I am going to eat salvation.

Progress

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:20:37 GMT

So, yesterday ended the 11 day move. This sounds like a huge undertaking, but it was mostly 10 days of carloads, with 1 day of "ok, Kieth, Peter and Heather got this" truck mania big stuff run. I remain amused at Bryan's 'they don't talk- they move like one mind, wtf' moment :)
The hard part of the move was going thru all my stuff, disassembling, packing safely, and deciding what really wasn't needed anymore. On a high point, I don't accumulate that much useless crap- so I only maybe threw out 55 gallons of stuff- mostly old paperwork and magazines. I'm very glad I dusted as I packed, or this place would be a danger zone. This coming week will be setup, which is comparatively a minor undertaking. I expect I'll have a wall of shelves.

The new place is exactly what I needed. SO airy, so much daylight, brightness, quiet. I continually wake up at 6am to the brightness, check my phone, and go back to bed for several more hours. Normally, waking up to a bright room means I've horribly overslept. I've begun dreaming again- wildly vivid dreams, and the majority of which involve people I know- which isn't typically the case for me. I've a feeling my brain is sorting nearly a decade of diminished existence- as I've been living without direct sunlight for a majority of it. This explains my hermitage and 'cranky old man' bits. I've also missed ceiling fans in airy spaces. Who needs air conditioning.

I've also been existing on the net the last week entirely via netbook. I still think I'll build my research mania desktops, but I think I'll pare down otherwise to one machine for gaming(when I can be bothered to build it) and a file server box. Living light has been nice. I plan, as I setup what I've moved, to see what all else I can eliminate. I came out here with a 4'x4'x4' pallet of things, bought a bed and a desk, and crammed that all into a 6'x9' room for 3 years. then I got the uberroom, 15'x22', and decompressed all the stuff, added a couch, mini fridge and a second desk, and filled that room... I'll enjoy packing everything into nice neatness again.

I'll also enjoy when my body's done with it's revolt. I've lost 3 inches from the move, pissed off my legs and back something fierce, and am now working to loosen my locked neck through shoulder blades up. There shall be a hot tub in my near future. I'll show off my rocking t-shirt tan of doom.

Sun, 24 May 2009 09:34:17 GMT

I think I've had a dozen orgasms the past hour alone...

Republic of Dunces

Sat, 16 May 2009 01:27:14 GMT

I'm increasingly at a loss as to how sheer stupidity has become a currency. I've been noticing it in a specific age range as well (17-24 yr olds).
Let me start off with a HUGE caveat. I'm by no... ok, any means an angel- I've gotten away with more shit than any 5 people I know put together. I'm not proud of most of it all, but have no issue recalling the events, as they tend to make for amusing memories. That, and the past is the past- I can't change it. The key thing to all of it though is that I never got caught. And if I HAD, I wouldn't be giddy about it, telling the details of my idiocy to others, like it makes me hot shit.

Today's example:
Two 18ish yr olds get on bus behind me, and the one starts going on about exploits. Things that come to light:
it's easy to steal from grocery stores (this we knew)
he then details his five favorite things TO take.
from which store.
mentions he's on parole- for another month.
but is still shoplifting like mad.
Goes on to tell about how he took a 24pack of Coors from the display in front of store, tossed like 6 of the cans into his backpack on way back to car, goes to public park during daylight, and sits there with a friend drinking them, when he's surprised a cop rolls up on him. They bolt, and he gets away. All while still on parole.
He then details how his parents are paying for his place down by the Chevron, by RTC, and it costs a grand- but he doesn't care- he doesn't pay. But notes that he doesn't have a computer there because his parents don't think he's responsible.

A few months ago, there was a girl relating how she was on parole for 5 years, because she got a DUI at 16. Why 5 years? She hit a PARKED cop car at 30 mph. Didn't realize it, and kept going. Went on about how it sucked, and was a bullshit rap, etc etc... and how she would only smoke the day or two after her drugtests, so she wouldn't get caught.

There's dozens of other examples I can't recall, because I wipe this crap from my brain a few hours after I witness it. Juggalos are bad enough... but seriously... stupid as currency???

bay of pigs invasion.

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:37:10 GMT

Billy Joel's 'We Didnt Start The Fire" is juuust about 20 yrs old now.
lots of new things could be added, if a few new verses were to be added to it.
What newsworthy things should be included, were this to happen.
(covering 1989-2009, that is)

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:58:27 GMT

I'm looking to make some x/y scanners for various uses. the initial one only needs to be able to scan a 4x3 area past 60hz. let's go with...8'x6' at 10 feet. the second I want to interface from a laptop, and write text/imagery.
anyone made one before?

