2011.06.30 Thursday

As expected, I am rather tired getting up today. I was able to get to bed at an earlier time last night, but I think output energy was greater than input.

Work is quickly becoming a place where I can expect interrupts instead of actually getting work done. At least I got a free lunch today... mmm fajitas.

After work, I went for a nice 5k run. These are starting to feel a bit better, but I don't know how I am supposed to get any faster without taking breaks.

Showered, got dressed and went out to Justin's show at Vivo's. I arrived late so I missed a good chunk, but at least I still witnessed and acoustic version of stinkfist.

Next up, I went over to Planet K to pick up some tobacco for a hookah. Whilst shoppping through the selection, a lady runs in the door yelling "does anybody here drive a silver Mazda 3?". I almost didn't want to respond because I didn't want to know. Maybe I forgot to set my parking break and the car just rolled into a business? She says "some guy just hit your car". Awesome. Huge fluctuations of emotions going on, not sure what I should be. Also was worried that I might not be able to drive anywhere this weekend. -- So I get outside, a guy and his friend are standing behind his truck, which is in front of my car facing away. The parking lot is a loop with angled parking spots. I guess he 'pulled through' and that messed up his ability to get out, so he decided to back up...into my car. Luckily though, I couldn't see any damage that wasn't already there. His bumper height matched up with the height up my front license plate. I already have scratches on my front bumper from some hit-and-runs. He gave me his information, apologized profusely, and offered to settle any damages without getting insurance involved. I liked everything he was saying. I thanked him for not doing a hit-and-run, then said "well, I don't see any damages, but if for some reason my bumper falls off on the way home I'll give you a call and we can work something out". Perhaps humanity is not doomed. People actually taking responsibility for their actions, apologizing, and trying to make the best of the situation...

Sad, but my precious Mazda 3 is no longer a baby.

Went grocery shopping. Back home I couldn't sleep.

2011.06.29 Wednesday

Took my sweet time getting out of bed this morning. The lack of sleep is catching up with me.

Work was work. I sipped on coffee and ate Goldfish most of the day, flew right through lunch.

Our kickball team met up at the fields and began our 3rd game of the season. We had last week off from the rain, hopefully that doesn't throw off our groove. The team we were playing, 3rd Date, had been beaten pretty badly the games before. I guess they were feeling taken advantage of or really upset about it. They were acting completely out of the context of "Super Social" and calling us cheaters and yelling obscenities at our team. We only had a few times where we asked the referee for clarification. I feel like the ref was calling a pretty fair game. Well we ended up losing, and the other team made a huge celebration about it. Good for them. Maybe they will come out of this game better people, and be less douchey to the future teams. The ref even said a few times "just play the game".

We finally made the trip out to Doc's afterward. This was the first time this season for our game to not be super late. I was finally able to get to know a few people some more. Our team has a little bit of crazy, but a lot of people that just want to have fun and get out.

That about wraps up my day.

2011.06.28 Tuesday

Two weird things happened this morning. I wake up thinking that I had a dream about people being active around 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. Turns out that people were actually up and taking care of a sick pup. I also get a text from a friend saying they had a dream about me. I guess I transcended my sleeping mind and entered theirs.

Off to work...

I received a rather random text message today. It was from the New York area, and completely in French. I felt that was weird because as I was watching Inglorious Basterds last night I was thinking how much of French I still understand. As far as I can tell, the text message is one lady asking another lady if the package she mailed arrived in good condition. Not the most exciting message ever, but still cool that it is entirely French.

Post work, I went to go pick up some gear for the vacation trip. Then met up with Kelc and her mom to see Super 8 at the Alamo Drafthouse.

**slight spoiler, skip this paragraph if you want to see the movie as a clean slate** I though the movie was alright as an entertainment device. If you are looking for super crazy action, or incredible storyline, super special effects, or even superb acting... you might look somewhere else. There were a few scenes that just felt awkward, but I think some of that might have been on purpose. The movie felt like The Goonies, Jurrasic Park, and ET mixed into one; so in some ways it felt like a rehash that was trying to be a "new classic". With that said, I think the movie was entertaining. There were quite a few scenes and dialogue exchanges that had comedic value, and a simple love story-line strung through the meat of it all. It was entertaining, but I'm not sure if I would make myself watch it again.

