Friday, September 29, 2006

Sing a silly song

What kind of geek would I be if I didn’t occasionally listen to silly stuff? Probably the oddest CD I have in my collection is the Ren & Stimpy Soundtrack. People have seen it, pulled it out and asked, “Is this yours?” I’m sure what they really want to say is, “Some 8-year-old came by your house and left this here, right? Right??” Then I apall them by shamelessly confirming that it is indeed mine, that not only is it mine, I bought it all by myself, of my own free will. And not when I was 8 either.

I can’t listen to silly stuff all the time. I have to be in the right mood, otherwise it’s just annoying.

(Edit: Links disappear after a week. If you’d like to download any of these, send me a sweet email and we’ll work something out.)

Ren & Stimpy - Firedogs
Ren & Stimpy - Captain’s Log
They Might Be Giants - Istanbul
Space - Female of the Species
Touch and Go - Would You
Mano Chao - Kind of the Bongo

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Luck - it's all how you look at it

I do think there’s a certain bit of luck in everything we do, like whether or not you catch that green light or if the weather cooperates with your plans.  But I also think luck is a relative thing.  I may pick up a quarter and think it was pretty nifty that I found it. Someone else may happen upon that same quarter and think, “Chuh, a quarter? I’m not bending over for anything less than a dollar!” Wait, that didn’t sound right. Umm… okay you know what I mean.

I could sit around and think how unlucky I was to have gotten a drug addict with a criminal boyfriend for renters. How was I to know?  I could bemoan the fact that I’m living paycheck to paycheck with hardly anything left over. I could complain forever about being cursed with asthma. But really, what good would that do me?  All this “woe is me and my bad luck” is just pessimistic, glass-half-empty bullshit.

I have a more optimistic outlook on life. Despite all the things that could be improved, I am darn lucky. The renter may be a deadbeat, but her daughter still pays the rent.  At least I have a job. And my asthma isn’t really that bad, only when I breathe hard or if the air is cold. I had a friend who needed to use his inhaler every single day. I’m lucky in comparison.

But the thing that started this whole line of thought about luck… I’ve been lucky I haven’t been pulled over by traffic cops. I was rifling through multiple drawers and piles of paper (organization is not my strong suit), searching for a contract, when I discovered my car’s registration for 2006. I stared at it thinking, “Uhh… didn’t I put this sticker on my plate already??” Lo and behold, when I went to check, my car was still sporting last year’s sticker. Holy crap. I’ve been driving around for half a year with expired registration and stickers, often in a city with a police force known for having sticks up their collective butts. I don’t care what you say, I’ve been lucky.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

It's nice when jobs drop into your lap

An old coworker of mine contacted me last week.  He’s started his own company and asked if I could write up some documentation for some new software applications they’ve developed.  He said they’ve budgeted $500 for each app’s documentation, and there are 3 of them.  Considering that I’m selling junk to raise money for a new iron gate, I said, “Heck yeah!” Well, maybe not to him. In my mind I said HECK YEAH! while to him I wrote, “Sure, I think I can get that done for you.”

The catch is I’ve got two weeks.  Eek. My blogging may be even more sporadic than usual. But hey, for $1500? I can deal with it.

In the meantime, you should really go visit Lucy! She’s a funny chick with an ever-changing blog.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Thinking about advanced degrees

When I graduated from college, I was so happy. Not because of any sense of accomplishment—there was never any doubt in my mind that I would finish—but more from relief. It was more of a “thank god that’s over with” kind of feeling. I was just so sick of school. I’d been studying since I was 5!

At my last job, as things were starting to go stale and I was starting to sniff around for another job, I started thinking about getting a more advanced degree. I didn’t really want to, but I wondered if it would make me more valuable. Or maybe there was a different career path I could take. It was a period of questioning, but I knew I didn’t want to go back to school. Just having to go to the campus all the time would be a pain in the ass. This got me thinking about “distance learning”. Maybe I could get a college degree online. There are some places that specialize in that, like Capella University, which offers 76 graduate and undergraduate specializations. Maybe if I got a master’s degree in something I could get a better job, and I wouldn’t have to go anywhere near a campus!

