(Testing the del.icio.us auto-posting feature. Good deal. I think I may have to finally give up my links page, if I can find a way to display the de.icio.us links in category format.)
I looked at the Thing last night, and while I could visualize Jen and I cruising down the highway next spring with the top off, a song playing on the radio, and a bag of beach gear in the back seat, I couldn’t get past the beginnings of rust around the interior of the tub. Overall, it was in really nice shape- the doors (mostly) closed, the outer fenders were in decent shape (and replacements can be had for less than $100) and the interior was intact. One thing that was leaning me towards the VW was the ease of repair on both the engine and the body—I’d be more comfortable taking a cutting torch to the Thing than the Scout, with replacement parts being so cheap. However, common sense prevailed, and again, I thought about the truck in the driveway, all the miles and stories we’ve shared so far, and how she deserves to be rebuilt. So I’m putting $200 into a car cover for the winter and ending the insane search for instant gratification—I’m fully aware that’s what I’m seeking here—in favor of saving the money for a new Fiberglas tub and about ten years of restoration work.
Friday Link Fun: Found last night: the Baltimore County Legacy Website, featuring some excellent pictures of Catonsville, and Jen’s old apartment house, back in The Day. | While doing an image search for a ’69 Mustang (Todd’s mechanic is selling one) I ran across Cars In Barns, a site dedicated to pictures of “that junk heap behind the barn,” which sometimes turns out to be a Shelby Mustang or a SuperBird. Pull up a chair, get out a few hankies, and browse.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
Today I hijacked Nate and drove down to Timonium to look at a 19″ LCD monitor being sold off Craigslist. I should back up and describe our current office setup: We have a four-year-old G4 Mac tower and a 9-year-old Apple 17″ display as our main design system at the house. The monitor is so old that fuses blow when I power it up. It’s bigger than the Jeep and its highest resolution is 1024×768—big stuff for 1995 but unacceptable for today’s work. Plus, the refresh rate is about 4mhz, so it sends Jen into fits of seizure when she has to look at it for more than five minutes. I know I’ve been bellyaching for months about money, but this seemed like a no-brainer for $450. I have it plugged in to the Powerbook, and it’s absolutely beautiful.
Everybody welcome Stellan Heazlett online when you get a chance.
Eulogy. I drove out north yesterday to pick up Jen at Henry’s funeral yesterday, and was able to pay my graveside respects. He was, we agreed, a ‘peculiar’ fellow (I won’t go into the hotpants thing right now) but someone with a huge heart. During his eulogy, the rabbi mentioned that when Henry knew you had a problem, he offered his help without fail, and I’d have to agree with that. While talking about it last night, Jen and I realized that it’s been over a year since we saw him last: moving Jen out of her apartment, we had no way to get two old easy chairs and a couch to the dump. Henry drove up in his pickup and within five minutes had helped us wrestle two of the chairs on his truck, and by the next day had made all three disappear. Shalom, and thanks for the vanishing of the furniture, Hotpants Henry.
Clearing Out the Link Cache. Canon PowerShot strobe information. E-TTL info, or: does my frickin’ flash work? | Digital camera primer. SLR vs. point and shoot. | Replacement APC battery. My APC is dead as a doornail. | IHC lineset ticket codes. Deciphering my Scout’s lineset ticket, made easy. | Single-axle and enclosed trailers. Unfortunately, they are very expensive. | Card sorting for application/site design. Handy, but impractical for my 9-5 gig. | Upgrading an eMac. I have a freelance tech job this weekend. | Cheap iPod replacement battery. Jen’s iPod is still busted. | Finally, an interesting book on productivity, as well as a productivity application. I need all the help I can get.
After an abortive final attempt to set up my own WebDAV server at the house for publishing calendars from iCal, I broke down and gave up. Instead, I’m using iCal Exchange, a free WebDAV service set up to help normal folks like me. Sweet.
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
—Benjamin Franklin
Do we really need to hear any more bullshit? Kerry’s people had better wake up and start hitting back, or this election is already over. (fake Onion humor via metafilter) And I’m embarrassed to say that this dude is from Maryland. I hope Obama stomps him.
ford v-8, frederick, 7.24.04
Album of the Day: Sparta, Porcelain. From the punk ashes of At The Drive-In, this band rises to rock you out. (The iTunes biography calls them emo, but I don’t know where the line between rock and emo is drawn these days.)
