March 03, 2012
Sunshine and Rain
“It is not the self-critical one who reveals his humility, for everyone has to somehow put up with himself. Rather it is the one who continues to love the person who has criticized him.” - St. John Climacus
Tim is up earliest this morning. He came by to tell me that he's completed his XtraMath division section just now. I think that's the last thing that they offer. He only started this section about a week or two ago, so I'm impressed. Then he talked me into installing Clojure on my MacBook.
Timothy and I went to the YMCA. He went to their new kids workout area and won a prize for his workout today. I took the Saturday morning Step & Abs class taught by Joy. While I was away Michelle watched the movie “The Illusionist”, a historical romance I had rented for her. When I got home Michelle had just dropped Claire off at piano. I went out to clear out the snowplow banks near the mouth of the driveway. It's raining out so the snow is heavy.
Timothy and I decided to figure out what was causing his tower to randomly crash during Linux boot. After an hour of searching we found the key was to go to the BIOS screen and disable Legacy USB support. I seem to remember that was also key to making a Dell Mini10V into a Hackintosh. Anyway we've installed ArchBang Linux on it now.
Turns out it wasn't USB that was causing the issue. There's just something in the more recent Linux kernels that really does not play well with this PC's ACPI. So for now we're just booting with ‘acpi=off’. Whatever works for this old tower… A part of me wants to replace this old beast with something like a used MacMini or an inexpensive new Atom based "green PC".
On and off throughout the day I've been helping Claire with her tax return. She's starting to get a real appreciation for how complicated things are. And she only has to fill out the 1040EZ! This day started off snowy and gross but by now it's sunny and ~45°F. I'm glad I shoveled the mouth of the driveway because the rest of it has melted clean in the afternoon warmth and sun.
Took the family to 4pm Mass where this weekend we remember Abraham's fidelity and Jesus' Transfiguration. Afterwards we took the family for dinner at the TGIFridays in Amherst. Now Timothy and I are ironing out an issue with his PC tower. ArchLinux recently made a significant change in its package management that is not...um... transparent to the user. I'm being polite there. It's a bit sad because normally I'm a big fan of ArchLinux.
Watched (actually re-watched) Episode 1 of Fr. Barron's “Catholicism”. What I love about this episode is how he demonstrates how radical Jesus was at His time. What a subversive figure he was. And how He contrasts with other predominant spiritual leaders. Modern society tends to water that down. Meanwhile Michelle, Abby, and Timothy are still deciding on a model of phone for Abby's 1st phone. Abby is also playing with her Nintendo DSiXL in making another silly Flipnote. Elsewhere Claire, Daniel, and Michael are having a little dance party.
Michelle handled the twins and I handled getting Timothy to bed with their prayers. I'm pretty wiped out. Good night all!
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father.” — Matthew 5