Bass Umbrella

chacos

2009-03-05T08:11:00.000-08:00

I just bought a pair of Z1 chacos. I've drunk the REI cool-aid a long time ago, but I guess this just seals the deal. As subjesus points out, I've basically done every outdoor thing that REI sells junk for. (except paddling...but whatever)

Generic blogs are mostly just for introspection and narcissism so, I just thought it was interesting that I've jumped on the REI bandwagon, but haven't drank the Apple store cool-aid. Both companies make products for (comparatively) rich people with discretionary (disposable) income. If I take out the factors of cost, quality of products, corporate ethos, etc from these two companies, what I end up with is brand identity--as apple has pointed out quite overtly.

Well, for good, bad, or ugly, as a consumer-based identity attribute, I'm fine with being an REI-person and trepidacious of being a Apple-person.

I'm also fine with being an Ubuntu-person. ... which is the opposite of consumerism cometothinkofit.

From the Inside of the Loop

2007-04-12T20:36:00.000-07:00

I may not have a lot of things... but now I've got venue.

I could walk to a jazz club. I am surrounded by trees that are older than my parents.

I had a telling experience this morning that I'm not in the "suburbs" anymore. I went to the cleaners for the first time down here. So I just turned into the first place I saw in the lakewood shopping strip. I rolled in and plopped down my shirts and saw an elderly gentleman at a desk, but a middle-aged woman approached me and asked my name and starch preference and proceeded to WRITE IT DOWN on a slip of paper.

It's like I've gone back in time! At my cleaners I used to go to in the Suburb, it was brand new, it had a drive through, it was enviro-friendly, they had a fancy database hooked up to new dell computers with flat screens and a young chinese owner who gave me a receipt from the database for pickup with my name, reference tracking number, estimated pickup time, and even my starch history clearly printed on it.

I have to admit, things are different down here.

"You've got to... Accentuate the Positive..."

2006-11-13T21:24:00.000-08:00

http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/default.aspx#

Save the Hubble!

2006-10-31T20:41:00.000-08:00

Well, the hubble might just get saved after all.

Apparently, since the Columbia disaster, the Hubble's repair mission using a space shuttle was cut and put back a couple of times. If I recall correctly, one of those times, the hubble was written off by the congress to make way for Bush's Grand Debacle of putting men on Mars. Don't get me wrong, it would be cool to put men on mars... but that's just it -- that IS the reason why W. wants to put men on mars: because it's cool and he want's so badly to have a legacy like Kennedy's "man on the moon." We aren't up against some cold war space race and it isn't like we can't send robots to do science for us on mars (the rover is still at it).

But I believe that if we, as a nation, are serious about the future of human spaceflight and exploration, we need to develop it organically by finding real economic motivators in the private sector such as the start of space tourism.

In my mind, it is ridiculous to spend billions of dollars to send people there just so we can pad the pockets of more aerospace contractors (admittedly, we would gain some new technologies as a byproduct, i.e. Tang) and to give little kids warm fuzzies to get them to do their math homework. And it is especially ridiculous when the entire science community was screaming bloody murder when congress couldn't spare a measly 1 billion to fix the hubble (and I believe that half of that would pay for just the shuttle trip itself).

So I was extremely elated to hear today that the political winds changed direction and blew the right way again. The hubble is delivering Real science... not just pretty pictures. It is peering back into time and space and quite literally unlocking the secrets of the universe. Two factoids from the website:

- Astronomers have published more than 6,300 scientific papers on Hubble results.
- In Hubble's 16-year lifetime, about 4,000 astronomers from all over the world have used the telescope to probe the universe.

Now, if the fixup is successful, it might remain in service until it's next-generation replacement comes online in 2013 where it will be able to look back further into the beginning of the universe and of time itself.

jibba jabba

2006-10-07T11:04:00.000-07:00

Studio 60, yeah, pretty good... new Lost, highly entertaining...

but the best new show on television? now you'd have to be a fool not to figure that one out.

Impending Doom

2006-08-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

Over the past year, the highbrow media and now the mainstream media has seemed to jump on the global warming bandwagon. It's been several months since I saw Al Gore's movie, but I think it has made a lasting psychological impact on me. It doesn't mean the end of the human race, but it does mean irreversible man-made change to the ecosystem that has, so far, made life on this planet "relatively" easy.

I've mentioned before that Al Gore is America's lovable loser. But now he's established/regained a spin of credibility with his film-- at least among us wealthy, privileged gen-exers. My parents, of the middle-class baby-boomer generation, still don't trust Al Gore and dismiss him outright. They still don't believe that global warming is happening and that wide-spread, catastrophic climate change will occur. Either way, I guess it probably won't really get bad for us earthlings until after the "Greatest Generation" (of consumers) has gone on over to the other side anyway.

But global catastrophe is nothing new to my parents generation. They grew up with "duck and cover" and the cuban missle crisis and the USSR. I have heard my parents reminiscing that before they had me and my brother, they thought that it would be cruel to bring children into this world because they would have to face a nuclear holocaust in their lifetime. Well, I'm happy to say that they took the chance and had us anyway, but who's to say that our civilization still won't blow ourselves up? It it still a possibility, but now there is a new doom for our children even worse than communism or terrism. Currently, I am by no means in the position to propagate myself, but I can't help but think of all of the impending economic and climatalogical burdens a child of mine would have to face in this century.

Public will is changing -- even Pat Robertson has said that he's a convert on global warming and that "we really need to do something on fossil fuels." At any rate, I would hate to think that Pat is more forward-thinking "on fossil fuels" than I am, so I should take steps of personal accountability such as changing to Green Mountain, minimizing power use of equipment at work and at home, starting to recycle again, and becoming more mindful of my driving habits.

But I personally don't think that as a global civilization we will be able to change fast enough to prevent things in my lifetime like the sea level rising, permanent localized droughts, worse tropical storms, accelerated species extinction rates and other equally bad things. Honestly though, I really don't have a clue what is going to happen.

Cue the obligatory:

Is Billy becoming Emergent?

2006-08-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14204483/site/newsweek/

promoting a message of God's love... leaving space for the mystery of God's will... distancing himself from purely political issues of the Religious Right.

And I doubt that it is just the old age talking. For a mega-public christian spokesman, this guy definitely has a rare integrity and an uniquely elevated perspective...

Twenty Years Later

2006-05-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

The Chernobyl disaster has always intrigued me for some reason. I guess its something about the unseen power of radiation and our inability to "fix" it or make it go away. It seems like when we build these power plants, we are really just kids playing with fire -- somebody will eventually get burned.

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chernobyl-revisited/

I recently learned that my cousin (who I haven't seen in over 15 years) has spent the last 13 years cleaning up a site from nuclear waste used to build bombs. The site is now finally "clean" and he is out of a job, but he made it. He told me of a couple of situations where he had some pretty close calls. He told me of the time where his backhoe was slowly surrounded and immersed by a slurry of nuclear waste... he was just barely able to climb on top of the backhoe and jump out of the pit before bathing in the stuff. I don't know how much "hazard pay" he got, but I'm sure it wasn't worth it in my opinion.