Home. Bed.

2011.06.27 Monday

Woke up before my alarm today. I kept rolling around in my sleep, not sure why my body didn't want to just rest.

Work was moderate. I received a request from Mark to write a poem "about carry". Here is goes:

The waves crash over Mary

As she carves the waves to surf

These forces of nature will carry

Her body back to turf

On the shore she looks to the sky

A bird soars with something in its bill

Is this a sign from up high

of a destiny for her to fill?

The stork swoops down low

In the cloth a young baby

Atop the head, it carries a bow

Mary's heart is filled with glee

What once was a feathered creature

Turns into mechanical bot

Storks must have a new feature

In fear, Mary blows snot

A voice comes from the 'bird'

"Your destiny, take care of this little one.

The responsibility is transferred."

Just like that, it flew off into the sun

After work I drove home separate from Habs; he took his bike home. Well actually he almost took his bike home. It ran out of gas on the way home and I helped him get some fuel and back up and running.

I ran. I decided to go earlier than normal, for some extra sun exposure. I did not expect the temperature to stay so high. It was right at the triple-digit mark, with occasional winds. The only thing I tried to do was pace myself and make sure I was getting enough air. Ended up going 3.3 miles (that is 12.6% of a marathon, yay).

Cooked some chicken and pesto-pasta. I spent some of the evening going through ancient files on my computer. A little trip down memory lane.

I had a hard time falling asleep, and no help from the TV gods on this one. Inglorious Basterds was on Showtime, The Craft was on another channel, and How It's Made was on Science Channel. Le sigh.

2011.06.26 Sunday

Felt rather lethargic waking up today. Need coffee...

I helped Habs with a new pickling project he decided to take on. His recipe includes some jalapenos and cucumber and okra. After everything was done, it didn't actually seem that complicated. Perhaps a few more experiments will be happening in the near future.

Went out to the lake with Kelc and Kevin. Swam with Elmo and played in mud. We also took the boat out for some tubing and kneeboarding. Kelc was super close to doing a surface 360 on the kneeboard.

Back to Kelc's house to relax a bit. Played some Guess Who.

Went out to the fabulous Taco C for a late dinner. Kelc saw some old acquaintances from a previous life. Small world.

2011.06.25 Saturday - Company Picnic

Off to Seaworld... we so excited. (Oh wait, that was yesterday.)

Kinda sorta got up early, met up with the 'rents, then began the 2 hour trek to poopsville (San Antonio). I fell asleep on the car ride, like a kid normally would.

We parked for free, but normally it would cost 15 bucks. That is absurd. Sorry... you are already getting a great deal on making people pay to enter an area where they have to pay even more for food and drinks.. when will it end?

We arrived right around lunch time, so we went straight to the tents and food tables they had set up. On today's menu: hot dots, brisket, sausage, cole slaw, potato salad, and cookies. Weird having cole slaw sit out in the hot summer sun, but whatevs.

After lunch, we made our way to a few shows, then to the penguin exhibit, then dolphin feeding area, then coral reef/shark area. Pretty easy going day, but the heat is taking its toll. It didn't take long before we were all ready to go.

On the way back, we stopped for dinner at the new and improved Amaya's Taco Village. The moved across I-35 to a much larger building with a fancy bar. They even had room for some live music. Very nice.

Went to parent's home, watched a bit of the US vs Mexico soccer match. Started off strong, but slipped.

Back at my house I played some games and mostly relaxed after a long day.

2011.06.24 Friday - How to fix a LN-T4066F

Mmm sleeping in.

My sister brought over a TV to fix. Apparently it is having the same problems as my brother's Samsung.

