2010.11.30 Tuesday

Shoop the whoop. It sure got cold fast. Thanks cold front.

Work+class = Andy tired.

But! Not tired enough to keep me from working on electronics! That's right. I popped open that power supply again, marked spots to put in some holes, and installed a switch and LED. One thing I like about this power supply is that it is old enough to not really care about not having a load. With no load, the fan barely spins, and only turns up as the currents increase. Exciting! Now I just need to get some terminals so I can tap into the voltages I want.

Dinner was provided by work, so not much else to talk about.

2010.11.29 Monday

*yawn* Another 5-day work week.

Work actually went by pretty quickly because I was doing a bunch of running around.

After work, I went out for a skate session in the beautiful weather. Oddly enough, my nollie abilities are doing well today, including nose manuals. I think I need to get some new bushings on my trucks since I busted through the current ones. My ollies felt weird today; it felt like the pop was the same, but once the board was off the ground the board felt like it was stuck to my feet and just going up and up...then on the landing I somehow landed on the trucks every time (instead of the tail). Kickflips and heelflips weren't happening. I used the new found ollie abilities to jump over a few things around the neighborhood. I also tried showing off a few 180-reverts to pedestrians that probably didn't care. Took care of some garbage duties as well.

Next up, taking care of what is left of my plants. I decided to go ahead and say farewell to the remainders of my tomato plants. I took out the roots and all. Also trimmed back on the pepper plants so they can hibernate over the winter. I don't really mind if they die also because I have seeds of everything and can start up again once the threats of freezes pass. One thing that surprised and scared me was a little guy living in my cayenne pepper plant. A baby praying mantis. I put him off to the side while I cleaned up everything. Whenever the wind blew, he would sway back and forth to try and mimic the wind and how plants move, but silly mantis...the pot is stationary. Instead, he just looked drunk. Here are a few snaps I took:

I also put an album up on facebook if you want to check out a few more. I took probably 20 shots total, but my camera can't focus worth crap anymore.

Next up, dinner. What's for dinner? Mostly leftovers, but today those leftovers are more exciting than normal leftovers. I have some mashed potatoes from forever ago that I need to finish, so I added a good chunk of butter and that came out pretty good. Last time I went to HEB I picked up some asparagus; I totally forgot about it so I needed to hurry up and get that cooked and eaten. This time, I used bacon fat to cook my asparagus instead of the usual oils. A+. Definitely would try that again. Last but not least, I reheated some turducken. One of the biggest dinners-for-one I've had in a long time.

After dinner, I cracked open a spare computer power supply. I'm going to be modding this into a DC power supply that I can use on various electronic projects. I have a switch, and LED+resistor. I need to get a load resistor, some terminals for the voltage connections and some heatshrink, then just slap it all together. I'll have to post more updates as I get further into the project.

2010.11.28 Sunday

Had to jump start Kelc's car. Out to Fowler's to watch the Steelers game. Went into overtime and won by a field goal barely.

After the game, had to jumpstart Kelc's car again. Awesome. She probably has a dead battery. Quick trip to the Dairy Queen drive through for some blizzards, then off to Auto Zone to get a free battery test. There they did a couple of tests and agreed that the battery was shot. *cue cash register sound* Yay car repair.

On the topic of jump-starting vehicles, I went online later to see what most people online say about jump-starting and cables and whatnot. Most people say to hook up both the positives, then hook up the negative to the good car, then the negative to the body of the bad car. Why hook up the last connection to the body of the car instead of the battery? Because there might be a spark, and that spark might ignite fumes or do some bad to the battery. I would have to say this is highly unlikely, but still a possibility. What's even worse, if you clamp on to the body of the car, there is chance you are not getting that great of a connection, wasting your time. It's a trade-off. The hooking up of both the positive terminals first makes perfect sense to me; the two cars could have much different potentials from true earth ground, so it's just forcing the potentials together. Yay for knowing something about electronics.

Back to my house to be dropped off, and Kelc went on her way back to Arlington. I went over to my parent's since my aunt happened to be in town. Watched some more football there, ate some food, took a mini nap.

And then back to my place to wind-down the weekend and prepare for the work week. Sucks that the extended holiday weekend is already over. Played minecraft and watched some TV. I finished this beauty earlier on in the week, but enjoy.

2010.11.27 Saturday

Today was dedicated as a Lakehouse day. Arrived about mid day. My task: building Ikea furniture.

