Interesting; I was bitching about Palm Desktop yesterday and found out this morning that Palm released 4.0 of their Mac software. Guess I’m going to try to download it today. We’ll see what happens.
I scanned a copy of my backyard diagram in yesterday and sketched out a first draft of what I’d like to do with it during a staff meeting; I think I have the method by which I’m going to install the poles for the fencing, and how I’m going to do the gate (I’ll probably have to build my own, but that’s no big deal.) I want to run two sets of lights around the perimeter; there will be three or four lights higher than eye level on the sides of the neighbor’s houses around the deck area and one by the rear gate. There will be another set in each flowerbed on another circuit and switch so that they can go on independently of the top lights. The fence will be 6′ or 7′ tall, probably squared across the top, and secured into the wall with lag bolts and masonry anchors. I still need to buy brick for the planters and figure out how to set the flooring—whether or not I need to set them in mortar, brick, or sand is still up in the air.
Then there is the problem of the pergola above the deck and how I’m going to do that; that is another day’s thinking.
I decided, since I’ve thought about this every time I’ve been to Blockbuster, that there are some movies I will pay $15 to own and a bunch that I won’t. So here is a beginning list of future DVD wants/purchases:
- Apocalypse Now Redux
- Toy Story 2
- Alien/Aliens (Director’s Cuts)
- Forest Gump
- Mad Max (with the Australian voice track)
- Apollo 13
- Akira (in English this time)
I’m tired. I did however find a solution to the issue of jumping pages; go to the September log page of last year and find one of the pop screens from the basement project. The old javascript was a hack and would pop you to the top of the page, thereby losing your place. The new javascript pops the mini window and preserves your place on the page.
Spent the majority of the evening doing stuff I wanted to do, like laundry, the dishes, watering the plants, cleaning the couch/living room, and sanding the holes in the ceiling where the rad pipes were. It felt really good to get some of that basic housekeeping work done. Tonight hopefully I’ll be able to get the ceiling finish-sanded and primed for painting the whole room, which is one of the ideas for this weekend. It looks like I might wind up in Laurel for another day this weekend. We’ll see. I got some work done last night, but not as much as I was hoping to. Still, it was great to take a break.
My birthday present from the ladies arrived today: The shelves I’ve been wanting for the living room. Three four-foot shelves in a real pretty honey color; I’m going to put them over the TV in a stepped fashion so that they overlap vertically. Thanks go to Jen, Renie, and Mom. You guys are great!
When i get paid, I’m going to buy myself some new music for my birthday. Here are the selections:
Kruder & Dorfmeister | Air | Benny Goodman | Thievery Corporation | St. Germain
Because this totals somewhere around 5 thousand bucks, I’m going to narrow it down to three or so.
Last night I broke down and put plastic up over the opening on the stairwell skylight. I’ve used plastic before, most notably in the sieve-like windows in my bedroom at 1709 Bolton St., so I know it works pretty well. I installed it, hung the plants from the curtain rods in the front room, and within five minutes it was stretched taut towards the skylight. When I was up there working on it, I could feel the difference in cold air inside the well, so I figure I’ve just closed off a major chimney vent in the house. This is problematic though; I’m wondering what i can do to insulate the well to keep it warm/cold in the summer/winter. Perhaps a plexi panel cut to fit the opening?
I got all the photos, portfolio, the beta backup, and the web tools moved off the USB drive last night; the applications/installers are rearranged between their respective states, and the fonts minus the font CD are still intact. I have to strip the Mac-centric stuff off the Beta backup and burn it to disk as the final copy; what I really need to do is to find some way to archive all my data so that it’s not redundant/lost/overwritten and then keep one copy of each ‘live’. How to do this is still a mystery. I think it will involve buying a low-cost Mac FireWire CD burner sometime towards the end of the year.
Still to do:
1. Compare the final Beta backup to other copies, de-Mac and then burn to CD. Remove from SLANN.
2. Compile serial numbers for all Mac software, consolidate, and store with programs on the USB drive.
3. Compile all PC software and S/N’s, consolidate, and store on a new CD.
4. Figure out some way of storing current backups and archiving old data. Clean up the CD shelf.
The USB Drive will be used for Mac backup duty for things like fonts, programs, and a working System Folder copy.
