Wounded TiVo

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One of my TiVos took a hit last night. During an intense thunderstorm, our neighbor's tree lost a limb, which took out the powerline behind our house. After the friendly CFU folks came out and fixed it, we powered everything back up, only to find that the Toshiba TiVo/DVD player in our bedroom stutters during playback and emits an occasional KA-CHUNK noise from the hard drive. My laziness has paid off, however, as I hadn't gotten around to selling my old 60 hour Series 2 TiVo yet, so I was able to swap it back in to service. Tonight, I get to try to coax Toshiba to live up to their warranty, since the unit is only 4 months old. Update: Toshiba turned out to be quite reasonable, and if I ship the wounded TiVo back to them, they're going to send me a brand new one. I can't complain about that, considering their warranty says that after 90 days I'm supposed to pay labor.

Amy Wenger

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Just got word that the best friend of Emily, one of my college girlfriends, was struck and killed by lightning while volunteering at a camp for the disabled yesterday. According to Emily:

"Amy was delivering medications to some campers in a remote part of the camp. It was raining, but not storming at the time. She got out of her truck and the lightning hit her directly. Two counselors saw it happen and tried CPR; they also used the defibrulator at the camp. They took her to the hospital when they couldn't revive her."

How horrible, that's the kind of thing that makes even religious people question the notion of a just and fair God. Emily said that Amy had just finished her Master's degree in May, and had just e-mailed a few days ago, excited about moving to Virginia to start a new job. My condolences to her friends and family. :(

Fleetwood Mac

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I spent much of yesterday helping Fleetwood Mac get hooked up to our network here at the University. They had 80(!) computers with them, which needed to be attached to our network, without exposing us to unecessary risk. It wound up being a major pain in the butt, since we were only given about 18 hours notice that this was going to occur, but we got it straightened out, and the geek/drummer that I was working with even got me into the show for free.

Happy Birthday to me

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Today is my 28th birthday. I got some good presents, a new 35mm SLR camera from my parents, and a fishin' pole. I got some new speakers from my grandfather, as well as a copy of Clinton's new book. I got a polarizer for my new camera from my sister, and of course the iSight from my wife. For myself, I bought a new lawn mower, as my old electric mower simply wasn't up to the task anymore. My new 7 horsepower mower has more than enough oomph to tackle our lawn, and mowing the lawn will no longer be an all-day event.

Maren

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Maren Smith, step-sister of one of my best friends, JD. Shaffer, and sister of one of my good friends, Josh Smith, died late Friday night of cancer. She was a year younger than JD. and me, and left behind two boys, ages 3 and 7. Maren had Neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition which causes numerous tumors, though they're usually benign. She underwent chemotherapy, and numerous surgeries in an attempt to stop the cancer, even enduring the amputation of one of her legs, and a portion of her pelvis, but it simply spread too fast to be contained. As I was looking up the obituary information today in the Mason City paper, I noticed that there were several others listed who'd died of cancer, but they were all in their 70s or 80s, not 27.

MAREN K. SMITH

MASON CITY — Maren K. Smith, 27, of 88 Country Circle, died Friday (June 11, 2004) at the Muse Norris Hospice Inpatient Unit.

Funeral services will be held 1 p.m. Wednesday at Trinity Lutheran Church, 213 N. Pennsylvania Avenue, with the Rev. James M. Magelssen officiating. Interment will be in Memorial Park Cemetery.

Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Major Erickson Funeral Home, 111 N. Pennsylvania Avenue, and continue one hour before services at the church.

Memorials may be given to the Maren K. Smith Memorial Fund.

Maren was born August 26, 1976, in Galesburg, Ill., the daughter of Douglas and Kathryn L. (Hanson) Smith. She graduated from Mason City High School in 1995.

Maren worked for APEC and Ron Weber & Associates for five years. She received her degree from North Iowa Area Community College in 2003 and was currently employed by Principal Financial.

In August of 2003 Maren was diagnosed with cancer. Her two children, DeArzae and Autry, inspired her, giving her the strength and courage to battle her cancer. She was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church.

Maren is survived by her two children, DeArzae Smith and Autry Allen of Mason City; mother, Kathryn L. Shaffer and husband, Larry, of Ventura; father, Douglas Smith, and wife, Mary, of Madison, Wis,; brother, Joshua C. Smith of Minneapolis, Minn.; grandmothers, Lorene A. Hanson of Mason City and Margie Smith of Santa Rosa, Calif.; step-brother, J D. Shaffer of Minneapolis, Minn,; step-sister, Jennifer Fasnacht and husband, Stephen, of Monticello; many aunts, uncles and cousins.

Maren’s sister, Kristin L. Smith; uncle, Philip Hanson; grandfathers, the Rev. Lavern R. Hanson, Loren Smith and uncle, Dean Smith precede her in death.

Major Erickson Funeral Home & Crematory, (641) 423-0924.

Rate My Professors

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I'm glad that I'm not a professor, as i stumbled across RateMyProfessors.com today, a site that lets students post their comments about faculty. Reading through them was interesting, since these are people that I actually work with, though it's somewhat hard for me to judge the accuracy, since I haven't actually taken a class from most of them. A few of them were spot-on though, as far as what I've discerned of their personalities. I'm glad there's not a Rate My Sysadmins site. :)