Beer Goggle Dreams

October 10, 2008 12:07 PM 10/10/08

For some reason I’d feel much happier if this world were surrealism based. I think I might be able to handle that much better than what we have. Of course currently following that path means ignoring the signpost labeled “This way lies madness!”...

And surrealism would certainly be better than our current economic situation... B-(

Anyway I only have my mother’s wireless to get finished so I can get it back to her tomorrow. Nice to get at least one project finished anyway.

Next up? My mother-in-law’s new computer which I just got E-Bay notification of the start of the shipping process from NJ. So that should be here sometime the middle of next week.

Once I get my mother’s wireless finished tonight maybe I’ll re-load the Qube 2700 again and see if I can’t make it stick this time once I re-compile the kernel. It’s _almost_ worth it to take it apart again and plug it into a Linux box and just re-copy the old kernel into place but that damn case has 12 screws to be removed including the drive screws before the hard drive comes loose. Cool looking - yes. Hard to get into - also yes.

Pie today? Maybe...maybe not... Still deciding.

I found a site a couple days ago advertising solar grid-tie systems for about $5k for a lightweight supplemental system to take the edge off the electric bill. That cheap is really a bargain and could likely be upgraded later. I’m seriously considering it for next year but we’ll have to see how finances work out.

That cost seemed a little light to me but the system is about 1kw so that’s about right for an installed grid-tie system because of the permits and paperwork and flotsam involved.

(...)

You know those days? The ones where you really don’t want to be much of anywhere? I’m having one of those days...

(...)

So anyway I still haven’t picked up the air filters for the garage gable vents. Maybe I’ll try and pick those up on the way home. I might even borrow an extension ladder from the neighbor so I can finally mount my weather center in the right place. It’ll be nice to permanently run that finally...

September 29, 2008 2:00 PM 9/29/08

After crawling through spider-infested, damp, dusty, icky, and gloomy spaces under the house I’ve got wires run for both the DSL and a network wire into the third bedroom. (I _hate_ spider webs.)

Accomplishing that I managed to move all my currently running servers downstairs into the partial basement and they thankfully all came back up and running okay....for now...*knocks on wood*.

So that leaves only two real task for day one of my vacation:

1) Move the surplus computer/electronics stuff in the garage into the basement. (Oof!)

2) Organize the rest of the garage. (Not so oof.)


I’ll likely start working on number one here in a little bit then number two I can do most of the night as long as I’m quiet after 9 p.m.

I need to plug the existing laser printer into the hub at the other end of the third bedroom so it can be used until I can get the 8100n set up in there. (It’ll be nice to be able to print “B” sized again.)


I submitted my first idea to Google’s project for ideas to help people. ( http://www.project10tothe100.com/ ) I don’t want to post it here just to keep things clean but since the idea is fairly cheap to run with, easy to test, and could benefit everybody I have high hopes for it.

Once the garage is all organized I should have more space to test some of these projects myself. And that really is something I want to do for a good portion of the next few years. I want to work on ideas of helpful or fun and hopefully easy to understand and build.

I think that unless there’s a good reason I’d like to release any of the helpful ideas to the public domain. That doesn’t sound very good for making money but frankly I want people to benefit from anything I come up with. And if it’s a choice of being buried by a corporate entity and making millions or being poor and millions benefit I’ll take the latter almost every time.

I can’t say that I wouldn’t think about taking the money. I mean the money would put me in a position to help a lot more people and come up with a lot more ideas. But could you bury one gem so others could have a million of them? I’m not sure I could...

It’s been lightly raining all morning so it feels a little blah here right now. I’d light a fire in the fireplace but we haven’t had it checked out yet.

Turns out that’s not too expensive after all - $140 or so to clean it and check it out for us. I was expecting some sort of insane $400+ “inspection fee” but this is actually reasonable. Likely I’ll call them and get them out here later this week hopefully.

*pauses to get the mail from the mailbox*

Oh cool! My dvd of The Specials arrived. Supposedly this a sleeper campy superhero movie. It cost me almost nothing from Amazon so I picked it up. Maybe I’ll watch it tonight.

Oddly my daughter got a letter from someone in her class. I think that was a class exercise - to send mail to other classmates. My wife’s dvd on biomedical interventions for autistic kids also arrived. And the best part of today’s mail? NO BILLS! Woot!


On a side note I seem to have gone almost vegetarian in some ways. I now eat nothing but vegetables for breakfast. Weirder yet I’ve given up coffee pretty much. Tea though seems to be a good staple drink for me - either unsweetened iced tea or hot tea with a bit of honey in it.

That sounds good....I think I’ll go make some tea now...

September 22, 2008 11:06 AM 9/22/08

So the wasps are officially dead. At least that nest of them anyway but I have yet to see any new nests. This is a good thing...

In case I didn’t mention it Pitboy came over and helped me fix one of the three Color LaserJet 2550n printers so now we have a color laser in the house. (Thanks Pitboy!) I’m on my way to fixing the other one so I can either sell it or use it in the garage. Have to put all these printers one by one on the kill-o-watt and see what they draw. I’ll still likely put them on X10 modules so they get turned off during the day but I still want the numbers.

