Hello, Lovine.com

What an idiot.

I feel really detached lately, and have no life outside of work and a small number of people I keep tabs on. It’s hard to pretend that I’m fine, blabbing away in this quiet corner of space, while everyone else is enjoying the party. And so after careful thought and preparation my friends, I finally bit the bullet.

I am on Facebook.

Though he teased us that we could someday need the skill of oral storytelling in order to save our lives, the fact remains that our lives are our stories, and, if we are willing to take a moment to listen, we can understand each other, and our selves.

I’m kinda sad that I missed this. Ira Glass: This American Storyteller.

Wow. Last week, my credit card company called to inform me of potential fraudulent activity on my card. I occasionally get these calls since I traverse frequently between SF and LA, and the agent usually explains that the nature of multiple gas transactions are flags for dubious activity.

This time, the agent tries to verify with me a $400 charge at a supermarket around Bell in East LA, and then another $500 charge at a different supermarket, and then another $500 charge. I don’t have a huge family to feed and spending $1,800 in a single day on groceries located an hour away from my house don’t float, yo.

And then I come across this today: http://laist.com/2010/03/08/sheriffs_deputies_bust_id_theft_rin.php

To be honest, I’m pretty impressed. If people can do this, imagine the other stuff they could do – legal, and otherwise. And no doubt, they’ll just get better at their game.

From 2007, starring my friend Joy.

Security Nerd C-Net Superstar! Hahaha awesome!!

So I spent a good two hours surfing the internet for the usual garbage, since I’m stuck at the company apartment in Guam without a couch and working TV.

I chance upon this website: http://planetoddity.com/the-mysterious-sailing-stones-of-death-valley/ – because I was curious how other people’s photos of the Racetrack came out. I let out a chuckle at the first few photos because objectively, they’re pretty crappy. But the pictures kept going, and then one picture looked really familiar.

Also posted here: http://izismile.com/2009/10/23/the_mysterious_sailing_stones_of_death_valley_46_pics.html

I know its harmless image farming at the end of the day, but if you’re not going to give credit where it’s due, I wish you all the karma that you deserve, jerks.

PS – The first time I passed Death Valley, was on a 150cc Vespa scooter en-route to Las Vegas in 2007. We’ve been back every year since.

Life is too short to act like you can put it off till tomorrow.

    /\___/\
   /       \
  |  #    # |
  \     @   |
   \   _|_ /
   /       \______
  / _______ ___   \
  |_____   \   \__/
   |    \__/
   |       |
   |       |
   |       |
   |       |
   |       |
   |       |
   |       |
   |       |
   |       |
   |       |
   |       |
   |       |
   /        \
  /   ____   \
  |  /    \  |
  | |      | |
 /  |      |  \
 \__/      \__/

Here’s a truncated ASCII long cat. He will keep you company this Friday, until we all make it through to Caturday, OK? :)

Hafa Adai! Was leeching off free WiFi for almost 4 hours at a local coffee shop here in Guam. I must say that broadband internet is starting to rachet up the basic commodity ladder required for survival. Can you imagine life with no intarwebz?

It’s been a fairly productive Sunday afternoon though, as I draft emails and start picking up more ground on network diagrams and flow charts I’ve neglected over the year. While polishing off dinner I wondered if my productivity is a result of being in a different environment that lets me out of my comfort zone, and places me back to a more visible core path of meaning. But then I quickly realized that the increase in productivity is most probably attributed to having no internet access the rest of the day to distract me. They say that the simplest solution is the best answer. Unplug, simplify, get to the point. The world waits for no one – especially for the Jack of All Trades, Master of None.

Dear Microsoft,

Your software SUCKS. It is terribly inconvenient to disable VPN connections by default through your dumb stupid crap “OneCare” package that overrides any and all other system settings that should normally be configured in your control panel. This is simple design, I don’t need to have switches and levers all over the place. Instead, you are totally obfuscating and constricting the usability of the entire operating system with no regard at all to your users who have shit to take care of, and don’t have the entire day to weasel their way through your dumb pre-loaded crap that no one wanted in the first place.

Totally arrogant, totally unnecessary, and totally stupid.

I just pray the future comes here faster, because Linux (and Google) will kick your software into obsolescence, right where garbage belongs.

No Regards,
Paul Lovine

Feeling down? Don’t! http://fmylife.com/

My domain and websites got defaced! Was down for almost 24 hours. I’m actually pretty flattered. Remember kids, use strong passwords!

Pretty darn productive this weekend. Laid down the foundations and revamped Paul and Kat.com. Installed WordPress, that stuff is pretty powerful and slick! I might convert to a WP setup in the future and junk all this Blogger madness. I still need to debug against older browsers (i.e. I hate you IE 6.0), and start broadcasting our offerings of custom buttons and our upcoming ‘Make Your Own Fan Club’ shenanigan.

I also replaced Vanessa’s valve cover gasket, to remedy the small leak on the passenger side valve cover. It was pretty exciting since it’s the first time I’ve really opened anything of importance in the bus, even though it’s just a simple gasket replacement.

The mechanic used some yellow adhesive to afix the old gasket, which was an official PITA to remove. Took me some good elbow grease to get the mating surface clean and slathered on a thin coat of number 2 permatex gasket sealant to fix that puppy. While crawling under the bus my left shoulder started complaining, and I felt its weakness from last year’s dislocation accident due to unwarranted hand-stand-walking in a parking lot. Ahh, the bragging rights you earn when you get old!

This made my day. Hehe. :)

Yo, VBS.tv has some really good stuff. Been checking out their videos regularly for the past year. Sweet.

In a few hours I head back out to the madness of Manila.

Guam was pretty good for understanding the rotations of my new hamster wheel. I think it would’ve been nice to stay a bit longer and indoctrinate myself deeper into the operational nuances of what put me through school and food on our tables, but I’ll need to get moving to get an understanding of the bigger picture. Can’t stagnate, and can’t move too fast either. All that is the balance, that we keep ourselves perched precariously on.

Here’s something I came across on the intarweb that I found really interesting. African-American Photographs (Snapshots and Portraits).