Lucky for me, after 6 months of interviewing, I finally landed my current job. I really wasn’t looking forward to going back to studying. It was bad enough when I only worked part time! I can’t imagine having to give up all my free time. No way. I treasure it too much. 

Friday, September 22, 2006

It soothes the soul

As much as I love techno, trance and other electronica, there are times when I am just in no mood for the thumping. Sometimes I need the soul-soothing sounds of some accoustic guitar.  The skill needed for some of the elaborate string-picking of spanish guitar really impress me. I would love to be able to play, but my fingers just aren’t tough enough. You need to have some thick calluses to protect you from having to press down hard on those those steel strings. I’ve tried it. Ouch. I hated it. Add that to the fact that I have no patience for learning music, and this is why I play no instruments. Unless drumming on my steering wheel counts.

Anyway, on with the downloads! These are some of my favorite pieces of accoustic guitar playing genius…

(Edit: It’s been a week, the links are no more. Sorry.)

Armik - Forever and Ever
Armik - Heaven’s Touch
Oscar Lopez - Gentle Seduction
Daniel Cox - Seven Paths
Eric Clapton - Classical Guitar Solo
Paco del Lucia - Mi Inspiracion

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Alms for the poor

We’re wanting to replace our wooden gate (the entrance to our back yard) with an iron/aluminum one. As with any other home improvement, this requires funds.  Last time I looked, the underside of my mattress contained no cash. Damn.

This sort of spurred me into action, of the garage sale kind. Not really a garage sale (especially since I have no garage), but more of a “get rid of the junk you’re not using that’s actually still worth something” sale.  I put my Playstation 2 + accessories up onto Ebay on Monday, sale ends today.  Hopefully I get more than the $50 starting price.

Other things that I plan on selling, if anyone is interested…

• Sony Handycam - It uses those tiny little tapes. Worked great and has various features like night vision and the thing that steadies the camera so it doesn’t look so shaky. We haven’t used it in over a year.
• Palm Tungsten PDA - At least I think it’s a Tungsten.  I don’t remember. I have to look at the specs again. All I know right now is that it’s got a bright color screen and comes in a sleek hard case.
• Olympus digital camera - It’s a great, many-featured camera with 10x optical zoom. Takes beautiful photos and uses SmartMedia memory cards. My mom gave me a new one recently and we don’t need two cameras.
• Three Playstation 1 games:  Crash Team Racing, Tekken 3 and BrioFreaks. I listed them on Ebay also, but I don’t know if anyone is going to be interested.

Hey maybe I should do a bake sale too! It’s funny, on occasion I’ve entertained the thought of going to Costco and buying one of those boxes of candy bars, then selling them for a dollar each at the office. I don’t think I’d actually get much profit out of it, not enough to make the humiliation worth it, so I never tried it.

Oh! And if you or anyone you know needs a website created or tweaked, check out www.pennydragon.com. It’s my website detailing what I do on the side, if anyone is interested. My clientele seem to mostly be small business owners (and by small, I mean tiny) who can’t afford real designers.

I just hope the gate we end up with when we finally get it isn’t ugly!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

I heard it on the grapevine (well, not really)

Today’s post is a bit mundane, but we can’t be fascinating every single day, now can we? I was eating my cereal this morning when I bit down on something really hard. Lucky for me it wasn’t a rock, bug or paperclip. It was a raisin. Yes I was aware that there are a few raisins in this box, but I’d somehow forgotten how hard these things get when sitting in cold milk. It’s like chewing on a caramel you left in the fridge, and almost as sticky.

