Yet another bunch of random stuff.
My current project involves tearing up (at least) one wall of my basement office, adding insulation, replacing vapor barriers, and upgrading everything below-grade (or at least most of it) to stuff that doesn't rot when it's wet. I'm mostly done with the demolition, and have plans to make a Home Depot run this weekend to get the rest of the parts to start the rebuild.
Also part of this project will be putting down laminate flooring (and more vapor barrier) over the probably-asbestos tile and adding power to my office so it will no longer be run off extension cords fed under doors and through holes in the wall.
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Since my office is a construction zone, I've moved my office into the home theater room. It's a small room, but fortunately, I'm a claustrophile. I'm not used to working off of only about 6' of desk space anymore, though.
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The road trip was a qualified success. There are some things I really love about the Miata, but its cargo space and its really short gearing aren't on the list-- the short gearing has the engine _really_ busy when you get out into the Big Square States with the 75mph speed limits. However, at least with the hard top (which gives me more securable cargo space), I can travel with a tent and a sleeping bag (especially having upgraded sleeping bags to a new one that doesn't have Hollofil in it or date back to 1970something) and it works quite well.
I added an external temperature sensor to the car so I'd know if it was close to freezing outside. This is something that needs adjusting (it's too close to the radiator now, but in the intake air flow-- so as long as I'm driving, I get a reasonable accurate reading, but if I sit at a stop light and the air starts moving, the reading starts to climb). I've got a few ideas to add to my list of projects I'll never get around to.
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Started a little dabbling in Applescript. One thing I noticed on my road trip is my car stereo head unit will display one of three things: Song name, Artist, or Album. This became a problem in my attempt to become slightly more cultured: Since I don't actually know any of the music so well, "Name" is great, but "Artist" not so much-- I'm much less interested in the fact that Partita #2 in D Minor for Solo Violin ("Chaconne") was performed by Conrad Von Der Goltz, and much more interested in the fact that it was composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. So I hacked up some Applescripts to migrate the performer's name into the comments section and then move the composer's name into the Artist field. I started with someone else's script that did something else and modified it, so I'm still a little confused about certain things-- like how Applescript knows "Composer" and "Comment" are legal keywords for iTunes. I may have to do more reading to figure out exactly how that part worked.
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Another side project is converting some DVDs to AppleTV format. Figured I'd start with Buffy and Babylon 5, since Amy's liable to watch the former and I'm liable to watch the latter multiple times. Finally sorted out how to get multiple soundtracks to work on the AppleTV (turns out you can't use the GUI version of handbrake, as the AppleTV doesn't know what to do if the audio track names match and just plays the first one, so you have to use the CLI version so you can rename the audio track.) In full DVD resolution (No point in upconverting to 720p just so the TV can do it again), I'm at around 14GB per season. I've had the iMac running at a load average of 8 for the past week. I _really_ want one of the new four-core versions...
On a side note, I found something interesting while I was sorting all this out: There are apparently easter eggs in some of the Babylon 5 DVDs. Ferinstance, I found the season 2 gag reel...
It is nice to simply pick up a remote control and play these sorts of things.
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After migrating to the New and Improved Employee Discount Plan at the office (which changed the amount I pay for my personal phone from about $1.50 per month to about $25), I figured if I've gotta pay for it anyhow, I may as well get a phone I like. So I finally retired the old GAIT phone I'd been using and got Amy and I both iPhones. This means my personal phone number changed; I couldn't keep a 404 phone number and set up a "Family Talk" plan for us if she was going to keep her phone number, which was more important because people actually knew it. Contact me if you don't have the new one. The phone number you probably have for me is my office cell phone number, which will continue to work for at least a few more months.
Of course, this means that at least for the next few months, I'll be carrying three cell phones around with me.
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Amy spent the first part of this week up in Baltimore at LISA, learning all manner of cool and useful stuff. I'm looking forward to someday upgrading my employer to one that understands the value of conferences. Mebbe next year. That one's in Monterrey, CA. If I do get out there, I also have to figure out how not to wind up with a Nissan Sentra or something similarly boring as a rental car; doing 17 Mile Drive in something like that would be a sin.
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I have decided that this winter is not allowed to suck. I may be from the south, and I may not know a damned thing about winter, but I refuse to not like this winter just because it's frickin' cold and miserable and icy. I will embrace the suck. Well, not so much that I'm gonna go take ski lessons or anything like that, and I'm still going to avoid driving in it, but I'm not going to let it get me down. I'm here, I'm gonna be here for the forseeable future, so I'm going to find the good parts. Some people actually LIKE winter weather. I will find out why.
