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What doin'

Have some spare time on my hands this week. I've been working on finishing up some things that need done, household stuff, mostly, but also some garage projects. I'm slated to do a shop inventory, as well as rewire the entertainment center, both of which will have some information here.

I've also got my car's AUX IN working in it's entirety, though I have no laptop currently under control. Still mulling what to do with the Carputer, as well as some work to be done in the datacenter. My big UPS needs some work, as it's got some overheating issues in which it drops the load, and makes the closet like a million degrees. Perhaps Jeff will give me a hand with it.

Do'h! I'd spaced the entire purpose of this post. Check out this TDI Touran's acceleration: Linky

Dyson vs. Bissell

Per the previous post, Becky won a vacuum. Today, we had a chance to test it. Last night, I had a chance to finish some things up down in the shop. I got the grinder stand in order, and did some exploring of options for the bandsaw. Aside from that, I'm gonna have some free time next week, and am working on my to-do list for next week/weekend. If you have any great ideas, let me know.

Wow

As usual, it's been a while since I updated (about 10 days to be exact). Not a ton going on of late. Found out today that Becky won a vacuum she'd registered for a while back. It's a Dyson, and it remains to be seen just how awesome it is.

Found another interesting "project" site this week, cockeyed.com. It's a bit different than my usual interests; It has a focus on goofy activities, costumes, etc. It's a fun read in any case.

Of late, I've spent some time playing Anarchy Online with Caleb from work. It's a bit different playing an MMO in a "just for fun" capacity. I'll be the first to admit that, back in the day, Fru and I played Neocron way more than much of anything else (including sleep and work). This is really pretty refreshing. I suspect that, when it stops being fun, I'll be done with MMOs again for another 5 years.

Feeling Old

After being sweated out at the Jazz and Blues festival tonight, we went to see Wall-E. As usual, there was plenty of talking kids; One of the downsides to seeing kids movies so early in the evening. Anyhow, in one of the scenes, Wall-E is playing Pong, essentially with himself (the second paddle wasn't moving)... One kid ask (loudly) "Mommy, what's Wall-E doing with that remote?"... I realized, then, that there are kids that have never seen Pong... I understand that it was made before I was born, but it was a big part of my childhood, in the pre-NES days.

As for the bandsaw, I had opportunity to use it last night. It works pretty good. Still needs some work on the rip fence, and a good bi-metal blade, but it'll definitely do.

Busy

Received an email about the AUX box this week; The vendor claims that I can mix-and-match parts of the working aux-only unit with the PC control unit to get me what I need. I haven't seen the instructions for that, yet, so we'll see. Bought a Bandsaw off CraigsList today; Started setting it up.... Tracking on a cheap-ish bandsaw is a pain to set. Details to come.

Success at last (sort of)

Received (replacement) my AUX box (for the Jetta in the mail today. Got it all hooked up, and to my delight, my "Check Magazine" errors are a thing of the past. It works great, except for just one little detail. It's the wrong one. I'd initially ordered the USB Control box, and that's what they'd sent me, at first. When they sent the replacement, however, it was the non-control one. Either way, they're on the job (again), and we'll see how it goes. In the meantime, this thing sounds great. Crystal clear audio from my laptop, shuffle, etc. Perhaps tomorrow, I'll give it a whirl with the BT Audio Bridge and my phone, if I have time left, after building the Grinder Stand.

Dave ask me why I keep doing business with this place, after they've had so many issues (wrong cable, bad box, wrong box, long waits, etc), but the truth is, they've got a unique product and I'm willing to suffer a bit to get it.

Delayed

I've been meaning to update for some time. I've been busy with things like fixing Becky's bike, working on Dave's Van Seat and dealing with storm related things. In case you hadn't heard, Omaha got pummeled by hail and high winds last Friday night. We're all OK here, just some exterior damage. I was driving home at the time that the storm hit, but my Jetta seems to have survived without hail damage. On a related note, I had some time to clean my intake snorkel last week.

66 Cents

Today, patience paid off. For a long time, I'd been shopping for a lamp for the drill press; My criteria were pretty simple: It had to be halogen (To keep the head small) and it had to be cheap (preferably free)... I'd seen all sorts of little halogen setups at stores between $10 and $20, but the fact remained that I'm a tightwad, and really didn't "need" one... I could afford to wait for a deal.

