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April 30, 2006
April 29, 2006
vicarious
The new tool is in my PC. Hit the bricks, Built to Spill!
Edit: The first 1 minute is already awesome!
happiness
Have I mentioned how much I love the new Built to Spill album, You in Reverse? Well, go get it, cuz it's awesome.
But it's probably the last time you'll hear me talk about it, because soon, the new Tool album will be out, and then, everything else will be secondary.
When I came home thursday nite, I hit the opener to 3rd stall garage door, and it started like normal. Then halfway up, it stopped, and I could hear the opener try to reverse, but the door still stayed there. So I went in to investigate, and hitting the button anymore still did nothing. So I detatched the door from the opener, and opened it myself, parked the bike, and started to look more closely.
The nylon gear inside had no teeth left, they had all been ground to dust inside the opener.
Neat. My opener committed suicide.
So I didn't want to have to order one, and wait, so I called all around this morning.
None of the expected places (home depot, menards, sears) actually had any on hand.
So I called a couple local garage door specialists, and only a few were open. The one that claimed he would almost certainly have some on hand (but had to call the service tech who would actually do the service to make sure he had it on his truck). I said, "yeah, but I have to leave, and I'm not sure if I'll be back by 3pm, when you say he's available".
"Plus, I just wanted a price, I'm not 100% sure I want to buy it from you"
"Yeah, no problem, but the service tech has the prices, I don't. So he'll be able to tell you when he calls you to see if you're back yet"
Fine.
Ann and I go to the YMCA to watch the girls dance recitial.
Funny sidenote, their dance instructor is the daughter of Cindy Wanek, of Wanek's of Crete, a local furniture store who used to always be on TV commericals. Brush with local fame.
The recital ends, and I swim with the girls for awhile, but leave early to get this guy's phone call and figure out what to do.
When I get home, the guy is in the driveway.
Great, high pressure sales now.
Sure enough, after he inspects it, he assures me I need to have the nylon gear, several pulleys, and all the track wheel replaced. I told him to take a flying leap, I was only interested in replacing the gear so it would work again, and if it needed anything else, I would go buy it and fix it myself.
He said that was fine, and he went back to his truck and came back with a box, and said "here, you didn't get this from me"
It was the nylon gear I wanted.
"Seriously? Thanks man."
"No problem. I'll put it all back to gether for you for $20"
"Deal"
Maybe that was the end goal all along, but he was quoting me prices for the gear at $60, pulleys at $30 each, and a set of rollers for $110. $20 to get it working again and put together by someone who was much less likely thanb me to screw it up is well worth it.
Now it all seems good, and he said "you should spray all those rollers and puleys with silicone spray", which I did, and all seems good now. I can go to the hardware store and gets new pulleys if necessary, but we'll see.
I'm just happy it didn't turn into a $200+ unexpected expense, which it seemed it was going to be at first.
April 27, 2006
abracadabra
Stayed up til 1:30 working on my projects and homework last nite. Need to work very long tonite on the homework and the final grad project. Bleh.
I still need to start some serious studying over the weekend.
Fun.
Yesterday I rode to class (the weather was actually quite nice), and parked the bike (which I'm getting a little better at), locked up the helmet on the bike, and walked into the building. I was wearing my $10 walmart sunglasses, but when I got to class, I put them under my seat. After the lecture was over, I got up and asked the professor a question, and then left. But because I was "staying after" and was the last person left in the room when the professor also left. I started out the door and down the hall at the same time as the professor, but we went in opposite directions.
I was halfway down the hall when I rememerbered my sunglasses, turned around and went back, and they were gone!
This is remarkable because it means whoever took them, took them while I was still in the room! I can hardly believe it!
April 25, 2006
pull me under
Holy crap my knee hurts!
Paintball was not good for me. It was fun, but all you do it run, squat for several minutes at a time, then jump up and run a little, then squat for another ten minutes. My knee hates that, and now it's punishing me.
