Today I took advantage of my day off not by lounging around the house in my PJ’s, but by continuing the incremental gains made on both the Pink and Blue rooms. All the relevant kickplates are in, and aside from one patch of drywall in a closet, all problem areas have been mudded and sanded at least once. My good friend Robby stopped by to pick my brain about Apple laptops, and I convinced him that a refurbished Powerbook was better for his needs than a new iBook. Which he ordered today, making me extremely jealous. Another Rob stopped by to drop off our DVD-ROM drive and offer his PDF services with the invitation, which we may need to take him up on. Jen worked a full day and made it home late after hitting the gym, where she has an appointment with her training advisor this Friday. We sat on the couch and enjoyed the improved feng shui of the living room—yesterday I moved the couch and recentered the ‘sitting’ side, which makes the whole thing work much better.
Saturday night I stayed up way too late to watch one of my favorite movies of all time: The Right Stuff. You can’t get much better than a great movie based on a great book by one of my favorite authors, starring some of my favorite actors. And let’s thank God for the TCM network and its decision to broadcast good movies without commercial interruption, bleeping, or bad dubbing (e.g. “Forget You!” in place of the F-bomb.) Heck, you can even see boobies on a good night of the week, if you’re lucky. And that’s what I say: More boobies and more F-bombs on cable channels.
Geek-Out. Last night, while Jen sat on the couch and IM’ed her sisters attempting to come to some kind of consensus on bridesmaids’ dresses (which was about as sucessful as recent attempts for peace in the Middle East), I went through iTunes on my laptop and erased about 3/4 of my local music library. My Pismo has been getting slower and slower over the last few months, and while I fully understand that I’m using a four-year-old laptop, I’ve really noticed it slowing down using Photoshop 6 in Classic, which used to run like greased lightning. Anytime I get ahead of the user interface by a second or more, I get extremely frustrated, because often times my thought processes are two or three steps ahead of what I’m currently doing and it’s annoying to have to wait for the computer to complete some stupid task like making a button change color. (This would be the reason I have a copy of PS 7 for OSX and don’t use it.) Today I’ll be cleaning off some more gunk from the drive to free up some swap space and see if things improve. And thanks to Jason for the maintenance suggestion.
God damn it, people, secure your frigging computers. (or: God damn it, Microsoft, get your heads out of your asses.)
I had some time to kill today, and started thinking about home automation, and looking at programs and systems that support the X-10 interface. (No, it’s not the X-10 camera people you love to hate.) These guys have a program for OS9 which allows you to control as many outlets in your house as you can afford to install. There are also OSX native versions from different vendors which all require further investigation. It would be great to have the server turn the lights upstairs on and off based on the time and date, or alert me if there’s an intruder…
And, on a somewhat related note: for all those that share my annoyance at over-complicated electronics, CNN did a story about it.
Yesterday I enjoyed a snow day from work, which brought back memories of Star Blazers, Legos and grilled cheese sandwiches in second grade. Instead of regressing to age eight (I don’t own feety pajamas anymore) I packed Jen off to work, answered some email, and then looked over the linen closet in the hall with a fresh cup of coffee. Over the years it’s been hacked apart for access to the tub plumbing, new shelves have been jury-rigged, and the floorboards were cut open. I’ve been wanting to get inside and start rehabbing it for a while now, and because I’ve got the shared wall opened up in the blue room, the time was right.
I started by pulling the shelves down and the trimwork out, then began to scrape the ancient wallpaper the old-fashioned way—hot water and elbow grease. Once the walls were clear, I started a wire run from one side to the other (the door opens from left to right, and we decided to have a light switch on the left inside wall). By dinnertime, I had wire installed from the inside of the Blue room (the linen closet will share the same circuit) up the wall, over the doorframe, and down the left wall to the switchbox. There’s a ton of stuff to be accomplished before it’s done, but having a light in there will be a great start.
Your Mailbox is Full. Based on the amount of bullshit email I got this morning, this stupid new worm is making the rounds. If you emailed me in the last 24 hours and haven’t heard anything from me, assume I mistakenly deleted your email with all the emails titled “Mail Delivery System” and “Test”. Apparently the purpose of the worm is to DDoS the SCO corporation, which is kind of funny, but still annoying. I’m glad I run OSX.
Random Fun Links. Excellent reading from Edmunds.com about Car Salesmen. Given the dilapidated condition of the Taurus, I’m sure this will come in handy.
