It's not because I like hitting people. That doesn't really appeal to me that much. Being hit by people appeals to me even less.
No, it's because the two coolest nicknames in sports can only be given to Jewish boxers. If I was a boxer, I could be either "The Kosher Butcher" or "The Yom Kippur Clipper".
I always thought Dana Rosenblatt was leaving a great nickname on the shelf by simply going as "Dangerous Dana".
Of course, with my skills, I'd probably simply be known as "Week-old Pastrami" or something like that.
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Monday, November 10, 2003
Up late, again
Two reasons I'm typing this now. The biggie is David. He's in his crib right now, railing against the world. He's been sleeping poorly the last two nights - last night a brief visit to our room did the trick and he settled right back down into his own crib after snoozing with Gracie for a while. Tonight, that's not the case. Jane just went and fetched him again.
The other reason is that tonight, I learned how to use iMovie and iDVD - I made a DVD of David's first year on the planet. It was minus a few chunks, because iDVD can only make 90 minute discs, but all the good stuff was there. I even added some music from my iTunes library and photos to the chapter menu from iPhoto. It came out really well, though it took a few hours to render and burn. I'll make some copies tomorrow and send them to our families. The dupes will go much faster - the Superdrive is capable of 4x burns so it should take about 23 minutes per disc to copy.
Sometime in the next week or so, I'll make a DVD of the second year to date - I have a couple of hours of DV footage to edit down first. One thing about DV work - it gobbles up disc space like anything.
As for David, Jane and I just put him down again, after giving him a little shot of Tylenol. He has a bit of a cold - we had to wipe his nose. Of course, the runny nose could have been an aftereffect of all the crying. But he seems to be down now.
The other reason is that tonight, I learned how to use iMovie and iDVD - I made a DVD of David's first year on the planet. It was minus a few chunks, because iDVD can only make 90 minute discs, but all the good stuff was there. I even added some music from my iTunes library and photos to the chapter menu from iPhoto. It came out really well, though it took a few hours to render and burn. I'll make some copies tomorrow and send them to our families. The dupes will go much faster - the Superdrive is capable of 4x burns so it should take about 23 minutes per disc to copy.
Sometime in the next week or so, I'll make a DVD of the second year to date - I have a couple of hours of DV footage to edit down first. One thing about DV work - it gobbles up disc space like anything.
As for David, Jane and I just put him down again, after giving him a little shot of Tylenol. He has a bit of a cold - we had to wipe his nose. Of course, the runny nose could have been an aftereffect of all the crying. But he seems to be down now.
Sunday, November 09, 2003
A disclaimer
The project yesterday went well, but I want to warn my readers - be very careful when attempting any sort of electrical work. If you have any doubts about what you are doing, stop and get a professional electrician to do the work for you. Having an intact home and healthy life is worth the expense as opposed to risking either.
I've done a few electrical projects over the years, and yesterday's is about as complex as I'm willing to get. Among other things I've tackled is to install a ceiling fan (in our kitchen with a friend of mine helping), to change over old switches, and to rewire an outlet. I've also removed a few old circuits from the house as well. We've got a lot of old knob-and-tube cabling here that I've been slowly removing from the system. Most of that's been done by the pros, though. Next year's electrical project will be to break out a separate circuit for the A/C unit in our master bedroom. It shares with much of the other stuff in the bedroom now, and the UPS for Jane's iMac trips every time the compressor energizes. We'll use a real electrician for that job.
I have done most of the house's newer phone wiring, though, and all of the data wiring.
We also have some plumbing repairs on the to-do list, a couple of our old radiators are rotting away and should be replaced. I've shut the water to them JIC, since they're not in an area that really needs heating, but they need to go after this coming winter, if not sooner. I'll have that done by a pro. The most complex plumbing projects I'm OK with are toilet replacements and fixing leaky faucets (if it doesn't require a full replacement). I repaired a leak coming out of our old dishwasher once, too.
I've hat a lot of blog hits by people looking into the Gourmet Garden restaurant in Swampscott. Just so you all know, it's pretty good. We don't go there too often, but the last time we went was this past Wednesday night - Jane's been under the weather the last few days and I decided to drag her out of the house for a bit. We hadn't been there in quite a while, but we were craving Chinese food.
Everything was good, with the exception of the sweet & sour chicken. Usually sweet & sour chicken is something I only order in Chinatown, where the restaurants know how to make it right. However, I thought I'd try theirs and it was kinda blah. Real sweet & sour chicken is not heavily battered and served in reddish sauce. That's an American's idea of what it should look like.