***If you are following the steps I have followed, I urge you to use caution. Capacitors are electronic devices designed to store electrical charge. There is possibility of electrical shock, injury, or even death. I take no responsibility for your actions.***

First thing I did was test out the TV. I plugged it in, and the red standby LED came on without a problem. I pushed (or touched) the power button (sensor) to turn on the TV; it played the start-up jingle and the white glowing area in the center below the screen came on. The screen and backlight did not turn on. Actually, the first time it played the startup jingle, it was kinda static and fuzzy sounding. After about 5-10 seconds the startup jingle would play again, but sound less fuzzy. This repeated about 10 or 15 times, then the screen finally came on.

I let the TV stay on for a bit, plugged in a few HD sources to see if it would display everything. Once it booted up everything was fine. I then turned off the TV (to standby) and waited a minute or so. Then upon turning it on again everything booted up just fine, no multi-jingle. I guess whatever residual charge or warming up helped the TV boot.

I then unplugged the TV to let all the capacitors drain and to let everything cool off. Some hours later I plugged it back in, and unfortunately the problem resurfaced - troubled startup.

After unplugging the TV and waiting a few more hours to let any residual charges dissipate, I laid the TV face down on my bed (ideally you would want to use something soft and even in pressure), took out the four screws for the stand, then the 12 or so screws that held on the back plastic cover.

I took a picture and made the unimportant areas black/white, and the power supply board colurful. Here's what it looks like:

Now here is a close up of that power supply board, with the area of interest in color and the rest black/white:

Now here are two close ups of the capacitors in the area of interest for us. There are 7 blue electrolytic capacitors in the middle of the frame, 5 of them are taller and 2 are smaller. The problem is that some of these capacitors are bulging. That is a sign of being pushed beyond the rated specs, usually leaning towards total failure. Electrolytic capacitors operating outside their range start to build up internal pressure; as a safety measure, most capacitors will either expand or leak gases instead of just exploding.

So backing up a little: On the power supply board, there are two cables on the left going to the backlight/CFL, another cable on the left that I assume controls the level of backlighting, two cables on the right going to the main logic board, and two connectors on the bottom right that are coming in from wall power. I removed all of these connectors without any issue. Some have clasps to hold themselves in. There were about 5-7 screws holding down the power supply board; these need to be removed. Once those were out, the board slides right off, and now I have easy access to both sides of the circuit board.

To remedy our situation, we are going to be replacing these capacitors with something of the same capacitance (rated in Farads, or in our case micro-Farads) and a voltage rating of something equal or greater. I personally like to err on the side of caution and go for something with a bigger voltage because obviously the capacitors with this rating are failing in this circuit. Going with a bigger voltage rating just means the capacitor is capable of sustaining a higher potential difference between the plates, before failing. I went to Fry's electronics for capacitors. It is not the greatest for selection, but it is available now. Surprisingly, they had a sign up saying common capacitor values to put in flat panel TVs. I thought it was funny because they are also selling said flat panel TVs on the other side of the store.

Previous Capacitor Layout

CB850 : 1000uF 10V

CM852 : 2200uF 10V

CM853 : 2200uF 10V

CM876 : 1000uF 25V

CM880 : 1000uF 25V

Revised Capacitor Layout

CB850 : 1000uF 16V

CM852 : 2200uF 25V

CM853 : 2200uF 25V

CM876 : 1000uF 50V

CM880 : 1000uF 50V

After some quick desoldering and resoldering, cutting a few leads, everything was swapped out. If you are using a soldering iron for the first time, I highly suggest practicing on something of lesser value first. Soldering irons get very hot. Again, I take no responsibility for your actions, just describing what I did. Another thing worth mentioning is the electrolytic capacitors have a polarity, meaning they are OK being plugged in one way, but will completely fail if plugged in backwards. Take note of the orientation before swapping them out. If you happen to forget which way they go, look at other capacitors as reference on the circuit board, there are markings for the negative terminal.