Today, I found that deal at the new Target on West Maple. I made a wrong turn down the lamps aisle (whilst looking for a food scale...) and saw this ugly blue reading lamp that looked disheveled and out of place. It had a "NOT IN STOCK" tag taped to it, and a hand-written price tag on the bottom. "Was 2.34, NOW $.66"... I knew I'd found my lamp.

On work:I cant even IMAGINE not working. While my various jobs have occasionally been annoying and people, in general, often dumb, I LOVE solving problems; There's nothing like the rush of creation, solving a problem with just your mind and a small shell script.

Jackin' around with Dave

Last night, about 23:20, I was downstairs trying to finish up my Picture Frame project when Dave called. It seems that he'd had a blowout on his way to work and while changing the tire, he'd had the jack slip and had dropped the van. On my way over, it started raining (which always makes working outside more enjoyable) but it'd mostly stopped by the time I got there. It sort of looked like he'd picked up under the control arm, and (maybe) leaned against the side of the van and it shifted. Anyhow, it was resting on the side of the jack. We were able to resolve the situation by picking the van up from the front and slipping a jackstand underneath. Ironically, his spare was a bit low as well, though that's a whole lot better than flat.

Read Dave's Account

New Things

This weekend's been pretty busy but none too exciting; Went to the farmers market downtown and to lunch with Ben and Jeremy and drove around Dundee briefly, looking at neat old houses. Today, I went down to Lincoln for Fathers' Day.

On another note, I've stumbled upon some interesting things recently. Sometime real soon now, I'm going to be working on Dave's van seat (it's a bit bent, and needs repositioned). I was looking for some photos of how it's assembled, and found out that AutoZone has an abridged version of the Haynes repair guide photos on their website. Very handy when maneuvering bits of car.

I often ramble on this site about various projects and link to sites like Steampunk Workshop where someone else does projects and writes about them online. Suffice to say, I've found another. I recently discovered Workshop.ca on /. and it turned out to be incredible. This guy is crazy with light vehicles, alternative energy, CNC machining and a ton of other things. Anyhow, Enjoy!

Passport to Hell

Tonight, I helped my friend Seth fix an elusive electrical problem in his car. He'd been going without for a few days, and was getting sick of hitching a ride to work. Anyhow, we finally got it worked out. Also, last night, finished up assembling the IKEA bookshelf. It doesn't quite match the ones we had before, but it's pretty darn close. Finally, and on an unrelated note, I finally am getting to uploading pictures of Dan and Emily's wedding.

Happy 0'th Anniversary!

Just got back from Minneapolis where we attended Dan & Emily's wedding. As mentioned, I was the "best man", though I'm unclear as to just what I was the best at. People said my speech was nice; I'll get my outline posted sometime, maybe. Anyhow, we hit IKEA as well, and got some fun stuff. Becky got to ride home in the front seat, this time.

Update: Dan was online checking his email (for shame) and sent these photos from the honeymoon.

Foiled Again!

After all the headache with getting my aux-box cable, I'm having problems making it go. The headunit reports that the Magazine needs Checked... Unfortunately, what the headunit doesn't know is that the interface box has no magazine to check. I'm still pending tech support, but it seems like this is going to be pretty slick once it works right. I sort of wonder if there's not something wrong with the box itself... Time will tell.

On another note, my Picture Frame project is hopefully moving ahead. I need to get a power brick back from either Dave or Andy... Unfortunately, that might be more work than the rest of the project. :)

2d6

After an open air concert tonight, we had Jason and Megan(sp?!) over for Settlers. Megan had never played, so Becky was explaining the rules. While explaining the resource-giving phase, she referred to the dice rolled as "2d6", which I thought was about the most awesome thing ever, since I thought she'd done it on accident, and that my D&D-ness was wearing off on her. Unfortunately, that was not the case, as she later admitted that she'd said it intentionally... Perhaps next time.

Box Day!

My interface arrived today, due to complete my Custom Input Jacks‎ project. Unfortunately, my friends at InDashPC sent me the dash cable, instead of the trunk cable as ordered. Further unfortunately, IDP doesn't have a phone number listed on their site, or invoice, so I'm stuck with "1-2 business day turnaround" on their email form. We'll see how this ends.