I normally like raisins. They’re a healthy, sweet, easily portable snack. I even like the flavor they add to cereal… however I just don’t like chewing them when they’re cold. I may as well chew on a pen cap, and half of it stays in my teeth, ick. I once bought a box of Raisin Bran. (It was on sale, okay?) They’ve managed to make the raisins softer and easier to chew when subjected to cold milk, but damn do they really overload the box with raisins! I like raisins, but if I wanted to have that many for breakfast I’d get a box of SunMaid and do away with the milk. I remember picking some of them out so I could taste some of the actual cereal. No more Raisin Bran for me.

Speaking of milk, my renter has some cute cows on her blog.  You should go check her out!

Monday, September 18, 2006

I Got Lost

On Friday I went to the video store to pick up a few rentals while my sweety prepared dinner. I can be fairly indecisive, so occasionally I take longer than I should. When I got back she asked me, “What took you so long?”

“I got lost,” I answered.
“Lost?” She was justifiably perplexed because the video store is about 3 blocks away.
“Yeah,” I replied. “See?” I held up a thick case that contained Season 2 of Lost on DVD.
“Ohhhh… heehee!  Well good! Now go chop some onions.”

Friday, September 15, 2006

It's, like, totally 80s, so, like, gag me

Since I grew up as an 80s child, the music of the era really stood out for me more than any other decade. I don’t know if it was because it was really distinctive or I was just an impressionable child. Either way, any time an 80s song comes on the radio, I’ll usually leave it on, unless of course I found it annoying even in the 80s (like “I Just Died In Your Arms” by the Cutting Crew) or it just got totally played out (like “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell and some Madonna songs. Some of these continue to get played out on the radio. I mean come on, what’s wrong with having a little variety?)

There are a lot of great 80s songs that I just don’t hear on the radio anymore. The same songs that were played over and over and over during their heyday are usually the only 80s songs I hear on the radio now, with a few others sprinkled in on occasion.  So this week I’d like to feature the 80s songs that I hardly hear anymore. Put on your leg-warmers folks and spray up your hair, it’s time for a flashback!

(Edit: Links were removed after a week, you know the drill.)

Yes - Owner Of A Lonely Heart
Adam Ant - Goody Two Shoes (This could be a song about me!)
Steve Miller Band - Abracadabra
Howard Jones - No One Is To Blame
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (I, too, would like money for nothing.)
Mr. Mister - Kyrie

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Bus, Taxi or Truck?

As I was driving to work this morning, I passed by a few big rigs and thought, “What is that like? To be the biggest thing on the road, but also the slowest?” This thought then morphed into, “What must it be like to drive for a living?” I can’t imagine putting up with big-city traffic day in and day out. Maybe it would depend on what you are driving.

Truck drivers (I’m talking freight trucks, not UPS) are able to set their own schedules, so long as they meet their destination deadlines. They can wait until traffic dies down before hitting the road. They can stop whenever they need to.

Conversely, bus drivers are stuck with their route schedule. Same route, same time, every day. You can’t go to the bathroom whenever you need to, you have to wait until the scheduled break time. You have to deal with lots of weirdos too, along with people with dumb questions and no exact change. The only positive I can see about driving a bus for a living verses other professional drivers is you have a regular schedule.

Taxi drivers get to see the whole city. They know where everything is (or at least they should). But they also get robbed a lot, stiffed for cab fare, and have their fair share of weirdos and dumb questions. Then there’s all the waiting. I can’t stand waiting and doing nothing. If I ever end up being a cab driver I’m definitely investing in a PSP or some kind of portable gaming device with a car charger.

In the end, which is more desireable? I think the freedom of driving a truck appeals quite a bit. I like the 9 to 5 of a set schedule, but compared to the crap you’d have to put up with in a bus or taxi, I’d rather stick to the solitary nature of truck-driving.

Which one would YOU drive for a living?

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Not-so-Candid not-so-Camera

Oi vey, and I’m not even Jewish. After posting my last drama-filled story, we got another call. The police were at our house. Aw fuck now what? Turns out the coward of a boyfriend socked one of the girls (the daughter’s girlfriend) in the face after an argument.  She called the police on his ass (good for her!) and he took off.