Allergens.

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 05:04:44 GMT

From my 2003 post:
I'm mildly allergic to cats n dogs- moreso to ragweed (knew all that) and deathly deathly so (he was impressed by my histamine blister power action skills) in regards to alder, birch, then more or less normal reactions to hazelnut, maple, oak, and willow pollens. bluegrass italian rye and timothy too (timmay!!)
weed pollen I knew I was hit or miss on, but was surprised with rabbit and mites. mites not so much so, but how I survived childhood with a dozen rabbits is a mystery now.

I've described the allergy test to dozens of people since then... but the short of it is:
http://www.healthjockey.com/images/allergy-test.jpg
That's a normal reaction to allergens- about dime sized reactions.
My reaction, to alder and birch?
Filled the gap between 2 in this image (aka, upper edge of dog to lower edge of grass, in one big ol' circle.) (we only did 2 rows of 10 per arm, so nothing touched.)

This, is why I die out here, become a danger from the meds, and need to leave.
And I will, though many doubt it and a few don't want it.

Change is good.

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:29:10 GMT

Sometime in the next few months, I will be moving to yet another domicile in the Seattle area. Don't ask where, we haven't picked a place yet. Tom's moving back to the region after 2.5 years, as he's gone blue, and will be bringing the familia Canadia down with a few months later once ze papers have cleared. So sometime around July/August, I'll be residing in new digs- the current plan is for me and Bryan to just get a kosher 2br together. Something with a pool would be nice.

Initially I was annoyed at having to move now, as the original goal was to move out of state by year's end. But with money things how they are all over, and my contract being extended til March, I'll likely ride it out that far, and have alot more to move with in the process. The more I save, the greater the options. And I'm a fan of options, especially when they make my life easier.

I've been thinking about it the past few days, and have realized that moving now WILL be a good thing for me. I've gotten so complacent here, running the roost, not having to do much aside from cleanup after the slackers, collect the monies, and make a bank trip monthly. I've been in this one house for 6 years now. I'll miss the garage space, and the workspace, but that'll just force me to work on smaller format work, like I used to, and miss dearly. I'll have to rework all my workspaces, to fit a far small environment- and with it now being two of us sharing spaces, and both of us hating now dull our individual spaces are now, we'll actually get around to some decorating, instead of all the hodge podge amalgam that this house is, courtesy of craigslist.

Here's to good times, and depackratting in the extreme.

Things that are currently making me happy.

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:18:50 GMT

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:07:48 GMT

I'm going mildly stir crazy being sick more than a day and missing days of work, right after a 4 day weekend. meh.

SO not a major metropolis.

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:37:47 GMT

Dear Seattle region.
you suck balls.
giant hairy balls.
who the hell closes hardware stores at 6pm, let alone 8 and 9.
nothing from Fed Way to Everett open til or past 10?

deez nuts, you useless pile of drivel and miasma.

Merry HoHo and whatnot folks.

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:45:19 GMT

For Christmas thus far, I've replaced a toilet's wax seal, marveled at having more space in multiple flash drives than I did in harddrives only 5 years ago, taken a good long shower, finished Season2 of Babylon 5 ( I'm rewatching it all as background noise), made 3 different bootable flash drives for varying purposes, started using the Shapelock as a base for the multidevice USBstand I've been wanting to make for awhile, and pondered designs for having Chris weld up a nice bracket, for when I get the many flatpanel monitors next month. I'm doing a full custom mount, using the jerker desk vertical arms as mount points.
The cleaning continues. More snow days needed!$!#%!#^$!#^$

Whee.

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:45:51 GMT

I get to go in late/ miss work tomorrow because the water pipe between meter and house decided to kill itself 20-24 hours ago, and none of us reallly noticed it til we got home from work. 12+ hours of unfettered water flow later. I'm so used to frost layer areas, I didn't even think that the shutoff would be accessible.
No damage in house, or to neighbor's down the hill, where the water's coming out, but we're now running dry, bottled, and prepped for a day or two siege. Luckily, I can turn us on and off at will for shower blasts and toilet refills/ bucket fills with no real ill effect besides some silt.
Poked around some, found some plumbers, BBB'd them, will call in order of decreasing BBB love, and get off the cuff estimates.

On a high point, I get to wake up an hour later tomorrow. whee!
err. today.