The moo shi, however, was terrific - and I'm not even a big fan of moo shi. Everything else was first-rate, too. They have a sushi bar in their bar area, also quite good. I haven't had too much off their Japanese menu, but I assume it's as good as the rest.
And the trip out was good for Jane, as well.
I've done a few electrical projects over the years, and yesterday's is about as complex as I'm willing to get. Among other things I've tackled is to install a ceiling fan (in our kitchen with a friend of mine helping), to change over old switches, and to rewire an outlet. I've also removed a few old circuits from the house as well. We've got a lot of old knob-and-tube cabling here that I've been slowly removing from the system. Most of that's been done by the pros, though. Next year's electrical project will be to break out a separate circuit for the A/C unit in our master bedroom. It shares with much of the other stuff in the bedroom now, and the UPS for Jane's iMac trips every time the compressor energizes. We'll use a real electrician for that job.
I have done most of the house's newer phone wiring, though, and all of the data wiring.
We also have some plumbing repairs on the to-do list, a couple of our old radiators are rotting away and should be replaced. I've shut the water to them JIC, since they're not in an area that really needs heating, but they need to go after this coming winter, if not sooner. I'll have that done by a pro. The most complex plumbing projects I'm OK with are toilet replacements and fixing leaky faucets (if it doesn't require a full replacement). I repaired a leak coming out of our old dishwasher once, too.
I've hat a lot of blog hits by people looking into the Gourmet Garden restaurant in Swampscott. Just so you all know, it's pretty good. We don't go there too often, but the last time we went was this past Wednesday night - Jane's been under the weather the last few days and I decided to drag her out of the house for a bit. We hadn't been there in quite a while, but we were craving Chinese food.
Everything was good, with the exception of the sweet & sour chicken. Usually sweet & sour chicken is something I only order in Chinatown, where the restaurants know how to make it right. However, I thought I'd try theirs and it was kinda blah. Real sweet & sour chicken is not heavily battered and served in reddish sauce. That's an American's idea of what it should look like.
The moo shi, however, was terrific - and I'm not even a big fan of moo shi. Everything else was first-rate, too. They have a sushi bar in their bar area, also quite good. I haven't had too much off their Japanese menu, but I assume it's as good as the rest.
And the trip out was good for Jane, as well.
Every morning
When David wakes up each day, we hear him. First he runs around in the crib. Then he takes all his stuffed animals and tosses them out, one by one. That's how we know he's ready to get up.
When one of us (usually me) goes in to get him, he starts giggling and runs away from us to the opposite side of the crib. He'll play this game for a minute or so before he lets us catch him and change his diaper.
Then he runs around the upstairs for awhile before he slows down enough for breakfast, which is usually a bottle and a banana.
When one of us (usually me) goes in to get him, he starts giggling and runs away from us to the opposite side of the crib. He'll play this game for a minute or so before he lets us catch him and change his diaper.
Then he runs around the upstairs for awhile before he slows down enough for breakfast, which is usually a bottle and a banana.
Saturday, November 08, 2003
Project complete.
This morning, I decided to get the lighting (as referenced in my 11/3 post) project done. First off, I tested circuits until I found the one that serviced the light/power for the old fluorescent series. Found it after testing half the darned house.
Then, after labeling it in the circuit breaker box for future reference (it controlled the whole bathroom, as well), I went and pulled the wire nuts from the old junction, exposing the wire ends. Did I mention I re-tested first to make sure the power was out? I really hate getting 110v zaps. After undoing the cable that led to the old lights, I re-threaded the nuts, and re-energized the circuit to make sure everything still worked. It did.
Then, David and I headed to Home Depot across town. I picked up four GE Profile under-the-counter lighting units with electronic ballasts, and they came with both outlet and direct wires included. I also had to get an adapter for the first in the series to hard-wire it down. The lights could be wired in series using the built-in direct wires.
They were pricey but good, and David fell asleep on the way home.
After I got home, I finished dismantling the old lights which I'd disconnected earlier. Instead of unthreading all the old cable, I just diked it out at the appropriate spots under the cupboards and pulled. I went and got some Romex from the basement - I keep a spool for just these sort of projects. I guesstimated a piece for the closet-adapter point connection and stripped the ends to fit. The next step was to head down cellar again, re-trip the breaker, and re-test that it was out.
