(no subject)
Holy crap lack of updates. WA unemployment ran out and I couldn't get a renewal because of SLB wages being reported in Texas. So, since it's been more than one quarter, my SLB wages are now providing Texas unemployment. I'm only down $17 a week from the WA benefit check, so it still works.
The last-best SLB-related lead, Aker Solutions, did not pan out. I however just got a massive application packet mailed to me based on my preliminary application with LECO. If THAT pans out, it'll be installing, maintaining, and training for electronic instruments....like my NCR gig (which is still the benchmark of 'what I want to do') but with corporate travel--Monday through Thursday in hotels for a typical work week--corporate car, and better-paying. Plus it's in my field, and plus the only person I'd be responsible for is me. No oil field stuff. The application's already both emailed and snail-mailed back and we'll see how that pans out.
On the home front, the situation seems a lot more stable. The double-high queen air mattress that started blowing out seams has been replaced with a single-high queen, the full-size mattess that dates back to the Craigslist expedition in the cabin has been relegated to the other bedroom, and the single air mattress that used to be in the other bedroom when the full was in the main bedroom has been relegated to the living room for a nap mat when needed. Now I just have to find a cheap secondhand monitor for when Z gets his mom to send out his computer.
Lessee, what else? The frying pan, my old friend from many states, finally bit the dust and the handle snapped irreparably off unless I wanted to bother with JB-Weld. I bought that pan in Alaska, it went with me to Oklahoma, Texas, back to Oklahoma, to Washington, then driven out to Texas for nightly use for a great many months. Not freaking bad for $20. I finally caved in and 'splurged' on an all-round stereo upgrade. My existing three-piece speakers also are mostly dead (bought in Oklahoma, same travels) in that the cord has to be looped a PRECISE direction and pulled under a PRECISE amount of tension for there to be sound to both channels, and the power circuitry is flakey so there's an ungodly hum and the subwoofer is prone to fuzzing out of functionality. Given the choice between spending, say, $50 for a better three-piece set which would never be expandable and something a little more ambitious, I picked up another cheap Chinese tri-path amp for the car, a DC pigtail, and a set of $20 Sony SS-MB150H speakers from Ebay. (As of time of entry, the cheapest used set on Amazon was $77.50...I LOVE when people don't know what they have.) This will let me change out Bug's amp for something that actually has four channels. While they'll be running at 6 ohm and 4 ohm pairs, that's still a lot healthier than bridging and winding up with a load of 2.mumble ohms per single channel when the poor amp's only rated for 8-16 loads. Talk about walking the dangerous line...ANYWAY this amp also has nice features such as a radio tuner (!) and USB input, so I can just throw some mp3s on a disposable memory stick and stop carting around the cracked-but-still-working iPod.
That leaves me with a spare D-class tripath amp that has been tested and works great, a DC pigtail, a DC power supply that I cut the old pigtail off, a set of nice little bookshelf speakers, and free space on the computer desk.
Yeah, I'm gonna be back in the audio business again. Granted, in a small way, but every little bit...
Car stuff. Throttle cable keeps coming out, I tried supergluing a paper clip over the bracket notch but it popped off. Next up, a little JB Weld and a small strip of SOMETHING. It's really annoying when it happens on the highway but it's a quick fix. Rattle is getting louder, once finances fully stabilize I need to track down a place that'll do the pushrod replacement and valve adjustment for a price I can afford. Called and emailed Forged about Jez, no reply yet, gotta pester them on Monday a LOT more. I WANT MY FUCKING CAR.
Trying to keep on top of the depression, so far it's mostly working, I just can't think about it being almost a year now since I started with SLB and having been out of work for three quarters of that. Haven't gotten to do a lot of writing lately but at least I've been keeping busy with Kerbal Space Program. The scope of my accomplishments there are lengthy but inaccessible in importance ('why the hell is he rambling on about rockets, aren't rockets pretty straightforward? What's the big deal about a spaceplane or a space station or a plane that lands vertically? Why is a rocket that can refill its oxidizer by a dip through the atmosphere, and then go back to space via jet fuel, cool?') to y'all so I'll skip past that bit.