I put the board and connectors back, screwed everything down and went ahead and tried plugging it in. The standby LED came on, then I powered it on... success on the first try. I then hooked it up to some sources and let it run for a few hours to see if there would be any hiccups. After a few sessions, I have yet to reproduce the booting problem. SWEET.

--

Over the course of the day, I worked on a TV, watched Habs fix a computer monitor, ate chik-fil-a for lunch, played games on a 40" screen, and cooked myself an awesome pesto-pasta and ribeye steak dinner. A++, would do again.

2011.06.23 Thursday

Yay for sleeping in late.

Work went by faster than usual because I kept getting distracted with discussions. Oh well. At least I had coffee.

At home, cooked up a nice ribeye steak. Pretty much took it easy, played games.

2011.06.22 Wednesday

Rained quite a bit last night.

It was slightly hot and humid at work until they were able to get the air conditioning kicked on. Not the greatest for productivity, but oh well. I ended up powering through lunch and working a longer day than normal. Cool.

Once home, I decided I should go for a long run. I took a few new paths and pushed myself to go a pretty long distance, but not my longest. (Only 2.9 miles)

Cooked up a filling dinner of fish and pasta+sauce.

Oh and kickball was postponed due to weather considerations. Maybe the fields are just mud pits now.

Watched Mythbusters, updated a profile picture, surfed, then went to bed.

2011.06.21 Tuesday

I had to hit the snooze button a few times this morning. First time was because an undesirable song was being played; the second was from wanting to stay asleep.

Long day at work. Sometimes things just are on a roll and drag out.

I was finally able to squeeze in some laundry. I also called up some family members to thank them for the birthday cards, and to catch up. I should probably make some time to go visit. Our time on Earth is finite.

Cooked up some tilapia and okra for dinner. Kelc was able to try the okra cooked in a much more consumer-friendly way. Finished up with some cake.

Played a few rounds of counter-strike and fell asleep to the sound of a rainstorm.

2011.06.20 Monday

I woke up before my alarm today. Sometimes that is nice, and sometimes it is depressing.

Work was rather plain. Some days, things just get done. Other days you are more likely to hit roadblocks. Today was the latter.

Took care of watering plants and feeding myself. Not too much time before I had to head on over to Highland Lanes to fill in a vacant spot on a bowling team. I ended up bowling my most mediocre games ever. I just never felt like I was in my grove.

Home, ate some more food and relaxed a bit before calling it a day.

2011.06.19 Sunday - FahJah's Day

Finally, refreshing sleep.

Went for a mid-morning run. I've been slacking in this area for a while now.

Cleaned up and prepared some strawberry topping for later events.

Went over to my parents house. We all met up there to celebrate Father's Day. Well, we were still unsure of what exactly we would be doing so we sat around for a bit. Eventually it was decided that we would be going to Carino's for a late lunch. We were 1 of 2 tables with people.

Back at the house for dessert, we had ice cream and pudding-cake, strawberry topping, cool whip and whipped cream.

Then I took a mini nap. We played games and watched videos on the Wii. Generally just hung out.

Back to my house, I ate some leftovers. Kelc and I watched the tail end of Twelve. It was ok. Might have been better if I had watched the beginning, but then again it might not.

Snooze.

2011.06.18 Saturday

Woke up, didn't do much. Put together a list and went shopping for groceries. I ventured out from my normal stuff a bit. Hopefully I remember to eat all the new stuff before it goes bad.

Took care of my plants. The cayenne pepper is loving the heat, but the ghost pepper hates it. I already moved it out of full-time sun, now I might have to move it on to a side of the house to get indirect sunlight so it doesn't start to dry up again.

Played some games to kill time.

This evening is Third Coast Renegade concert. This is my first time going to a concert at Quinn's bar in Round Rock. Justin asked if I would be so kind to do some level-checking for some recording, and I accepted because that sounds like fun. What I didn't expect was to be level-checking every part of the setup. From all the microphones, there were 3 levels to be mindful of: PA system output to crowd, monitor output to band, and AUX output to the laptop that was recording. Habs showed up and did some level management and helped point out some imbalance. Overall I think we did ok. The show was good, but I'm not confident in the recording balance.

