Sunday, June 29, 2008

My experience with Windows Update error code 80071a90

(Note to my regular readers: The only reason I wrote this post is because there's not much help for this situation to be found on Google. Don't worry, I won't be blogging about weird error codes from now on.)

Today I wiped out my system and did a clean install of Vista.

While it was downloading updates I kept getting the above error code for two updates. I googled it and found nothing but a bunch of posts that more or less said "what does code 80071a90 mean?"

Well, I can't tell you what it means, but I can tell you how I got around it.

On a shot-in-the-dark guess, I set Windows Update to just install one of the two updates. As the updates were most of a year apart, I set the older one to go first.

It installed fine.

I restarted and installed the other one.

It installed fine.

So I guess the code means "these updates don't play well together, install them separately."

(if anybody wants to know I was installing Ultimate x64 on a homebrew machine)

UPDATE 8/17/12: Amazingly, this is by far the most-visited post on the blog and still gets comments every once in a while. Because of time constraints I have now, I've disabled comments on this post since I don't really have time to moderate them anymore.

Figures I get the fat, bald guy

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

You Are Homer Simpson
You're just an ordinary, all-American working Joe...

With a special fondness for pork rinds and donuts.

You will be remembered for: your little "isms" and philosophies on life

Your life philosophy: "Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel."

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

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Friday, June 27, 2008

Sitting on a log

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

IMG_0045

That's the tree that Rita blew over while we had a contractor here taking the tree apart to haul it off.

We'd taken some pics of it to send to my grandmother's brother so he could see what kind of progress we were making to get things cleaned up. I got the idea to do this picture just to give the whole thing some scale and I think it came out looking pretty cool.

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Chacon grabs his problem by the neck and slams it to the ground

  Chacon walked into a bar
  Shawn Chacon at a Pittsburgh bar doing who knows what. Picture from Free Tank Carter. Click the image to see the post it came from.

It's just not the kinda problem he shouldn't be doing that kind of stuff to:

Already upset about being demoted from the starting rotation to the bullpen, Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon was suspended indefinitely Wednesday night after a heated exchange with general manager Ed Wade turned violent an hour before the Astros played the Texas Rangers at Minute Maid Park.

Chacon, who realizes he might not play again this season, admitted he lost his cool and threw Wade to the ground after Wade insisted he go to manager Cecil Cooper's office. The argument took place in the team's dining room, which Chacon refused to leave when asked to report to Cooper.

Chacon said he lost his temper after Wade cursed at him and told him to "(expletive) look in the mirror." Wade declined comment on the specifics.

"Insubordination to the club," Wade said. "I'm not getting into the details. It's an internal matter."

I don't think Chacon will be playing in the majors again. I mean, who in their right mind would sign someone who did that.

But seriously, what the hell is Wade doing yelling at his players? I mean, that's extremely unprofessional.

I hope Uncle Drayton has a talk with him about that.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Wow that brings back memories

I've been wanting a digital P&S for a while because SLR cameras, like the Rebel XT I normally use, just aren't suitable for everything.

Sometimes you just want something simple and easy to carry around, ya know? Not to mention that a lot of sports venues don't allow long-lensed cameras.

Yesterday my mom gave me a point and shoot digital camera that she'd bought a replacement for.

It's a Gateway DC-M42. Nothing impressive at 4 megapixels (half of what my Rebel has), but the price was certainly right!

That's not the interesting part.

I found the camera case I knew I had from years back and I stumbled upon something more interesting: my old Kodak Advantix C650 APS camera, still in the case, along with a roll of unexposed APS film and a battery for it.

The camera looks like it's been to hell and back. It's got what look like teeth marks from a dog chewing through the case (although said case has no teeth marls that I can see) and there's something loose on the innards of the camera. It probably doesn't work anyway.

Seeing it brought back some good memories. I used this camera as my main one from either 1999 or 2000 when we bought it until 2001 when I got my first SLR, a 35mm Rebel 2000, but still using it for a while as a P&S for those times I didn't feel like lugging around all my gear.