To be precise, I built a skinny cabinet then a wider cabinet. Nothing was really all that challenging with the assembly, but my workspace and tool availability was limited. Pretty sure my arms are going to be sore from all the screwing. I think everything turned out alright though. These pieces will give a lot of extra storage space.

Drove back into town to meet up with the family. Tonight is dinner night, and for dinner: Chez Zee. Supposedly everybody else had been there before. I have not. It sorta has an Austin atmosphere. Only thing I didn't like, a couple walked in to the area we were seated to be seated themselves, and he told the hostess "miss, these are the worst seats in the house, you can do better than that". Jeez dude, no need to be rude. It is very easy to suggest your own seats instead of just telling the host they made a terrible decision. They aren't mind-readers.

Kirbs met up with us at the house. A game of Hand N Foot commenced. Feels like holiday times are closer than I expected.

2010.11.26 Friday

Woke up reasonably early. Good that I wasn't stuck in some groggy food coma.

I spent some of the morning setting up recording stuff. Have microphones on vocals, drums, guitar and bass. Tinkered around with that getting the balances just right. Eventually we are going to record a take and post it online.

Cooked up a turducken (roll) for this evening's potluck. Also, today is Habibi's bday. Go over and wish him a happy b-day. Other items that made it to our potluck: wine, cornbread muffins, rolls, green bean casserole, collard greens, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, and brownies.

I'd had to say the evening was a success. A feast of delicious proportions.

2010.11.25 Thursday

Turkey day!

A feast of fowl, not of beast

Ironed pants, properly creased

Lots of snacks, party mix

City dwellers, country hicks

Morning parades, football games

A lingering hunger, properly tamed

Not my best poem. Spent the day with family, and ate a ton of food. We also played some rock band. I had to take a nap (food coma). Then I ate more food, and slept more. Total awesome.

The chocolate bacon was a hit.

2010.11.24 Wednesday

Hump day... oh wait! This is the "Friday" of the work week already. Heck yeah.

Work was interesting. I'm pretty sure I was one of the last few people to leave the building. Lots of offices remained empty the whole day. The mood was just...different.

Went home, picked up food at my place, then went over and picked up the turducken. Delivered the food to my parent's house. Helped get things ready for tomorrow's feast.

Back at my place, played a little bit on the bass guitar, cooked up some chocolate covered bacon, then slumber.

2010.11.23 Tuesday

Why is it that I am groggy? I went to bed at a reasonable time, even though I didn't feel sleepy at all. I did the right thing and was punished. Thanks universe.

Had class this evening. According to the professor, we only have 1 more class, then the final. That's pretty darn exciting if you ask me.

Then I went on an errand run for thanksgiving related food. Ran into a friend that I hadn't seen in years. I'm pretty sure I hadn't seen him since South Padre trip 2008. Crazy.

Back at home, took care of my tomato plant...by destroying it. I'm going to need to trim up the cayenne and jalapeño plants soon.

Heated up some leftovers, played some minecraft, listened to music and went for sleep.

2010.11.22 Monday

Nice and short work week. Oh wait, schools these days give off the entire week for thanksgiving. Son of a ... Why didn't they do that when I was in school? Oh yeah, because we actually learned something *burn*

Work is picking up and slowing down at the same time. Very confusing.

After work, went over to a storage unit to pick up some weights. I can tell that my strength has taken a dip. That's all fine and dandy, because I'm getting more of a full body workout with skateboarding. It's some cardio and jumping around, contorting and flexibility, precision and dexterity. Oddly enough, my abs are starting to show more.

Cooked up some mashed taters, a hot dog, and some Zapp's chips for dinner. I think I'll be making a big batch of mashed potatoes for the Friday feast.

Worked on some homework and listened to music. This entire evening, I really limited how much TV I watched. I forgot what this feels like. Back in college, I gave up TV. Maybe I'll get more stuff done if I avoid it whenever possible.

In bed earlier than normal. Score.

2010.11.21 Sunday

Sunday already? Dang. Gotta update my fantasy teams.

My parents invited me over to enjoy some chili and beans. Yum. Helped out with a few things, and went on a DQ run.

Went back home, didn't really accomplish much today. Even managed to get myself in bed earlier than normal. Goodbye weekend.