After the concert, everybody met back at the house for an after-part / birthday celebration. I was not able to stay awake for long.

2011.06.17 Friday

It's that day again. Gotta get my bowl gotta get cereal.

Over lunch today a group of us went over to a park to play some soccer. It was rather hot outside. That limited how well I was playing. I think we all felt like passing out after just a few sessions.

Later in the evening, Kelc and I did some weight training. Followed that up with some fish and couscous. Relatively simple day.

2011.06.16 Thursday

Getting less sleep is starting to seem like a good thing, as long as I do the gradual wake-up.

Today should be fun. Half-day at work, then skateboarding event. At work, I dominated some code such that I didn't know what I would be doing tomorrow just yet.

Leaving work early feels like a vacation or weekend is starting. Good feeling. A quick hop skip and jump later, and I'm standing outside of Lakeline mall watching skateboarding in the heat of the summer. Very cool. The amateur competition was still impressive. One crazy thing: I recognized one of the guys in the competition as a guy that was at a skatepark at the same time as me once. (The park was rather empty, so it was easy to recognize the good skaters) Kelc showed up and enjoyed watching some too. Then we went inside to grab some chik-fil-a. After a tasty lunch, we went back out and watched the Almost and Enjoi skate teams do some exhibition, and Rodney Mullen was over in the shade signing signatures and taking pictures.

I left and took a nap at home. I didn't realize how tired I have become.

In the evening I made a quick trip over to HEB for snacks, then over to Kelc's house to watch a movie. We watched Never Let Me Go. Interesting movie, but I felt there were a few concepts that were awkward.

Back home, back to sleep.

2011.06.15 Wednesday

Not surprising: I'm rather grogged out this morning. I had my radio alarm set at the normal time, just no annoying beeping alarm. I still think this helped me get up gradually, and was better overall.

Another long day of work ahead. Can't be that bad right?

Took a quick lunch; cranked out code like a machine.

Left from work to go play kickball. We took a few innings to get into a rhythm, but we pulled out a win. Our referee seemed a little inexperienced, but handled the game maturely. When he called a few things wrong, he accepted the player's rebuttals and changed the calls. I went up to kick once and asked how many outs we had, he said 0. I knew that wasn't correct and had the previous play explained, where we did in fact have a player tagged out. So maybe it was silly of me to insist we had an out against us, but I would much rather have fun playing a fair game than just worry about winning.

From there, I went over to northwest Austin for a margarita night that Kelc has been planning. The timing was a bit off, so I went to eat Taco C by myself to kill some time. Slightly prior to that, I went to fill up with gas. My dad told me about a gas station that is somewhat close to where I live that always has gas 2 cents cheaper than advertised on the big sign. On top of that, they are a few cents cheaper (advertised) than all the other places I drove past. Neato.

Margarita night was fun. Played the card game waterfall with different rules than I am used to.

I arrived home late. Instant crash.

2011.06.14 Tuesday

Enjoyed staying in bed longer than usual. I think this method of waking up to the radio first is pretty good at bringing me out of sleep gently.

A WootOff is happening. Will you be lucky enough to get a bag-o-crap?

Work today was interesting. I've been blasting my way through code, writing more than I have in a long time. I also decided to work a really long day so I can take off time later in the week. I took some time out of the middle of the day to get a small workout in at the gym.

Post-work: I left and surprisingly enough there was still sunlight out. I guess the last time I worked really late was during winter or early spring when the sun set super disgustingly early. At home I took care of my plants by adding dihydrogen monoxide to the particulate they were suspended in. The tomato plant had two fruit ready for consumption, so I ate one and will eat the other tomorrow.

Off to Chik-fil-a for a quick drive-thru dinner, then over to Coleman's house for festivities. Unfortunately by the time I arrived at Coleman's, my food was rather cold. The road to his house has no signs warning you that it is coming up, like a normal highway would.

