ago from Nash and Timi Granados’ 2003 Halloween Party. Unfortunately, it appears this is the last such party in Tooele City, as they are headed back to California to follow employment. We wish them all the best, and as always, fab party dudes!
You may have noticed that many of the more controversial entries here at barnson.org have been removed. They still exist in the database, but have had their “publish” tag removed. Click “read more” below to read more about this.
You may have noticed that many of the more controversial entries here at barnson.org have been removed. They still exist in the database, but have had their “publish” tag removed. Click “read more” below to read more about this.
It all started with a call to my mother as I was returning from the zoo with my two sons Saturday evening. I phoned my mother to ask if we could stop in. She said we could.
During our visit, I finally revealed to Mom, more than a year after I’d revealed this to my wife, that I was no longer a “believer” — I’m pretty firmly non-religious, and have come across enough evidences in Church-sponsored materials regarding the LDS church that, should I ever change my mind regarding organized religion, I’m fairly certain the LDS church is not where I’d want to go. Too much baggage, y’know?
That started the snowball. I encouraged her to read more about me on my weblog. She did, and ran across the one really negative entry regarding the Church here. Silly me for posting.
I won’t go into too many details, but the rejection, anger, and hyperbole flew quickly as she called my two sisters-in-law to commiserate. At least two then called my wife, newly returned from vacation, to complain about me. Which meant she was not happy dealing with irate in-laws, and that unhappiness translated right to me.
During our discussion last night, of my own accord I simply yanked them. Pulled them. They still exist, and if any individual wants a print-out, or digital copy emailed to them, feel free to request it and I will help you out. They will no longer be published on the main barnson.org site — instead, this main site will simply be neutral news about the Barnsons. I will be maintaining my own personal weblog at http://barnson.org/matthew/ which will contain my more personal and intimate thoughts and journal.
Thanks for your understanding; I apologize for yanking this without any notice. The family pressure was just too much to bear, even if I think I’m doing the right thing presenting the truth and my opinions.
I’m sorry, but comments are not allowed on this weblog entry. I have no desire to further stir the pot. Thank you. If you are a Barnson and wish to post news to the front page of this site, just sent me an email (it’s pretty easy to figure out my email address) or else a private message via this site if you’re logged in, and I can promote you to a “Barnson” on the site with ability to post front-page news.
CORRECTION: my mother did not call either sister to commiserate; apparently, they called her.
Christy and I just walked in the door after picking her up from the airport.
She’s my joy and my life, and I’m so glad she and Sara are home! We’re busily uploading pictures from her New Hampshire trip right now, and we’ll try to get comments on them over the next couple of days if we can. Anyway, check the “images & photos” link on the right-hand side, then click “Matthew & Christy’s Album”, then the “Christy & Sara in New Hampshire” album to get there and check them out.
In particular, here are some of my faves. If you have a color printer, really high-resolution (1280×960) copies are only one more click away on the larger picture you’ll get after this one. Or else you can click the “print this photo on Shutterfly” link, and for a reasonable fee Shutterfly will print out the photo and ship it to you:
If you want to leave any comments, you have to be logged into the site (login on the right-hand side of this page; you can create a new account, or use your Jabber, Drupal, or Yahoo ID from another site). Creating an account is quick and free. To go “up” to the original album in the large version of the photo, just click the “Album: Christy & Sara in New Hampshire” link on the upper right-hand side of any picture.
Christy and I just walked in the door after picking her up from the airport.
She’s my joy and my life, and I’m so glad she and Sara are home! We’re busily uploading pictures from her New Hampshire trip right now, and we’ll try to get comments on them over the next couple of days if we can. Anyway, check the “images & photos” link on the right-hand side, then click “Matthew & Christy’s Album”, then the “Christy & Sara in New Hampshire” album to get there and check them out.
In particular, here are some of my faves. If you have a color printer, really high-resolution (1280×960) copies are only one more click away on the larger picture you’ll get after this one. Or else you can click the “print this photo on Shutterfly” link, and for a reasonable fee Shutterfly will print out the photo and ship it to you:
If you want to leave any comments, you have to be logged into the site (login on the right-hand side of this page; you can create a new account, or use your Jabber, Drupal, or Yahoo ID from another site). Creating an account is quick and free. To go “up” to the original album in the large version of the photo, just click the “Album: Christy & Sara in New Hampshire” link on the upper right-hand side of any picture.