R.I.P

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 20:31:37 GMT

RIP Rickroll, we loved you so.

mid 200x period- Nov 27,2008 (wikipedia's retarded, it's older than 2007)

}snif{

Status:Confused Mood: Bewilderment

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:24:19 GMT

Having become more active on Facebook, as it's enabled me to get back in touch with some people I've missed quite a bit, I've noticed a few trends that confuse me.
I know MySpace has it as well, but there I was more able to ignore it- Status/Mood updating. I don't get it. Especially frequent updating of it. It's akin to posting horribly mundane goings on constantly (as ENTIRELY too many Twitter people do, which I ignore entirely, aside from when it shows up in their LJ posts). I'm not sure what the rationale behind it is. It's just removing yourself another degree from actively interacting with people. Instead of folk having to ping you to see what you're up to, they can just refresh, and see your last status.
And all the causes that are one there- hey, great. it's a method for letting people get aware of things thru a popular forum, but the interaction there is HORRIBLY passive as well. I was a group yesterday that had 250,000 members, and had raised all of 3000$. that's a penny each, aggregate. Not so much for the caring, after all. Today I noticed Starbucks is doing a 5c donation on handcrafted drinks. Why not just donate the latte money directly? Sure, it takes a little bit more effort to figure out how, but hey, if you really wanted, THEN you could deduct it from your taxes. Can't do that with a latte.
It's just really bizarre to me how much time people spend on token gestures. No one's been able to really explain it either.

As an aside, anyone who tries to get me into the games and causes, etc on Facebook will fail. It's not you, I just don't use it for that is all. I block the apps as you make me notice them :P

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:07:56 GMT

Was a good week/end. Got the first week of uneventfulness done at work, reviewing 3000 pages of documentation for oddity and inconsistencies. so much toner on my hands. Went to Sev's on Friday for Chris' bday shenanigans, Saturday was lazing about? Sunday I performed an emergency Symphony, and then escorted Sarah through the toughest birthday a budding adult can have. Inadvertently met Josie Nutter for real finally, and learned that taxi drivers get weird when you don't know your destination.
This week has thus far been idle adn gear spinnings, as half the team hasn't permissions, tools, or anything else, and we're frakly tired of looking at our notes on the printouts. It's 74 degrees in here at least, because glass faced buildings suck when you don't want to spend money cooling them. What is it with me and retarded ventilation jobs, christ.
I'm restoring several dozen items back to the projects list now that I'll be able to afford them. Local folk, prepare. I'll have need of some of your bodies, and have a project in mind for the couples out there as well. I need to find a tiiiinnnyyyyy relatively fit girl, and a ridiculously fit woman as well. And to convince Vadim that shaving his chest for art is a worthwhile pursuit.

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:59:09 GMT

Humility is a great thing.
I just hate when I gain more of it for epic failures while trying to do something for someone else.

Sometimes, you should ignore the noises in the yard.

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:16:44 GMT

Huh. I just watched a raccoon threesome.

that was different.

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:06:46 GMT

bouncing around for pics of my hometown, I found this set on Flickr that covers the entire county. I've been to a good 3/4 of these locations, and can still remember where a good third of them are.
I wish I could find abandoned/old historical places like it out here.

more shots of the area I grew up.
http://flickr.com/photos/graphicphotos/475985277/in/photostream/
http://flickr.com/photos/graphicphotos/496051280/in/photostream/
http://flickr.com/photos/graphicphotos/496051306/in/photostream/
http://flickr.com/photos/graphicphotos/496286954/in/photostream/ took my driving test right here
http://flickr.com/photos/graphicphotos/496287180/in/photostream/ if the upper left corner kept going for about 5 more lengths of the photo, that's where I grew up. bottom center is the Mobil station I owe a great many cases of ice cream and Coke 2 liters to }cough{.
http://flickr.com/photos/redrum0486/tags/chester/ these show how alot of the older homes in town looked, as well as the slaughterhouse that was out of commission long before I was running around town getting in trouble.
http://flickr.com/photos/7652577@N05/2779939516/ my house was just behind this and two to the right. it was also a great hiding place.
http://flickr.com/photos/7652577@N05/2779936710/in/set-72157605742047809/ this one adjoins the old high school, and I walked by it every day.
http://flickr.com/photos/delphien/2414845996/ right across from the Cumberland Farms (like a 7-11)
http://flickr.com/photos/adehagen/2619089739/ lots of this in the area.

Google Maps makes for fun. I used to run around an area this large
now it's about this big only without the portion to the left of the water, West of Seattle/ North of Tacoma. without friends cars, it's more like about this big, just on public transit
when I was in Boston, it was about this big, all via public transit.