At Coleman's, we chatted and played a few games. One game we played is called Telephone-Pictionary. Each person grabs a piece of paper, writes a sentence at the top then passes it to their neighbor. Upon receiving a piece of paper, you either draw-the-sentence or describe-the-drawing, the fold over the paper so only your new addition is showing and pass it on. At the end of all the iterations, the drawings and descriptions tend to deviate from the original idea, and it is often hilarious. I think I broke Coleman with one of my drawings. He was laughing so hard that he was crying, so I began laughing with him and it made my stomach hurt.

Home late.

2011.06.13 Monday

I was able to wake up just fine today, but after the adrenaline wore off I started having trouble. That all happened within about 10 minutes.

Work was a rather normal day.

At home: took care of plants, did some workouts, cooked up a double-sized meal, played games. The double-size meal is so I have something to eat for lunch tomorrow. I keep seeing tips online that say to portion off your meals like that so you don't end up spending money for lunch. It gets even better if you offset it a day by overlapping when you eat the leftovers... but that means you have to be pretty rigorous with cooking.

2011.06.12 Sunday

Start the day off with some running. Hooray. How far this time? 1.6 miles... oh, not so great. BUT I pushed myself to run a faster pace than usual, which I hope had the effect of increasing my heart rate. It also felt weird to run on muscles that were just massaged.

Went out with the family and a few people to Benihana. It's hard to believe that my sister and mom haven't experienced this before.

Back home, I felt like taking a nap but fought the desire and continued playing CS:S. During which I finished the huge tub of "Pub Mix" that I picked up from Costco a while back. Now what will I eat?

Later in the evening, I met up with Kelc and her group of high school friends for some Vennis and Spider. Vennis is a volleyball/tennis hybrid. Spider is kind of like Marco-Polo but on a playscape. And yes, you have to close your eyes when you are 'it'. Not easy for beginners.

After that, I went over to Matt's house. We played some Mario Party (I lost every mini-game, but my team won overall) and I was able to meet his dog.

My my, it is late. Bed time.

2011.06.11 Saturday

Yesterday felt like a Saturday, so my internal compass feels a bit off. There is still plenty of time in the weekend, but what should I do with it?

Yep I spent a good chunk of time gaming.

In the evening, I met up with Kelc and we went over to Milk and Honey in the hill country galleria for some overdue massages. I'm pretty sure I gave this as a Christmas present, but I can't remember.

After that, we went over to my parents house to hang out for a little. I delivered a tomato and okra plant to my dad, who just had some space open up in his garden. I think the tomato plant has a chance at surviving if it goes in the ground. The summer heat is rough on potted plants.

Back home, ate some leftover steaks and played games with Habs and Taytay. My my my, margartias and Scattergories.

2011.06.10 Friday

Now it really is Friday. Gotta get down.

I woke up late, as usual for my weekends. I didn't really get much done before Kelc was off of work. I cooked up an omelette for breakfast; it was ok. We packed up some goodies, then headed out to the lakehouse.

There we relaxed a bit and watched Mythbusters and How It's Made. (Both awesome shows.) Not too much later, Sam and Zach showed up. We went down to the dock to swim and have fun. Unfortunately we had no gas, so we were stuck on the dock. No tow sports today. We did some trapeze swinging though.

We exhausted ourselves, then went up to play games and eat food. We played Catan and learned a few new things. Kelc and I finally cooked up those ribeye steaks that have been marinating for a few days.

Drove back home, cleaned up and rather quickly fell asleep.

2011.06.09 Thursday

Had a hard time getting myself out of bed. Heck, I've been doing it for 25 years now... har har.

I had to make a decision early in the morning when I wasn't fully awake. Should I drive myself to work and leave when I reach my required hours, or carpool and end up staying later than necessary? Tough one, but I figured not having to drive was slightly more of a luxury.

Work came and went.

After work, I relaxed and played games. Kelc was supposed to come over and cook up some steaks, but by the time she got here, we were both tired.