So now that this good-for-nothing deadbeat is on the lam, everyone is a little bit on edge. We’re starting the process of getting a restraining order.  We’re also looking around to get our front gate replaced with a nice, sturdy iron one. But I wanted something immediate that would help deter any “stupid ideas” that he might get should he decide to come back. Like security cameras.

No way I can afford any kind of real video camera surveillance system, but he doesn’t know that. He got all freaked out when I put my webcam in the window to record some doggy activity two weeks ago. (Now why would anyone freak out about that if they weren’t doing anything wrong, hmm?) So I think a non-funcitonal camera will do the trick.

I started shopping around for “simulated security cameras”. (Fake! It’s a fake!) There are so many. The cheapest ones were like $5-$8.  Here’s one:

I mean look at it. Does it not look like a toy? Who is that going to fool? Then I found a set of 2 for $14.99.  Nice deal, right?

At first I thought they looked real, but the longer I looked the more it looked liked something I might find at Toys R Us. Why be stingy if the end result is going to be “Ha! Look at that piece of garbage!” instead of “Ooh they’ve got a surveillance camera, I better behave. Cheese!”

Obviously I had to go to the next price bracket. I was about to get this one, which was $24.99:

Then I noticed that the base can only be mounted one way. What am I going to do, post it on top my slanted roof? That would look so stupid, not to mention FAKE. Finally I saw this one:

It was $36.99, but was exactly what I needed. Doesn’t it look all spiffy, cool and REAL? You can actually remove the fake camera inside and replace it with a real one. I was all set to order when I found out it would take 2 weeks for them to send it to me. What?? No! I want it NOW! I want to instill fear into evil-doers now!

In a fit of exasperation I called around various electronics stores in the area until I finally found one that sold fake security cameras. It cost a few dollars more than ordering the one online, but I got instant satisfaction baby! I was so happy to have found it. After taking it home I immediately started to assemble it and found that it had no fake little camera inside. It was just the external housing with a glass window. You could see inside and see that it was empty. The box lied to me! It had a picture of a little fake camera inside! Damn liars.

I wasn’t about to drive all the way back to the store, only to find out that that’s how they are. So I decided to just cover the damn glass on the inside with black cloth, back it with cardboard, and install everything. I even had to provide my own coaxial cable to make it look more real. (Oh the price we pay for instant satisfaction.) I worked well into the night, atop a pretty tall ladder, drilling, screwing and tightening. (Err, screwing as in screwdriver and screws, not, um, fooling around, heh.)

This morning I applied some spackle around the wire where I jammed it into a hole in the stucco, and voila! I now have what looks like a security camera tracking my front gate! I am so proud. Have a look!

I’ll take some better, closer photos later. I had to rush off to work.

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Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Weddings are annoying

Weddings annoy me. I hate ‘em. I don’t care who’s wedding it is, they are all annoying. If it’s anything more than a civil ceremony in front of a judge, it’s too much. Any event that has you blow thousands of dollars on one day is a waste. Yes it’s a happy occasion, but with so much going on, there’s just so much that can go wrong. Kids going nuts, bad weather, flowers wilting, caterers charging you different from the agreed-upon amount, guests getting lost, the list goes on and on. It’s ridiculous. How can you be happy on your happy occasion when you’re too busy stressing out?

Then there’s all the crap with the gifts. Guests have to give the bride and groom gifts, then there’s the bridesmaid gifts, and probably several others I don’t even know about. Obligatory gifts suck. Gifts should be from the heart, not because you have to. But in the end, if the food is good and the ceremony short, I’m usually able to sit through the whole thing.

The latest Google development

I love Google, but not because I’m a bandwagon joiner. On the contrary, I actually resisted using it when I first heard of it. I was comfortable with what I was using and didn’t jump onto the Google wagon when a fellow sysadmin at the time introduced it to me.