Sure enough, it was out again. Duh... Anyhow, I threaded the cable through the wall and fastened it down to the adapter, using the supplied wire nuts and trimming only a little. GE included a strain relief nut, which was a little tough to fasten correctly but eventually went in. Then I hooked it up to the socket end, and re-powered up the breaker. I tested for current, and finding it I went back to work.
The new lights went in in sequence, starting from the cupboard I hooked up the adapter to and finishing up under the sink. At least they did after I ran down to the nearby hardware store for some screws and nuts of appropriate length - the old ones were too thick to thread the new lights onto. I tested each one after installation before installing the next one.
After I was done, I only needed one cable fastening tack to take up excess slack in the cable from the adapter to the first light. That was the toughest part, because I had to drill a pilot hole for the tack first. And David was trying to cling to my leg while I did it. While I was at it, I tacked down the Romex in the closet, thus improving the safety from what was there before. It won't break loose anytime soon.
One other nice aspect to the new light system - each light fixture can be powered up individually. The old one was an all-or nothing sequence - the switch was over the sink, and could only power the whole smash. Now we just have to light the individual work area we need, which is easier.
All together, between the new work lights and my souping up the fan lighing, our kitchen has gotten a lot brighter. If I'd done this when we had our house for sale, it might be sold today. Which means I'm kinda glad I waited. Now I'm planning to figure out how to better cover the open fixture in the closet that this draws its power from. I'll probably tackle that one in a week or two.
In the mail this week - a "trying to locate you" card from the folks planning my high school 20th reunion. Fine and dandy, but that means I've been out of high school for almost 20 years. Geez. At least I still have hair, grey though it is...
Then, after labeling it in the circuit breaker box for future reference (it controlled the whole bathroom, as well), I went and pulled the wire nuts from the old junction, exposing the wire ends. Did I mention I re-tested first to make sure the power was out? I really hate getting 110v zaps. After undoing the cable that led to the old lights, I re-threaded the nuts, and re-energized the circuit to make sure everything still worked. It did.
Then, David and I headed to Home Depot across town. I picked up four GE Profile under-the-counter lighting units with electronic ballasts, and they came with both outlet and direct wires included. I also had to get an adapter for the first in the series to hard-wire it down. The lights could be wired in series using the built-in direct wires.
They were pricey but good, and David fell asleep on the way home.
After I got home, I finished dismantling the old lights which I'd disconnected earlier. Instead of unthreading all the old cable, I just diked it out at the appropriate spots under the cupboards and pulled. I went and got some Romex from the basement - I keep a spool for just these sort of projects. I guesstimated a piece for the closet-adapter point connection and stripped the ends to fit. The next step was to head down cellar again, re-trip the breaker, and re-test that it was out.
Sure enough, it was out again. Duh... Anyhow, I threaded the cable through the wall and fastened it down to the adapter, using the supplied wire nuts and trimming only a little. GE included a strain relief nut, which was a little tough to fasten correctly but eventually went in. Then I hooked it up to the socket end, and re-powered up the breaker. I tested for current, and finding it I went back to work.
The new lights went in in sequence, starting from the cupboard I hooked up the adapter to and finishing up under the sink. At least they did after I ran down to the nearby hardware store for some screws and nuts of appropriate length - the old ones were too thick to thread the new lights onto. I tested each one after installation before installing the next one.
After I was done, I only needed one cable fastening tack to take up excess slack in the cable from the adapter to the first light. That was the toughest part, because I had to drill a pilot hole for the tack first. And David was trying to cling to my leg while I did it. While I was at it, I tacked down the Romex in the closet, thus improving the safety from what was there before. It won't break loose anytime soon.
One other nice aspect to the new light system - each light fixture can be powered up individually. The old one was an all-or nothing sequence - the switch was over the sink, and could only power the whole smash. Now we just have to light the individual work area we need, which is easier.
All together, between the new work lights and my souping up the fan lighing, our kitchen has gotten a lot brighter. If I'd done this when we had our house for sale, it might be sold today. Which means I'm kinda glad I waited. Now I'm planning to figure out how to better cover the open fixture in the closet that this draws its power from. I'll probably tackle that one in a week or two.
In the mail this week - a "trying to locate you" card from the folks planning my high school 20th reunion. Fine and dandy, but that means I've been out of high school for almost 20 years. Geez. At least I still have hair, grey though it is...
Friday, November 07, 2003
Great quotes in history
I was watching an episode of Insomniac last night. It's enjoyable enough when I do watch it, but last night I heard a classic bit of wisdom that I thought it would be appropriate to share with y'all:
Dave was chatting up a somewhat curvaceous middle-aged woman outside a Nashville bar, and he complimented her figure. He asked her if she'd ever had any work done on it.
