Updating my Linux Machine

This post is as much for my own reference as anyone else's use. Hopefully I can at least point people in the direction of what has helped me.

Network Card

I have a RealTek network card, which doesn't play nice with Linux by default. This site solved it: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=80757#p469071

In case that link dies, the relevant portion is: 

If you are using kernel 3.0 you'll notice that the /src/Makefile has a bug that causes it to install the r8168.o file instead of the r8168.ko file

The solution is simple:

After the autorun.sh finishes, just do the following:

sudo cp src/r8168.ko   /lib/modules/3.0.0-1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/
sudo depmod
sudo modprobe r8168

I'm not one to encourage people to leave the Church if they don't like it. To tell people to get out is to misunderstand what the Church is. No one gets kicked out of the hospital for disbelieving germ theory. The doctors just keep giving them the penicillin anyway. If you find that your relationship to the Catholic Church inside-looking-out, stick it out. I think you'll find that the grass is greener in the reflection of the stained glass windows.

That said, here's what not to do: don't tell the Church what it's supposed to be. They didn't ordain women to the priesthood in the days when powerful abbesses controlled convents and monasteries, they aren't going to start just because a woman ran the Department of State. They didn't claim two men could could marry when the emperor was doing it, they won't change their minds because Elton John is doing it.

A Totally Amazing Mind

Hey, reader(s)!

I haven't updated in a while, and this one isn't going to be very good. If there's only one universal law in the universe, it's not entropy or gravity. It's "no one cares about that weird dream you had." But, hey, this is my blog. I didn't force you at gunpoint to read it (note to self, consider this option in the future).

So anyway, I had this dream the other night that the popes came to stay at my house for the weekend. Benedict and Francis must have been doing some kind of cross country road trip or something. When the pope(s) want to crash at your place, you don't ask questions. I had been out for the evening, so when I got home they were already set up. They had brought two identical twin beds and set them up a next to each other with a nightstand in between, like Bert and Ernie. They had their night caps on and were  tucked in with the sheets up to their shoulders. I didn't know the exact protocol for saying goodnight to a pope, so I tried to kiss Benedict's ring. He wasn't wearing one so we stood there awkwardly for a minute until Francis finally said "Hey, over here!" When I went to kiss his ring he pulled it back.

We all had a good laugh.

Look Out Below

I'm clearing out a bunch of drafts that I've been meaning to publish. Don't say you weren't warned.