Category Archives: About Me - Page 31

Beating Myself Up

Posted by on February 8, 2014 No comments

Ok, so I must be masochistic.  I came into a old laptop that was being disposed and I thought I’d try to install Windows 8.1 on it.  Guess what?  It worked!  However, just the OS itself pushed the hardware to the point where the CPU fan was running non-stop.  So I gave up on that idea.

Then, buoyed by success, I went to the other extreme.  I brought out the big bag of idiocy that is Linux.  I’ve tried Mint before and I liked it.  So I burned a disc of the latest Mint.  The laptop froze during boot.  Hmm.  I do believe I’ve seen that before…  So I burned a disc of an older Mint.  Laptop boots, finds sound and network, we’re good to go.

I do the installation, and in the process, I wipe out all disk partitions and start from scratch.  Install proceeds well and I reboot.  As soon as I hit the button to restart, I started mocking the system, saying “Now we’re going to go to a black text screen that spews out a bunch of statuses.  See, this is why normal people don’t use Linux.  No one wants to see that shit.”

Well, I must have offended it, because on bootup, I get a black screen that says:

GRUB loading.
Welcome to GRUB!

error: out of disk.
Entering rescue mode…
grub rescue>

Seriously, what the fuck?  I’m approaching this install as if I can give this laptop away as a basic Internet device.  GRUB?  “out of disk”?  What the fuck does that mean?  I then had the following conversation with GRUB:

grub rescue> help
Unknown command ‘help’
grub rescue> ?
Unknown command ‘?’
grub rescue> mount
Unknown command ‘mount’
grub rescue> diag
Unknown command ‘diag’
grub rescue> go
Unknown command ‘go’
grub rescue> exit
Unknown command ‘exit’
grub rescue> quit
Unknown command ‘quit’

You know what?  I fucking HATE Linux.  I did some searches on that error and I read all kinds of crap.  But mostly, no one knew how to fix it.  Someone made a wild suggestion that not only might the hard drive be bad, but the motherboard may be as well.  That’s insane.

But you know what else?  I’m going to keep fighting this issue for probably the rest of the day.  And if I succeed, all it will do is tell me what level you have to be at to make the supposed best OS in the world “just work”.

My New Child

Posted by on February 6, 2014 No comments

Yup, I have a kid.  I hate children, too.  Let me explain how this happened.

I do the finances for a non-profit organization.  It’s brand new and doesn’t have a ton of structure yet, so pretty much do-what-you-want.  So as part of my duties, I decided I’m going to start emailing members when their membership dues are due.

I have an email account for the org’s domain, but the email server doesn’t have any contact management.  No problem, I’ll create a Windows Live account for that email and use the People function to store the addresses.  Works fine, since Windows Live Mail uses People as the contacts.

So I start the process to create the Live account.  During creation, I am prompted for my date of birth.  I’m not going to use mine, duh.  I could make one up, but this should be something that anyone in the org can remember in case they need to reset a password or something after I’ve passed the reins.  So I use the date the org was formed: 10/1/2013.  I click Save.

Now, to my surprise, I am told that a minor cannot use the Live services without parental consent.  Damn it.  This account now belongs to a 4-month old.  So, without thinking much, I logged in as myself to authorize.  Congratulations to me, I’m a parent now.

It would be easy for anyone to create two accounts and authorize one from the other, so there has to be a way to prove that the “parent” account is really an adult.  How is this done?  By charging your credit card, of course!  A minor can’t possess a credit card, so that’s foolproof.  Or something.  Cost to have a kid: $.50.  Some of that gets donated to charity, which I suppose is great.

So I figure I totally own this little shit now.  After all, I paid for it.

Watch Out.

Posted by on December 14, 2013 No comments

I mentioned in a past post that I have a small watch collection.  I say it that way because recently, I considered collecting watches.  I thought I had a fair collection – isn’t more than one a collection?  I had one valuable watch handed down from my dad, four watches all of the same make, just slight variations, then two gifted watches that I didn’t care for.  My plan was to start collecting watches I like.