2010.11.20 Saturday

Went to Brushy Creek Skatepark this morning. After a few minutes riding around, I realized that my calve muscles were already worn out. Decided to make use of the time anyways. The big bowl is awesome, the small bowl has some pretty interesting ride techniques. The street area is a little too skinny; you are forced to make sure you aren't running into anybody... and that was without BMX'ers. Speaking of BMX, this one guy showed up with a BMX bike, and not but 3 minutes later a Cedar Park police officer shows up to write a citation and escort him from the premises. This definitely sent some mixed emotions to me. First, BMX and skateboards can mix, but usually don't mix well, so I was kinda glad this guy wasn't going to be riding around. But conversely, he didn't even get a chance to ride around. For all we know, he could have just arrived to watch people skate, or had a friend that he was meeting up with to go on trails or something. Police... i am disappoint.

Back at home, grabbed a quick bite, then started jamming with the guys. This time we tried mic'ing a lot of things, like the drums, kick drum, guitar and bass. I'm rather impressed with the sound. There is always room for improvement and compression, but it sounds clean and mostly balance.

Early dinner with Paul at Kerbey Lane. As expected, the waitress was laid back and not really around that much.. which is fine, but frustrating when you want to pay and leave. We waited around like 20 minutes for the computers to reboot and to print off a piece of paper. I would have paid cash, but they couldn't even print anything.

Went back to my place with Paul, Mark met us there. We enjoyed some Jolly Rancher vodka and observed the A&M vs Nebraska game. Silly that it ended up being 3 field goals beating 2 field goals.

After the game, jammed some more. Courtney showed up and demonstrated her vocal abilities quite nicely. Real life guitar hero/rock band.

2010.11.19 Friday

The end of the work week. Celebrate!

Over lunch time, a group of coworkers got together to play football. Two-hand touch football of course. The weather turned out to be perfect; just cool enough to not get super sweaty, but warm enough to not feel cold.

Wrapped up the work week. It felt really long.

Post work, I went for a skate session.

Spent the evening to myself. Finally, time to sit back and relax. Played around with microphones and drums, music, minecraft, sleep.

2010.11.18 Thursday

This week feels like it has been going by fast and slow at the same time.

Worked an extra long day at work. Also tossed in some group classwork into the mix.

Driving home from work when it is really dark outside sucks. I don't care about having sunlight in the morning. If anything, sunlight in the morning is WORSE because the sun is right at the horizon when I leave, blinding drivers. If I'm on the road between 6:45-7:30a and I have plenty of sunlight to blind me, but at 5:30-6:00p it's completely dark...SOMETHING IS WRONG. Your daylight saving just unbalanced the world. Noon is supposed to be the midpoint.

At home, at some leftover pasta, peanut butter, cheeze-its and grapefruit juice. Fantastic right?

Went out for a skate session. I'm starting to push myself to be more daring. Like jumping over a deck, then 180 over a deck. Landed both of those, pretty scary. Wish there were some sunlight out so I could see what I was doing... Anyways hopefully I can get kickflips and heelflips over a deck down, then I'll start trying to do some gaps or something.

Back inside, I thawed out. Worked on some homework. Yeah... I'm working on homework. *sigh*

Organized some music, and listened to The Window Theatre's new EP, Away (before it's released!). Good stuff. I wish I could put some magic into music like they do. I'm going to have to go skate with those guys soon.

2010.11.17 Wednesday

Another hump day.

Work was productive, yet uneventful.

After work, I cooked up some pasta for dinner. I'm going to need to get some new tires for my car, so I spent a good chunk of time researching that. Also looked up more information about an oil filter adapter that converts my cartridge style into a standard (less expensive) canister style.

So I'm going to go off on a little rant here. Some years ago, car companies got together and decided they wanted to reduce waste and environment impact from vehicles. Pretty sure all the major car companies got together about this. Normally when people change out their oil, they also change out the filter too. "Old-style" filters, or canister filters look like this:

They have a filter on the inside of a metal canister. The goal of the agreement between manufacturers was to reduce wastefulness of tossing out a metal casing with the filter guts. So they designed this:

Not only is this cheaper to replace (less material), but it results in a lot less material going into landfills. If you look close enough, you can tell that these are the same guts inside the canister filters. Unfortunately, car companies went back on their word, and the cartridge style is harder to find, driving up the cost. I know for a fact these things should cost less to make per unit, but they are just so uncommon that even places like jiffy lube will tack on a fee for having such a less-common filter.