Sign of the Times, or, I Smell a ...

2006-04-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

Think your office is bad? Last week, at my office they caught another rat on our floor. That's right, they've now caught TWO huge rats on our 2nd floor of cubeville.

The first rat was a bit of a dare-devil. He actually had the nerve to go running around between cubes, in plain sight, on a Thursday afternoon. He ran through my neighbor's cube and then sat in a crack inbetween a cube wall and some filing cabinets. That's when I was able to shine a light and see his beady little eyes. Big sucker... 'bout 8 inches long, not counting the tail. Needless to say, we called the "physical plant" and they set out traps.

Everyday, when I go to get my morning coffee, I am reminded by their presence by seeing a huge trap, baited with creamy peanut butter, under the sink.

No one escapes downsizing at our office. Last month, there was one person that got layed off on our floor, but 'the man' also got rid of all living plants in the building (besides personal cubicle plants) ... because of downsizing. Thankfully, I doubt if they will take away our free coffee again on account of the Total Media Havoc that ensued when Bernie took it away 4 years ago. (It made one of the top 5 dumbest things on wall street) However, there are rumors of more layoffs in june.

2006-04-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

"Sometimes I think the reason we don't like certain people is because we feel insecure around them. We like to chalk it up to political or philosophical difference, maybe, but the truth is, if we are honest, we are drawn to those who validate us and affirm us, and we resist those who don't."

there's a sucker born every minute

2006-03-29T20:33:00.000-08:00

I've recently started to educate myself on wine. Although I'm most-definitely a green eonophile, I'm starting to learn that I can purchase relatively good wine that I like for less than 15$.

Last fall, my non-bimbo friend invited me and a couple dozen other friends to Tony's Wine Warehouse for a wine class. I hadn't paid a lot of attention during the class, but I thank my lucky stars that after the class, the slight buzz and slick sales pitch didn't convince me to drop a chunk of change on discount wine at highly inflated prices. I did, however, really enjoy the class. It was entertaining and just a really fun experience to have with friends.

Today, I found an article from the Nov 2005 observer on the enigma of Tony's Wine Warehouse. I absolutely laughed my head off.

Apparently, Tony's is known for being the sleezy used car lot for wine in the Dallas area: "This deeply irks many longtime professionals in the Dallas wine trade. Tony's, they insist, butters its bread by dispensing instructional swill during class sessions--preying on participants' gullibility to justify inflated prices, often for wines well past their prime obtained mostly from distributor closeout lists. This sullies the whole wine trade, they say."

... "But is Tony's retail strategy illegal? It certainly doesn't violate any law to charge whatever price the market will bear, especially if through hard work and clever marketing you've unearthed a customer base willing to pay it. "The kicker on this is everybody knows he's doing it," says a Dallas wine salesperson. "He's been doing it for years...the question is what's up with the people that buy into that. That's really more a story about Dallas than anything else.""

anger management

2006-03-19T11:02:00.000-08:00

You know, I like to bash the megachurches just like everyone else, but I actually learned a lot recently from a certain megachurch pastor's webcast series. I learned fairly early in life to try to believe that I can learn something from anyone-- no matter how small.

Anger has always been a difficult issue to wrap my brain around-- mostly because of my family. But you know, at some point, I just have to look at my family objectively and realize that even though I've been heavily influenced by them (good or bad), it's ultimately myself who is responsible for my own behavior.

So I was encouraged to hear said pastor teach about the causes of anger and the constructive and destructive uses of anger in our lives from a christian perspective. Growing up, I don't think I can remember one sermon where it was preached that anger could even possibly be constructive. And I don't think I had too many life experiences of anger that were constructive either. And so I did what any good bible-believer does: wallow in repression, guilt and sulking. Later in life, I realized that this can't be good, but I'm still trying to work it out. And so, some of these webcasts resonated with me.

Anyway, keep an open mind and check these out: 1 2 3 4

But don't worry, I won't be leaving my church to go to the megachurch. There's not much difference anyway between watching it online or watching it theatre-style on a big screen at a "satellite" franchise. :)

not again...

2006-03-15T20:46:00.000-08:00

While removing a DFC-3BXL from a WS-X6748-GE-TX module, I severely cut my thumb. Luckily, I had a bandaid in my wallet and I was able to stop myself from bleeding all over the thing. rock up and down... WTF?

Taking out the Trash

2006-03-13T18:04:00.000-08:00

One of the highlights of my week is to take out the trash. Okay, this may sound a little wierd, but I really enjoy it. I usually only take it out at night, after I've come home from work, cooked, ate, cleaned, etc. It's a short walk from my apartment to the dumpster, but it's the only time of the day that I really feel like I am outside and in the real world.

My days pretty-much consist of getting up, driving to work, sitting infront of a computer all day--much of which inside a big room full of noisy machines and no windows-- and then I drive home going from one rectangle to another (apartment-to-cubicle-to-apartment).

But my quiet, nightime walk to the dumpser is a mini vacation where I can see a few stars behind the trees and a bright, comforting moon.

It reminds me a little bit about the nightly walk I took as a kid (a looong time ago, in a galaxy far, far away) from the barn to the house in the dark winter. We would have finished all the nightly milking chores, the vacuum pump turned off, the equipment cleaned and put away, and the cows quietly munching away on hay. We'd shut off the lights and go out into the frozen dark. I'll always remember how the snow crunched like cereal under my boots in the below-zero air. And if I'd stop for a second, everything went completely and utterly quiet. I'd trudge up the hill and eventually reach the basement where the rush of warm air would fog over my glasses and I'd strip off my coveralls and boots. And then on to a well-earned, good night's sleep.

Mofro

2006-01-23T21:12:00.000-08:00

These guys are just flat awesome. My bro from down on the bayou tipped be off to Mofro. They got funky, southern rock, "front porch soul." They are a strange mix, and something I normally wouldn't listen to, but it just definitely works. I imagine the insanely hot forests and farmland of louisiana or northern florida... cicadas with their incessant buzz, spanish moss flowing in the almost non-existent breeze. your shirt sticking to you in the 99% humidity. ahhh, heaven.

It must be the redneck side of my heritage that just makes me grin from ear to ear when I listen to these guys.

2006-01-23T11:52:00.000-08:00

Congratulations!

2005-12-19T13:31:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to give a great big congrats to my Roommate R who is, as of this morning, officially Dr R. Dr R received a DMA in vocal performance from the distinguished learning institution of Lousiana State University. And so next fall he'll probably be moving off to some little university in god-knows-where USA to teach people how to sing and to teach people how to teach people to sing.

Roommate R has worked insanely hard to accomplish this goal. While continuing to teach grade school music, he's written papers and sung recitals and defended his knowledge before a rigorous panel of tough professors.

Viva la PHD!

is Irony still in?

2005-12-08T19:47:00.000-08:00

I received a tiny little container of bandaids from my healthcare company at one of those company benefits-awareness functions. Anyway, while opening the container, I cut myself! How stupendously ridiculous...