A little bit of research online showed that that’s not what “watch collecting” means.  Watch collectors are, put bluntly, fucking snobs.  There seems to be only a couple of ways to garner the respect of a watch collector.  Either already have a collection of high-end timepieces, or if you  are starting out, ask for advice and say your budget is something like $5,000.  So, my “collection” of sub-$100 watches is probably an insult to their art.

I had mused on collections in a really old post and came up with the decent conclusion that a collection really only has value to the owner, not to anyone else. (like hair, I said.  Crazy.)  I thought a bit more on it and considered the absurdity of the concept of collecting. Here I am buying $70-100 watches and there’s a whole lot of people out there that couldn’t (or wouldn’t dare) buy a single watch for more than $20.  In that regard, I am very fortunate for my situation, but I certainly don’t have the audacity to look down on someone because they don’t see some perceived value in watches that I see.

And that’s kind of the point.  Why do we collect things?  The high-end watch collectors must be smitten with the amazing craftwork in a watch, and I can understand that.  The issue is that the appreciation of the complexity of the watch is not what is conveyed to a potential fellow collector.  And someone that is buying a watch for a new collection (with a budget of $5k), clearly can’t appreciate the device at the same level.

Really, after all is said and done, a watch tells time.  A $20 Casio digital quartz watch is just as accurate as a Rolex, and doesn’t come with a regular maintenance schedule.  If you’ve never known about luxury watches, yes, they do need to be serviced regularly.  Pay a lot up front and keep paying on schedule.  So, the argument “That watch will last for your lifetime,” loses its charm a little when you have to effectively pay the cost of a new watch every few years.

Given all the thinking I’ve done on this now, I am going to go ahead with my “collection”, although it’s not going to be classified as a collection.  I’m not sure what else to call it.  It’s just a set of watches that I like looking at and wearing and that have the expected purpose of telling time.  As part of their purpose, they match my wardrobe and match the activity I have planned while wearing them.  That’s a balance of practicality and fashion. 

Maybe someday, I will have the desire to own a device with an amazing internal structure and will find the cost of owning it to be worth the reward.  But that day is not today.

Out With The New And In With The Old

Posted by on November 7, 2013 No comments

I guess it wasn’t meant to be.  I am back using “the tank”  – my old keyboard.  I gave the new slimline KeyTronic keyboards a fighting chance.  but I’ve ruined three already – not a good sign at all.  The first one, something happened under one of the keys, so I pried off the key caps to fix it and wound up breaking the spring on one of the keys,resulting in the key being stuck down.  I RMA’d that keyboard and I think I had to pay shipping.  Its replacement, I spilled a very little bit of Coke on it, and the Delete key started sticking.  There was no way I was going to pry off the keycap to clean it!  So I lived with the sticking delete key for quite a while (and I use it a lot).  The keyboard I took to work has actually failed from use.  The left Control key sticks randomly.  With all the key commands I use every day: Ctrl-X/C/V – cut/copy/paste, Ctrl-E – Execute query, Ctrl-S – Save, Ctrl-A – Select All, Ctrl-Z – Undo, it just couldn’t handle the stress.

I’m taking the other tank to work and will start using it there again, too.  I have some new co-workers, so I suppose they’re going to be ridiculing me for my ancient technology.  Laugh if you want, but it is damn good technology.  They don’t make ‘em like they used to.  When I started typing this post on the old keyboard, I was surprised at how much better the action felt than the thin, low-profile style.  It’s much more forgiving.

I still have one of the slimline keyboards.  It’s still new in the box and I’m unsure what I even want to do with it.  I think it’s going to be donated to a junk sale.

Going the Extra (Rewards) Mile

Posted by on November 1, 2013 No comments

Ya gotta be hustlin’, all the time.

In a previous post, I had talked about my Capital One rewards miles and buying gift cards vs. statement credit.  It was a couple years ago and in that round, I bought up some gift cards because they were a better value than statement credit.  This recent rewards shopping session has given me an interesting opportunity to take advantage of.