Jen, in her loving, special way, decided she would try to make me some meatloaf this week. (Actually, she has been planning to bring the cow for about a week now, but took sick last Thursday.) She looked at Martha’s site and found a recipe that sounded good and looked easy. Now, let me just clarify here: She hates meatloaf. As with tacos, eggs, ham, water, and practically any other recipe, her mother has burned, undercooked, or otherwise wrung the enjoyment out of meatloaf for her to this very day. So it was with a sense of destiny and great foreboding that she mixed the ingredients and placed it in the oven. I got home, gave her a kiss, and told her that it smelled really good (it did); we waited for the required hour, and pulled it out.
It was not done. It was still pretty loose; it smelled good but had a gooshy texture, so we upped the temperature and put it back in. And we waited.
45 minutes later, the top was black, but the insides still fell apart like loose ground beef. it did not look like the example in the picture. I tried to console Jen, telling her it was because the recipe was bad, and I think she agreed with me, but she has vowed to never make meatloaf again.
Which, upon reflection, isn’t really a bad thing anyway.
Call Me. Looks like AT&T Wireless is putting itself on the block for sale. Considering Jen and I both have AT&T as our cell carriers, it should be interesting to see who buys them and what happens after that. I’m still trying to find the time to research other cell plans and decide who to go with.
Random Fun Links. Yesterday I updated both the Pink and the Blue room pages with some boring shots of wiring.
Dan, our underpaid and under appreciated IT god around here, just hooked up a new HP network printer that my Mac can see. Apparently the old one was networked but you had to open a port to it or some such bullshit, and it wasn’t PostScript, so it was worthless and invisible to Rendezvous.
In other news, I got the rest of the plaster and lathe down in the Pink room last night and began the process of drilling through the studs to start fishing wire. In some cases there are some roadblocks—the closet corner is framed in such a way that I don’t have clearance for a shovelhead drillbit, or even the drill, so I’m going to have to get jiggy with it. The area in the front corner behind the radiator is the main trouble spot though, because the kickplate still won’t come out. There’s not enough room to maneuver behind it, plus I can’t get at the nails that hold it in place. I am, however, in love with my loaner Sawzall. I’ve forgotten just how much fun a 12 amp motor connected to a 4″ metal blade can be. It reminds me of the remarkably un-PC Joe Piscopo line from Johnny Dangerously, the one where he holds up the 88 Magnum: “It shoots through schools.”
I should also give a shout-out to my pops (not to be confused with my peeps) for the super-science laser level he gave me for Christmas. I put some batteries in this thing and turned it on the other night, and it immediately pointed out the fact that the house is out of level in five dimensions, at which time it radioed Sears Central and called in backup from the Craftsman Emergency Response Team. I’m going to need a degree in geometry to square out my house, and this thing will make life much easier. Plus, the included red-lens glasses make me look like Devo when I wear them. Thanks, Dad.
Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Consumer Goods. Tuesday I broke down and bought a present for our 8-year-old IKEA Varnamo couch (the one they don’t sell anymore). Over the years this poor couch has been slept, dripped, stood, scratched, snoozed, fought, laughed, cried, played, drank, eaten, and jumped on; it’s really showing its age at this point. With $200 I don’t really have to spend, I got a Pottery Barn slipcover on clearance, which will be great news for our friends who are allergic to the five square feet of cat fur embedded in the upholstery.
Random Link Fun. Here’s an interesting site on the Curta hand calculator, sort of a mechanical adding machine. (via Slashdot). An Awesome illustration site. (via Boing Boing). And finally an Awesome poster site. Cheap, too. (via Coudal).
This morning Jen and I stumbled around the house trying to get ready for work, still stuck in the lazy patterns of vacation established at my sister’s house, where we got used to rising after 9:30, sipping coffee until noon and then venturing out into the freakishly warm upstate New York weather. (Really—60 degrees in January up there is a bit like snow in Jamaica. There are whole regions of Siberia that are warmer in the wintertime.) Five cats who had grown accustomed to having our house to themselves dodged between feet while I attempted to make two cups of coffee out of half a tablespoon of beans. Jen was out the door early to tackle a big project at work, leaving me squinting at the latest BG&E bill while listening to the weatherdork predict a week of sub-freezing nightly temperatures. Oh, and the county decided to re-assess our property—for an extra hundred thousand dollars.
I broke down and bought an iTrip for the iPod before we left (the rental only had a CD player) and I have good news to report. With the exception of changing stations, the unit worked flawlessly. We were even able to transmit Motown to Renie’s stereo receiver during dinner on Friday night.