My solution is to adapt to what is cheaper for me, at the cost of the environment. Not exactly a great trade-off, but it's pretty stupid that I'm getting shafted by poor business choices someone else made. What do you think I should do?

End of rant.

Went to bed on the early side tonight.

2010.11.16 Tuesday

Work went by mostly normal.

School, that's a different story. I was supposed to present some material to the class, but I either psyched myself out of it, or something I ate was not agreeing with me. So instead, I praised the porcelain gods. Not a high point in my life.

After work and school, I took a mini drive to check out Brushy Creek skatepark. It appears that they do not have lights for evening sessions. With the days being as short as they are, and daylight saving screwing over the light schedule, I may not be able to skate here unless it is the middle of the day.

Back at home, ate some leftovers and did some soldering.

2010.11.15 Monday

Oh hello work, where did you come from?

Mostly typical day at work. I worked a long day and caught up on a lot of work.

After work, mostly just relaxed. Took care of a few things and cooked dinner. Simple day.

2010.11.14 Sunday

Wow the weekends hardly feel football-oriented like they used to. Only team I'm kinda following now is The Steelers, and even then I occasionally miss those games.

Dropped Justin off at his car, then continued north and western towards my old neighborhood to drop Kelc off with her family. I continued onwards to drop myself off with my family. My grandma, or "Busha" was in town to spend time with the family and relax, and heal. We watched some NFL then had a feast.

We had brisket, sausage, cole slaw, and potato salad from Rudy's; then we had chicken and rice caserole, green beans, and crescent rolls. One might say that was a mouth-full (har har har).

As with any major amount of food consumption, I fell rather quickly into a food coma. Usually feels like the best sleep.

I picked up Kelc and headed back to my place. She needed to begin her drive home, so she didn't stick around very long.

Watched some of the Steelers, and got to hang out with Ray and Marisa once more before the weekend was over. These weekends never feel long enough.

2010.10.13 Saturday

Slept in some. Then off to the Skatepark (again). This time Ray and Jacob went too. Since it was midday Saturday, there were a lot more kids. Most of them (including Jacob) could do more tricks than I could. This old man can learn new tricks, just takes longer. I did land a few tricks, like kickflips and 180s. I also had a pretty big fall in the deep bowl area. The bowl is the only part that is becoming a strength for me, and I think I have an upper hand because of my size and leg strength. As a smaller skater, it can be difficult to "pump" the transitions to generate extra speed.

Off to Cedar Park High School for a few games of vennis at the tennis courts. I don't know what it was, but I had a hard time matching the location of the ball and the location of my hand correctly. I'll blame it on the sunglasses. Because nothing is my fault. :-D

Quick run home to take care of the dogs, and feed myself as well. I'm already pretty exhausted for today.

Back out to Tyler's house to play games. Busy Streets. Candy. Soda. Crash.

2010.11.12 Friday

Woke up to head over to round rock's skatepark. Once Kelc and I got there, it started raining more and more, making my session abnormally short.

Made the executive decision to go to Discount Tire Co and get a tire rotation. Surprise! My treads are worn pretty low. How low? Low enough that I may not pass inspection by the time I have to do that (3/32nds I think is what I have left). Cool, guess I'll be shopping for tires now. At least I was able to go inspect my brakes while they had the wheels off. I'm still confused about the wear pattern of my front brake pads. They look rather curved, but the rotor looks fine. Universe, explain yourself.

Well, looks like the sun decided to bust through those storms... oh that was a cold front. Back to the skatepark with free nature-provided air conditioning. Wish I had brought some tools, because that water messed up my bushings and now my skating is squirrelly. This second session, I didn't have the whole park to myself. A van of a bunch of kids arrived. They were all really nice and polite, and never really got in the way of anything. They were actually entertaining to watch skate.

I wore myself out, time to go home. Put some homegrown jalapenos on a CPK pizza for lunch. Then... nap time.

Cooked up an awesome dinner. Steaks, boiled potatoes, green beans, deliciousness.

After dinner, cooked up some chocolate covered bacon. Put some cayenne pepper on some, cinnamon on others, and the rest plain. Chocolate is rather easy to melt in a microwave. I was worried I would have to use the double-pan method with water and carefully balance the temperature.