Called it a night rather early.

2011.06.08 Wednesday - Quarter-Century Special

Slept in today. Yeah that's right, on a work day. I felt like I deserved it. (I'm also ahead on time for this week, and will be staying late, so it all evens out)

I ended up missing lunch because I thought I could get food right before the cafeteria closed; I ended up working way past closing time. Instead, a banana and a granola bar.

The start of the next super-social season has begun. This time, kickball. Why kickball again? Well it's mostly because people are more comfortable playing kickball since they likely did when they were a kid. And secondly, any other sport during summer would be just too much. Heat strokes everywhere.

For our game, we didn't do so great during the first few innings, so the other team set our deficit pretty high. We never recovered. Oh well. Maybe they will put us in a different grouping of teams when they finish the schedule.

I went straight over to Kelc's for a set of surprises. I received a really awesome birthday card, and a slew of food that will need to be eaten in the near future. We went out to Taco C instead of fixing all the food. I felt it necessary to be lazy.

I then went home, and promptly fell asleep.

2011.06.07 Tuesday

Welp, I'm goggy as heck today. That's what I get for having fun. Where's the coffee...

Work went by successfully. I made an exchange with Mark: a gave him a homegrown "early girl" tomato, he gave me an heirloom tomato plant. Let's see how well I can kill this one.

After work I went on some errands. Got the battery in my watch replaced finally. While that was happening, I went by Zumiez to check out the skate gear they had. Turns out they are having a skate tour coming by Austin next week. Rodney Mullen and Daewon Song, along with the rest of the Almost team will be having an exhibition, there will be music, and an amateur skate competition. Me thinks I will be taking off work for this...

Stopped by the hotel to check up on Kelc since she was working a double-shift. Things looked slightly busy, but controlled.

After that, I went for a late night run. This is the first time I have come home with my shirt being mostly wet from sweat. My pace is hovering around the 10 min per mile rate, but my distance covered is creeping up. I'll either need to start incorporating laps, or venture pretty far away from home. I should make some graph of my progress.

Fried up okra. Turns out okra is somewhat disgusting to work with; it gets really slimy. It turned out.. alright. It would have been better if all of it was fresh, but seeing as I only have one big and one small plant producing I end up having to refrigerate some of it.

Cleaned up my mess, began the winding-down process for sleep.

2011.06.06 Monday - Weezer Concert

Enjoyed a good morning of getting stuff done before work. This also included eating some of the remaining blue berry muffins which turned out awesome.

Work happened faster than usual. I went to the gym over lunch time, and didn't really focus much on each protein after. Hopefully this isn't an issue.

Post work, I tended to my usual things then left to my sister's place. On my way there, I experienced 3 notable crazy drivers. The first was a guy on a motorcycle that was wearing ski goggles, no helmet. The second was a driver that was weaving through 3+1 lanes of Mopac going 80. And the third was a driver driving at least 95 in the exit lane, but weaving in just before actually exiting. These people should not have licenses.

From there, we went downtown to Stubb's BBQ to see Weezer perform. We went to the "Blue Album" night. Tomorrow night is the "Pinkerton Album" night. The line to get in wrapped around the block, and that's after they started letting people in. By the time we actually got in, we stood around and waited, thinking that we would have to watch the opening act still. I guess we must have missed them because Weezer came out after what felt like an hour of standing in a cigarette-smoke filled sauna. They presented the first chunk of the concert as a trip backwards through time on a musical time machine. They played just about every hit from all the albums, then for good measure they threw in a cover of Paranoid Android by Radiohead.

Then they left the stage to take a break. After a while, they started up a slide show of their history, their practice garage, their van, their first shows and reviews. Then, as advertised, they played the blue album.

Overall, a good show. Lots of people were chanting for an encore. Not sure what they would play after finishing the album.

Went home.

2011.06.05 Sunday

Sleep cycle was segmented, but still managed to sleep in.