Update: A guy named Dmitry responded VERY promptly to my request, and stated that they'd be mailing out the right cable ASAP. Not a bad recovery.

This didn't make the Feed?!

Last night, I sent Dave a link to my Custom Input Jacks‎. He seemed a bit apalled that it "hadn't made the feed", since he doesn't actually read websites, just watch their RSS feeds. I'd considered setting the feed up for the What's New page, but there's a lot of "details" type cruft on there. This is part of the reason I've avoided Wordpress or similar, because there's so much "back story" that wouldn't make the front page anyhow. In any case, here's the list of things I've been working on:

Sunglasses

Becky and I were at Target on Saturday, shopping for new glasses. She was trying on like every pair of glasses in the store, and while (we) were waiting, the clerk offered to straighten out my seriously frakked sunglasses. To make a long story short, by some fluke, she managed to break one of the lenses. Thankfully she didn't cut herself, though she felt really bad about it. In the end, they made it right: Turns out Sunglass Hut and Target Optical are some kind of preferred RayBan resellers, and co-owned somehow. To that end, I was sent down to the Sunglass Hut at the mall to pick out a comparable pair, gratis. Can't say as that I mind a new pair of shades just for driving to the mall. Thanks guys!

Finally!

Tonight, I finally beat Super Paper Mario. I'd managed to get about 45 minutes from the end without resorting to a walkthrough or FAQ, and it recently started bothering me that this game was sitting "incomplete" for so long. So tonight, I sat down with a mission. Finish Super Paper Mario, by any means necessary.

I don't know if I'd have figured it out, without the walk through; It was confusing enough trying to follow their directions. Anyhow, mission accomplished. I'd really like an actual map of the maze in 8-4 (immediately before Bleck's chamber), but there doesn't seem to be one. Perhaps someday, I'll come up with one. Also, I prefer the strategy for the final showdown with Mr. L from this FAQ, as opposed to the one in the walk-through.

We Made it!

Well, we actually made it to the renaissance faire. We saw the obligatory gal in a chainmail bikini, the guy eating a turkey leg, and the guy with the 3-pointed hat. I also got to play with some foam swords. When we got there, Becky ask what one did at a renaissance faire, and I didn't have a really good answer. There were a number of shops on the "main drag", some wandering performers, a half-dozen stages with rotating performances, and some places to get food. We wandered around a bit, watched some shows (the whip guy was pretty good, though he tried a bit too hard with the jokes), and bought a themepark-priced soda. All in all, a pretty decent afternoon.

Finally uploaded pictures Here.

Remembering the Renaissance

Becky tells me that I'm "forgetful like an old man". I admit that I often forget things, and occasionally find myself wondering what I was looking for in the fridge, but I don't think I'm so bad. I chalk it up (mostly) to so much "useful" processing going on in my head. Anyhow, I was cleaning out my to-do list in my phone tonight and came across a reminder to go to a renaissance fair this year. Just so happens that the Midwest Renaissance Festival is this month. Ironically, Becky just told me tonight that we have nothing going on this weekend... Perfect timing.

On a related note, I've recently become sort of a time management junkie, reading things like The 4 Hour Work Week and Getting Things Done. Sometime, I'll throw together an article on how I my system works (hint, these 2 books are diametrically opposed. My system is somewhere in the middle).

The passing of an old friend

Samantha "smooch" passed away approximately 9pm on Wednesday May 7, 2008 after collapsing in the kitchen.

Dad and Patti were there and able to comfort her as she took her last breaths.

She was a good dog and will be missed by all who knew her.

Busy but updates

I've been crazy busy lately, but have found time for a few updates anyhow. I've started using Google Analytics to find out what brings traffic to my site, and plan to start maintaining content based on those results. In the meantime, I've updated a page on my workstation. I also had a chance to haul my VMWare server downstairs tonight. I was afraid of the impending storm; thought it best to get it on the Beastly UPS in the cave. I know I need to update my Datacenter page, but I'm sort of holding off until the fileserver/VMWare transition is complete. As always, don't forget the What's New page.

