So, you have to assign a hostname to a machine. This is, for me, is often the hardest part of the install process. It must fit with the theme for the network. My network uses villains. Locutis (from Locutus which was the name of the Borg that Picard became in Star Trek: TNG), Kahn (The historical one, not the Star Trek one), Claudius (Hamlet's punk-ass uncle), Calvin (From the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card), Salome (asked for the beheading of John the Baptist), and Medea (killed her kids).
So I had to find a good choice. When you need advice on choosing a villain name, where better to ask than on #wordpress on IRC. Blogging software support is definately a good place for that sort of thing. (Much like getting Linux advice from #u2 or #chicago, and cooking suggestions from the Linux Users Group channel) Don't ask me why it works that way, it just does.
And the winning suggestion (from monkinetic by way of skippy_ and with an assist by dougal) is Grendel.

Turns out I need to learn to label CD's when I burn them. I was using Disk 2... I had to go hunt down Disk 1, which was in my laptop... which doesn't work so good.

So... I'm installing Debian on a machine I just got. I'll document the whole deal here.
First, the machine is a Pentium 2, 350mz, with 64M of RAM.
I used Knoppix to get some details on the machine before I began, mostly just running

lspci

to see what video and ethernet chipsets were installed.
Next I'm using a disk image from LinuxISO.org to do the actual install.
I'll be using the instructions from The Very Verbose Debian 3.0 Installation Walkthrough to guide me. Why? because it's worked for me before.
Here goes.

TBWITWW rented Lost in Translation last night. Wow. I was very dissapointed. It was like watching someone else's real life. As we all know, real life just isn't that exciting most of the time. You spend a lot of time sitting around doing things that are of no interest whatsoever to people outside of your life. This movie captured that perfectly. The characters were realistic and believable, but in the hour and a half of the movie there were about 5 minutes that were interesting enough to make me feel like it was worth giving up part of my life to watch theirs. The actors played their parts with sincerity and honesty, and with a more interesting movie, they would have been amazing.
In all honesty I hoped for so much more, something to make me think a lot more than I did, something that would bring a smile to my face perhaps, but in the end, I was left unfulfilled.
If you're thinking of renting Lost in Translation, do yourself a favor and rent Punch-Drunk Love instead.
3 of 10.

So, here's how it works... I pick someone I know and ask them questions derived from an interview with a celebrity. Today's interview subject is my brother. The interview questions came from an interview with Chris Rock. In this case I let my brother pick the celebrity, but didn't explain how it worked. He picks the celebrity for the next victim subject.

Me: Who makes you laugh?Brother: Chris RockM: anyone else?B: Samuel L Jackson
I don't like white peopleM: Why not?B: bathing habits, lack of rythym... dancing
that kind of thingM: You don't like bathing habits?B: I don't like white people
their bathing habbits are one reasonM: What would an action figure of you look like?B: of me?M: yeah.B: he'd look like a big guy in a white cheerleader outfit with shiny silver and purple stripes and he'd have a hot sidekick in a skirtM: What would you do if you woke up one morning with the body of a 60-year-old white man?B: like... I was in it? or laying next to me?M: Um... you were in it?B: well if it was after october 20 2041 and before October 20 2044, I'd be ok with that... if was after october 20 2044, I'd be pretty happy. If it were tomorrow, I'd probably shit my inconenent self and go yell at small children and their parentsM: and if you were next to it?B: oh yeah and as an addendum to the "who makes you laugh" I thought of a white guy... Family guy... they're all white
whole show is frikkin great
so is Aqua Teen Hunger Force but they're not even human
if I were next to the body of a 60 year old man, I'd freak the hell out- probably shit myself and then go find out what the hell I ingested the previous night
and look through his walletM: Do you believe in reincarnation?B: nope
not reallyM: If you had to come back as something what ould you wnat to be?B: a house cat... a big one like Chubby
or me but with better foresightM: Why a house cat?B: eat, sleep, play, run the world with a flick of my tail and get adored for itM: Where's the strangest place you've ever woken up?B: added to their ability to be completely adorable while doing the most despicable things on earth
strangest place I've ever awakened..... ummmm... under the bleachers at the Cornell GymM: I want to know what your take is on the controversy with Eminem. Is it a white thing, a black thing, a rap thing, or a First Amendment thing?B: there's a controversy with Eminem?M: Hey, I ask the questions here.B: wasn't aware there was a new oneM: Who said anything about a new one?B: oh just his ongoing thingM: sureB: Eminem is a bit of an enigma. I think the controversy is essentially over the prudishness of society as a whole. We don't like things being flung in our faces. Eminem loves to fling things in our faces, whether it's race, sexuality, violence, or just slapstick comedy. I can't claim to know as I've never sat down and talked with him but it seems that he has a great deal of respect for minorities and his constant stereotyping thereof is essentially a foil- showing us our prejudices and our fears by dancing on our taboos. to say fag, bitch, and fuck so freely is to say that these words only have power because we are afraid of them.M: Okay, last question. Pick a celebrity for the next interview.B: Brad PittM: Thanks