I’m probably taking next week off so I can get things done at home. I’ve got the vacation time and really want to get all the misc shuffling of things done before winter. I’ve decided that if my wife wants a day-bed in the third bedroom then I’ll put the “ugly” couch out in the garage and forego the pool table. I’ll just go with the whole seating area thing for entertaining friends that come over. (And it gives me a place to sack out if I’m tired or in trouble with da wife.)

There’s still a lot to do. The garden is done so I need to cut it all down and pull up the nasty carpeting that was out there. That and clean out the small wasp nests in the garage vent. (That reminds me - I need to get a couple of furnace filters to put over the garage vents. Keep the heat in but let the air circulate.)

I’d like to get my weather station mounted properly before winter as well. I also need to swap the grill for the lawn tractor so that the tractor is in the garage with the plow on it. But that’s still a few weeks away. Still mowing and grilling time left on the clock. (As soon as all the other stuff is downstairs though I will move the second bike into the garage so I can do work on it during winter. When I’m finished organizing things there will be enough space to push both bikes off to the side and work on a vehicle if need be.)

There’s also still riding time left on the clock as well. I need to get out there and ride while I still can.

We’re making progress but slowly. I’m hoping I can push a bunch of that along next week and then all that will be left will be things we need to pay for - like the fireplace/chimmney inspection - or minor things like book shuffling and picture hanging.

I still need to get the network wiring done for downstairs so that I can move everything down there. I don’t like it but I’ll have to get into the crawl space big-time. Such is the life of a home-owning geek. :-/

Just like I’m not looking forward to tackling the carpet in the garden but at least that’s out in the open away from the spider webs. *shudder*

In a couple weeks I’ll likely buy the square steel pipe I need to make a ladder rack for the truck and weld that together. It shouldn’t take long. A friend reminded me to remember to gusset the assembly so it doesn’t twist. Good advice that.

Definitely concerned about the financial stuff. The lady at the credit union said that all their stuff is protected and not stock invested or anything so I’m okay there. I’m more concerned that our loan is through Countrywide and they aren’t doing too good. They haven’t tanked so far but it’s early yet in the crash of our economy. And no matter what anybody says this bail-out is NOT going to help. We should be bailing out the people not the businesses.

Things are going to get really bad folks but if you’ve got the capacity to read these words then you already know that. It’s time to take a complete stock of what we have and what else we need to obtain to help us survive. I want to definitely get a decent gas or propane generator before the middle of next year. Definitely at least basic solar by the end of next year if not sooner. I think I’m going to stock some MREs as well. Just in case. That and empty the rain barrel into containers. It’s not immediately potable since it came off the roof but it’ll do for washing things and can be boiled to make it potable.

I do know that some of my things I’ve had for a while are going to go up on E-Bay now. The two Heathkit W-5 tube amps - matched serial numbers. The tube base PA system. The Sylvania Polymeter. Maybe a couple of other things. I need to test the tube amps before they get put up there. Needless to say that will get me some cash, big or small, to use to buy other things.

Hopefully I’ll be able to start the box-by-box de-kluge next week after I shuffle things around...

September 18, 2008 1:41 PM 9/18/08

You can thank my wife for the title.

That and the wasps that are invading our home. I’m meeting the exterminator here this afternoon so he can spray the nest in the outside wall and then hopefully inspect the house to make sure there aren’t any more nests to be dealt with.

II killed three of the damn things this morning in the kitchen. I really really hate bees and wasps since having one fly up into my pants when I was a kid. Not. Fun. Ever since then I’m okay with one or maybe two of them and can kill them but any more than that and I actually start to panic.

Fears like this bother me because they are serious weaknesses. I don’t have more than a couple but they can seriously leave me tangled up so to speak if they overwhelm me.

And besides - I used to _like_ petting the fuzzy bumble bees. :-(

Still need to move more stuff down into the basement. I’ve been distracted by the wasps among other things.

Started playing with the Freeduino unit yesterday just to see how well it would drive a power transistor and it turns out to do okay at that. I still can’t program it from the linux box but that doesn’t bother me as it’s easy enough to add a serial dongle to the G4 out there and plug the Freeduino into that.

Pie today. Definitely pie.

*sigh* Hopefully there won’t be another nest and this will end the terror of the wasps in the house. I’ve got spray-foam to seal up the hole when he’s done.

I’ll probably give the garden the final ka-bosh here this weekend or next. It’s done well for a starter garden but I need to do better next year.

Very likely I’ll start some plants in the garage before spring so they are nice and hardy when they get planted. Of course I’ll have to ask the police to stop by and see them just so I don’t get them called on me. “Oh my god! He’s got green growing things in his garage! He must be growing pot!” *ahem* Nope...never seen that happen to people...nope...

Unless things go very very well I likely won’t get a greenhouse constructed this year. I just don’t have the resources yet. As long as I keep the garage tidy though I should be able to accumulate wood that I can use next spring to make the greenhouse and many other things.

*checks clock on MacBook*

Time to go deal with annoying flying things...