Send some good work karma my way, it's about the only thing I still need. The rest I think I've got mostly figured out. Talk about rebooting a life.
The last-best SLB-related lead, Aker Solutions, did not pan out. I however just got a massive application packet mailed to me based on my preliminary application with LECO. If THAT pans out, it'll be installing, maintaining, and training for electronic instruments....like my NCR gig (which is still the benchmark of 'what I want to do') but with corporate travel--Monday through Thursday in hotels for a typical work week--corporate car, and better-paying. Plus it's in my field, and plus the only person I'd be responsible for is me. No oil field stuff. The application's already both emailed and snail-mailed back and we'll see how that pans out.
On the home front, the situation seems a lot more stable. The double-high queen air mattress that started blowing out seams has been replaced with a single-high queen, the full-size mattess that dates back to the Craigslist expedition in the cabin has been relegated to the other bedroom, and the single air mattress that used to be in the other bedroom when the full was in the main bedroom has been relegated to the living room for a nap mat when needed. Now I just have to find a cheap secondhand monitor for when Z gets his mom to send out his computer.
Lessee, what else? The frying pan, my old friend from many states, finally bit the dust and the handle snapped irreparably off unless I wanted to bother with JB-Weld. I bought that pan in Alaska, it went with me to Oklahoma, Texas, back to Oklahoma, to Washington, then driven out to Texas for nightly use for a great many months. Not freaking bad for $20. I finally caved in and 'splurged' on an all-round stereo upgrade. My existing three-piece speakers also are mostly dead (bought in Oklahoma, same travels) in that the cord has to be looped a PRECISE direction and pulled under a PRECISE amount of tension for there to be sound to both channels, and the power circuitry is flakey so there's an ungodly hum and the subwoofer is prone to fuzzing out of functionality. Given the choice between spending, say, $50 for a better three-piece set which would never be expandable and something a little more ambitious, I picked up another cheap Chinese tri-path amp for the car, a DC pigtail, and a set of $20 Sony SS-MB150H speakers from Ebay. (As of time of entry, the cheapest used set on Amazon was $77.50...I LOVE when people don't know what they have.) This will let me change out Bug's amp for something that actually has four channels. While they'll be running at 6 ohm and 4 ohm pairs, that's still a lot healthier than bridging and winding up with a load of 2.mumble ohms per single channel when the poor amp's only rated for 8-16 loads. Talk about walking the dangerous line...ANYWAY this amp also has nice features such as a radio tuner (!) and USB input, so I can just throw some mp3s on a disposable memory stick and stop carting around the cracked-but-still-working iPod.
That leaves me with a spare D-class tripath amp that has been tested and works great, a DC pigtail, a DC power supply that I cut the old pigtail off, a set of nice little bookshelf speakers, and free space on the computer desk.
Yeah, I'm gonna be back in the audio business again. Granted, in a small way, but every little bit...
Car stuff. Throttle cable keeps coming out, I tried supergluing a paper clip over the bracket notch but it popped off. Next up, a little JB Weld and a small strip of SOMETHING. It's really annoying when it happens on the highway but it's a quick fix. Rattle is getting louder, once finances fully stabilize I need to track down a place that'll do the pushrod replacement and valve adjustment for a price I can afford. Called and emailed Forged about Jez, no reply yet, gotta pester them on Monday a LOT more. I WANT MY FUCKING CAR.
Trying to keep on top of the depression, so far it's mostly working, I just can't think about it being almost a year now since I started with SLB and having been out of work for three quarters of that. Haven't gotten to do a lot of writing lately but at least I've been keeping busy with Kerbal Space Program. The scope of my accomplishments there are lengthy but inaccessible in importance ('why the hell is he rambling on about rockets, aren't rockets pretty straightforward? What's the big deal about a spaceplane or a space station or a plane that lands vertically? Why is a rocket that can refill its oxidizer by a dip through the atmosphere, and then go back to space via jet fuel, cool?') to y'all so I'll skip past that bit.
Send some good work karma my way, it's about the only thing I still need. The rest I think I've got mostly figured out. Talk about rebooting a life.