Been raining the last couple of days here, so no riding.
It's also dead week, but I have a 2 projects, a homework assignment, and a lab due. I'm only taking 1 class!!
So pretty much my whole week is dedicated to this class, to get all the assignments done, then to study like mad for the final on tuesday.
bleh.
April 23, 2006
paralyzed
I am out of shape.
I played at Pete's monthly poker tournament with Chad on friday nite, and Chad didn't do well, but I managed to make ~$50.
Which helped pay for paintball today.
Paintball was really fun, but you really should be in shape, and I was not in good paintball shape. Aubrey seemed to like it too, as well as Steve and his kids. BJ and Jeff were my only other friends that played, and I think we all had fun.
Except Jeff shot me once when I was on his team, traitor!
But the comibination of playing poker til 3am, going to aubrey's 9am hockey game, then straight to paintball had left me pretty tired.
I think I'll go to bed on time tonite.
Bad beats and poker stories for extended reading.
Tournament:
Early on, I have Ad-Js under the gun, and limp, hoping for a raise, but everyone else limps too.
No matter, flop is As-6d-6c. I check, and there's a bet, two callers, and I call, figuring I'm ahead.
Turn is 5s.
Guy to my left bets again, only one other guy and myself call.
River is 6s.
Wow, there's only 1 friggin card that can beat me.
Guy on my left goes all in, but has less than me, 2nd guy calls, and I call saying, "maybe we all have the same thing."
Guy on the left has the 6, other guy has not the nut flush, so clearly in mensa.
I have little chips left, we're down from 41 players to ~12, and I'm nearly dead, just waiting for a quality hand to double up with.
In middle position, everyone having limped in, I have 7s-8s. I love to play these hands normally when everyone limps, but I decide I need to save chips, and fold.
Flop is 9s 6s 2s
Great. I made a mistake, but there's several far better flushes out there, as there's betting and several callers.
Turn is 5s.
Bollocks.
Shortly thereafter, I have pocket 2's, and I decide even that's not good enough, and fold.
Of course the flop has a 2, and a king which someone else had and bet heavily on.
Bollocks.
Cash game
Chad's bad beat.
Wyles is a guy we've played with there several times. Usually very tight, but a decent player. This nite, he was crazy loose, much like Chad.
Wyles has raised nearly every pot of omaha pre-flop, and bet out to win 75+% of them.
This one, Chad stays with, and he shows me his K-K-2-6 to the K-4-8 rainbow flop.
Wyles pots it again, and Chad re-pots, and wyles calls. Turn is Q, more betting.
River is a 10, changing the best possible hand.
More betting, both Chad and wyles are all in for $60+ each.
Wyles has A-A-J-10, for the straight.
Chad's obesessed that he called all that way "knowing that he had a set, and therefore just drawing to the straight"
Maybe, but it seemed like he was just trying to buy it, like he had several others, and it just worked out.
But painful to watch all the same.
April 19, 2006
dynomite satchel of pain
Just got home from my first judo practice in > 2 years.
Sore is not a proper term here. I can feel parts of my body I forgot I had, like my lower back. And I can barely move my left wrist.
But it was a lot of fun, and I didn't get my butt kicked all over, I held my own just fine. I just need to continue to go and improve.
crooked teeth
Well, lunch was eventfull.
I got the first time of dropping the bike out of the way.
This bike weighs ~600lbs by itself. This one has several large panniers, which I have filled with sandbags.
Ok, not sandbags, but with crap that only adds to the weight. It's real heavy, ok?
I pulled into the very parking spot as it is in this picture just facing the other way. So, car in front of me. Mistake #1.
It's crazy windy today. So, not that I really feared the bike would be blown over, but just to be sure, I put it up on it's center stand. For those that are not familiar with the center stand, you have to pull back and up on the bike, while at the same time, push down on the stand itself. It's harder to get on that stand, but then it's never going to fall over. But it also has to roll forward 1-2 feet to get off the stand. I left myself 3-4 feet between me and the car in the next stall, and went inside.