This makes me wonder, do they still even sell or develop APS film?

Not much to say about this week

I wasn't in much for softball this week. We had something like 4 extra men, and with only one game I volunteered to come out early.

We got our asses handed to us 17-4 and I went 0-1. Not much else to say.

We finish up the season with a doubleheader next week.

Here's the numbers:

BA: .333 (4-12) OBP: .429 (6-14) 1B: 4 BB: 2 K: 2 RBI: 3

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Updated: Blogging will be light

Blogging will be light today as I head back to Houston for a follow-up eye appointment then go to the Downtown Aquarium.

Some Italian guy who called himself Little Vinnie called me the other day and offered me some free passes and a special chance to "sleep with the fishes."

Since I like sleep and fishes, I figured I might enjoy sleeping with the fishes.

And Little Vinnie seemed like a nice guy, so what bad could happen?

Regular blogging will resume tomorrow.

(This wasn't supposed to publish last night... oops)

UPDATE: Ended up going to the Museum of Natural Science instead of the aquarium. Did the free Tuesday thing and we decided to do the DaVinci exhibit too.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Readers, we have a photo gallery!

processor Oooooooh! New technology-like stuff!

I shut down the poll on whether or not I should do a photo gallery because, well, I decided to go ahead and set up a gallery.

It's still very much a work in progress (takes time to upload thousands of pictures, ya know) but I'll go ahead and unveil it.

The address is http://photos.jrtblog.com/ It'll allow you to rate the pictures, leave comments, all sorts of stuff. You'll have to register for some of the features to work, but that's just to keep the spam down.

Enjoy!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Who said anything about Jelly Beans?

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

You Are a Pineapple Jelly Bean
Easy going and undemanding, you have good taste but aren't a show off about it.

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

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Saturday, June 21, 2008

loldog of the day

dog
see more dog pictures

Reminds me of Bruiser when he was humping one of my mom's (boy) dogs that was visiting. That's what got him fixed.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Thinking about it...

I'm considering setting up a gallery of pictures I've taken. Would y'all be interested in that?

UPDATE: I put a poll up top of the right sidebar. Polls are open until July 4th at 11:59 PM

Sitting on the porch

I was featured on Good Mom/Bad Mom and all I got was this lousy badgeWelcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

The reason I never want to leave the lake when I'm up there is probably the view from the back porch:

june lake trip 004

Gotta love it, huh?

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

I have been summoned from on high

Jefferson County Courthouse No, God didn't summon me to do something amazing. It's just a jury summons.

Hopefully it'll go as smoothly as it did two years ago.

I'm due to show up July 7th at 8:30 AM.

Don't I seem excited?

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Sunday, June 15, 2008

In which what kind of music I listen to is analyzed

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

What Your Taste in Music Says About You
Your musical tastes are reflective and complex.
You are intellectual to the point of being cerebral.

You are very open to new experiences, and even more open to new ideas and theories.
Wisdom and personal accomplishment are important to you.

You are naturally sophisticated. You are drawn to art, especially art by independent artists.
You are likely to be financially well off... and not because you were born that way.

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

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Saturday, June 14, 2008

Friday, June 13, 2008

On the fence

gmbmbadge.jpgWelcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

From this week's trip to the lake:

bluebird

This shot is from the observation deck on the Texas side of the Toledo Bend Reservoir. We were up at the deck talking and taking pictures when this bluebird flew over and perched itself on the fence. I got about three pictures of it, but this was the best one.

He flew off right after this picture.

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Monday, June 09, 2008

Everybody needs to unplug once in a while

Toledo Bend Reservoir Blogging will be light for the next few days, as I'm heading up to my aunt's lake house on Toledo Bend with my grandmother to unplug for a few days.

And, since I'm there anyway, do some fishing.