She responded that her figure was from "beer. Nature's silicone."
I really liked that line...
Dave was chatting up a somewhat curvaceous middle-aged woman outside a Nashville bar, and he complimented her figure. He asked her if she'd ever had any work done on it.
She responded that her figure was from "beer. Nature's silicone."
I really liked that line...
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Inventory time
We did an inventory today - it was of David's vocabulary. As far as we can tell, his vocabulary right now consists of:
Mama, Dada, baba (bottle), baby, book, up (which also means down), lala (banana), nana (Grandma), chair, kittycat, car, truck, cookie, cracker, duck, pool, no, chiz (cheese), turkey, ear, grrrr (the growl he greets our cat, Danny with), drink, bye, light, that (what he says about anything he can't name otherwise), clap, boat, dog, pop (Grandpa), and belly button.
And he shrieks a lot, and has a whole bunch of babble words he uses. Usually he nods at you when he babbles.
Mama, Dada, baba (bottle), baby, book, up (which also means down), lala (banana), nana (Grandma), chair, kittycat, car, truck, cookie, cracker, duck, pool, no, chiz (cheese), turkey, ear, grrrr (the growl he greets our cat, Danny with), drink, bye, light, that (what he says about anything he can't name otherwise), clap, boat, dog, pop (Grandpa), and belly button.
And he shrieks a lot, and has a whole bunch of babble words he uses. Usually he nods at you when he babbles.
Monday, November 03, 2003
I'm not an electrician, I just play one on TV
Two improvements going on in the kitchen - first off, I replaced the relatively weak bulbs in our ceiling fan (old-skool CF bulbs with a yellowish cast to them) with latest and greatest 9 watt fan CF bulbs. They cast a much whiter, brighter light, and only burn a total of 8 more watts when going than our old ones did. Our kitchen tends to be sorta dark, and this helps a lot.
The other is that we have a series of under-cabinet fluorescent lights that predate us in this house. We don't use them that much, but when we do, it's because of intricate food prep - ergo, we really need them.
Well, after over 10 years of service (our time here plus however old they were when we bought the house) they're on the verge of dying. One of them is already dead, and the over-sink one has the ballast starting to fade. They're wired in series, and rather poorly thru a wall and branched off from a light socket in our bathroom closet. So I have to decide which approach I want to take - rewire from that socket area, but better than the kludge job currently in there, or to just come off from one of the outlets in the kitchen on the back wall under the existing lights. I can do it neater-looking from the light fixture in the closet, but it's a kludge now and I'm not sure I want to actually rewire it. If I take the other route and go from the outlet, it won't be quite as pretty (though I can camo it nicely), but an easier wiring job. Either way, though, I'll still have to dike out the existing rig + wire.
Otherwise, no real news. I've become something of a Trading Spaces junkie over the past year, and I picked up Paige Davis' show diary (it's called "Paige by Paige", truly a brutal pun) today from the library. It's an amusing, fast read - I'm already about 2/3 of the way through it and will probably finish tonight. Definitely lighter than my usual fare. The main revelation is just how much goes on behind the scenes, and how hard they work to really stick to the actual stated rules of the challenge.
My mind has begun tuning out the white noise of the new iMac's fan. But it is definitely louder than Jane's is - mine's faster, though, so I can live with it. Nyah.
Pet peeve - Flash sites that embed their content in an MS-specific way and therefore don't load correctly on a Mac. It takes no effort at all to do Flash right, people - so do it right, for Pete's sake!
The other is that we have a series of under-cabinet fluorescent lights that predate us in this house. We don't use them that much, but when we do, it's because of intricate food prep - ergo, we really need them.
Well, after over 10 years of service (our time here plus however old they were when we bought the house) they're on the verge of dying. One of them is already dead, and the over-sink one has the ballast starting to fade. They're wired in series, and rather poorly thru a wall and branched off from a light socket in our bathroom closet. So I have to decide which approach I want to take - rewire from that socket area, but better than the kludge job currently in there, or to just come off from one of the outlets in the kitchen on the back wall under the existing lights. I can do it neater-looking from the light fixture in the closet, but it's a kludge now and I'm not sure I want to actually rewire it. If I take the other route and go from the outlet, it won't be quite as pretty (though I can camo it nicely), but an easier wiring job. Either way, though, I'll still have to dike out the existing rig + wire.