Normally, a $100 gift card is 15,500 points (miles, whatever).  However, they offer some $200 cards for 20,000 points, which is clearly a better deal, but sadly, they never have any cards I want, like restaurants.  In my regular browsing visit to see if they have added any $200 dining cards (nope), I saw a Neiman Marcus gift card for 16,000 points – a $200 card.  Wow, for 500 more points than a $100 card, you get a $200 card.  Too bad I don’t have an ounce of care for Neiman Marcus.  $200 might buy me a pack of handkerchiefs.

But, that is still an awesome value and I can’t get it out of my head.  I have enough points to get $600 in cards.  That same number of points equates to only $240 in statement credit.  Maybe I can sell the cards for cash.  After some quick research, I found a website (cardpool.com) that buys gift cards (at a discount, of course).  Their simple online calculator says I can get $510 in cash for those cards.  That’s over twice as much as I could get from statement credit.

Quick math time: Statement credit is about .5 cent per mile, gift cards at normal rate are about .65 cent a mile, these NM cards are 1.25 cents a mile.  Even with the premium for selling the cards, it’s still 1 cent a mile.

Now, to be clear, I am grateful for finding and being able to take advantage of this opportunity.  Part of my gratitude is that I just happened across it and part is that I don’t have to do this.  There’s a lot of people who have to do similar things like this just to get by.  Buy low/sell high/make it through tomorrow.

After signing up for an account on Cardpool, I got looking at the cards they sell.  They’re sold at varying discounts.  It got me thinking some more.  if I know i ‘m going to be spending the money somewhere, why not buy a gift card at a discount first?  Really, 10% off at Outback or Chilis is still 10% off.  And since gift cards are just like cash, you’re not restricted to coupon use.  I think I have a new source of savings.

Un-Disposable

Posted by on October 23, 2013 No comments

Today I felt pretty good about myself.  I kept myself from spending more money.  I did this by simply repairing what I intended to replace.  This story goes back a little ways.  It’s about my watch.

I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned my watches before, but I have a small collection – a collection I recently am trying to build up a little.  I don’t really like heavy things on my wrist, so I have been attracted to Skagen watches because they are so thin.  When you get them in titanium, they’re even lighter.  As an aside, the current trend of huge watches offends me greatly.

I’ve been wearing Skagen watches for probably over 15 years.  One of the first watches I had, I loved.  Then the battery went dead.  So I filled out an RMA form and mailed the watch off to Skagen for battery replacement.  I never saw the watch again.  Worse, I never saw that model again, so I was never able to replace it.  I think I didn’t wear a watch for a period of time after that incident out of grief and protest.

Years go by and I’ve got a few more watches, a couple Skagen and a Wenger.  One day, I snag the mesh band on something and it pulls a link out, causing a sharp spur.  So I go to Skagen’s repair site and find that a replacement band is about $25.  That’s $25 on a $70 watch, quite a decent percentage of value.  So I balked at replacing the band.  Instead, I spent $100 on a new, nicer Skagen.  It made sense, and that watch has served me very well for years.

But the watch with the broken band has been sitting in my watch case ever since.  I really do like it – the lightest one I have and it has numbers on the face, instead of just ticks.  So recently, I went back to the Skagen website to order the band.  Now all of a sudden, you can’t buy replacement parts.  You have to send your watch to a service center for repair.  Yeah, I’ve been through that one before.  No thanks.  I search around online and the supply of replacement bands is very small and more expensive.  What the heck is going on?

I found my answer: Fossil bought out Skagen.  And with that purchase, they completely changed the way service is done.  I have little love for Fossil.  I owned one watch by them and it never “worked” for me, then it stopped working, literally.  So it was a huge disappointment to hear the news of the sale.