New Content

I've spent quite a bit of time recently working on my page, though most of it's not obvious by looking at this page. Part of the reason that I chose Mediawiki to being with is it's ability to deal with my huge volumes of projects, rants, and other "non-Blog" content. Keep an eye on the What's New page, so you don't miss anything.

Feedin' on RSS

Dave had been giving me trouble about my site's lack of an RSS feed (due to the fact that this is Mediawiki, and not one of the fancy "blogger" engines)... so I figured I'd make something up. In the "Special Pages" section on the left-hand side is the RSS Feed link. You can subscribe to it with Firefox, or your feed reader of choice. Improvements will be made, but for now, it just parses the front page and gives links to the titles. Source code to come, as soon as it's not ugly.

The Fridge Debacle

So Sunday night, our fridge quit working. After hours spent looking for the "defrost timer", we came to find out that it's actually part of the "everything module", and is actually solid state. Read on for the whole story.

Craig Saws All

So I bought my first item off Craigslist today; After tossing my Firestorm tools for want of workable batteries and chargers, I was in the market for a new reciprocating saw, and was planning on buying a Harbor Freight cheapy, when I found a well-used Milwaukee on Craigslist. I believe it to be a model 6509, given it's bolt-down blade holder and detachable cord (the name plate is mostly worn off). For $20, it was a steal. I had to bang out the shoe a little, and give it a good washdown, but it's pretty decent. The rubber "gear case cover" is torn (off) and the (detachable) power cord is beat to death, but both are easily replaced for approximately $20 total, but I can do without the boot, and the elecrical tape "cord cover" works fine for now. Photos are now here.

Vacation and what's next

Now that we're back, I suppose it's safe to say that we were recently in the Bahamas, for quick vacation before Becky's new job. Photos of that are available in the gallery. We didn't take nearly as many pictures as we did in Europe (I took 1 2gb card (500 pics max), no battery charger (or spares) and no laptop), though I think this is largely due to there being less things worth photographing.

Whilst on our trip, I finished The 4 Hour Work Week, which is a sort of unconventional time-management book with something of a leisure / entrepreneurial bent. That said, there's lots of things there that can apply to the rest of us. His biggest take-way is that efficiency (doing tasks quickly) isn't the same thing as effectiveness (getting the most work done with the least effort). The author would have you believe that elimination of unimportant tasks is the way to improve effectiveness.

Anyhow, much more to come soon, here's hoping I have time. 3 weddings in the next 45 days, blech (nothing personal Dan).

Spring is about to spring

It seems fitting that I write on this day, the end of Winter. The weather has been pretty decent lately, and I find myself more motivated down in the garage. I've also been busy working on the BRAN website (I should get back to that, probably). I've spent quite a bit of time cleaning up, getting ready for my next big project (no clue what that is, yet). I stumbled (again) upon Jake's page, over at Steampunk Workshop, and that seriously motivates my project-ness, even if those projects are fairly useless. Perhaps someday, I'll have the space to be awesome like that. It seems that the main thing holding me back is my raw material storage. Given enough materials, Project Greatness happens on its own. I tend to find that my biggest problem is not enough time for all the projects I've started, or want to start: Computer hardware, House, Software, D&D, Car, Home Theater, and the list goes on. If you have a solution to this problem, please let me know!

Updates

I've noticed that I'm not nearly so good at updating as I'd like to be. Sorry. In any case, I've been busy with work, working on projects, working on my car, etc. Had to replace a glow plug this month (writeup to come) and have done some other mods.

So Becky and I were at Costco tonight, and as we were walking in, the guy ask us "How old are you two?"... Suffice to say, we were old enough to shop here. It was just very odd, because, apparently, he thought we were "under 18"... There's a variety of things wrong with the way he dealt with it, even if that were the case(no ID Check, poor phrasing, etc)

We also went to 24 Hour Fitness today, to start our 2-week trial. The "fitness councilor" made a pretty good hard sell. I'm surprised that they do this, because obviously, it works. I'm just surprised that people actually buy "fitness" that way. The best was when his associate came to "close" the sale (we didn't buy anything). I was ready to start arguing the trade-in value of my fatness... What's the blue-book value for 20lbs or so, anyhow?

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