Thanks to everybody offering support to my lovely wife during the ’04 Lockard World Hospital Tour; between cards, calls, and online shout-outs, I think she must feel a lot less lonely.
Random Fun Links: Airport Express Tips. In case you have $129 laying around asking to be spent. | Tricks of the Trade from the man known as Defective Yeti. (The butcher tip is fascinating.) | Recycle your old computer. Office Depot and HP are running a free recycling program until early September. Save some environment.
Busy day yesterday; hence the quiet around here. I came into a collection of about 10 gigs of music yesterday, none of it catalogued or tagged, so I’m running it all through a program to re-encode the ID3v2 metadata. which is tedious and annoying. Lots of little time-consuming jobs here at work, plus lots of stuff to do when we’re home. Jen’s Mom is holding steady in a state of suck right now, and her brother is flying in from Savannah to see her tonight. Jen’s with her today, he’ll have tomorrow, and I’m picking up the following day to spell everybody.
Meanwhile there’s lots of news in the world that I’ve peripherally noticed—the EFF won the Grokster case, which is good news; there’s an excellent article in the New Yorker on Bjork—accompanying photos (via kottke), as well as a story about a NYC cheese seller that’s not online; We’re currently reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for a book club, and I happened upon this link to original pictures from Pirsig’s trip. Meanwhile, the Usual bullshit still applies..
In preparation for a CSS overhaul of this humble site, I waded through the HTML code and removed about 5kb of gunk from the style sheets, script includes, and other areas. Consolidating the style sheets has changed around the look a little bit, but overall it’s not much different. I’m heading to the B&N tonight to peek at a couple of books before I buy anything. I also updated the music links on the right with some new tasty stuff. I’ve been playing two tracks over and over: Xtal, by Aphex Twin, and Man Research by Spacemonkeyz vs. Gorillaz.
Baby News. Nate and Kristen had a 6 lb. 4oz. baby boy (name yet to be determined) yesterday at 2:45pm. Mother, baby, and stressed dad are doing well, from what we hear.
Thursday Fun Links. Fish! | Origins of the IMDB. Disclosure: I spend at least 5 minutes each day on that site. Genius! (via metafilter)
dry cleaners, catonsville, 7.28.04 (soon to be demolished)
Things with Jen’s Mom don’t look good. Given that she’s battled back against cancer for 10 years, we’ll wait to see what actually happens, but I’ve been told by all parties this is the worst it’s ever been. Then again, getting a straight answer out of any Lockard besides the one I married is sort of like trying to find water in the desert, so who knows what’s happening.
The List. (The wednesday edition.)
- A New Mattress. (Our current big-people mattress ties Jen’s back into knots. Somewhere around a grand, most likely.)
- A dishwasher. (Because it’s 2004, and contemplating a lifetime of dirty dishes requires gallons of vodka. $300, plus kitchen-wrangling)
- A dehumidifier. (Our basement is possibly the second largest swamp on the east coast besides Florida. $130, give or take.)
- Air Conditioning. (Summer in Maryland is ok. Until August, when it becomes the Ninth Circle Of Hell. $3,000+, depending on the size of the unit.)
- Floor refinishing in the living room. (It would be great to have this done before next summer.)
- Fixing Jen’s iPod. (Somewhere around $70, I think.)
As with everything else, this list is in a state of constant flux. I’ll just keep adding to and amending it as life keeps throwing curveballs at us.
No word on Jen’s Mom yet, but our friends Nate and Kristen are at the hospital right now, hopefully having success with the birth of their first child. So send some love out their way as well.
Check these three articles out sometime—good on-the-ground reporting from the opening days of the War in Iraq. Also, this hilarious dictionary of drinking slang. Favorites: Agent 21, Chimp In Space, Go-tard. Cheers! (via metafilter)
Colossal Waste Of Time. Cyrkam Airtos. (It’ll take a while to load, but it’s worth it.)
Last night I got Retrospect to back up the user directories on the tower at home, which means that roughly 1/10 of our personal data is archived. This successful test is a Good Thing, as I haven’t been very good lately at making sure things are stored in case of catastrophe. The next step is to copy the entire set of data folders, which will (gulp) include our combined music, pictures, and other portly media files. Time to go find a stack of DVD-R’s…