Or, how I learned to triple-boot Windows, OSX, Ubuntu.

So, I got a new PC.  MSI Wind Nettop 100. Dual core Atom, low-power CPU, put a 1TB WD Caviar Green drive in it.  And found in one review, links on how to install OSX on one… I had to try.

I ended up installing Windows first – because I must – and then OSX – which wiped Windows somehow, then trying again, and… well, a couple of times, you get the idea.

Finally, how I ended up doing it.

First, I decided on ~30GB for each OS.  The rest of the drive I’ll use for storage.  So, 30GB NTFS partition for Windows is primary #1, installed XP.  I think because of the CF slot, it shows up as drive E all the time – no matter.  Partition #2, I had to mess with – it wanted to install on the NTFS partition though it couldn’t, or something.  Managed to boot into Ubuntu, then clear it so that it could select it as an installable partition.  Installed fine – you have to turn USB support to Hi-speed in the BIOS for this to work.

Then strait to Ubuntu.  Manual install, split into 4 different partitions – /, /home, /var/log, and swap, all extended.  It installs Grub with XP listed without even asking – but not OSX.

That was easy enough – in Ubuntu, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst.  Copy the Windows entry, changing just the title and partition number to match the reality:

title OSX
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

Then it comes up in the menu.  But, select it, and the OSX bootloader loads Windows by default.

Thus, hit a key when it prompts during that boot, and choose OSX.  Then within there, edited the bootloader config file like:

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

There’s an empty Kernel Flags section there – and you can specify what it boots first.  That I changed to the Mac partition as well, with:

<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>rd=disk0s1</string>

If you’re unsure you can get the information of the disk and it will tell you which one it is within OSX.

TaDa.  Boots Ubuntu by default, but have a few seconds to choose XP or OSX.  I need to make XP the default, realistically, for now, but otherwise… cool.

I think OSX worked better as well.  I’ll need to tweak it.

This time tomorrow I will be shuffling through security at the airport, extremely nervously, anticipating the upcoming flight.

I can’t believe the time is here.

I will be flying over the atlantic.

I will be seeing still-standing, and in-use buildings from centuries ago.

Paintings and artworks going back a millennium.

I don’t think there’s preparation enough for this sort of trip.  I’ll just have to wing it and hope.

Oh, and my french is going to suck.

Paris is now in two weeks.  Got a book specifically on the Louvre, as, by the look of it, we’ll be there for a fricken’ day in and of itself.

I should know more, but I don’t.

Upgraded Wordpress to 2.5.  Strangely much snappier on first impressions.

Still can’t tell why network stuff seems slow – starting to think bottleneck may be my computer, as the load on the server is negligible; it doesn’t seem to sweat anything, really.  I’d like to graph it eventually just to see if it spikes, but never when I look.

I should probably make up something for the left roommate on what to do if I get an alert about one of the hard drives when I’m away.  Hm.

Dinner and opera (La Traviata) on the 19th, last season ticket play on the 21st, then to bed, early up and to the airport.

Butterflies are a-wingin’ their way twixt my ‘testines.

So, I hurt my finger.  Badly, it turns out, in an effective and simple way; I closed it in the heavy metal hinge of your every day garage door.

At the Car Wash, natch.

It broke the bone at the tip.  I thought it had.  It started bleeding – profusely – immediately.  I was amazed at the body’s propensity for actualization.  Showing the next person coming in to the stall I had just vacated, I hopped in and drove myself – finger in my mouth, sucking up the blood, screaming around it occasionally as the euphoric aftertaste of the adrenaline wore off, the mile or two to the hospital.

There, I found myself.  I waited.  I got ibuprofen from the nurse when they finally put me through triage.  It was throbbing, I was nervous; the blood pressure showed, and they hastened their pace a little.  As the current doctor’s shift ended, I was hustled through X-Ray.  The most pleasant technician, who wasn’t supposed to, but gave me a nod to say, Yes dear, you really did break it like you thought.

The doctor said – well, we can’t do anything.  A splint would do nothing.  The cuts aren’t deep enough to need treatment, beyond a bandage as you would normally use.  I got some gauze taped around the end, with a plastic sheath to hold it all.

All in all, somewhat surreal.   I’ll (hopefully) gain all of the feeling back.  The fingernail I feel shall be pushed aside by the clotting that even now manifests beneath it.  The bone shall join its brethren further up my arm, at the elbow.  Perhaps this is simply bodily mutiny – they’ve established a supply chain, and eventually shall cut off the rest of my body – literally – from its supply, and thus win the war.

