Posted by Aaron Springer on August 1, 2010 under 34th Goals, General | 
Weight: 411.2
Total loss to date: 8.8lbs
Goal distance: 111.2lbs
Well, after a weekend in B-ton, I gained about three pounds due to unhealthy eating. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
Today would have been my eleventh anniversary with my ex-wife. I can say that now without pain or anger now that my first marriage is six years in my past. My daughter, Young Springer, is happy and at camp, and Mrs. Springer, my lovely wife, is blissfully asleep in the other room. I am considering making her some breakfast.
I look back now, in the wee hours of the morning, on my first attempt at wedded bliss, and at the results of that failure.
My first wife, who, for sake of identification, I will call Wife1, was about five years younger than I am now when we met. She was relatively young, inexperienced, and was still kicking her heels up and trying to have as much fun as possible. The unfortunate part was that this did not end when our marriage began.
Being the fearful and lonely person that I was, I agreed to almost anything to keep her. This was my major error in the marriage, and my contribution to the divorce.
It was not so much agreement as silence. I was silent when she smoked pot. I was silent when she slept with other men. I was silent when she decided to take a vacation after she had been unemployed for over a year. I was silent when she broke what few rules we had. When I had finally had enough, my previous silence out of fear of losing her had closed the door to communication between us. Simply put, she had lost respect for me.
As a matter of fact, it took her moving a man with whom she had an affair into our house over Christmas for me to say that I was at my limit.
That’s how far I let it go. That’s how much I could stand.
But, from it I learned that marriage was not about tolerance as much as cooperation. I should not have to tolerate my significant other. She should not have to tolerate me. We should be working together to commonly agreed upon goals. I learned that sexual freedom is not the opposite of commitment. I learned that before attraction, before chemistry, and before vows, there had to be trust.
To be blunt, I never trusted Wife1, and I payed for it with a broken home for our daughter. Luckily, my daughter now has ample role models, three complete sets of grandparents, and bushels of love. She has a half brother, and (hopefully) more half siblings on the way. She has a rich and diverse life that may not have been possible before.
She is her own person, one I am having a blast getting to know.
In the mean time, I have let go of my anger at past events with Wife1, and hope for the best for her. I have my own opinions about her current situation, but I feel no need to share them with anyone but the lovely Mrs. Springer.
And, even then, it’s not a topic of frequent conversation.
Posted by Aaron Springer on July 21, 2010 under General |
Leather Year
By Aaron Springer
A stopwatch would be needed, not just a calendar
To view the space between our first kiss and this moment
Time is both long and short between then and now
And any point along the strap is a good one for me
Yes, it has not been without difficulty
No life is lived in a vacuum
But, like tanning leather
Sometimes the scrapes add character and flavor
Your gift for me has seven silver beads
One for each day of the week filled with glittering life
Between us
Days that I have cherished and kept close
Mine for you was a bound journal
Within, your precious thoughts will be kept
Not only of me, but of life itself
Because we are braided together
Posted by Aaron Springer on June 4, 2010 under BrickCase |
- Café Corner, Set 10182
Item: Café Corner, Set 10182
Year: 2008
Part total: 2,056
Difficulty: High
Assembly time: 3 hours (while watching movies)
Review:
I have been building with Lego® Bricks for nearly thirty years, and, I must say, this was not only the most expensive but also the most detailed set I have ever had the joy to work with. At the time I purchased it, it was nearly $150US, but the price has skyrocketed to more that $450US online, since it is no longer available from Lego® in the US.
That being said, this was a challenging, but fun, build, and the result was simply stunning. The details are amazing, down to the birds in the belfry, and the lamps by the front door.
On a side note, I was married at the Corner Café in 2007. Coincidence? Not really. I bought this using a birthday gift certificate from Mrs. Springer.
All in all, an excellent set. 9 out of ten Bricks.
Posted by Aaron Springer on April 2, 2010 under Technology |
I built a new server. Here is a quick rundown of the stats.
Case:
- Mini Skeleton by Antec
Mrs. Springer convinced me to buy this case. Why? She knows how much I like it. She likes me and stuff. Go figure.
Pros: Style blows anything else out of the water. This is a piece of art as much as it is a case. It comes with a mini power supply more than powerful enough for this application. Antec means quality. If you don’t believe me, look it up in the dictionary. No, I kid. However, I have only had minor complaints about their cases; for me, that’s extraordinary. It’s whisper quiet to the point that I had a hard time knowing if it was on without turning on the fan’s lights.
Cons: Size. Original intent was to use two 300Gb hard drives, but the case can’t handle full size drives. In its defense, it can handle four 2.5″ drives, which is amazing. Difficult to route cables with my sausage-like fingers
Final verdict: I want more of these. Or cases like it. Maybe my next computer will be based on the bigger Skeleton.
Motherboard:
- The EPIA LN by VIA
It’s an old VIA EPIA-LN that I bought some time ago for another project. I never completed the project, but the motherboard was still in perfect working order.
Pros: Mini-ITX, so, small and lower power consumption. Up to eight USB ports. Built in processor, networking, video, SATA and the like.
Cons: Only two SATA ports. 1ghz processor. One memory slot.
Final verdict: Fine for now, but slated for a future upgrade.
The rest of the setup:
Two drives, one 160gb and the other 120. The 160 is partitioned so that 120gb can be used as a RAID 1 with the other drive. As the server expands, I may change the RAID to a RAID 5 or 1+0. We’ll see how drive prices go. I’d like to replace the DVD drive with a RAID centric laptop drive mount, like this one or this one. Another option is an external drive frame or something like it, maybe this or this.
1GB DDR2 memory. DVD Burner. SATA cables. Not much more to it than that.
Operating system:
Ubuntu 9.10, Server with Gnome for a GUI and Webmin for remote administration. Installation was… interesting. Took a few hours to get everything the way I wanted it.
Total cost:
~$350, two hours build time (Did it while watching a movie… took a little longer). Four hours setup time.
Final thoughts:
The server has been running flawlessly for two days with about 25% physical memory load, and rarely over 1% CPU load. It’s currently not much more than a NAS unit, but I might extend it’s functions at a later date. I’m happy with it, and I am sure it’ll be a good looking PVR when I am ready to move it into that function with a newer motherboard, some additional hardware and bigger drives.
Tags: Antec, Gnome, Hardware, Mini-Skeleton, Mrs. Springer, Server, Technology, Ubuntu 9.10, Ubuntu 9.10 Server, VIA, Webmin
Posted by Aaron Springer on January 14, 2008 under General |
- My marriage is, in a word, wonderful. Katie and I resonate together. We have our difficulties, to be sure, but we face them together. She is patient in those areas that I have issues, and vice versa. My worst complaints about her, upon further reflection, turn out to be the most minor annoyances. Those things that some other people could not stand, Katie takes with aplomb.
- Work is almost relaxing. I am still tired at the end of the day, but I am not annoyed.
- School has started. I dropped back to three classes this semester.
- Young Springer is doing well when here, and it appears things have leveled off in Iowa as well.
- My parents are cool. Getting older, to be sure, but still cool.
- I went to the doctor. Not as heavy as I thought, and facing all of my various health issues. Nice to have insurance, finally.
- I <3 my iPod!! Thank you Katie!
- I submitted a short story to 365tomorrows.com. Due to their terms, I will not be able to publish it here yet. I will either publish it here when they reject it or after the publish it.
- Still working on my novel, when I have time and impetus.
- Working on a PVR. It’s waiting for an operating system.
- New clothes! Yeah!