Physiological Curiousities

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:28:59 GMT

if I drink a few sodas, spiking my sugar levels 'massively', I get cloudy in the head, can't think straight, etc. that's one of the reasons I initially wondered about diabetes ( let alone the passing out at work after breakfast).
but if I pair it with about 25% alcohol, clarity is nearly ensured, up to the point where the alcohol starts affecting me (near 500ml on a good day- and by good I mean it actually starts affecting me at that point.)
it's...odd to me, as I used to have that degree of clarity and focus on a normal diet/ no alcohol in my 20s.
I don't much get that these days- I'm hoping the rampup in cardio will bring me back to the older physiological awesomeness, but still...

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:38:17 GMT

Tomorrow I'm off to Vegas for the weekend. Cousin's wedding/impromptu family reunion thing.
And I'm going with 17$ to my name. I want to see how much of it I can come back with.

The contractors in this area in the late 60s-early 70s frighten me. I've worked on lots of houses and I don't know how many HUD/Section8 apartment units. I've never had to replace outlets by destroying them. Hell, the 1870s farmhouse was in great shape compared to alot of what I've seen out here.

The outlet face came off with the outlet plate- the screw strip wasn't attached to the outlet core at all. this is the third disintegrating outlet I've changed out in this house. One had actually arced thru the body, eating a hole in the back.

I'm pretty sure this one has 3 live feeds going to it- all bridged, no split outlets (117, 117, and 107V??). I'll test it again after I get back. After the Mercer house, I thought nothing could surprise me electrically.
I was wrong.

mmm, mucus.

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:33:59 GMT

after 36 days, I killed the LEDs. They were still emitting, but not really usable at that point. the light output was good for about 3 weeks though- getting to about half brightness in that time.
they pull 2.79v, at .95mA.

(30) 18000 mcd 3mm LEDs in parallel, on (2) 2000mah crap rechargeables. about 70lux at 30ish inches.
for over a month.

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:35:51 GMT

so, local mindpile.
I'm looking for a good pick n pull yard within 30 mins of Seattle.
haelp may?

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:11:46 GMT

4am high altitude lightning strikes, their subsequent rumbles, and the cold air rushing down just before the light rain make me happy.

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:30:14 GMT

My foot is killing me. What a full weekend it's been.
Fri was Dark Knight. I don't need to see any other films ever. I'm sated.
Sat was Trentmania (111 20 1) at Key Arena, with half of the region in tow. and then Beth's.
Sun ~~was resting up.~~... wait that didn't get to happen. running around, and then back to Beth's, causing my second appearance within 24 hours. This was noted by the staff. to celebrate, I abominated a bacon cheeseburger with mushrooms, an egg, and a sausage patty. it was delicious. period.
Now? I'm sitting, watching 30 LEDs burn thru 3v of rechargeable batteries as fast as they can. which isn't very. 3 hours and counting. Why I've never bought an electronics breadboard before now escapes me, Christ they're useful.

I've converted my room to T8 bulbs, instead of screw in CFLs. to say the lighting is superior would be superfluous- and I'm saving over 20 watts to get the better lighting. 6500K bulbs are my frenz ( Side note, you CAN use T8 bulbs in T12 housings- I've been doing it over a year with no issue. Though now, it's one bulb per housing, instead of the 2 I had earlier, so we'll see how the ballast does). I do believe I'll throw some 6500K T9s in the other bedrooms. the old school housings they have now are just horrid for CFLs.
I also got to show Bryan how a 20 yr old outlet can crumble in your hands while you swap it out for something with some friction.

As for Mythos/Flagship, I'll talk about that when able to without jinxing anything.

Yaaa I caused a hit n run!

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:57:23 GMT

It must be HORRIBLY emasculating for a car full of urban youths with the hippity hop playing, not paying attention, to be cut off by the NYer driving the Saturn who's had his blinker on for the last 3 minutes. But I bet it's moreso spiritually damaging when the car full of 3 fat white guys starts laughing at you for yelling back shit due to cutting you off, when you were supposed to wait, pay attention, and yknow, realize you're not the only person on the planet.
I think the best part though, was when you realised in your haste and wishful thuggery thinking, you rearended the Zipcar, with a good half dozen people watching, because your shiny shiny teefmouth was yapping on, drawing attention to yourself, while we laughed in our airconditioned cocoon.
Luckily, we got your plate, someone else did as well, and your lack of driving skill caused no damage anyway. but good on ya for trying. I needed the luls.