Silly me. When I finally gave it a try, I was amazed at how much more relavant the search results were. After a few uses, I was hooked. Imagine that, a search engine that actually gives you the results you are looking for! Not only that, they are constantly working to improve themselves. They don’t follow trends, they set them.

Take their latest development. It’s still in beta, but they now have something called “Accessible Search”. At first I was like “yeah whatever, I can see just fine.” I was imagining the search results being in huge letters. Not so. It turns out the search results are different here. Sites with cleaner code get ranked higher. No more sloppy websites. A lot of garbage will get cleaned out of the results. I can well imagine a lot of sites scrambling for search engine optimization in order to fix their rankings. The field of search engines is ever changing and morphing into different creatures. I just hope it’s for the better.

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Monday, September 11, 2006

Long story short (but no less drama)

My life has had a tendency towards being drama-free.  I like it this way. Life is simpler and easier to enjoy. However there’s been this ongoing saga involving renters these past few months.  Allow me to boil it down to some quick bullet points…

• We have to rent out the little guest house in the back in order to afford the monstrous mortgage payment.
• The first renter we had was perfect—quiet, always paid on time, and we hardly ever saw him.
• He left and we had to find a new one. We went with one who seemed nice enough.
• Before agreeing to rent to her, she affirmed that she would be the only resident. Her gang-tattooed boyfriend immediately moved in as soon as she settled in.
• She assured us that she was trying to quit smoking, and that she actually hated the smell of smoke in the house. Bullshit. The place smells like an ashtray now.
• The tattoo-covered (and when I say covered, I mean covered, head to toe!) boyfriend has no job, and constantly goes in and out all night long.
• What was supposed to be just one resident turned into four when her daughter and her girlfriend moved in.
• This month they skipped paying rent. We asked the 20-year-old daughter where her mom went, and she had no clue, and was worried because she hadn’t seen her in over a week. Her mom had told her that she’d been laid off from work.
• I called her boss and found out that there were no layoffs. She hadn’t even been fired. She just stopped showing up for work. She didn’t quit, didn’t contact any coworkers, just stopped showing up for no apparent reason and had been missing for nearly two weeks.
• The daughter ended up scraping some rent money together because she didn’t want to be kicked out.
• Mom finally shows up today, after we both had gone to work and after the daughter and girlfriend had left the house. She locked the daughter out of the house.
• We get called by the frantic daughter, who has no idea what to do. We rush back to the house and confront the two deadbeats and tell them we are evicting them. They are no longer welcome on our property.
• They thought that since the daughter had paid rent, everything was cool.
• We told them that the daughter and her girlfriend were welcome to stay and continue renting, but she and her scary boyfriend were to be out in three days.

I’m not used to this much drama. What is wrong with this woman? She is a compulsive liar and uses everyone. She constantly guilts her daughter, who is obviously more stable, into helping her out financially. She’s even manipulated her way into getting money out of her ex-husband. What a train wreck. I can’t wait to get this lady out of our lives!

Friday, September 08, 2006

Sometimes you just want something mellow

As much as I love Trance music, there are times when it’s just too fast for my mood, like when I’m feeling tired. When I’m feeling run down (or run over) the fast beats just annoy me, as does loud music.  But there’s another kind of electronica that can fill my musical needs when this is the case.  It’s called Downtempo or Trip Hop. I’m not sure if they refer to the same thing or not, but they’re so similar that I tend to lump them together. It’s really mellow stuff that tends to appeal to a wider audience, I think. It’s also a lot sexier than most other forms of electronica. Yeah baby, sex music! You can just put it on and then get it on. Forget Marvin Gaye, give me some Downtempo.

(Edit: The links below have been removed after a week passed. If you really want these, email me and we can arrange something.)

LTJ X-perience - Moon Beat
Thievery Corporation - Indra
Thievery Corporation - The Outernationalist
Kruder and Dorfmeister - David Holmes - Gone
Kruder and Dorfmeister - Sofa Surfers - Sofa Rockers
Groove Armada - Dusk, You and Me

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