I just opened up my $1200 camera, unsoldered a faulty shutter switch, and resoldered a replacement part.  And it works perfectly! No more pesky shutter lag!

Check these photos out:

Protip: In order to keep track of your screws, write down a grid of letters from a-z (skip ‘i’ and ‘o’ so you don’t confuse them with ’1′ and ’0′), and scotch tape your screws down to each letter as you go.  Then, you wont knock them off the table, and you’ll know exactly which screw is which.

I made my decision just in time to get the stone set and the ring sized before I left that day. I picked up the ring, signed away a lot of money, and drove back to Cupertino to meet Athena.

Having received her Dad’s blessing that morning (at 6:45 am, no less – they were travelling), and having purchased the ring, I was going to get down on one knee and do the traditional proposal (even though I had already asked her and she said yes). But, she wouldn’t let me.

So I just sat next to her, opened the box, and asked her to marry me.

Again, she said yes.

Here’s what was in the box:

• The Engagement Ring »

Working out didn’t go terribly well nor terribly poorly, and I was off thinking today was going to be downright unremarkable.

Then I got home. Checked my email: 2 unread messages.

The first, a terse yet friendly response from Bruce Schneier, the godfather of cryptography himself, to an email I sent him yesterday.

The second, a more friendly, less terse note from the producer of Coverville.com, the most well-respected blog/podcast about cover songs on these here ‘tubes, about our Caffe Trieste show!

Yea, today is making a u-turn and getting in the fast lane of kick-ass highway.

Enjoy!

1. Intro
2. Angel from Montgomery (John Prine)
3. #41 (Dave Matthews Band)
4. The Maker (Daniel Lanois)
5. Interlude
6. Steal my Kisses (Ben Harper)
7. Bartender (Dave Matthews Band)
8. First Day of My Life (Bright Eyes)
9. Flake (Jack Johnson)
10. Long Black Veil (Danny Dill)
11. Jam
12. Ma Vie en Rose (Ryan Du Bois)
13. All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan)

Or, grab the whole show in a zip file full of mp3s: Live at Caffe Trieste (Full Show).

DiskWarrior shows no love, either:

DiskWarrior App: Unknown disk: ‘disk3s3′, sectors: 116948022, size: 512, type: ”
DiskWarrior App: Rebuilding disk device: disk3s3
DiskWarrior App: disk3s3 Extents, Catalog and Attributes tree sizes total 454.19 MB.
DiskWarrior App: disk3s3: Bad (slow) blocks appearing in range 101896 to 102151, unless disk was asleep and delay was due to spin-up. (-1835501)

Why did this have to happen *before* I got that show off my disk…

[EDIT: DiskWarrior brought the love - The index is repaired, with only 1 file damaged. First order of business - copying that show off.]

[EDIT 2: DiskWarrior can't repair the disk, but I can build me a "preview disk." I used this preview disk to get everything that I didn't backup last week off the drive. All seems to be okay with the recording, thank god...]

[EDIT 3: Trying to even do a second repair left me toasted..

DiskWarrior App: disk3s3: Bad (slow) blocks appearing in range 1270352 to 1270607, unless disk was asleep and delay was due to spin-up. (-1835311)
DiskWarrior App: disk3s3: Bad (slow) blocks appearing in range 1270608 to 1270863, unless disk was asleep and delay was due to spin-up. (-1835274)
DiskWarrior App: disk3s3: Bad (slow) blocks appearing in range 1271120 to 1271375, unless disk was asleep and delay was due to spin-up. (-1835206)
DiskWarrior App: disk3s3: Bad (slow) blocks appearing in range 1271888 to 1272143, unless disk was asleep and delay was due to spin-up. (-1834781)

This disk appears to be dead.
]

It is currently scheduled for Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 7-8:30pm.

Stay tuned for updates!

Here’s the quote (with a mis-spelled[1] last name and all):

Ryan DuBois at The Daily Dub gives us a brief overview of HeLa cervical cancer cells and their 1991 designation as their own species, Helacyton gartleri. He uses this as a recent, obvservable example of evolution in action.

Here’s the set list (click on each, and listen to the track):
1. Angel From Montgomery – John Prine
2. #41 – Dave Matthews Band
3. Steal My Kisses – Ben Harper
4. Flake – Jack Johnson (rough take)
5. Bartender – Dave Matthews Band
6. All Along the Watchtower – Bob Dylan
7. Melt My Heart – The Ryan’s (Original)

Alternatively, feel free to download the whole set at once with this link: Dec 06, 2007: Jam Session.

This has easily been the worst thanksgiving vacation of my life.

I’m currently driving home after having been thrown out of my mom’s place.