The macro lens for the G3 works exceptionally well; I may break down later on and buy the fisheye lens for it now that I have the adapter ring, but for the time being this one will capture my attention and hold it.
Jen and I have a few rituals in our new house together. Some of them date back to our pre-cohabitation days, and some of them are new. One of the oldest ones we have is Sushi Day, where we drive to our favorite sushi restaurant (which happens to be just over the river and through the woods in Ellicott City) and get the same basic stuff each time: two cups of miso soup, one order of edamame, the spicy tuna roll, the spicy california roll, and the Japanese lasagna (supplanting the kabuki roll, which was a little large for one bite, and made you look like Godzilla eating a passenger train.) Jen had a crappy day at work yesterday so we braved the pea-soup fog, got our sushi and two six-packs, nestled up to some Queer Eye, and enjoyed the feast. This morning, though, my head still kinda hurts.
Muha-hah-hah-hah Dept. I just got, in a morning of pure serendipity, two presents for Jen accomplished with little or no fuss (knock on wood.) I don’t think she’s going to see these coming, but they’re good’uns. (Hi, Jen!)
This Is Funny. 8:45AM – I’m sitting out in front of a client’s office on North Charles Street and surfing the web via somebody else’s unsecured WiFi hotspot. pretty good connectivity, too. Let that be a lesson to you—lock your hotspots down, people.
Now, who wouldn’t want to buy and live in a surplus 727 jet airliner? In Smyrna Tennessee, no less?
Whoops. Over the last few months, I’ve been enjoying the proximity and collection of the Catonsville Library. It’s right down the street, it’s well lighted, well staffed, and well stocked with current titles. In addition to the books, there’s a large DVD and CD collection available, and I’ve been, uh, sampling the CD collection quite often. Each CD is enclosed with a big plastic anti-theft clip which you have to have the librarians remove for you. As with any well-worn book, some of the CD’s are in less-than-perfect shape, and often the jewelboxes are pretty beat up. Sometimes you have to make an educated guess as to what title is actually inside the case. Why and I telling you this? Please look at the diagram below and try to understand why I would actually check out a Barbra Streisand CD from the library, thinking it was Bob Dylan.
Goodbye, Old Friends. About a year ago, I made a rule about buying any new computer hardware for the house: I wasn’t going to support any Mac with a SCSI hard drive, ADB ports, or lacking at least a USB port. With the recent influx of iMacs in our house, I’ve been looking at the old 8500 on the porch and thinking that it needs to be donated, and I also still have the 7100 here at the office with no purpose in mind. Today I’m going to archive the contents of each, wipe the drives, and get them ready to donate.
Among other things we’re trying to get rid of, there are thirty bags of leaves out at the curb this morning that to be taken by the County before the snow hits us this evening. Also, our good buddy Dave is bringing Clifford the Big Red Truck by this saturday to haul the carpeting, plaster, wood and other debris from the garage so that i can pull the wall/door off the front and back the Scout inside. That’ll be a large weight off my shoulders, because she’s doing nothing but rusting in the driveway right now.
Hello Again. This spring I was lucky enough to travel to Bimini and dive on the reefs for seven days, courtesy of my employer. One of the guys that accompanied us on the trip was Craig, who is an outside consultant to the company and an experienced diver. I spent a lot of time underwater attempting to adjust my buoyancy, regulate my breathing, maintain a constant depth, and work the camera, under his watchful eye. (while I was floundering around with all of that crap, he was quietly hovering off to the side, effortlessly keeping his depth with controlled breathing, making sure we were all OK.) At dinner he quietly taught us diving skills we hadn’t learned in our classes, and helped to keep us focused on what we were doing.
One day we were returning from our mooring point and heading back into the wind on the dive boat, which was an open-deck cruiser. I had turned my hat around to keep it on my head, but a stray gust of wind blew it off my hat and into the water. (Now, anybody that knows me has seen my battered Syracuse Orangemen hat at one point or another; it’s been with me since my early college years and remains the only hat that correctly fits my big melon. I’m kind of attached to it.) Craig, without thinking, had our divemaster turn the boat back around, and before I could do it myself, dove in after it, yelling “WILSON!”
He stopped in the office this morning, and I only had a chance to say hello, but it was great to see him.
Technology, Part 2. The original 10GB drive in the red iMac is bollixed up pretty good; it’s making a horrendous ratcheting noise upon reboot and then dropping off the IDE chain altogether. I switched the drive with a pull from the first iMac and it booted fine, so that’ll stay in there. I’ll say this much: the original Rev A-B iMac’s case was a lot easier to crack than the Rev C’s.