While that was cooling off, we met up with friends at Anderson Mill Tavern. Played some pool and enjoyed the renovated atmosphere. We arrived kinda late, so before we knew it, it was last-call and they were nudging us out. Went to What-A-Burger and Paul's place to hang out. Kittens are almost not kittens now. Claws... fully developed.

2010.11.11 Thursday

Slow getting out of bed today. On the way to work... the roads were rather empty. What Is Going On. Oh yeah, it's Veteran's Day. Wait a minute, why do so many people get this day off? I work with people who are veterans and we still have work scheduled... but other businesses don't. Poop on that.

Also, poop on the fact that election days aren't national holidays to encourage people to vote. Nation, make some better changes.

I spent a slightly lengthy day at work. Kelc arrived in town. We went on some errands. To the mall to pick up some new skate shoes and a free bra. Then Schlotzky's for dinner, then HEB for much needed food.

Once at home, slept crept.

2010.11.10 Wednesday

I figured out the problem. 3rd time charm. The time change shift that just happened over the weekend (some might call it Daylight Saving, others call it absurd) has thrown off a regular movement of mine. In particular, the bowel movement. On most days, I will eat a snack, then eat another snack at work, and sometimes enjoy a cup of coffee. This morning coffee initiated a bathroom trip, and sure enough my body adjusted to that. But now, the time for bathroom is scheduled at the time I will be leaving for work, making the drive to work a gamble.

Work continued on.

In the evening, took care of things around the house. Pretty plain.

2010.11.09 Tuesday

Woke up rather uncomfortable today. I don't know what it is, but something sucked all the energy out of me. I rolled off the edge of my bed and onto the floor, hoping that a cold draft would wake me up. That only marginally helped. The ground was surprisingly comfortable.

Good news everyone! I figured out what to do about the xb360. My brother wanted it back to play guitar hero and rock band stuff. That means I get to get rid of the drums, guitars, and the system from my room. Problem solved by the universe.

Class was somewhat weird today. Only 2 of the typical 4 Austin students showed up. On the plus side, we tried a new pizza today. Pizza Patron's Mexican style pizza. Actually turned out to be pretty good. I kinda hate their commercials on the radio though.

After class, it was super dark driving home. Thanks again Daylight Saving. Didn't really have much time to do anything major, so I took the 360 to my brother and we caught up on a few things.

For dinner #2 tonight, macaroni. Just macaroni.

Also popped open the computer and vacuumed out a lot of the dust. If I were my high-school self, I would have been disgusted by the amount I let build up.

2010.11.08 Monday

Started off the day incorrectly. As soon as I finished my shower, I had to give praise to the porcelain throne. The steam and steamer don't mix well.

Work definitely felt too long today.

At home, I had to push myself to start getting some things done. To start off, I went skating for a bit to blow off some steam and get my heart rate up. I will need to get some new shoes before I go to the skatepark again.

Next up, put in some laundry, then start converting some more albums to mp3-compatible state. This current round of file conversion will put me right at 1400 albums. I think that is a good point to take a break and listen to whatever instead of sticking to my systematic ways. Cleaned off the pile of mail that was collecting on my desk, then emptied my trash cans. I don't know what it is, but just the inside of my bedroom's trash can smells terrible. As long as I have a plastic bag lining it, it's fine. Otherwise... wtf happened to this trash can. Doesn't even look that great.

I played around with the kill-a-watt a little bit. I have a floor lamp in my room that has a half-brightness and full brightness switch. Really weird power consumption... half brightness is about 80 watts, full brightness is 120. I wonder if I can replace the lightbulb with something that doesn't create so much heat.

Next item to try, an Xbox 360. First off, I have a gripe about the 360. Don't ever design something that requires an external power brick to provide power. Sure a laptop can be lighter without the DC adapter build in, but if you need real portability you'll have to lug around the stupid plug and adapter. Anyways, to my surprise the standby power consumption of this power brick is a measly 2-3 watts. And also to my surprise, the full power consumption of this power brick ranges from 100 to 150 watts. (Theoretically, that number could be an underestimate because I wasn't stressing the xbox to spin up a disc, or access data from the hard drive, or really do anything)

Next item, my cell phone charger. Standby consumption: 0 watts (undetectable). Cell phone plugged in: 8 watts.