So obviously, I used one of the bandaids on my finger. I must be accident prone. People find it odd that I carry bandaids in my wallet. I call it being prepared--scouts' motto and whatnot.

Living in the Now

2005-12-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

I just started reading Donald Miller's new book "Through Painted Deserts".

I enjoyed reading Blue Like Jazz for the most part, but he was all over the map with his writing style which I found kind of annoying, but I guess that type of style was intentional.? Personally, I read books to be entertained and/or to unearth nuggets of wisdom or truth that resonates with my life. And I did find some nuggets in BLJ.

Apparently, this new book is a bit of a more-lucrative re-hash of his first book, "Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance." So far, I've only read chapter one today. Which incidentally, you can read all of chapter one on amazon.com.

There was one quote that really stuck out to me:

It occurs to me, as it sometimes does, that this day is over and will never be lived again, that we are only the sum of days, and when those are spent, we will not come back to this place, to this time, to these people and these colors, and I wonder whether to be sad about this or to be happy, to trust that these hours are meant for some kind of enjoyment, as a kind of blessing.

I've felt this way many times. And usually, I experience these existential pangs when traveling, just like Don did. I guess that's part of the melancholy sweetness that I enjoy about traveling. When traveling, there is a pleasure in the heightened awareness of every moment. I'm out of my normal life where the moment is usually a slave to routine. This reminds me of Kevin Spacy in "Pay it Forward" where the routine is the only glue that holds his character's life together. While routine keeps a lot of my life together, I'd also like to think that my (somewhat sporadic) reliance on God is really what keeps me afloat.

I can't find solace in the fact that billions-upon-billions of people through the existence of the human race probably had these same existential thoughts in one form or another. It makes me realize that my loved ones will definitely not always be here. And also, on the flip-side, I realize there is the potential to find additional loved ones. But that's different subject.

As I get older, when these "now" thoughts pop up in my mind again from time-to-time, I don't feel quite as longingly sentimental about these moments (before they've even passed!) as I used to. It should be obvious to me, but I seem to be always surprised by the fact that: the past is the past and the present is the present. Everything changes--nothing stays the same, or at the very least I've changed in the way that time has irrevocably marched forward and decreased my shelf life a little more. Best if used before 20??. And it always marches forward faster than it did in the past with or without my usual ennui. --I guess I can't get existential without pondering my mortality. Enough of that.

Anyway, it's weird how the unique experience of recently traveling by myself allowed me to strip these moments of their usual morose sentimentality. Such as: there is no one in the smoldering jeep with me (thank God) so I'm not going to recant with those person(s), "say, remember when we were in that jeep... and the thing happened, and the flames.. and HA! .. those were the days." On the contrary, this was a moment * I enjoyed or did not enjoy the moment * now the moment is the past * I remembered that I enjoyed or did not enjoy the moment and that is that. The last thing you want is to end up like Uncle Rico in "Napoleon Dynamite" who is trying to go back in time to relive the 1982 "glory years."

So, my point is that in the times that I feel as Donald Miller did in his moment, I am less sad that this moment will never be visited again and more happy to have the privilege to experience this moment in the very present now.

cha-cha-cha-chia

2005-12-04T19:39:00.000-08:00

It is now officially the christmas season... I saw my first Chia pet comercial today. Sold at your nearest K Mart... that is, if you can find one anymore.

phase 2

2005-11-10T20:48:00.000-08:00

Well, the deed is done. My homework assignment was to grow out my hair in preparation for the "real" haircut. I must say I was quite nervous, but it went well. The salon had chic leather couches and coffee tables. E's friend C did a good job.

He did have his work cut out for him though. Over the last year or two, many a follicle has jumped ship. C tried to console me with the notion that the application of enough "product" will enhance what is left to create the illusion of more hair...

Well, just look at that picture-- you can clearly see my scalp. It does seem to be a losing battle. My product is called "aquage". Is that the word for water in french? I couldn't make myself put it on this morning. I guess I'll learn how to use it eventually.

I just can't show up to work too stylish. I'm an engineer for pete's sake. Remember Dilbert? Of the three other guys in my team at work, one shaves his head, the other uses clippers with no guard and the third uses just a #3. And they all wear pleats.

But I'm going to have to find a balance somewhere in the middle. I don't want to be too far out of style. Times change, and so should my appearance. I do several things well, but I admit that style is not one of them. So there is no shame in consulting an expert.

Like it or not, people will judge you first on your style way before you've even opened up your mouth to "win good girls with your soul" as they say in the suburbs.

"The Program"

2005-10-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I think that I am well into the first leg of "the program".

I hope that friend E will not mind if I divulge a few of the major components of "the program". First, I went to see E's friend and hair stylist C. During the initial consultation with stylist C, he assured me that the.. ahem, gradual follicular attrition will not prevent me from getting a normal haircut. I have, however, resigned to the fact that eventually my hair will resemble that of George Costanza.

My father, who I have the utmost respect for, used the dreaded comb-over for at least 2 decades. He would always defend it as saying that he has never moved his part all of these years. But he finally relented and got rid of it a few years back.

Anyway, today we went shopping for jeans. I must admit that I was dreading this day a bit because I was warned about how expensive this might get. So we started off at the "low end" of the jean cost spectrum with the GAP where we didn't really find what we are looking for. As E describes me, I am 17 feet tall and about 3 inches in diameter, so it is a bit of a difficult task to find good, stylish jeans that are long enough for me. And so we went up the food chain to Lucky where we did find some jeans that were good, they were 150$, but I wasn't totally thrilled about them.

Next up, Octane. This was definitely what I would call, "high end". The friendly staffperson was quite helpful to E and I in providing jean suggestions I could be happy with actually fit at the same time. And, well, I guess you get what you paid for: I found a pair that I really liked, but, lets just say that you could almost buy a nice set of front rotors for same price as these jeans. I hadn't exactly accepted the fact that I could pay that much for a pair of jeans so the staff set them aside in case I returned to purchase them.

We then went on to search the other usual suspects: Urban Outfitters and Banana Republic. We didn't find anything remotely suitable at either, but I did pick up a vital item at UO for tonight's halloween costume.

But during this time, I began to slowly accept the fact that I could pay for jeans what would be the equivalent amount of a year's salary for the average laborer in most of the developing world. And so I bought a pair of size 30, dark wash, "big pickle-bear skin" Chip-pepper brand jeans. yeap. I think I am pretty pleased with them though.

I must say though that I've been kind of surprised to hear the different reactions of Journey kids when I tell them that I've started "the program". Some react in an encouraging way, "hey, wow, that's cool" sort of thing, but others kind of recoil in fear. They seem to think that friend E has magical superpowers to change who I am behind the super-chic jeans and greasy haircut. What's this a reflection of? Is my identity really how I look? is a change in my appearance representative of a change in my values? (such as before "the program" I looked geeky and frumpy, but now I am trendy and superficial)?

For all those naysayers out there about "the program": don't worry, I'm too old to drastically change from the geek we all know and love. So don't let the style fool you--I will forever be plaided and pleated on the inside.

Stay tuned.

DVR

2005-10-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

After a conversation with wongojack, I got inspired to make my own DVR.