Slann will hold all the archived client data, pictures, and other ‘working’ files. SLANN will also recieve all personal email and be the ‘sweep’, i.e. clean email off the server.
The PowerBook will hold all current client data, working files, and simply ‘read’ email.
I also need to redesign the billdugan site and update links. Yikes.
I’m thinking the /funny /flashmovie and /application directories will come down altogether.
/basement
/bathroom
/house
/kittens
/posters and
/vistas will all go inside a new directory, maybe titled ‘projects’.
/contact
/design
/downloads
/illustration
/images
/log
/resume and
/scout will remain their own directories. /training will probably live inside /design.
OK, so I did it. It was totally crazy, absolutely insane, and uncalled for, but I did it. I am the high bidder for a 400Mhz PowerBook with a 12 gig drive, firewire, DVD, 64MB of RAM, and the cool black case. I paid a total of $834 with shipping (UPS Ground). Technically I don’t have the money for this, but my thinking is like this: I need a Mac for the house and I need one for work. I wanted another PowerBook. I have 128MB of spare RAM sitting in my toybox for this machine. This machine has everything the new iBooks have plus DVD and a larger screen, and it’s at least $400 cheaper than an iBook outfitted roughly the same. And it’s a fantastic deal. Now I am hoping that it arrives clean and undamaged.
This is a beautiful site; I need to look it over when I have time.
10:32 PM Well, I got a bunch of things done today that I was looking forward to accomplishing. Firstly, the concrete lip in my backyard (a holdover from the days when there was a corrugated steel garage there) is gone; there was about a three-inch ledge which conveniently tripped you as you took the garbage out. It’s now gone, which is step two for beginning work back there. The reason I got it done today is that the back alley is a warzone and the guys working on it will remove the concrete free, which is a big consideration around here (Baltimore City recycling does not accept concrete or brick.)
I’m exhausted, though. I borrowed a 12-lb maul from the contractors and swung that for about 2 hours- that’ll put some muscles on you. I think I’m just drained more than sore. It’s kind of a shocker to get older- I’m not springing back like I was at 25, and no amount of couch time has motivated me to get moving again.
Before the hard labor, though, I got the patch up on the ceiling above the couch and cleaned it up; with a good sanding and coat of paint, there will be no trace of the old ugly track lighting. And there’s drywall around the other ares that have been bugging me as well; we’ll sand them and clean it all up maybe tomorrow night.
Today I was listening to The 2 Tone Collection and wishing I could get up and skank out to the rocksteady beat.
special beat service | the specials | the best of the selecter | more specials
I had written a whole bunch of stuff this afternoon about the weekend, and then my computer hosed and I lost the whole goddamn thing. It’s getting to be a common thread with this journal of mine. Now I’ve decided I’m editing a mirrored copy locally and posting once at the end of the day so that i might maybe have a mirror of what I’m doing. And perhaps if Dreamweaver wasn’t so annoying, and HomeSite had some better upload features (and didn’t crash), I’d use one or the other permanently.
My back hurts pretty bad. I spent the weekend painting Jen’s kitchen and then taking care of her yesterday when she stayed on my couch sick from work. I also put the first coat of paint on the left-hand wall going up the stairs in the hall. It turned out a little dark, but once I cut the edges in I really kind of like it. I’ll see just how dark it makes the place in the evenings and how much light is sucked up in the daylight, but for now it’s pretty good.
I’ve got some Dandy Warhols on the player, with some Ultramagnetic MC’s (thanks Nate) and some old Zeppelin. Good stuff. I was at the Best Buy yesterday (didn’t buy anything) but I saw they had Iron Giant there for $15. I’m gonna buy that DVD when I get paid. No word yet on the PowerBook; I don’t have a tracking number from the eBay site yet, so I sent an email and will hopefully hear back soon.