Otherwise, no real news. I've become something of a Trading Spaces junkie over the past year, and I picked up Paige Davis' show diary (it's called "Paige by Paige", truly a brutal pun) today from the library. It's an amusing, fast read - I'm already about 2/3 of the way through it and will probably finish tonight. Definitely lighter than my usual fare. The main revelation is just how much goes on behind the scenes, and how hard they work to really stick to the actual stated rules of the challenge.
My mind has begun tuning out the white noise of the new iMac's fan. But it is definitely louder than Jane's is - mine's faster, though, so I can live with it. Nyah.
Pet peeve - Flash sites that embed their content in an MS-specific way and therefore don't load correctly on a Mac. It takes no effort at all to do Flash right, people - so do it right, for Pete's sake!
Sunday, November 02, 2003
Trends in spam
The main themes of the spam I've been getting recently are as follows:
-Penis enlargement
-Viagra (and alternatives)
-Pain medication
-Debt relief (especially a variant that the header calls "Debt relief from a Christian perspective)
-Pr0n - usually underage
I don't actually have to read any of these, thankfully. I run SpamAssassin on my mailserver, which puts anything that scores higher than 4.5 on the Spam-o-meter into a "junkmail" IMAP folder. Anything that passes muster goes into my regular inbox, which I download using Entourage (for POP3, not IMAP access). To flush the junk, every few days I use IMP (a webmail client) running on the server to browse the spam titles and see if anything got flagged by mistake. I was getting over 100 spams per day - but I had my old Holyoke account nuked entirely this past week (they were forwarding it for me) and that cut out a lot of the load. Now I'm down to around 25 or so per day. I get about one false-positive per week, and a spam makes it through the filter every couple of days.
No takers yet on my old PowerBook - I can make you such a deal!
-Penis enlargement
-Viagra (and alternatives)
-Pain medication
-Debt relief (especially a variant that the header calls "Debt relief from a Christian perspective)
-Pr0n - usually underage
I don't actually have to read any of these, thankfully. I run SpamAssassin on my mailserver, which puts anything that scores higher than 4.5 on the Spam-o-meter into a "junkmail" IMAP folder. Anything that passes muster goes into my regular inbox, which I download using Entourage (for POP3, not IMAP access). To flush the junk, every few days I use IMP (a webmail client) running on the server to browse the spam titles and see if anything got flagged by mistake. I was getting over 100 spams per day - but I had my old Holyoke account nuked entirely this past week (they were forwarding it for me) and that cut out a lot of the load. Now I'm down to around 25 or so per day. I get about one false-positive per week, and a spam makes it through the filter every couple of days.
No takers yet on my old PowerBook - I can make you such a deal!
Saturday, November 01, 2003
PocketMac 3.2 - so far so good
I downloaded the just-released PocketMac 3.2 update today - it fixes Panther compatibility (though the installer still thinks it won't work), and a few other glitches.
So far, no difficulties. I was starting to worry that I'd never sync again! When I got the iMac, I chose not to try installing 3.0 on it, since it was supposedly not Panther-compatible. But my thoughts on PocketMac boil down to this:
PocketMac can be a little quirky at times. But all in all, it makes a PocketPC at least as usable as a Palm when it comes to Mac-native PDA solutions, and Palm will go years at a time without updates to support new Apple OS's. There's still no AvantGo conduit for Palm on MacOS X, two years after Palm first supported it themselves. On the other hand, there is support within PocketMac. Because the developer wrote it himself. And when it came to Panther support, Palm wasn't ready. PocketMac was ready within a week of release.
I have yet to try Bluetooth support (it's not worth getting a Bluetooth SDIO card), and I'm not sure if it can actually sync via network yet, but the essential thing (USB support) works just fine.
So far, no difficulties. I was starting to worry that I'd never sync again! When I got the iMac, I chose not to try installing 3.0 on it, since it was supposedly not Panther-compatible. But my thoughts on PocketMac boil down to this:
PocketMac can be a little quirky at times. But all in all, it makes a PocketPC at least as usable as a Palm when it comes to Mac-native PDA solutions, and Palm will go years at a time without updates to support new Apple OS's. There's still no AvantGo conduit for Palm on MacOS X, two years after Palm first supported it themselves. On the other hand, there is support within PocketMac. Because the developer wrote it himself. And when it came to Panther support, Palm wasn't ready. PocketMac was ready within a week of release.
I have yet to try Bluetooth support (it's not worth getting a Bluetooth SDIO card), and I'm not sure if it can actually sync via network yet, but the essential thing (USB support) works just fine.
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