When I came out for lunch, the car in front of me had left, and someone had pulled in that spot, all of 1 foot in front my bike.
Nice.
So I'm going to run into this car while getting off the stand.
Great.
Well, here goes.
Grab both grips, push forward, and it goes just enough to get off the stand, and hits the car. Bounces backwards and leans towards me. I can barely hold it up normally, so I always do this with the kickstand down in case I lose it. Mistake #2.
The kickstand comes down on my foot. This probably would break my foot if I wasn't wearing my boots.
Instead, it doesn't come down enough to continue to lean in that direction, and in fact, almost bounces off my foot, and starts to lean in the opposite direction, away from me.
It goes quickly from there. I cannot hold it up, I have no leverage. So there it lays on it's side in our parking lot, my just staring being disgusted.
Of course there's a couple of painters outside who saw the whole thing.
So I walk around to pick it up, and I start to lift, but nothing happens. I try again, really getting a good grip, and giving it my all, and the bike barely moves. I'm going nowhere fast. Then the two painters who had watched the whole thing happen, comes over and offer to help.
The three of us get the bike up.
I thank them, put what's left of my pride in my back pocket, get on the bike and leave.
The only good news, I was rather insistant on getting a bike with these specific panniers, and a big beefy engine gaurd. (the metal bit around the cylinder heads that stick out sideways near the footpegs). So all that, plus the bar end took all the weight. Nothing functional nor painted was damaged at all.
So, some good lessons were learned at a minimal cost, mostly my pride.
Lesson #1, only park in a spot that I can pull forward out of, so I don't have to flintstone backwards up hill, and no one can pull right next to my front tire.
Lesson #2, drop off the center stand with the kickstand up.
April 18, 2006
opiate
The bike is very nice.
I rode it around for about an hour yesterday, including some gravel roads to test out the ABS brakes, which are quite impressive, especially considering how heavy this bike is. It's got plenty of power for cruising the interstates, which was my main concern with my savage. That, and seating position, which is also much better on this bike, and the backrest doesn't hurt, either!
Got to get this class finished, then I plan to do some riding!
Only problem now is, I have a garage space problem.
Something's gotta go. I have some serious garage sale plans in the future, and at least one of the older bikes has got to go too.
April 17, 2006
happy boy
So, my package finally arrived this morning. One week to the day of pickup. Note: it came this morning from St. Louis. Hmm. Thanks for driving right by me with it sometime last week.
I was not really mentioning it, for fear of something bad happening during shipping, and then I would have felt like I jinxed myself. But if you read this page with any regularity, it would be quite clear what it is.
I spent the last 3 months talking non-stop about getting a new bike, and all the various pros and cons of finding one, then I suddenly stop talking about it, and I'm waiting for a delivery that I couldn't fedex.
Well Sherlock Holmes, you figured it out.
I got this.
It arrived in good shape today. But I have yet to go ride it anywhere. The weather was absolutely wonderful all last week, and today it is cold and overcast. I will take some more pictures of it when I get home, but for now, these are the pictures the previous owner took when he posted it for sale.
It's got everything I wanted, just had to be patient. Now just waiting for my GPS to arrive, and I'm off on some real road trips!
April 15, 2006
ace of spades
How funny is this?
April 14, 2006
sucker train blues
I'm often told I'm pessimistic. I prefer to believe I'm realistic. Plan for the worst case, and you'll never be disappointed, only happily surprised. I just had something that I needed quickly shipped here, but it required special shipping so I couldn't just fedex it. This shipper says delivery will be "5-10 working days" from pickup. It was picked up on Monday, so I chose to be optimistic and expect it yet this week. Buzz. Wrong.
That's the reward for being optimistic. Back to reality.
April 12, 2006
the contortionist
Joel and Jennifer (well, Jennifer, really) finally had their twins!
