July - 2005 - menga

Archive for July, 2005

Redress of mindset successful

Monday, 25 July 2005

Okay, that old crap-ass job is finally over. It was official as of last Friday. It’s been a few days now. I’ve had time to take stock of my overall mindset and determine whether my overall attitude on life has improved or not.

Sometimes it takes a little while before a decision you previously made sets itself within your psyche. I believe that I can now speak on it with a clearer head.

Speaking in points:

1. I’m a helluva lot more calmer; friends and family have both noticed this.

2. I’m not freaking out about finances as much as I thought I would. My opinion is more or less “Whatever. Bills are bills. You got ‘em, and eventually they’ll get paid some way or another.” Very blase attitude, I know - but it’s true.

3. The increased sleep time has recharged me more than I can possibly express in words. Yes, I’ve mentioned sleep many times here before - but that doesn’t diminish it’s importance whatsoever.

4. I am now hopeful where I wasn’t before. I mean, yeah, I always try to be hopefuly to some degree, but before I left the job I wasn’t really “feeling it” if you catch my meaning.

The big Move up North (which I’m more-than-fairly certain will actually happen) kickstarted my mind with all sorts of opportunites that the North has to offer. I believe it was more than coincidence that that news happened virtually simultaneous with my decision to leave my job. Was it a big four-mile-wide sign saying to me “The next chapter in the Book of Life is about to begin?”

Yeah.

Overall attitude on life: Much improved.

(small tech-geek note: dashed-underline words/phrases are not links, hover your mouse over them for “tooltip” things I put in there)

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Sharing the mediocrity

Tuesday, 26 July 2005

Something about the North which is both a blessing and a curse: Everyone does everything very s-l-o-w-l-y. While it’s great that the general populous takes it easy up there, it can suck when you’re just trying to get things done. Right now Pop and I are trying to buy a house, and it seems that it takes forever and a day to get a real estate agent to return a phone call. I mean, yeah, they eventually do.. but hey, we’re on a schedule here. Get with the program, people.

Kat is still on the job hunt. From reading her latest post, it would seem she’s sucked Danbury dry. I guess when you live somewhere long enough, everyone knows you.. which is good or bad? Not sure there. Guess it depends on your point of view.

I’ve been on the treadmill for about 25 minutes a day since I quit my job. My stomach has started to flatten up nicely. I’ve lost about five pounds (the right way). I’m also eating better. My jeans are fitting a lot better these days.

In the screenplay department, I haven’t touched it. This is because I’m enjoying being a lazy fuck right now. My mind is still in “recharge” mode. I may start working on it this week.. maybe not. I know that when I actually do start blasting away on it, things should come together quickly… or so I hope.

My sister has told Pop that her grades are on the upward swing and that she should pass finals without issue at college. It was nice to hear that. I’m sure she will do quite well. She was always better in the academic department anyway.

A boring, but content Monday, which was actually yesterday at the time I write this.

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Going Northbound blind

Tuesday, 26 July 2005

Got word from a realtor today. Sometime next week I will be heading up North to look at a house, finally. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it is very unlikely I’ll have my new Garmin StreetPilot i3 by that point. I really wanted to have it before I headed up North. It would have been a fantastic opportunity to test the thing out.

I checked GPSExplorer.com’s site, and they still state that the i3 is Expected to ship August 2005.

Blah.

Granted, I will have plenty of opportunity to use it once it arrives, but I wanted it before my first trip up there. I purposely wanted to go “blind” without looking at a map to see if this thing really lives up to its name.

Guess I’ll have to wait until the 2nd trip.

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Going Northbound blind… somewhat

Tuesday, 26 July 2005

I just remembered that I still have Pop’s Garmin Rino 130 handheld , so we can head up North somewhat blind. We’ll still have to use the map because the Rino doesn’t do turn-by-turn routes, but it’s a start.

Here’s some pics of the Rino 130 in action:

Zoomed-in local:

State view:

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Bouncing off the moon

Wednesday, 27 July 2005

Hopefully before I move up North I will finally get my Amateur Radio license (call sign), something that is very, very long overdue. Pop has been a Ham Radio Op for years and belongs to the K1MUJ club. He has acted as Net Coordinator more times than I can remember. Recently, ARRL has reported that the FCC is entertaining the idea of dropping the Morse Code requirement for all classes of licenses. Personally speaking, I could probably do five wpm if I really put my brain to it, but it’s tough. It’s a language learned by sound. For example, the word “alphabet” would be:

dit-dah, dit-dah-dit-dit, dit-dah-dah-dit, dit-dit-dit-dit, dit-dah, dah-dit-dit-dit, dit, dah

To everyone I just confused out there, the most “famous” Morse code is the S.O.S., meaning “Save Our Souls” or “Save Our Ship”, which translates in Morse to dit-dit-dit, dah-dah-dah, dit-dit-dit. Yes, you have to learn by dits (a.k.a. dots) and dahs (a.k.a. dashes). The whole set of international characters is here if you want to take a look at it.

So anyway.. the Morse requirement may be dropped altogether. For me that’s a good thing. Right now I’m going to go for what is called the “no-code” license. I should be able to pass the test without issue.. hopefully. (insert sheepish grin here)

Here’s something that will make you think:

If all the air transmissions in the sky could be physically seen, it would block the sun. Never mind the fact that there are wireless phone transmissions, wireless internet, cordless phones, AM/FM radio, satellite and so on. Amateur radio transmissions alone would most likely block the sun.