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I have a plate of lasagna, a can of rootbeer, and a weekend. That's a good start.
Also part of this project will be putting down laminate flooring (and more vapor barrier) over the probably-asbestos tile and adding power to my office so it will no longer be run off extension cords fed under doors and through holes in the wall.
-----
Since my office is a construction zone, I've moved my office into the home theater room. It's a small room, but fortunately, I'm a claustrophile. I'm not used to working off of only about 6' of desk space anymore, though.
-----
The road trip was a qualified success. There are some things I really love about the Miata, but its cargo space and its really short gearing aren't on the list-- the short gearing has the engine _really_ busy when you get out into the Big Square States with the 75mph speed limits. However, at least with the hard top (which gives me more securable cargo space), I can travel with a tent and a sleeping bag (especially having upgraded sleeping bags to a new one that doesn't have Hollofil in it or date back to 1970something) and it works quite well.
I added an external temperature sensor to the car so I'd know if it was close to freezing outside. This is something that needs adjusting (it's too close to the radiator now, but in the intake air flow-- so as long as I'm driving, I get a reasonable accurate reading, but if I sit at a stop light and the air starts moving, the reading starts to climb). I've got a few ideas to add to my list of projects I'll never get around to.
-----
Started a little dabbling in Applescript. One thing I noticed on my road trip is my car stereo head unit will display one of three things: Song name, Artist, or Album. This became a problem in my attempt to become slightly more cultured: Since I don't actually know any of the music so well, "Name" is great, but "Artist" not so much-- I'm much less interested in the fact that Partita #2 in D Minor for Solo Violin ("Chaconne") was performed by Conrad Von Der Goltz, and much more interested in the fact that it was composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. So I hacked up some Applescripts to migrate the performer's name into the comments section and then move the composer's name into the Artist field. I started with someone else's script that did something else and modified it, so I'm still a little confused about certain things-- like how Applescript knows "Composer" and "Comment" are legal keywords for iTunes. I may have to do more reading to figure out exactly how that part worked.
-----
Another side project is converting some DVDs to AppleTV format. Figured I'd start with Buffy and Babylon 5, since Amy's liable to watch the former and I'm liable to watch the latter multiple times. Finally sorted out how to get multiple soundtracks to work on the AppleTV (turns out you can't use the GUI version of handbrake, as the AppleTV doesn't know what to do if the audio track names match and just plays the first one, so you have to use the CLI version so you can rename the audio track.) In full DVD resolution (No point in upconverting to 720p just so the TV can do it again), I'm at around 14GB per season. I've had the iMac running at a load average of 8 for the past week. I _really_ want one of the new four-core versions...
On a side note, I found something interesting while I was sorting all this out: There are apparently easter eggs in some of the Babylon 5 DVDs. Ferinstance, I found the season 2 gag reel...
It is nice to simply pick up a remote control and play these sorts of things.
-----
After migrating to the New and Improved Employee Discount Plan at the office (which changed the amount I pay for my personal phone from about $1.50 per month to about $25), I figured if I've gotta pay for it anyhow, I may as well get a phone I like. So I finally retired the old GAIT phone I'd been using and got Amy and I both iPhones. This means my personal phone number changed; I couldn't keep a 404 phone number and set up a "Family Talk" plan for us if she was going to keep her phone number, which was more important because people actually knew it. Contact me if you don't have the new one. The phone number you probably have for me is my office cell phone number, which will continue to work for at least a few more months.
Of course, this means that at least for the next few months, I'll be carrying three cell phones around with me.
-----
Amy spent the first part of this week up in Baltimore at LISA, learning all manner of cool and useful stuff. I'm looking forward to someday upgrading my employer to one that understands the value of conferences. Mebbe next year. That one's in Monterrey, CA. If I do get out there, I also have to figure out how not to wind up with a Nissan Sentra or something similarly boring as a rental car; doing 17 Mile Drive in something like that would be a sin.
-----
I have decided that this winter is not allowed to suck. I may be from the south, and I may not know a damned thing about winter, but I refuse to not like this winter just because it's frickin' cold and miserable and icy. I will embrace the suck. Well, not so much that I'm gonna go take ski lessons or anything like that, and I'm still going to avoid driving in it, but I'm not going to let it get me down. I'm here, I'm gonna be here for the forseeable future, so I'm going to find the good parts. Some people actually LIKE winter weather. I will find out why.
-----
I have a plate of lasagna, a can of rootbeer, and a weekend. That's a good start.