It was relatively quite simple. I have a computer that I built about 3 years ago, so it isn't too old to do the job. I've got a Athlon 1Ghz proc with 512M of RAM and 40G HD.

I did a little research on the web -- one in particular About.com had a site that gave user ratings the top TV cards out there right now.

I decided on the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 150:

cost: 100$ (with the added instant-gratification of buying it at Fry's)
It even came with a remote control!

It was really quite easy to install. And believe it or not, I actually had an extra 120G HD lying around so I stuck it in my computer as well. (I bought the HD just in case I needed it when fixing my parent's computer because they live in the middle of nowhere) With the default compression setting, I could save about 100 hours of TV on the HD.

I am able to schedule recordings and pause live TV. I should also be able to burn recordings to a DVD on my burner as well, but I haven't tried it yet.

My video card isn't the greatest (Geforce4 32MB) and it doesn't have a coax output so I can't watch anything on the DVR from my legacy TV. But I can see the picture quite well on my 19" ViewSonic from my bed.

I've been watching the white sox beat the astros while typing this blog:

Oh well, sorry Astros.

Anyway, DVR has changed my life! and no 10$ monthly fee.

learning the hard way

2005-10-13T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I spent literally all day sunday (and I mean from 8AM to 10PM) and monday night working on my brakes. I also successfully swapped out my engine mounts as well sunday morning. One would think that replacing engine mounts would be the more challenging task, but this did not prove to be true in my case.

Let me back up a bit... A week before vacation, I took my A4 into the dealer to get a 60K mile maintenance done. And, inevitably, there were several things wrong with my frou-frou german car that recently expired from its warranty period. First of all, the driver's side CV boot was ripped and the CV joint was leaking grease -- not good.

Second, my passenger side engine mount was completely useless and the driver's side was leaking. Yes, I said leaking. Apparently, the germans fill the frou-frou engine mounts with hydraulic fluid inside a rubber bladder to absorb the greatest amount of ambient engine noise before it reaches the passenger cabin.. or something. It was probably like this for quite some time.

And third, my front brake pads were approximately 1MM thick. Yeah, not good either. They tells me that I had 8MM the last time they checked my brakes 6 months ago. Yeah, right, a new pad is only around 18MM thick new. Whatever. Anyhow, with $100+ a hour labor the total cost was estimated to be around $1800. Ugh.

I had all but resigned to pay the inordinate amount, when my cube neighbor (and weekend grease-monkey) said, "Hold on, let's go down and take a look at it first" Which we did. My audi "service advisor" put on a pathetic theatrical display when he realized my coworker was succeeding in talking me out of letting them fix some of the problems. He basically looked like he was personally offended. It was just weird.

Anyway, I ended up letting the dealer finish the maintenance and replace the CV boot. I did know my limits and I was not about to tackle that one. But decided that I could replace the engine mounts and brakes myself with my coworker's offer of help.

maintenance/CV boot

Total cost so far: $550

So I ordered the engine mounts and brake pads online. With free shipping...

2 engine mounts and 4 sets of german pads: $250
total cost so far: $800

And so, I went on vacation and gallivanted across the state of washington leaving burning jeeps in my wake.

Two weeks after my return on saturday, I prepared for the big day. I printed the procedures from the internet. I bought a set of metric hex sockets and a universal disk brake piston retractor kit from Harbor Freight: 50$

total cost so far: $850

And so I went on sunday morning to my coworker's house to work on the audi. Things were going quite well... I followed this procedure and then this procedure. After about four hours, it was time to bleed the brakes and try them out some time around 1PM. And, of course, they didn't work.

So the most obvious answer is that we need to bleed the brakes again.. there must be air in the line somewhere. So we would bleed the brakes and try them out again. Still spongy. This went on for an hour or two until we stopped and ate some Wendy's.

So then we thought, maybe our bleeding technique is faulty. So my coworker went to the auto store and bought a fancy contraption to help with the bleeding process. No dice.

At this point, I could not remember the last time that I've had felt so completely exhausted. I must have raised and lowered the car, put wheels on and taken wheels off more than a dozen times that day. My legs felt like rubber, my arms were like cooked speggetti, I was covered in grease and brake fluid, my knuckles were bleeding, and I smashed my thumb.

And, my brakes still didn't work.

After working until after dark, we decided to call it quits for the night and then just go to work the next day (monday) and search the internet for help. I limped the audi back to my apartment (my coworker only lives a mile or two away) and noticed a new rattle from the passenger side wheel. But I was too tired to worry about it at the time. Too tired to even eat, I just showered and went to bed.

Somewhere around 5AM, I thought, "it has to be the rotors! they are too worn and are preventing the pads from contacting fully!" And so, my coworker picked me up to go to work that day.

After work, we stopped by Pep Boys to buy a set of new rotors: 230$

total cost so far: 1080$

Ha, ha... it's going to work now! or so we thought. I started to take apart my brakes when I suddenly realized what that rattle was. I had lost a very important spring somewhere along the roadside driving the car home the previous night. I think my heart literally stopped beating for a minute or two. We needed that spring.

So my coworker immediately jumped on his bicycle and retraced my path back to the apartment to try to find the spring. Meanwhile, I proceeded to take off the calipers, retract the pistons, replace the rotors and reattach the calipers in record time. (things go faster the second time)... Right before it was getting dark, my coworker miraculously found the spring!! it was on the street just before the first stop light. It had obviously been run over, but still intact.

So we finished up on the brakes and were just about to put the tires on and lower the car to test them when it started to rain. And wouldn't you know it? when we looked at the radar, the entire DFW region was clear except for a little green splotch over us on the northeast side of 75/635. So we just decided to eat dinner and wait it out.

When the rain stopped, we put on the springs and tested the car. And... still didn't work. After testing them out, we noticed that the springs would not stay on. So we tried bending them a little and still no dice. This went on for a good hour until, I just decided we should call it a night again and sleep on it again. This time, I left the car at his house.

So when my coworker called me to pick me up tuesday morning, he announced that he had fixed the problem. What we were too dense to pick up on was that we were installing the spring incorrectly. He had finally found a picture of what the installed spring should look like at 5 in the morning (he's an early-riser, he's got a 6 mo old baby) and went out and fixed it on my car.

And so, the brakes finally worked and I drove my car to work tuesday morning.

Although, if I had installed the spring correctly 1PM on sunday afternoon, I would not have bought new rotors because I was being cheapskate. In the end, it was probably good that I did anyway. Besides the physical aches and pains, it was my pride that sustained most of the damage.

I must have become over-confident as I had successfully accomplished all of the difficult tasks while overlooking how a simple spring was supposed to be installed. I could have saved hours of grief, if I had just calmly sat down and really thought about it for 10 minutes. ugh.

In hind-sight, I would like to blame this lapse of engineering prowess to my extreme fatigue and non-stop frenzy fed only by adrenaline and a wendy's bacon cheeseburger. But in reality, we F*@#'d up.

