Let my mom know that the wood that supports the kitchen sinks was starting to rot (they are the original sinks from this 1939-ish house, so 80years old. My Mom decided that our house needed to have the kitchen repaired upgraded, too.

The kitchen had a new floor, kitchen sink, and counter top installed. It also had the old lighting removed and ( Read more... )

Kind of proud of myself. Had my 1st ever /. submission get accepted.

http://slashdot.org/~mrflash818/submissions

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." -- Peter Drucker

emacs - manual, tips, reminders

To show two panels, horizontally: ctrl+x 2

To show two panels, vertically: ctrl+x 3

To show four panels: ctrl+x 3, then in each panel do ctrl+x 2

To switch which panel you can edit in, ctrl+x o (small letter o, not a zero)

To display the files in a directory ctrl+x d

*compilation*

If you are in the * ( Read more... )

Wool - by Hugh Howey

Dystopian science-fiction book, a gift from my Mom, when I went up to visit in July. A good read, but dark.

"We get no credit for being sane, do we? I get no credit. Even from me. From myself ( Read more... )

I notice a lot, lately, how little buying power a dollar has.

When I had bought my 1st new car, back in 1993, super unleaded (91 octane) was almost exactly US$1/gallon.

My salary was $30k/year at the time.

A US$20 bill would let me fill up my car from empty tank to full, for US$15.

I'd have US$5 left, which was plenty of money to get a ( Read more... )

Worked on nc_834v5010generator for about five hours today.

Worked on the _834v5010RULES file.

Changed the file so that data element codes and their code description share a single line of text. Made the validator logic easier to do.

Worked on the validator.

Added code statements to load all the data element attributes into a data element ( Read more... )

Need to give a bit more thought to the parsing algorithm, for reading the v5010RULES file.

*** loop 1 or more of: ***
Segment stuff
(blank line)
Data Element stuff for Segment
(blank line)
more Data Element stuff for Segment -or- start of a new Segment
(blank line, then more loops of segment/data-element definitions, or EOF)

Need to sit down ( Read more... )

Shame

As the years add up on my personal odometer, I have started to feel Shame.

At first, I could not describe the feeling as shame. At first, I felt frustration, light self-loathing, at the mental mirror of myself, for my age, where I am in life, in terms of professional advancement, salary, position in society, how my little family is doing ( Read more... )

Frigidaire affinity 6000 series HE clothes washer - troubleshooting

To find the model number, open the front-loading door. There is a sticker on the inside of the door, at the 5 o'clock position. Our washing machine is old enough that some of the writing has worn away. The visible part remaining shows model number with ending digits of 6000FS0. ( Read more... )