So when it comes time for the next interview I'll run a Google search on "Brad Pitt Interview" and use the questions from whatever I find there as the basis for the next interview. Should be fun.

TBWITWW had a appointment with the Midwife today. She's pregnant! So, the saga begins.

See the rest on the baby page.

"So buying a 'Japanese' automobile is Unamerican?"
When I worked for a summer in Michigan about 7 years ago. I got some crap because I drove a Japanese car. When we were shopping for that car, I remember my father looking through the owner's manual of a Chevy and seeing that the car was assembled in Mexico. Now, my mother works at an auto plant in the middle of Illinois. They make Mitsubishis. What's an American car anyway?
What is American anyway? Origination? If that's the case, there are almost no "Americans" and there are few, if any products that are made entirely of materials that originated in the US. Especially if you include the origination of the technology and machinery used in their manufacture. Even the truck that broght them to the store where you bought them was probably deisel powered. That was invented by a French Citizen educated in Germany. We sure as hell didn't come up with the ideas of Democracy, Liberty, Freedom or any of that sort of thing. So, origination doesn't define "American."
Maybe it's completion. Assembled in USA? Does that make a product American? Born in the USA? Does that make a person American? If that's the case, George Washington was not an American, Ben Franklin was not an American. That Chevy shure as hell wasn't American. What about Albert Einstein?
What makes something American? And does it matter? Is it better to buy from an "American" company like Nike that sells a large quantity of products made over-seas? or from a "foreign" company like Mitsubishi or Honda which hires hundreds of American workers in places like Ohio and Illinois?
Back to Michigan. When I worked there, the theater I was at was a Union House. I was an intern. That meant I got all the crappy jobs. It also meant I worked 12-16 hour days pretty much every day. There were many days when I'd be working for my $250 a week next to someone with the same skill set who was getting double-time union pay. I'm not against unions. I've been a member of a union in the past, and there's a good chance that I will be again. The same union that these people were in. But people take things too far some times. One day, while I was taking a break, I picked up a newspaper that was lying on a chair near me and glanced through it. One of the people I worked with proceeded to chastise me because this particular paper had not sided with the union in a recent dispute at one of the Auto Plants in Detroit.
This is, to me, the definition of "Un-American". To attempt to silence an opinion because it differs from yours.
That's it.
Right or wrong, every opinion has the right to be heard. Many opinions should be quickly and thouroughly rebutted and shown to be wrong, but they still have the right to be heard. I'm not just talking about the cliche comments about "I hate what you say, but I'll fight to the death to defend your right to say it." when applied to things like Nazism or Racism. But what about when applied to such offensive things like Christianity? People have made a huge issue of displaying the 10 commandments in public places. I don't understand this. What is even remotely offensive about the 10 commandments? Don't kill, don't lie, stay true to your beliefs, and don't be a dick to other people. That pretty much sums it up.
If you are worried about American or Un-American, you're probably being pretty Un-American yourself. Go about your life and do what you can to make the world (and thereby America) a little better. That's as American as it gets.