All I can say is, "oh well."

p.s. I went to the dealer today to buy a new spring to replace the one that got run over (it squeaks a bit) and I plan to swap it this weekend: 10$

total cost: 1090$
total savings: ~700$
satisfaction of doing it yourself: ask me again in a month or two.

Exploding Jeeps

2005-10-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I had a great vacation last week. I did a lot of hiking and had nice clear weather for a couple of days. Here's a few of the pics.

However, I did have a little bit of excitement when I took a side trip out to Olympic National Park. What I didn't know at the time was that exactly one week earlier, Jeep announced a recall for the particular 2005 jeep cherokee that I had rented from Alamo:

DaimlerChrysler has recalled over 100,000 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs due to the potential for the vehicles to develop serious engine fires, resulting in accident, injury, or even death. The recall affects 2005 models with 3.7-liter engines and automatic transmissions.

The recall is due to a faulty air conditioning system that can cause fluid to leak into the engine part that stores transmission fluid. The mixtures of the fluid can become heated quickly. When this area over-heats, the transmission can expel fluid onto other parts of the engine. When this hot fluid comes in contact with an already heated exhaust system, an engine fire could occur.

Four reports of serious engine fires have already occurred. The motor company says that if a driver experiences a shaking sensation in the car they should bring it to a dealer immediately.

And that is exactly what happened to me halfway up the mountain at Olympic National Park. After the explosion, I pulled off to the side of the road and jumped out of the jeep.

Luckily, the fire went out on its own after the transmission oil burned up. A passerby could not help but notice the huge plume of smoke emitting from my rental. They were kind enough to call the park ranger for me. After letting the jeep cool off a bit, the ranger followed me in his truck while I limped the defective jeep down the mountain where I called Alamo roadside assistance.

After four hours, a nice old Ukrainian man came with a Chevy Trail Blazer in tow to swap out for the Jeep. Unfortunately, by that time it was too dark to drive up the mountain so I took the 2+ drive/ferry back to my hotel in seattle. Oh well, shucks, dagnabbit.

Besides that little incident I had no complaints. The day before it exploded, the Jeep was able to get me up to Mt. Saint Helens and back for a great day of hiking.

Washington is definitely a beautiful state even with a few sprinkles every now and then or even the occasional explosion.

Fictitious

2005-09-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of vulnerable, transparent blogging, I thought I would share with you my current reading habits. I've noticed that I only read fiction books when I go on vacation. I think that the reason why this is the case is that I want to have a book that just passes the time easily while I'm trying to fit a six-three frame into a hobbit-sized airplane seat for a couple of hours.

And I've noticed that the longer the vacation, the longer the book. For my 3 week trip to Brazil I read this:

For my 3 day trip to Mexico I read this:

But during the short periods of non-vacation, I seem to only read non-fiction books. There are two reasons why this is the case. I enjoy learning new things. And I feel I should at least attempt to do something productive or redeeming with my reading time. Key word here, attempt:

And no, I don't consider McLaren fiction.

But now, for next week's Seattle vacation, I have returned to my geek roots to pick of the 700 page fantasy classic:

To be honest, most people see fantasy novels as not much better than the average cheap romantic novel. But if millions of adults are reading cute children's fantasy novels about a bunch of persnickety school kids with magic sticks then I shouldn't be embarrassed about reading this.

So far its pretty good, as the reviews said, the characters are more raw, and colored with shades of grey instead of black and white. People die, bad things happen to good people, the seedy underbelly of humanity is exposed. I'm sure some good stuff will happen in it too, but in most fantasy novels such as potter books, you know that the unwitting, misunderstood, underdog hero will ultimately triumph over his clearly evil foes. (which is why people read them, nothing wrong with that)

Back in college, I really enjoyed Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series:

The characters (even the many female ones) were entirely believable and full of depth even while in a fantastical setting. But I really got pissed off and felt abused when after around book 8 in the series, the plot slowed to a spine-numbing crawl. Book 11 is out now, and they say that things have started picking up again for the final book 13, but I don't think that I can ever go back.

There's a lot of crap in Fantasy and SciFi, but these writing genres also allow a good writer a huge array of freedom to talk about the human condition in accurate, but refreshingly entertaining ways:

I guess why I also enjoyed several of Percy's novels (while not exactly scifi/fant) is that I can identify with the characters because they are human (in every sense of the word, and not just human in the sense of ethical or unethical actions).

But anyway, with this new series, I at least know what I'm getting into up front --- a total of 6 books with a very probable chance that all will be published before the author dies... and maybe the start of a lot more fiction between vacations.

Breakfeast

2005-09-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

Have you seen that new Sonic comercial? I must say that I really have hated those two guys in the car and have vowed to never go to sonic.

But the new one? GENIUS!! "it's a break-feast!"

and I've seriously considered going to sonic now just because of that pun.

so funny!!!

Dumpster Diving

2005-09-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

Roommate R really cracks me up sometimes. A few days ago, R took out the trash to find a computer sitting beside the dumpster at our apartment complex.

R has an affinity for dumpster diving. Apparently he learned it from his father and, later in life during college, he would perfect this skill by pulling out many chunked valuables from dumpsters at the end of the school year. A few months ago, he pulled out a Webber charcoal grill and two bags of charcoal. He has since grilled many a steak on that little webber.

I also have to say that R was currently using a decade-old hunk of a doorstop to write his doctoral dissertation. It's painful for me to watch --- I couldn't imagine how painful the thing must be to use. Oh yeah, and he's poor and too cheap to buy a new computer.

But he wasn't getting his hopes up too much with this dumpster computer. He pulled it out and asked me if I could salvage it for any good parts. So we took off the case and plugged it in to see if it would power up. Which it did, but it let out beeps of agony when we hit the switch. So we turned it off.

All of the components were there except for the RAM, which I found one DIMM stuck to the bottom of the case and another RAM DIMM that must have fell out of it because it was on the floor. I inserted the RAM DIMMs and turned it on. The computer hummed happily without a chirp.

So I said, "hey, this thing might actually work". So I plugged up a monitor and keyboard/mouse and it booted up. I found that the previous owner seemed to know a bit about computers and (s)he deleted all of the files, but left windows and some other programs. And with a minor jumper setting change, we used the DVD/CD drive (yes, a DVD drive) to load the 5$ office 2000 disk that R got through PISD.

And voila! It turns out to have a P-II 400Mhz, 128MB RAM, ~20gig HD, CD/DVD ROM, with sound, modem, NIC, and video cards. Someone must have thrown it out when they bought a newer computer. Roommate R now has a ~5 year old computer instead of a ~10+ year old computer to finish composing his doctoral thesis. All free and courtesy of our very own apartment dumpster.

Disaster Beyond Belief

2005-08-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

I just got off the phone with my brother in Baton Rouge. He was finally able to get through on his cell phone at midnight. Currently, he is staying at a co-worker's house because the power is still not on at his house.

The conditions are still chaotic in Baton Rouge. The population of the city has essentially more than doubled. Many traffic lights are out. The streets are congested with cars. The crime was rising until the police forced the refugees to congregate in centralized locations in the city. National Gaurd troops are definitely needed in Baton Rouge. I-10 east, towards Slidel is apparently destroyed and the Lake Pontchatrain causeway is closed so all refugees must come through Baton Rouge en route to other cities such as Houston, Jackson, or Memphis.