I plan on coming back from the trip relaxed, rejuvenated, and with a whole bunch of pretty pictures for all of y'all to see in upcoming Friday Photos.

What I don't plan on coming back with is a sunburn, though it's probably going to happen since I'm going to be fishing on a boat in the middle of a lake.

Note to self: bring a hat.

Regular blogging will resume Thursday.

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Sunday, June 08, 2008

In which I LOL K T Cat's photo

K T Cat's latest post inspired me:

funny pictures
moar funny pictures

You can vote and stuff here.

I know, this caption's probably a FAIL but who knows...

For those that don't know, it's a reference to the "fresh fish" thing in The Shawshank Redemption.

So. uh, is this good or bad?

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

Your Mood is a 6
You're mood is so-so... but you're feeling more up than down.

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

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Saturday, June 07, 2008

Hillary and government class

Hillary's speech (or what I've read about it, to be more precise, reminded me of a political cartoon that was in our Government books back in high school.

The caption was something like "I endorse my former opponent, please forget all the nasty things I said about him in the primary."

Hopefully people won't.

Yea, thanks doc, you obviously want to see me so much

I go to an eye doctor in Houston.

I've been going there for probably about 20 years now. Seeing as I'm just 23 now, that should say something.

Well, lately they've been pissing me off.

You know how you get those little cards in the mail that remind you that you need to schedule an appointment soon?

Yea, well, I haven't been getting those lately.

I've got an appointment scheduled for next Monday since I realized my eyedrop prescriptions, which were written to be good for a year, expire this month.

Seeing as I was supposed to be back to see the doc in six months, that's great.

Just. Fucking. Peachy.

I'm starting to wonder if they really want my business or not, seeing as this happened last year too.

I'm planning on a conversation with my doc about it. If they fail to get me a card again I'm seriously going to consider dumping him for a doc here in Beaumont.

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Friday, June 06, 2008

Going down

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

IMG_2327A Drillers defender wraps up the Florida Scorpions' quarterback for a sack in their game May 31 at Ford Arena. The Drillers went on to win the game 74-46 

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

One long national nightmare ends, another begins

Last night Obama clinched the nomination, ending that long national nightmare. Now we enter the next one with who his running mate should be...

He wouldn't dare pick Hillary, would he?

If he does, I would advise him to watch his back, as he could very easily get stabbed in it at any moment.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

An ugly game, but I did something...

Softball picked up again this week after taking a week off for the holiday.

The Slackers lost 22-3.

I played third base for the first three innings, but played in left for the fourth. I didn't do much defensively, except for a little thing that saved my ankle. An extremely hard hit grounder was rocketed right at me. I didn't have the time to get my glove down, just enough to set my feet and start to... Thank goodness I got my feet set, as the ball would have hit me square in my right ankle. As it was, I felt the ball brush my jeans as it went between the wickets.

I may love my Slackers (our team's name) but I really don't want a nice, huge welt (or worse) on my ankle. Yay for self-preservation!

Anyway, I had two at-bats. Worked the first one to a 3-2 count then lined one to the shortstop, who nabbed me at first by a couple of strides.

The second at bat I took strike one and then swung at the next one, hitting it to about the same place. I beat out the throw to first this time but was thrown out at second for the final out of the game.

Here's my updated numbers:

BA: .363 (4-11) OBP: .461 (6-13) 1B: 4 BB: 2 K: 2 RBI: 3

Next weeks a doubleheader, with games at 8:30 and 9:30, our only 9:30 game this season.

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Sunday, June 01, 2008

Not like I'd want to work for him anyway!

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

This week it's a "Would House Hire You?" quiz I stumbled across on Facebook

Sorry...no...House probably didn't even think of taking you at all...

Unless you were unfortunately eliminated by the 'eliminate a random row' technique House uses, you're probably not really interesting to House. You may be a briliiant doctor, but we all know House doesn't only want brilliant..he wants interesting..

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

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