Here’s another thing to ponder that some people actually do:

It is totally possible using 100 watts or less (even as little as 5 watts) to transmit a signal, bounce it off the moon and have someone receive it. This is called an EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) using QRP, which means “Please Reduce Power”.

One never would have thought 5 watts could go so far. More info on it is here. Good reading.

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Interesting accents

Wednesday, 27 July 2005

Found something interesting today, the speech accent archive. If you go to that link, you can start listening to the accents from any link on the left. I can only imagine how much time it must have taken to put the archive together. Gotta say, it’s cool to listen to the same phrase in all those different accents.

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And the Darwin award goes to…

Thursday, 28 July 2005

I was just watching the CBS Evening News and watched the story about the tragic events that happened at the Boy Scout Jamboree in Bowling Green, VA. Firstly, the heat made around 300 people sick from heat exhaustion and they are recovering - that’s the good part. The bad part is that four Scout leaders died.

Was it the heat that killed them? Nope. Sickness or ailment? Nope. Bad s’mores? Nope.

The reason for the deaths is that the leaders decided to pitch a tent UNDER A POWER LINE and got electrocuted to death.

Couldn’t believe it when I heard it. Boy Scouts (never mind their leaders) are supposed to be the end-all/be-all when it comes to safety. Their motto is “Safety First”.

Think about it. Out of all people in this world that would die due to something which is an obvious safety threat, that takes the cake, bar none. You can’t say “Well, they didn’t know.” These are scout leaders. They, above everyone else, should have known not to pitch a tent under a LIVE power line.

Of course, I felt bad when I watched the story. I am not diminishing their deaths in any way whatsoever. It’s a tragedy, no doubt about it. My sincerest condolences go out to the ‘Scouts and their families.

Pitching a tent + Power lines directly overhead = Bad idea.

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After the storm

Thursday, 28 July 2005

Shot taken after the storm yesterday evening.

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Continental dump

Friday, 29 July 2005

It’s rare these days when I laugh out loud at something I see on the ‘net. This is one of them: Complaint from seat 29E.

If I ever fly Continental Airlines, if that seat number comes up I will flat-out refuse to sit there. Read the link above and find out why.

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Slab of dreams

Saturday, 30 July 2005

Pop took his 2000 GMC Sonoma to (finally) have his steering alignment corrected, because the truck pulled to the right. Turns out there were three bad ball joints. Even though Pop has an extended 100,000 mile warranty on the vehicle (which by the way I insisted upon when he bought it), I was reasonably certain ball joints would not be covered. To my surprise, they are covered, so good for him. The truck will be fixed next week.

–

In addition to getting the Sonoma fixed next week, I will be heading North to look at a few houses, as I said before. I’m fast finding out that home buying is just not fun. It doesn’t matter whether you have money or don’t have a lot of money — the process just plain sucks, mostly due to realtors. Houses are plentiful almost anywhere you go, but the realtor thing doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the house buying decision. Sometimes it appears that they’ll offer you the world to you and be the nicest people on Earth. Other times it seems like they just don’t care. Realtors are just weird like that.

I’ve found that many homes up North are built on concrete slabs rather than foundations with basements. Here in Connecticut, just about every house has a basement. It’s par for the course. You would have to search a little harder than usual to find a house here without one. The few houses I have seen around here built on slabs are usually vacant; people want their basements. I personally don’t care whether a house has a basement or not. If I need extra room to put my crap, I’ll buy a shed.

Up North offers a much wider variety of build styles to choose from. You can go Saltbox/Gambrel, New Englander, Cape, Ranch, Colonial, Cottage and so on. In Connecticut, it’s Ranch, Ranch, Ranch, Ranch, Ranch, Ranch.. maybe Colonial, then Ranch. Did I mention Connecticut has lots of Ranch houses? I think I did. If you live in Connecticut, you probably are in a Ranch styled house right now. I am. Small example: There’s been a lot of housing construction in Dayville (where I live) going on. Ranches galore, with most of them being modulars.

If I can ever get past the whole realtor thing (which is fast becoming extremely annoying), I should be able to nail a house that suits. The style I’m shooting for is either going to be log cabin or Saltbox/Gambrel.

Example of Saltbox: Link

A saltbox style has one end of the roof that is longer than the other. It’s distinctive and the floorplan is really easy to work with. Excellent use of space.

Example of Gambrel: Link

Gambrels have a “barn” like look to them. It’s kinda/sorta like a Colonial, but without so much of that boxy shape.

There is also something called a “modified Gambrel” which is a cross between a Saltbox and a Gambrel shape. Were I given a choice I would pick this above all others. Unfortunately I don’t have an example of it - but it’s cool, trust me. Best of both worlds. Nice open floorplan, nice lines on the outside. Works very well.

Quick link because I know a few girls who ogle over houses like this (I don’t like them personally), the Victorian.

I also mentioned the log cabin home. I will be looking at one or two of these, and I’m going to ask a lot of questions, such as “Was this a kit built house?” among others. There are just a lot of things that can go wrong with a log cabin style house if you don’t know what you’re buying.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

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