Logan and Shealyn.
I'd say they look like one parent or the other, but all newborns look the same to me. Apart from them being an obivously different race, you could say they looked like me, and I'd believe you. But at least they do look healthy, and that's what really matters.
fueled
I've been thinking about taking Aubrey to play paintball for almost 2 years now. I know it will never happen unless I arrange something myself, none of my friends will ever go play and invite us. They'd invite us, they would just never go on their our impulse.
So, I'm going to try and set something up for next weekend, that way, everyone has enough notice. It would be nice to think that posting it here would be enough to let everyone I'm thinking would play knwo about it, but I also know that none of those dirtbags actually read this. So now I have to get on the horn and make several phonecalls...
But I'm excited, I haven't played paintball for a couple years now, and I love it.
April 11, 2006
i must be hateful
This might actually be funny. Bill Fillmaff is funny for about a minute. Then he gets old, but this event sounds intriguing.
wake me up when september ends
Friday nite, Chad, BJ and I went to the boats, where Chad esentially took BJ and my money. That sucked. Could have done that in lincoln, but it wasn't as if all the hands were truly between Chad and I, or Chad and BJ, it's just that he ended up the same amount we were down. He couldnt' miss a hand, it was sickening.
While on this trip, they told me about a new locally owned mexican place, where Chad said they had a very spicy speciality. So I was intrigued, and I went there on saturday, after Aubrey's hockey game. He's playing some roller hockey now, which is cool to watch.
This place, called El Comel, which I need to figure out what that means, has a a feel very much like Big City Burrito. Except it's owned and run by all mexicans. Very cheap, the burritos are incredibly big. The biggest I've ever seen. And I've seen some big burritos. Note, they are $4.50, and much bigger than the $7 chipotle burrito. The the specialty is very tasty, a pork and onions mix. Not spicy as the Chad's wussy tongue would have you believe, but quite tasty.
They also have some interesting other meats, such as tongue, tripe, and brains.
Yes, that's right, brains.
I went there for lunch again with some kids from work, and Hunter, the Chinese kid, already wants to go back to try the tripe and brains. Chinese eat everything, and apparently the mexicans do too. Apparently, only Americans are "too good" to eat the whole animal. I tried tongue once, not impressed. I may have to try brains once just to say I did. But I can't say I will do it without some trepedation.
April 8, 2006
you can't save me
Chad, the guy who wanted me to do the adventure race with him, hasn't called me all week. So I finally called him this morning, and he told me that I didn't have to race. Dodged a bullet there. But hey, thanks for the call to let me know. I've been running and biking all week in a desperate and futile attempt to prepare. I would not have been anywhere close to ready, so I'm glad I'm out.
April 7, 2006
you are
My brother, dad, and I have gone on a week-long fishing trip on and off for the better part of 15 years. I think the first was ~91 or 92.
We haven't been in 3+ years now, and my brother got the idea that we had to go again this year.
Fine. Actually, good. I would like to go again, but it does screw up my vacation, since it seems like I have all 3 weeks allocated on "standard" vacations we take every year, and I already used one week's worth on disney. So throw in another non-standard vacation, and something's gotta give.
Not sure what yet, but point of the story is, Joe also demanded that we hire a fishing guide. For like $300. For something like 2-3 hours of "work".
It was also suggested/insisted that we needed a GPS unit to remember the 'hot spots'. None of this has been necessary before, so apparently my dad and brother are making way more $$ than me, and are eager to give it someone else.
I don't know what I'm talking about, I seem to have the same problem, just giving to other things.
So I volunteered to get the GPS, because it's a useful tool on the motorcycle if you take off-road trips, which I'd like to think I'll do in the near future, but that remains to be seen.
Anyway, after much searching, I just purchased this:
It's the entry model of the latest and greatest series of GPS's. I don't even want to acknowledge how much I spent on it, but after buying many consumer electronic products over the years, I am a firm believer in "you get what you pay for" so I didn't want the cheapest thing possible. This is considered cheap, yet has ever function you'd want.