But Baton Rouge is pretty tame compared to New Orleans itself. These people are, in many respects, refugees because they will be unable to return to their homes for many months, if then. I saw a figure on TV today that said 12% of New Orleans residents were below the poverty level. Let's face it, most people that were left in the city were people who did not have the money or transportation to get out. The poor, sick, and elderly.

Also, these people are refugees because they are leaving a war-zone. The crime in New Orleans is unbelievable. The looting is out of control, and my brother said there were reports of boat-jackings, where the pilot is shot and their boat taken over. A girl from NO staying with my brother had her boyfriend make it out of the city today. Apparently, he was staying in a hotel downtown to ride out the hurricane, but now they are fearing for their lives because of crime. He was hassled on the street by the few police officers left for just walking on the street. This guy was able to get out by helping another random guy on the street fix his car that got flooded underwater. They had to sneak their way out into the street and were able to drive across the hwy 90 bridge south over the mississippi and then on to Baton Rouge.

My brother said that his friend's boyfriend was able to take a shower at his house. They threw away his shoes because they stank up the whole house and smelled of really bad sewage. And this was from just walking around the streets of New Orleans. I can't imagine how bad the conditions must be in the Superdome where there are no flushing toilets for 20,000+ people to use.

At any rate, a lot of these poorer refugees that have made it out of the city do not realize that they cannot go back for months. A semi-permanent housing situation must be established soon.

Tomorrow, my brother's friend and her boyfriend are going to drive to Rodchester NY and they vowed to never come back to New Orleans.

I think that many people will never go back, even if their schools, homes, and businesses could be rebuilt within a reasonable time frame. We cannot comprehend the vastness of this situation yet, but I would predict that years from now, New Orleans will definitely be just a shell of it's former self.

But for now, I pray for troops to come and for law and order to be established so the evacuation of the remaining refugees can continue.

Katrina

2005-08-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

My thoughts and prayers go to so many people who have lost so much...

It will take us quite some time to understand the extent of this catastrophe. I realize it is small compared to the December tsunami. But over a million people's lives significantly changed over the last two days. Probably hundreds have lost their lives.

Clips, Cuts, and Sports

2005-08-25T19:12:00.000-07:00

Another ritual of mine that fits my north-of-the-loop lifestyle is the monthly trip to Sport Clips. This little marketing genius targets males who don't value the "salon haircut" but still want the buzz cut done correctly within a masculinity-reinforcing "sportsy" setting. Since I moved to DFW, I've actually been moving up the hair cut ladder starting out with Supercuts, and then on to Pro*cuts (where a nice old russian lady called Malvina cut my hair every month), until now where I go to Sport Clips.

Usually they have something like sportscenter or the world poker tourney on the TV. I think they specifically train the stylists to determine if you want to small talk or not. This is one of the main reasons why I go to Sport Clips. They ask me one question about my day or something and I answer in a polite-but-I-don't-want-to-banter-so-lets-get-on-with-the-haircutting answer. And then that's it. (Malvina didn't need this training --- her english wasn't the best so she was happy not to chat either.)

In all likelihood, my next progression will be the do-it-yourself baldman's haircut. I'd like to think it is just the sun bleaching that makes it look thinner, but slowly, one hair at a time, the follicles are jumping ship. So someday, I will just take the clippers to my noggin and save the 15 bucks I spend on hair every month. But until then, I get to watch TV un-interrupted while getting my ears lowered.

Stache

2005-08-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

The mustache turned out to be somewhere between the state trooper:

and just plain creepy:

It's a good thing that Mustache Appreciation Night comes only once a year.

I am a Victim

2005-08-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

Or at least that's what the class action lawsuit says.

"all purchasers or acquirers (dumb-asses like me) of publicly traded securities of WorldCom, Inc. during the period from April 29, 1999 through and including June 25, 2002 (the "Class Period" or window or idiocy as I like to call it), and who were injured thereby. (screwed, swindled, bamboozled)"

I've been receiving court notices and class action junk for at least 2 years now. I really haven't paid much attention to them. I was never one for the "victim mentality". I screwed up, I got greedy and bought worldcom stock --- it turns out they were cooking the books and I lost some dough. I just literally wrote it off and forgot about it.

But then I received (and actually read) another notice that said they have extended the dedline to claim yourself as a plaintifs in the class action lawsuit. ...cue the Judge Wapner music...
The defendants: Bernard J. Ebbers and co-conspirators.
The plaintifs: the trustee of the State of New York retirement fund, a few other people, and myself.

Victims. I am a victim.

It's not my fault. Bernie will be rotting away for the rest of his life in jail. And now I should be compensated.

I don't exactly revel in Bernie's suffering -- really couldn't care less. But I might get money. Which is the one of the real reasons why I am submitting a "Proof of Claim and Release" form in the mail today. Key word "might". The other reason is just plain curiosity.

Out of the settlement, we victims will get $6,128,056,840.
The attornies will get $195,418,126.

Then, I might get what is called a "Recognized Amount" from the settelement fund. According to paragraph 20, subparagraph A of the Supplimental Plan of Allocation my Recognized Amount can be found in Table A of the Tables Related to Supplimental Plan of Action which says my stock price was inflated by 80%.

And any money left over will go into a "investor education fund". Whatever that is.

I've never really bought into the american notion of suing everytime you feel you've been wronged. I realize there are a lot of ligitimate reasons to sue, but I've grown cynical over the years after watching hundreds of ambulence chaser commercials. Or how 'bout my first real exposure to the judicial system: "Night Court" or later: "Judge Judy". Doesn't exactly inspire confidence. And no, I never got into Law&Order. And being an engineer, I find law extremely boring. If I was reaading this blog I would have lost interest several paragraphs ago.

So how much will I get for my "injuries"? I have no idea. maybe 2$, maybe 80%. But, all I want it what's comming to me. All I want is my fair share. I'm a vicitim.

Mountain Biking in Texas

2005-08-10T11:03:00.000-07:00

I know, the term "mountain" in mountain-biking is a bit of a misnomer in Texas, but I've been "trail-riding" now for about 3 years and I really love it. Surprisingly, there are quite a few trails in the Dallas area, but I've only been to two: Rowlett Creek Preserve in Garland and Erwin Park in McKinney. But, sorry, they are all outside the loop.

The reasons why trail-riding in texas is genius are manyfold:

1. Excuse for me to get out in nature. Allbeit Texas nature, but nature none the less.
2. Fresh air.
3. Exercise.
4. Way more fun than jogging.
5. Getting to jump over logs and climb up and down hills and ditches.
6. Free my mind and just take on whatever is around the next curve.
7. Come back home drenched in sweat, scrapes and bruises, and the occasional poison ivy rash.

genius! all within a 15 minute drive from my apartment. I enjoy trail-riding for many of the same reasons as snowboarding, but, unfortunately, it takes more than 15 minutes for me to get to the slopes.