Todd here at work showed me pics of his 63 Galaxie 500 today-that’s a sweet car. He also told me when the State surplus sale is this weekend, and sent me a link to this site: Sonrisa furniture. Nice stuff, very expensive.
I just lost my entire logfile for January. Thank you, Homesite, for barfing it on the last day of the month. it’s gone.
Here’s a text dump from the 30th.
This morning at 7AM a guy with a handheld masonry saw started cutting the wall in my backyard; by 7:30 a backhoe had pulled the ‘T’ section off and laid it flat in the alley. Sigh. Apparently the people doing the original ‘repair’ on the sewer line fucked it up, so the city is going to bring in the bulkheads, rip up the dirt, and replace the whole sewer line. It’s all fine and good, though, because since they replaced the wall and dug up the concrete in the alley (two months ago), the alley portion of the ‘T’ section was separating from the divider wall.
The developers working on the old Superfresh have started breaking up the concrete in the parking lot too. Hopefully when they put the new condos in, the parking won’t get absolutely insane around my neighborhood.
Mike Tyson has been denied his application for a license to box in Nevada. Will wonders never cease. I figured the upstanding officials in that state were going to roll right over and take it for a cut of the Showtime rights. And the dumb-shit wife of Ken Lay got on the Today show and wept that her family was financially ruined as a result of the Enron disaster. How transparent can you possibly be? She is an idiot and Ken Lay should be stoned in public for being so slimy.
Note to automotive product designers: make the stuff easier to use. I had to bust out the Leatherman and actually saw the windshield wiper off the metal arm to get it off the car. Turns out it was just a small, invisible retainer clip that i had to stab underneath the arm to get it to release. (yeah, you figure it out in 40-degree driving rain, smartass.) Now that it’s replaced with two shiny new Anco blades, I can’t wait for it to rain.
Looking forward to an evening of TV, the cats, and a cold Anchor Steam or two. Seems like Jen and I have been constantly on the move for the past two or three weeks.
I was able to get link lights and working signals from all the ethernet cabling except for the living room; once that’s done tonight I’m going to attempt to move the DSL modem and the Barricade router downstairs and install them permanently. After the holidays I’ll go back to IKEA and buy the little metal cart I want for a server rack, but right now a pair of old homemade speakers will do just fine, thanks.
So, after the holidays, the list looks like this:
Oil change for the Tortoise – $40- Fancy server rack from IKEA – $40
- Save $3,000 for the Wyoming Scout.
- More blank CD’s – $20
CD cases- 1 for Rob and one for me – $20
I think, if I can save up over $1,500 by the end of February, I’ll reward myself with a $200 digital camera.
Home phone line is not working, but my DSL is. I also found out I should have used Cat5 cabling instead of 4-wire copper phone line in my house. Oh well. I think the wiring in my phone line got switched somehow but I’m not sure. I sure am learning a lot about phone wiring though…
more on the Thanksgiving stuff later…I’m tired and I feel like playing a game right now.
Came in this morning and found it hard to get moving; I was up until 1 last night cleaning the house (and I only got the first floor done!) I have to shop for food tonight and probably finish up the upstairs on Wednesday night. I was able to get everything back on the Palm as well; I lost the last two months of stuff or so, but I’ll get back in the habit of sync’ing up the unit now.
I was able also to put in hooks and hang the bikes downstairs, move the speakers around and generally clean up the mess in the basement in order to pull the table away from the wall, open it up and clean out the wall behind it, as well as hang pictures back up in the dining room. Thank Christ, it’s been too long.
Unfortunately, this also illuminates just how badly the whole frickin’ house is crying out to be painted.
On the design front, I found this link today for a fantastic poster printing shop, and another one linked off of that. (via dooce)
This news makes it pretty clear that the salad days of having self-taught design/programming chops are pretty much over. With this “certification”, shops are going to require poor shlebs to have taken some stupid test so that they can get a job.
And, looking at the show list on this site, it occurs to me just how much better music was in 1992.
Speaking of good music, here are a set of albums by a band called Hooverphonic, whose song This Strange Effect was remixed by Thievery Corporation a while back, and which I love.