If I'm not mistaken, my ceiling fan has 3x 15-20watt CFL bulbs in it. Using that to light my room might be a better choice to keep heat levels down while full brightness is needed. And I guess unplugging my phone charger when my phone isn't plugged into it is useless. What can I do about this xb360 that I stopped playing...

2010.11.07 Sunday

Woke up and finished an episode of Smallville.

Lunch with Ray at Cheddar's. Happy late b-day buddy! After lunch we went out to Shaylah Dame Skatepark, in Round Rock. There are lots of kids that are pretty darn good. I will definitely need to practice later when they won't see me fall.

Kelc and I watched some football, then she left to get back to Arlington. It was very weird not centering the weekend around football.

I measured the power consumption of the mini fridge over the course of 3-days. That should be a fair amount of time for typical usage right? The verdict: 1.67 kWh (kilo-watt-hours). So 3 days is 1.67 kWh....that means 30 days (1 month) is 16.7 kWh. If a kWh costs 8 cents worst-case, then it looks like I'll be spending an extra 16 bucks over the course of a year. That doesn't sound unreasonable.

Spent the remainder of the evening playing some minecraft and watching Sunday night football.

2010.11.06 Saturday

Woke up late. We didn't really have any definitive plans for today, but lots of little maybe's here and there. I made us pick something and follow through with it, and if plans fell through, oh well.

Ended up going out to the lakehouse to help Kelc's mom get settled in. This involved some moving of boxes and supplies, organizing, and just helping out in general. The lakehouse has lots of closets tucked away, so in some ways it is hard to pick where things should go. Oh and I think the water softener might actually be working now.

After that, we went up north into Leander to hang out with friends and play games. The festivities started with a bang; a couple of pumpkins were no match for some fireworks. I was a bit worried about shooting off fireworks with the grass in the dry/dying state, but noticed that the neighbor decided to build a huge fire...for no reason...right next to their house.

We invented a game that was pretty simple at first, but then we realized that we needed to clarify some rules to deal with race conditions, and then it started getting much more complicated. Also, since we were playing outside, we started getting numb.

Back inside, we thawed out and re-fueled with food and drinks. Next up... Risk. The game of world domination. The very end of the game started getting drawn out too much, so we ended with an Kelc and my alliance winning.

Next up, an entirely new game. This game has just about everything, and stretches the limits of creativity. I'm not even sure I can describe it accurately, so I'll just say that it was fun and in the dark.

Drove home, passed out completely. Daylight saving time is ending.

2010.11.05 Friday

End of the work week. Weird having kelc in town while I'm at work. Speaking of work, I'm pretty sure I was one of the last few people to leave the office. I forced myself to stay and finish things.

At home, Kelc and I caught up on a bit of Smallville. The house was a tad on the quiet side because a couple of people were celebrating their 2-year anniversary. Then we watched Primer. I'm still a tiny bit confused about the timeline of events, but I am certain that I enjoyed the dialog and cinematography.

Later, we went over to Chuy's for dinner. By the time we received food, my hunger escaped me. Very unfortunate but I still ate a chunk of food.

Back at home, more Smallville, then sleep.

2010.11.04 Thursday

Crazy day at work. Today was a practice in the art of multitasking. It's a delicate juggle of effort.

Kelc arrived in town just about when I arrived home. It is very weird to have her over on a "work night"

We checked up on my plants, then went skateboarding and checked the mail. I haven't skated in such a long time. It's really hard to want to skate once I came down with that cold. After I dealt with that, the weather also prevented me a few times.

Later on we stopped by my parents house to pick up mail and a kill-a-watt. The kill-a-watt is going to measure the power consumption of the newly acquired mini-fridge. At first glance, when the compressor is running it consumes 0.8-0.95 amps, and 0 amps when it is off (standard 115-120 Vac).

2010.11.03 Wednesday

It's finally starting to feel like Fall/Winter time. The air smells delicious today. Exciting times ahead! I cannot wait.

After a night of letting the fridge run, I checked on it. SURE ENOUGH there is a glaze of ice on the part that is the "freezer". I bet it would feel reasonably cold if things were actually occupying the space in the fridge. There doesn't appear to be anything leaking, and no circuit breakers flipped out. Why would anybody throw this out? Oh yeah, moldiness. Mild bleach, 409, and dish soap should be good enough.

Worked at work, thus the name. Actually left "on-time". Been weeks since that happened. Also, felt weird not having to worry about a kickball game after work.

