Beer Goggle Dreams

March 19, 2009 11:38 AM 3/19/09

So today is the day I remove some wisdom from my head. Not that I have that much to spare anyway. ;-) That will leave yet another hold in my head for a while until it grows over. ^_^

Regardless the oral surgeon’s office wants 20% paid at time of service so I’m kind of glad we’ve got those funds lying around.

All that aside I’ll be glad to get rid of the regular pain this thing has caused me.

( There's a hole in my head dear Lyza dear Lyza... )

March 6, 2009 11:12 AM 3/6/09

So I’m not going to go into the details but things at work have gone a little more pear shaped than they were before. I’m not losing my job and I’m not losing any pay but there’s a whole host of other things that do not make me happy. Most of my posts will have to be made at night now - at least the ones of any worth.

We were talking about the 8+% unemployment figures today and it occurred to me that 1983 was about the time my father got laid off from a place just down the street from where I work now. I’m hoping history won’t repeat itself...

I did pick up something to play with though. A 25 pack of 7“ x 10” Fresnel lenses. They should arrive some time next week. Those will be interesting little tidbits and I’m looking forward to seeing how much heat one of those can produce under different lighting conditions.

That and I bought myself a new head basket along with spare visors and gloves. It’s a modular helmet which will be less troublesome due to my glasses. The spare visors because it’s an off-brand helmet so who knows when they will be available again. And the gloves just because.

I think I’ll set up my LED grow lamp and my pepper seeds this weekend so that can get started. I’m going to need those vegetables to help out this summer.

My time writing here is up...

February 10, 2009 11:32 AM 2/10/09

So I posted my hydroponics re-juvination plan to the White House website but haven’t heard anything. Frankly I don’t expect to hear anything but it would be nice if I knew they were at least listening.

I brushed by the plan in a previous post so I’ll step-by-step it here.

1) Purchase and empty old local manufacturing centers that have gone bust but pass EPA cleanup inspection.

2) Install large-scale hydroponic systems in them. Nothing “clean room” style but just good simple production tanks/pipes with standard plant bulbs.

3) Grow local fruits and vegetables all year around.

4) Sell those local fruits and vegetables at local stores that will accept them or local markets.

5) Invest the money made into building more hydroponic centers and adding off-the-grid technologies for powering the centers.


Now this plan does several things.

1) Local labor is used to build and maintain those plants.

2) The fact that they are local means the transport for the food uses less fuel. This causes:

        a) The food to be cheaper.
        b) The food to be fresher.
        c) More local transport jobs.

3) The hydroponically grown food is healthier.

4) The growing cycle is divorced from the weather. This causes:

        a) The food to be available all year around.
        b) The food to be less expensive all year around.

5) Since people can’t live without food it’s the one thing they _have_ to spend money on. The money spent for food from these centers would go back into the local economies in the form of jobs and suppliers.

6) Since these plants would be fairly cheap to build/maintian then eventually the profits will exceed the costs of the system and money would be available to put into something else. Especially if making them off-the-grid sustainable is made a focus.

7) The more our food supplies are off the grid the more divorced they are from our current infrastructure. This will help stabilize at least the food side of things in our economy/culture.


BTW this idea is free for anybody. If you want to use it or have the money/time/will to set one of these centers up then more power to you.

We need all the hearts, minds, and hands we can get! ^_^

February 3, 2009 11:49 AM 2/3/09

So for those of you interested in buying cheap gigabit ethernet switches - don’t buy the Linksys 2024C. Just don’t do it. They go bad after about six months - or at least three out of four of the ones I bought for work just died in the last few months. Today it happened to be the office switch. Oy.

I am _SO_ having pie today. European Truffle Pie.

( Mmmmm...pie.... )