For now, pity and depression.

The paranoid blogging public is fostering an old code – speaking of intimate details in such a way as to obscure their immediate meaning.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit much, but… it’s more widespread than I think was ever the case in other venues.

I think the best argument for evolution and miniaturization lies in the common ground squirrel, who realized early in his development that the smaller you are, the harder it is to intentionally, or unintenionally, be sodomized.

Playing with the blog… installed a couple-dozen themes. You may notice it change (if ever anyone checks this often enough…)

Trying to decide what I want to do with this eventually. I don’t go into anything personal, really. Reading some meta-blogging, though – reasoning that the whole point of it in this sphere (at least this level) is something of personal exposition anyway. Thus, avoiding it is pointless.

Shall mull and return.

Muthafn OW.

4g->2g may be the most painful experience yet. Doubtful I’ll go any larger for a long time.

At least… there. Muahaha!

Now that that’s done, I find myself with money burning a hole in my pocket, so to speak – but what to do? New TV would be good, but I hardly use the one we have. Maybe it would be different if it were nicer, but…

Chair? I need a big, heavy armchair for the living room.

Maybe a winter beater of a car?

Maybe a trip – Hawaii’s been on my mind… I’m just not a good solitary traveler, I bet.

Oh, decisions…

Strangest sentence, taken out of context, said to me at work in the bathroom, by my manager:

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t look like a 16 year old boy to me.”

Saw The Tempest last month. I would characterize it as lacklustre. Some strength, but overall nothing to captivate.

Not so with tonight’s Orpheus Descending. Wow. So, I’m somewhat ambivalent when it’s difficult to get wrapped up in it, but overall it was well-done, and the actress… lord, the actress. Lady Torrance, was perfect. I can’t really find fault with it, but I’m no judge. However, isn’t it up to the masses to determine the fitness? Unless it’s a small piece, meant for a specific niche audience, isn’t the fact that one character can pull so much out of it, indicative of their overall ability?

Yes, I couldn’t do drama; I would break onstage; and wouldn’t *that* be entertaining.

Nobody will ever be able to scroll through the list of entries and find that, ‘one I was talking about’ easily, EVER.

Anyhow.

I’ve been working a lot more than usual, lately. Something like 12-15 hours a day, at points. It’s meant I’ve accumulated a little more than I know what to comfortably do with. Why? It’s easy to spend a couple of $$, you reckon?

Well, maybe. If you splurge. If you’re used to it, or the decision itself, I guess. I never have. Going to the store is a calculated endeavour, still. Easier, now, just from habit, but that just underscores the issue in other ways. There are many larger things I could get (not all with this – don’t be mistaken, it’s not enough to pay of a single major debt of mine, even), but that would require more effort. Calculation, decision, further decision, and then… for what?

I am decidedly ambivalent about material stuff, except in that I’ve decided to take an interest in my vehicle. Reasoning that I am better with mechanical contrivances than my dainty-shell fingers would suggest, I’m gettin’ drrrty. Or is that ridin’ drrrty? Oh, those rappers, so, shall we say, ennui a l’esprit! In any case, that’s the plan, essentially.

But, the things I’m thinking of…

Put it towards one debt, so that it’ll be paid off *quickly*.
Accumulate more, use it towards a down payment on an actual house.
Spend it all on car parts.
Vacation.
The stepson likely needs tutoring, so I’m trying to mentally mark part of it for that.
Furniture – it would be nice to have some that matches (and complements me, more) than the current set of metal-and-woodgrain.

I think I’ll do a little of all of it. $500 of what I had was already spent out of the last period for coilovers (adjustable suspension), but there’s so much more to get my car up to the standards my obsessiveness calls for.

Reading up on friends and acquaintances, I realize I’m very much sub-par. Not even sub or sous-genius, just… failing.

Miserably is usually inserted here.

Any ideas I once had about myself can pretty much be summed up in single words and torn. I have no potential anymore; I could advance in career, slightly, but not in life. Things are easy externally, but internally strained.

My actions indicate I’d rather waste my time, than do anything important or actually progressive.

I’m not sure if there’s supposed to be anything momentous about the event, but I’ve been noticing, more and more consciously, that I’m given the appearance of Man.

I looked at a bearded stranger tonight, arms spindly and wagging, balding.

Is there supposed to be an acceptance of this discovery? An epiphany? I find none in the idea, but a more interesting challenge in the practice.