So instead of kick-balling, I cooked up some taco meat and tortellini. Turned out to be a surprisingly good combination. Meat with seasoning and cheese filled pasta. Yum.

Worked on getting more music on my mp3 player. I actually started considering putting this music listening project on pause for a while. I'm over 1300 albums into the adventure already. It's not from being tired, or boredom, but a lack of resources and organizational preparedness. Don't mean to blame the seasons, but most evenings I have been coming home just really exhausted. Work also gets in the way.

Oh life, getting in the way of...life.

2010.11.02 Tuesday

Work went by quickly, and seemed to speed up at the end.

Went to class. Some fool turns off the computer in the conference room, so it takes 15 minutes to start up everything. Not only that, but being disconnected from the network causes virus scans to happen, so the first 30-60mins of being running everything is super slow. Frustratin' and Hatin'. At least we had Donn's BBQ for dinner.

Home, worked on that mini-fridge again. This time I busted out my trusty multimeter. Started cracking off the back plate where the power cord goes in. Turns out that there isn't much to a mini fridge. Thermostat, compressor, coolant lines, and your box. Maybe 5 wires...total. After playing around with it, figured out that the fridge doesn't like being plugged in when the thermostat is in the ON position, so just turn it OFF, plug in, turn ON...voila! Free mini fridge.... free mold.

Minecraft, and had trouble sleeping.

2010.11.01 Monday

Well world, we are 5/6ths of the way through the year 2010. How does that make you feel?

Work came and went. Simple tasks sometimes take more time than the difficult ones. Frustrating to say the least.

At home, took care of random things. Took a look at the mini fridge that was acquired by unknown means. I couldn't turn it on, and the inside was covered in disgusting mold. I'll put this on hold.

Inflated my tires to their recommended pressure. When is the last time you checked your tires? A simple 30 second check could increase fuel economy, increase the ability to control your vehicle, and lower the chances of a blow out. If you ever see chunks of tires in the road, that is almost always because of a blow out from incorrect tire pressure. Happens the most on big 18-wheelers that are carrying quite a bit of weight.

Also prepped some more music for my mp3 player. I'm running low on options.

Minecraft some, then sleep.

2010.10.31 Sunday

Woke up around noon at the lakehouse. Stumbled over to the tv to turn on some NFL. To my surprise, every guest was already gone. I would have thought that people staying up later than me would need to be sleeping in.

Spent some of the morning cleaning up things here and there. Overall it wasn't a terribly messy party, just lots and lots of soda cans (mountain dew to be specific).

We spent more time cleaning than usual because this house will soon be occupied. Kelc's mom is moving out to the lakehouse. She actually showed up with a bunch of boxes for us to help move into the house.

After that, we took a quick ride out on the boat, and learned how to operate the new dock. I was dunked in the water when my footing slipped from the boat.

After that, we left to grab a late lunch / early dinner at Mesa Rosa. Not sure why, but that seemed like the perfect place to go. Left satisfied.

Went home, watched Sunday Night Football, Steelers vs the Saints. Saints came out on top. And I think I had a mini relapse with Vanilla Coke, because I was hyper and couldn't sleep having not had one.

2010.10.30 Saturday

Lunch at Jason's Deli.

A few last-minute errands, then out to the lakehouse for the party. We had a few things to set up, but the bulk of the setup happened when the idea people arrived.

A few weeks back, Kelc and friends and I went out to the lakehouse to shoot a video. It turned out pretty well, even if it was slightly embarrassing. We played out a few murder-mysteries, played murder-in-the-dark, and tried out a new game called muder-mafia. A bit heavy on the 'murder' aspect, eh?

There were a few things I enjoyed taking away from this experience. One is that it is possible to have fun and party without alcohol, even if everyone is over 21. And two, that there are other people who still enjoy more child-like games (like murder-in-the-dark (not to say that m-i-t-d is a child's game, because we add some interesting complexity to the game)).

For drinks, we had Sunkist, Sunkisk Fusion, Coke, Vanilla Coke, Sprite, A&W Root Bear, A&W Cream Soda, Grape Soda, Mountain Dew, Mountain Dew Code Red, Mountain Dew White Out, Mountain Dew Voltage, and Mountain Dew Throwback (real sugar). Caffeine much?

I ended up finally passing out around 5am, others stayed up through the night into the next day.