How do I get talked into these things?
Speaking of which. I am still not clear about this at the time of this writing, but I may have been talked into doing an adventure race again. Last year I was going to, but was regretting it because I did not feel I was in anywhere near good enough shape to do it. I was saved because my partner broke his arm while we were training the week before the race. (Lucky me!)
Same guy asked me to do a race with me this sunday, and I said "I'm in worse shape than last year when you asked me"
He didn't seem to care. But I told him "no way"
He responded "I don't have anyone else, so I'm putting your name down. I'll continue to look for someone else, and if I find another person, you're off the hook. Otherwise, you're it"
What, is this guy my boss? Why am I listening to him? I told him over a year ago I thought they looked like fun, and I would be interested in trying one, but I want my first one to be a little kids one, not run 10 miles, bike 30 miles, blah, blah, blah.
My race would go something like this:
run 3 miles, walk 3 miles
bike 10 miles, get towed 20 miles
run .5 miles, drop dead
Yeah, this is going to be great. I'm waiting for a call from the governor to save me...
the thin ice
Big storms here this week. Most of the week was very nice, but Monday and last nite were lots of rain and wind. All day the national weather service sqaid we were going to be getting a lot of rain and be in a tornado watch all day. All day it was like summer, 80+ degrees and extrememly nice. Only around 5pm did it start to darken, and then around 6pm all the rain and wind came. Then it was gone by 8pm. Nice "all day tornados". Not that I'm disappointed mind you, but it doesn't seem like it was worth getting all worked up about.
April 5, 2006
goin against your mind
So I've been looking for some new music for the last several months, disappointed at every turn.
Finally, I have found something worthy to be called the 'band of the moment'
Built to Spill's new album "You in Reverse"
They are a little different, but after a few listens, I find myself liking them more each time. I have had their older albums for some time, and like them very much, but this new one I'm liking the best so far. I'm only 3 songs into it, and already these 3 songs are in my top 5 for this band.
Other must listen-to's from Built to Spill:
-The Weather
-You were right
-Strange
Check em out, seriously.
April 4, 2006
The whole story
So I built my first poker table at the end of the summer of '05. You know, this one
It's been working great, and as soon as I built it, I was already making plans for the next one.
Only problem, the wife didn't like the idea of even the one being stored inside, let alone two (or more!).
So I recalled one of the threads on Scott's Poker Forums, where the question was asked about storing your table by hanging from the ceiling, and it was pointed out that Quads had, in fact, done it.
While I really liked the idea of storing the tables hanging from the ceiling, as I have 12ft ceilings in the garage, but I needed to be able to store more than one at a time. And while the initial poster's suggested product looked like a good idea, it wasn't going to big enough to hold my 4'x8' table, let alone more than one of them. Plus, I figured I could emulate Quads and build it myself for less.
Well, we'll see.
First purchase, 4x8 particle board. Why particle board instead of MDF or hardwood? I explained what I was building to the experts at Home Depot, and they suggested it over the other choices because it was "just as strong as MDF, but lighter". I'm no expert, but for me $$ talks, as long as it gets the job done.
I also got 10 pulleys, 100' of 1/4" poly rope, four 5/16" hooks, and two 8' 2x4's to brace the board along the bottom.
The original plan:
As much as I liked this idea:
I didn't think I could weld/build everything that would be required.
So my first plan was two of these, which I already used for my bikes, one on each short end of the platform.
They work great, and I knew I couldn't actually use these products, I would build my own, stronger version, one on each end of the table. I wanted to wind up the rope on a reel secured to the wall, similar to an air hose reel
Except I envsioned it being powered by a motor, not a hand crank. (Hey if you're going to go through the trouble to build something, go all out, right?)
In short, this did not work. My friend Jeff, who helped me do most of this, debated why for hours.