Before I bought my Gary Fisher three years ago, I hadn't rode a bike since probably the 6th grade on my old Huffy BMX. So I was surprised to learn that things in the biking world had advanced quite a bit. Although, my bike is not terribly expensive, it is still quite light, has front suspension, and, as of last fall, I have clips/shoes instead of pedals.

I did have some friends at my previous church that helped me get into trail-riding, but lately, I've been going by myself or with my co-workers. But I'm always looking for someone to ride with... plus it helps to use the buddy system so someone can still dial 911 when necessary.

Anecdotal

2005-08-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

So I've pretty much determined that I suck at the anecdote. I probably spent too many years in college solving differential equations than practicing my bit. I usually go for painful puns or bad one-liners.

This is all quite unfortunate because 90% of conversation today is made up of amusing (or not-so-amusing) little stories. You know the type: "so I was buying some captain crunch at the supermarket yesterday when I bumped into my old gym teacher from 4th grade..." and so on until the story builds to a knee-slapping apex: " ...and so that's why all monkeys are now left-handed!"

See what I mean? I need some serious help, folks.

The End of Atkins

2005-08-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but for years, I've been wondering how long it was going to last... but it looks like the Atkins fad has finally ended.

They've quietly gone bankrupt because nobody cares anymore. Come to think of it, why do I care?

Get Rich Quick

2005-07-30T09:26:00.000-07:00

I've got this cube neighbor who literally has a different get rich quick scheme every day. All of these plans include eBay as a secret to his success. His goal is to be a "platinum-seller" on eBay which means you have to have sold like 150K/mo. online.

I don't think he'd mind too much if I told you some of his plans: He started out selling air conditioning compressors that he took from junk yard cars. He would go also to estate/yard sales of rich, Frisco/Plano housewives and buy a bunch of junk and re-sell it. He'll list it for 99c and sit back and watch the suckers bid against each other.

But his biggest scheme that he's been working on is becoming a online used car salesman. He's already got a deal with one used car salesman to sell cars using his lot. Apparently, people pay a lot more online for used cars than in person. He's already went to the car auctions to see how it is done. The margins on these used car lots are ridiculous.

Used car salesman really are scum. But my cube neighbor calls it maximizing the power of your mind or some such bull shit.

So I ask myself: "Self, how come you aren't out there selling close-out Fry's equipment on eBay? or how come you don't open a Subway franchise?"
Well self, it's because

1. I'm not that ambitious.
2. I don't know jack about business. (engineer drop-outs become business majors)
3. I have a steady paycheck at the moment.
4. and even if I didn't, the word entrepreneur is not in my vocabulary.

But for now, I'm just content making fun of my cube neighbor and telling him he's a sleazy, dot-com, used car salesman. That's about as ambitious as I'm going to get.

The Standard of Cleanliness

2005-07-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

Roommate R is going on a trip to NY thursday. The question is, will he clean his detritus left in our kitchen/living space or not before he leaves? I haven't seen talked to him in a couple of days, so I haven't been able to give him the usual, "clean this shit up" speech.

It is quite interesting though how different people have different standards of cleanliness. I have a co-worker that will re-wash dishes that his wife washed if he deems them not clean enough. Does his wife really have a different standard of cleanliness? or does she just have him so well trained to eventually do everything around the house because of her "inability" to properly clean things?

At any rate, I'm giving roommate R a chance to clean before he leaves. I don't want to give the wrong impression that I'm a neat freak -- I've got pleanty of clutter in my room. But I am bothered by the mess in the "shared living area". And I have time to clean it right now and throw all the crap in his room, but that's not the point.

Obviously, we have different standards of cleanliness...

The "Khakis Refresh"

2005-07-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

Since we were unable to play our first softball game due to the lack of female participation, I decided it was finally time to do the yearly "khakis refresh". All you cube-dwellers and techno-geeks of corporate america know what I'm talking about. They only last so long.

And, the ultimate cube-dwellers only go for the classic, no-wrinkle, pleated, Levis Dockers. Yes, you heard me correctly: pleated.

So I went to the nearest generic-but-not-quite-ghetto-yet mall where they have a JCPenny's. Unfortuately, I had to bump up the waistline by an inch this year. Although dark colors are prefered, I am at the mercy of availability. So the three pairs that I bought are in the three colors that they had in my size. Us cube-dweller geeks do not especially care about color, just pleats.

There are a few of my fellow cubies that try to break the mold and go with the stylish flat-front. These guys also tend to buy shirts with stripes that go diagonally or use hair product. Sell-outs. They are denying who they are. Be proud! wear plaid! be PLEATED!!!

Blogs in Space

2005-07-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

Does your blog lack visibility? Are the grituitous Harry Potter blog entries not attracting enough readers?

If so, maybe you should broadcast your blog to the entire galaxy with Mind Comet

Not to be confused with the best sci-fi show of all time Pigs in Space.

They'll broadcast your blog from a "powerful deep space transmission dish" free of charge.

The Brits are making fun of us again on this one. And rightly so.

Team Building

2005-07-14T17:36:00.000-07:00

You know, there are days when corporate america actually attempts to invest in their employees. These occasions are few and far between, but today my department at work had a "Team-Building" day. Which translates to playing games during worktime instead of actually working.

In the morning, we were given a "desert survival simulation exercise". Imagine that you were returning from your vacation to Acapulco, and your 6-seater plane crashed in the middle of the Mojave desert. Your pilots have tragically burned up in the smoldering plane reckage. You and your fellow unassuming planemates are now alone in the 130-degree sweltering heat.

Anyway, I was then given a written test of survival skills (slightly reminiscent of the Iowa-standards test). I was given a series of possible actions to take such as:

A. Immediately leave the reckage and head for civilization
B. Send some of the group out to find help
C. Stay put and sit on hands
D. Stay put for 2 days and then head out for civilization

And then you are supposed to evaluate various items as to their possible uses and rank them in order of importance. Such items included: water, shotgun, compass, cheese, motor oil, tequila, etc. Once you've completed your individual test, then you must come together in a group, gather consensus, and then complete the same test as a team.

It seems my individual score wasn't that great. I thought that the best course of action was to immediately run randomly out into the desert after finishing off half a bottle of tequila.

As it turns out, that isn't the right course of action. And no, it doesn't even matter what kind of tequila it is.

But, as a team, it seems that by our corporate decision making and consensus-building, our collective chances of survival increased by 56%. (In case you are wondering, the correct answer is to stay put and you'll most-likely be saved in 2-3 days)

The moral of the story? If you get stranded in the Mojave desert, you don't have to actually work that morning and apparently, tequila cannot solve every problem. Who knew?

Oh, and then after lunch we all went bowling at Main Event.

Eminent Domain

2005-07-09T09:52:00.000-07:00

Although this event is no longer current, I was extremely irked by the supreme court's ruling on eminent domain. I can't believe that redistribution of land from a relatively poor person to a large developer is what the writers of the fifth amendment had in mind. O'Connor put it succinctly:

"specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory."

I'm wondering if this was one of the straws that broke the camels back for her.