For breakfast (post-noon), I cooked up some blueberry muffins and scrambled eggs.

The plants are doing well. I'll have a mini bunch of tomatoes to consume soon.

I spent the afternoon playing Minecraft and listening to Radiolab. I have been working on a big chasm in Minecraft, and it's near complete. It has a fancy glass roof that is underwater.

Watched a Smallville with Kelc. She fell asleep.

I decided to go running. I ended up running a little over 3.3 miles, which means I can now run a 5k (as long as it doesn't involve large elevation changes). My pace is in between 10 and 11-min/mile, so that could use some improvement. The beginning of my run was definitely faster than the end. The last couple of stretches were hills, and even down-hill is slightly more hard than flat ground. Rather proud of myself for making progress.

Went out to Qdoba for dinner.

Home, games, sleep.

2011.06.04 Saturday

This is one of the few times this year of going into the weekend without an idea of things to take up my time. Hmmmm. Sleep in? Yes.

A hop, skip and jump away from picking up some Chik-fil-a for lunch. The idea was to bring it to Kelc while she was on a lunch break, but I goofed up the timing on that one so it really was just at the end of the shift.

Post-lunch, Kelc and I left for the lakehouse to help fix up a few things. The jet ski was non operational because the previous users thought it would be a good idea to ride over the tow rope. Pretty much and instant-stall for that engine. It winds around a crankshaft that goes to the propeller, and just winds up and wedges itself against the casing. Also put on a couple of make-shift handles and cleaned up everything a bit.

Then went for a dip. Water is warm on the top, cold on the bottom. The lake is also getting pretty low. The "wall" that we build a long time ago is many feet out of the water. The sandy part of the shoreline is already visible. If it is only the beginning of summer I feel like the lake is going to get pretty small. Maybe some new abandoned cars will show up.

Left for home. Crossed paths with Ryan for a quick chat. I haven't seen him in a while since he's busy working and gaming all the time.

Met up with Ray and Marisa at Kerbey Lane later. Had to get the Kerbey Queso. I need to go on a trip to BCS soon; been way too long. We weren't able to stay out too late because Kelc had to work in the morning.

2011.06.03 Friday

That song. Every dang time.

Work was longer than expected, but engaging again so the time flew.

After work I tried quickly to take care of things around the house of course hitting a few roadblocks along the way.

Went over to Kelc's to eat Hunan Chinese delivery. Pretty good. Since I was late getting over there, they were already halfway through some princess movie. I enjoyed making faces at how ridiculous it was.

Then we played some New Super Mario Wii and Mario Party 8.

Then it was just about sleep time.

2011.06.02 Thursday

Yeah my thumb is swelling up. When I showered, I noticed that a glaze of dried up aloe vera gel was forming with water being applied. Maybe the aloe was being counter-productive and suffocating my skin. I'm going to scrape that off and try a few hours without it to see what happens.

Post work, went for an awesome long run. Just under 3 miles non-stop. Not bad at all.

For dinner, Kelc and I cooked up some chicken breast and pesto pasta.

Went to bed early.

2011.06.01 Wednesday

Well it is hump day. And guess what... no hot water for shower. Not cool (or too cool?).

To add a bit of insult to injury, my thumbs are starting to show an uncomfortable case of sun burn. Not sure why it took a couple days to really kick in. I'll try to post pictures so you can enjoy the view.

Work was engaging and longer than regular.

After work, Habs and I crawled into the crawlspace, and figured out that the pilot light went out on the water heater. A few piezo-electric clicks later, and we were back in business. The best part was going from the "lighting" position to the "full on" position, and seeing a blanket of flames burst out. I guess the system did a pretty good job at detecting how the water in the tank was not warm at all any more.

My thumb seems to be getting more painful. Now I'm questioning if there are multiple factors at play here, like maybe a rash on top of a sunburn or something. This just reminds me of commercials that say "love the skin you are in", but I find that hard when my skin just sucks at surviving.

Ate some leftovers for dinner. Pretty boring evening.