He thought it was because the rope was stretching, I thought it was due to imperfect pulleys and a much heavier load than a bike.
It didn't matter much, the design had to change. The first change: four seperate ropes, all secured to the reels individually, thus, the four corners of the platform would stay level to the floor.
But as much as I wanted that design to work, and as convinced as I still am that it would work, I could not easily and/or cost effectively build 'wind the rope up on a reel' system. Jeff's idea, which was the same as BJ's
which was a simple winch connected to a large D-ring to the four ropes design. I didn't like this for many reasons, such as:
-not nearly as cool as my wind up on a reel design
-requires me buying an expensive winch
-requires >10ft of distance between the winch anchor site and the pulley to the corners of the platform, which I didn't have.
So Jeff came up with the idea to 'turn the corner' which meant putting all ropes through a far wall.
Jeff came over and we installed it all as we planned.
And much to my surprise, it worked!
Well, for awhile. Then something went wrong. I'm not sure what exactly, but while testing it, a rope broke.
So, ropes were out. Now, I needed to go with cables.
The following weekend, I did just that, and it looked a lot stronger.
I also put two more 8 footers along the bottom edge-wise because the flat way was not preventing the platform from bowing much at all. This prevented it from bowing the long way, but I could still see it bow on the short side.
I also rigged up a string to pull the safety latch while standing at the switch.
The switch was the only surviving part of the original design, the only part I felt like I actually knew something about!
Note the excellent jerry-rigging of the battery charger by clamping it to the switch's supply wires to power the thing. I'm sure that's up to code!
But the 3 position switch is great, up is up, middle is off, and down is down. When I fully loaded the table up, the 2 amps from the charger were barely able to drive the winch hard enough to pull it up, but I got it done, and it has a 10 amp mode as well.
Last weekend, my son and I beefed up the 2x4 underneath the platform according to friend's suggestions to prevent bowing and keep the hooks from pulling out. It now works great!
But for the moment, it appears to be a success. I'm currently planning on adding some additional hooks in the ceiling for added security. I don't want it falling on my van!
So how much did I save?
Sadly I estimate I spent $150-$200 on this thing. Most of it was the $60 winch, but no small part was due to parts that I bought and didn't end up being able to use in the final design.
But at least I didn't just buy a solution, and did myself, with considerable help from friends.
April 3, 2006
i would hurt a fly
Have I mentioned that I'm desparetely looking for a new bike? Yes, I think I may have. Saturday was the only nice day of the weekend, and I did ride around town on my current bike a fair bit. Today was borderline weather for riding to work, but I've been little newvous about the bike because I know the rear tire is nearly worn out. Today I inspected it closely, and really, I can't ride that tire anymore, just not safe.
So now, I have no bike. We are now at threat level red.
built to spill
We had a largely pleasant weekend, only because it wasn't jam-packed with stuff to do. I only leasurely did some homework and a lab, and we had a poker tournament. But otherwise, not much going on. I got some plumber contacts too, so I can get the bathroom shower installed. Been sort of hung up on that point for a couple weeks now. Once that's done, I will install the shower, and finish the water connections. Then it should be time for the ungodly act of drywalling. Looking forward to that.
It's been raining most of the weekend, so the girls' soccer game was cancelled today, and we just hung around the house. Aubrey and I beefed up the suspension and frame of the poker table hoist, and I am deeming it good now. There's still a slight amount of apprehension on my part that something will pull loose from the ceiling, so I'm thinking about trying to beef that up a little too. But now the table platform itself seems very solid, thanks to some suggestions from friends after they saw it in action saturday nite.
Got my butt kicked in our tournament saturday nite. But came out ahead in the cash games. Sort of the standard story anymore.
I made offers on two different bikes last week. Both were turned down, not because I offered too little, but because of where I live. I offered a guy in San Diego full price for his bike, and said I would pay for shipping here, and he ended up selling it to someone local to him. I can't blame him, but I know I made my offer first, so it's all just frustrating.