The article also sited the conservative Thomas as siding with the NAACP and O'Connor against this ruling as well. He pointed out that usually urban renewal just means that elderly/minority/poor people just end up being pushed out so that rich people can come in and live, shop, and play on their land.

I realize I don't know all the details about this ruling and the ramifications, but owning property is one of the main reasons about what makes America so great. And now it seems that the rich and powerful private business (no doubt with local tax incentives) can take over private property whenever your city counsel says they can.

You never know, your house just might now become a walmart next month...

Anger management

2005-07-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

I'm continually amazed at how angry a lot of people are. I had an incident of Road Rage today that reminded me of when I was in a parking garage in downtown Dallas a couple of months ago. Incidentally, I talked with the security guard there that used to work at my building way up in Richardson (outside of the loop).

Anyway, the nice security guard told me that I was in the wrong spot and I needed to go out of the parking garage and drive to the other side of the building. But I had to stop at the exit gate and hand the attendant my ticket.

Except there wasn't an attendant. I waited for a minute or two until one car was queued up behind me.

Still no attendant. Then another lady in a white van pulled up behind that car.

That's when it got ugly. She had not waited for more than 30 seconds before honking her horn and screaming at my old security guard, "what the hell are you standing there for? I know you can open that damn gate!"

The attendant finally got back and was totally distraught. The poor little old lady had to go get some change from the safe and no one could relieve her. She proceeded to get cursed out by the lady in the white van about how she was terribly inconvenienced, blah, blah, blah.

I tried to tell the attendant lady not to worry about it but she was already shaken. Why did the yelly lady have to be hating? Was she having a bad day and taking it out on the nice little old parking lady? This is not a life or death scenario and the yelly lady had to wait maybe an extra minute. Did it really matter that much? We don't just have Road Rage, we now have Parking Rage as well.

I guess I realized how important it is to get outside of yourself and always consider your neighbor's POV. And I know that anger can be useful at times, but I think no one would question that this kind of rage just ends up ultimately destroying ourselves more than anyone else.

Black Thumb

2005-06-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

I've always had a black thumb. I kill house plants, hell, I even killed a cactus once. Anyway, I'm trying to change all that. Maybe Dale gave me some inspiration.

I've begun an experiment with my poor office plant. The thing has severely outgrown it's pot, so I've repotted it in a bigger pot, but took out one of the three shoots and clipped it. I put that one in a little coffee cup with some water and miracle grow. And it'll definitely be a miracle if the thing sprouts roots.

Luckily, I'm an engineer and not an agronomist like my father. If you leave a piece of equipment to it's own devices, it won't do anything. You can pick up where you left off yesterday. A plant (or any living thing really: cats, bats, rats, gnats, relationships, or people) if left alone without nourishment/attention, will most certainly die. So I think I'll stick with the machines.

The Slippery Slope

2005-06-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

All last week and probably all of this week, I have/will be eating breakfast for dinner. I realize that the fat and cholesterol in sausage and eggs is probably one of the worst things you can eat (other than just sitting down with a bucket of lard and a spoon). But I like it. And last I checked, my cholesterol level wasn't very high.

I think that all that cholesterol level stuff is mostly genetic anyway. Yes, yes, you need to exercise and all that, but I know this guy from Iowa that grew up with the practice of putting BUTTER on his donuts. I was amazed. As if they didn't have enough grease to start with. And where did he learn it from? His parents. Where did they learn it from? His grandparents. His grandparents happen to be in their nineties with no heart problems whatsoever. Probably ate Iowa pork every day for decades.

So, just to be on the safe side, I threw in some pancakes to balance out the meal.

WWW

2005-06-22T14:22:00.000-07:00

However you feel about W., deep down we all have a little place in our political hearts for that all-but-forgotten-goof-ball, Al Gore.

That's why I was happy to find out that he finally received his props for helping to bring the internet into being. Technically, he did help pass legislation that made the internet (and it's inevitable blogging) available to the public.

From abcnews:

And at the ninth annual international Webby Awards in New York this week, one particular Net figure finally received his due: Former Vice President Al Gore.

Officials at the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences honored Gore with the Webby Lifetime Achievement award in recognition of his pivotal role in the development of the Internet over the last 30 years.

Gore had been skewered during the 2000 presidential campaign for his remarks that suggested he was the Net's creator. But Vinton Cerf, one of the scientists who helped craft the actual Internet architecture, acknowledged that Gore was responsible for crafting important legislation and lending needed political support for "the information superhighway."

The former vice president accepted the award from Cerf. But like other Webby winners, the usually talkative Gore had to limit his acceptance speech to five words or less.

Thus, remarked Gore, "Please don't recount this vote."

Cube Relocation

2005-06-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

Today was the day of the big cube move. I've been dreading it for months and I was one of the last cubes standing. Our department has had to give up it's prime piece of real estate to be herded in together with the other remnant groups upstairs and very far away from the test lab.

Previous cube:

New cube:

In order to make the transition as painless as possible, I maintained my desk organizational "filing system" by placing the several piles of paper carefully into boxes and then just as carefully placing them in their inverse positions on my new desk.

Sickly office plant that I've been unintentionally torturing for years, but can't seem to let go of:

eco-goat-herders

2005-06-17T15:34:00.000-07:00

I worked with someone in software QC at my company today that, of all things, has just started an organic, goat dairy farm. This guy lives in Columbus, Ohio area and apparently there is market there for organic, non-pasteurized, goat milk. I just thought it was interesting how the small, family farm model is somewhat returning. Only it has reincarnated in a more trendy, environmentally-friendly, organic form. And I think that they might succeed too as long as the market for this stuff remains niche and stays under the radar of the large agribusinesses.

Why do I care? It is a little-known fact that I grew up on a small dairy farm in Nowhere, Wisconsin. (Wisconsin is no longer the #1 state in cheese or milk production BTW) And yes, I’m proud to admit that I’ve shoveled a lot of shit in my day. Builds character.

Although many complain about government farm subsidies (with good reason sometimes, but that also gets into global trade issues and whatnot), the small family farm was essentially a small business that got squeezed out just like Wal-Mart squeezed out all of the local downtown small businesses and factories. So I’m not lamenting about it, it just is what it is.

Well, I say hats off to the eco-goat-herders, but you won't find me drinking goat's milk anytime soon. Incidentally, my roommate just turned to eating all organic now, so it must be a lot more common than I thought. I wonder if they make organic feta?

Sudoku

2005-06-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

All you tetris-heads will probably enjoy this puzzle. They seem to be big in the UK right right now, but I've just found out about them recently. The ancient Japanese puzzle of Sudoku is simple, but can be elegantly complex at the same time. All you do is fill each square with a number such that each row, column, and block have the numbers 1-9. It's kinda like the crossword puzzle for those of us who are writenly and scrabbelly challanged.

Two Rows Bacon

2005-06-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

Bacon.

Thick, juicy, honey-cured, pepper bacon -- to be precise. To be best enjoyed as:

A. garnish

B. appetizer

C. main course

D. condiment (not to be confused with bacon bits)

E. all of the above.