Now, I was going back and forth between buying a replacement watch ($70), or actually paying the now $30+ just for the band.  Oh, and the battery needs replaced ($12).  Then it hit me.  The Dremel!  I have tools!  I can grind this spur down, and if I fail at doing that, what have I lost?  I was prepared to chuck the watch anyway.

So, with the precision of an amateur dentist, I chose a grinding bit and went to town.  Totally anti-climatic, it took like 3 seconds and I had a flawless result.  Why I didn’t think of that earlier, I don’t know.  No, I kinda do know.  I’m a wasteful, consumerist American.  Everything is disposable. 

But, I’m  compelled to look for a deeper meaning here.  Why didn’t I just toss the watch and buy another?  After all, I did buy a replacement model and still didn’t throw it out.  Maybe I have a deeper connection with that watch than I realize.  I’ll get the battery changed this weekend, and I have a new watch in the mail, and I have a plan to buy another watch (maybe even two) on my upcoming vacation, so we’ll have to see which watch gets the most face time in the end.

Revamped Office

Posted by on October 18, 2013 No comments

Welcome to my hell.  Actually, I mean, welcome to my productivity trap.

WP_20130923_006

Many years ago – 8 to be precise – I made the purchase, nay, the investment, in good office furniture.  I ordered from Staples’ business collection, the Bush Cubix series.  Not so long ago, I revisited that purchase and was utterly shocked that I had spent nearly $500 on two pieces of furniture: a 60” desk and a bookcase.

However, as time has proven, you get what you pay for.  This furniture has been excellent despite the fact that I’ve never taken care of it at all.  But all that is going to change soon.  As you can see, my workspace has become a storage space for everything.  It has no purpose, and when I sit down at it, I am uninspired and lost.

To begin this change, I spent another $500 on two more pieces from the Cubix collection: a 3-drawer storage unit and a stand for my printer and papers.  I can’t get the hutch and locker yet.  Someday…  But, this is going to get the stuff off my desk, giving me a clear view with less distractions.  Then once everything is off, I can clean the desk.  There are some chips in the finish from a very poor decision I made one night involving a clamp.  While bemoaning the fact that my clean desk was still going to be marred, I hit upon an idea that gave me hope and inspiration for the future of my home-office work.  That idea is the humble leather desk pad.

Ok, maybe it isn’t humble.  In a lot of ways it’s pompous, since it’s a executive thing, but it doesn’t have to be.  Look at the current state of my desk.  Look at how many things are sitting in front of me.  Now imagine a desk pad blocking all that junk.  The desk pad says, “No.  Not here.  This is not storage area, this is creative area.”  And that is where I am drawing my inspiration.  In the chaos that is my desk right now, the desk pad is going to be a sanctuary of openness.  Things enter that sanctuary to be worked on, then are retired to their homes.

Of course, the new furniture is the other part of it.  Right now, there is no home for everything on my desk.  Also, my files are in a box in the closet off to the side.  Because it’s such an annoyance to go to the closet and get the filing box, papers to be filed pile up in my “outbox” on the right side.

Not shown in the picture is my bookcase, which is stuffed full of junk.  Yes, there’s books in there, but there’s also spindles of DVDs, envelopes, paper, labels, a drawer organizer with all my office stuff in it, manuals, and some art.  Art that is crowded out where it doesn’t  even look like art, it looks like junk.  So with the addition of my new storage units, I can get the stationary stuff and DVDs out of there.  It will give more room for proper display.  It will probably kick off another round of downsizing, as I re-evaluate the things I haven’t touched in years.

Since I have at least a week to wait for the new furniture, I have plenty of time to dwell on this, make notes, research and consider different layouts, and write about it all.  My home office is also my studio, with a recently-reduced number of keyboards (2), and some guitars.  The picture shows the heavily-underutilized rack stand, acting as a printer and mixer stand, with a couple of drawers.  I have a couple of torch lamps in the corners that are probably ready to be retired.  I can replace them with LED sunlight lamps if needed.

The bottom line is, I need to visualize what I want.  And what is it that I want?  I don’t host guests in my office.  My original layout accommodated stepping between computer and keyboards when recording.  Maybe I need something like that again?

And then…

This is my new workspace. 

DSC_1338

The desk is no longer against the wall, it is now in the center of the room.  One of the biggest things this relocation did for me is put the ceiling light directly over the desk.  Now I am not backlit while at the desk and my keyboard doesn’t suffer from being completely shadowed.

As mentioned, I now have a three desk storage unit to hold all my desk pieces and files.  I have a printer stand that has taken a lot of clutter off of my bookshelf.  My bookshelf is now in front of me, where I can put some more artful items.  Although the pictures don’t show it, I also have shelves on the wall.  I now have more shelf space than pieces to put on them.

And in the center of the desk is the desk pad.  I have used this just as I describe.  It is a clear space (except when the cat feels like being the center of attention).  I bring items into that space: bills, letters, computer parts, whatever.  I do the work and clear it out.  And as with my new tool kit, there is a place for everything.  I do have a junk drawer, which will need to be addressed, but that also means that everything in it needs to receive a designated place.

Has it helped my productivity?  I think it’s a little early to tell.  I am happy for all these changes, but honestly, it did not cause a huge change in motivation.  I think I’ve been going though a slight bout of depression, from which I am now recovering.  If that’s what it was, then it’s good I’m coming out of it into a more organized living area which will be receptive to creation.

The Tools of Efficiency

Posted by on October 15, 2013 No comments

Oh, wretched neglect. 

I pulled my motorcycle, Nile, out after yet another long period of ignoring.  The poor thing was covered in cobwebs and everything in the trunk was mildewed to death.  I might need to buy a new trunk, it’s so bad.

But you know what?  I have pulled Nile out on average only once every six months and she has never let me down.  It takes a bit to start, but the battery is never dead, she never fails to eventually start, and she rides as solid as I would expect.  Because I ride so little, I can never tell if she’s riding poorly or not.

But it’s now beginning to be riding season here, with the deadly heat, bugs, and monsoon rains going away.  Which means it might be time to begin considering spending money on something different.  The bike needs new turn signals.  The rubber stalks are dry-rotted to the core and are literally crumbling apart.  So, I purchased new turn signals.  That will probably end up with a blog page, with pictures of the whole process.  And then, I’ll do the front signals.

In order to change out the front signals, I’ll need to take the front fork apart.  That requires a 22mm socket, which I don’t have.  You know what that means… shopping!

So, long story short, a 22mm socket is $7 at Sears.  But, they had a 255-piece tool kit on clearance that included a 22mm socket for only $180.  The decision was pretty easy.  See, the last time I bought tools was probably about 15 years ago.  It was an entry-level Craftsman socket set.  That set served me very well for all those years, but taken as a whole, my tool collection was pretty poor.  The sockets were “organized” in ziplock bags, the wrenches were incomplete, random, china-made castoffs.  Despite having a massive two-level rolling toolbox, I didn’t have any way to organize my tools.

Now with this set, every piece has a molded place in a removable tray.  My wrench set is fully complete and my socket set is expanded.  The kit makes the task of replacing the motorcycle turn signals a breeze, knowing I have the exact tools I need right at hand.  I don’t have to fish around for the right sockets or wrenches (usually discovering that the size I need is not in my collection).  Most importantly, finishing up means returning each piece to its proper place.  This will make me more productive in the long run.  It’s the same premise I based my office redesign on. (future post spoiler)  And despite having more tools now, having a cohesive set makes it seem like it’s one unit, instead of sets of sockets, wrenches, and screwdrivers.

But, back to the bike.  I have changed out the rear signals and I have been riding more.  I did recently  get soaked to the bone on one ride home from work – just like the good ol’ days.  And I still can’t complain that Nile has been rock-solid for me.

Checkpoint

Posted by on September 12, 2013 No comments

It’s been just a little over two years since I made a post about discovering my diabetic condition.  I haven’t said anything about it since.  Not that there’s much to tell; I can sum it up pretty quickly.  I started taking medication and then determined the medication sucked and was reducing my quality of life, so I stopped.  So yeah, I’m an uncontrolled diabetic.  And yeah, I know I’m going to die from it.

So, two years in, where do I stand?  Well, I’ve got my will done and notarized, I got my beneficiaries in order, and I’m still enjoying life.  I still contribute to my retirement accounts because you never know how long this will be.  Will it be more than 20 years?  Doubtful.

On the other side, actually within maybe the last month, I’ve gotten the expected peripheral neuro-blah-blah issues in the feet, where the diabetes starts destroying the nerves at the extremities of the body.  So I have tingling and pins and needles in my feet and toes now.  Doesn’t stop me from walking, though.

I’m sure there’s a lot of people with a lot of opinions about a person who is choosing an option to not take care of themselves.  But there’s one primary argument I have in my defense.  There is no guarantee that my life on medication is going to be better over a long period of time vs living a shorter life in the way that I want.  I spent less than a month on medication and from the side effects, I thought if I had to do this for the rest of my life, I’d be miserable all the time.  It wasn’t worth it.  Also, I think of all the people in the world who may just not know their condition.  Not knowing has the same end result as knowing and choosing not to treat it.  Finally, if you’ve read this blog for any period of time, I’m not exactly the one to promote longevity of life.  There’s a whole lot of other people in the world and if I think I somehow deserve to live longer than any of them or that my extension of life is going to make a significant impact in the world, that’s just hubris.

Life goes on.

The Forgotten Nestea

Posted by on September 5, 2013 No comments

It’s been many years since I left this brand behind.  It was a very sad parting and not of my choosing.  I grew up drinking Nestea Sugar Sweetened iced tea mix.  I drank so much of it, I had visions of being the first rock star that promoted a consumer brand on tour.  Nestea’s change ended up being a painful, prolonged, losing battle for me.

At some point in their genius, Nestle decided to make what they must have considered a trivial ingredient change.  And because the product was different, it was re-launched under a new name.  The product used to be called “sugar sweetened”, and then became “sweet tea mix”.  The tiny change was changing the ingredient fructose to sucralose.  The latter is an artificial sweetener, which I have a slight reaction to.

When it first happened, I knew something was wrong because my tea made my stomach hurt.  I eventually figured out the difference and began a desperate search for any remaining “sugar sweetened” product available.  At one point, I ordered a full case of giant tea cartons from an online seller, only to discover they used the wrong photo in their product description and I had to ship back a case of “sweet tea mix”.  It was something like 27 pounds.

Surely, my quest was futile and the supply inevitably ran out.  I called Nestea and asked for an explanation.  Amazingly, I got one.  The change was done because sucralose didn’t cake and clump as much as fructose.  So, I wrote a physical letter to Nestle expressing my dissatisfaction with their recent decision.  In return, I got coupons to try their new liquid tea mixes.

I drank Publix brand tea mix for a little while, but it was too caramel-ly.  I eventually had to grow to enjoy the taste of Lipton tea mix, which has served me well for the years since.  Every once in a while, I’d remember Nestea and sometimes would pick up a jug to confirm the ingredients were the same.  They were.  But yesterday, I was going to buy a new jug of Lipton and saw two things: one, a brand of tea mix called Te Bustelo.  It had no sucralose, so I picked it up on a whim and I’m rather enjoying it.  It’s a little stronger than Lipton, but not as strong as Publix.

The other thing I saw?  No Nestea on the shelves.  None.  Not that it was sold out; it was not even stocked.  I found this pretty shocking.  Could it be that the change affected that many people to lower sales that much?  Yeah, it took years to happen, but was that it?  I did a little research online and it seems that Coca Cola used to be partnered with Nestea and now that partnership has ended, with Coca Cola now selling a competing product – Fuze.

In some ways, I feel a bit vindicated.  In other ways, I feel like this didn’t have to happen.