Category Archives: Beware of Leopard

This is the catch-all category.

Musical … well, everything.

By | | ,
Comments Off on Musical … well, everything.

I’d say “musical chairs”, but a lot more than chairs are involved. Marcia’s got some quilting work coming up that is approximately a billion times easier (using Top Gear maths, there) if she is able to use all the power of her fully operational Death Quilter. Errr, or something like that. But the only place we can do the full build out of her quilting frame is the library, because the other choices are someone’s woodshop, and the living room. So, here’s what the library looked like at 10:30 this morning.

Library before reorganization

Library before reorganization

The blue chairs, the occasional table, and the bookcase move walls, left to right. That table to the right? That’s going into the breakfast nook.  The table that’s in the breakfast nook? That’s going down the stairs, to hold up the embroidery machine, which currently lives on a corner of Marcia’s cutting table. The cutting table? That goes into the fabric room downstairs, once the quilting frame is migrated upstairs. Here’s the quilting frame in it’s original cramped quarters. Marcia and I had already brought the long arm sewing machine  upstairs.

Quilting machine frame in fabric room.

Quilting machine frame in fabric room.

The HandiQuilter frame actually has three 4′ long sections. At the time of initial install, we tried to keep everything confined to Marcia’s half of the basement, which meant only installing it as an 8′ system, and into cramped quarters at that. Marcia headed out to meet friends and I got to work. I prepared the library, then disassembled and migrated the quilting frame upstairs. I also pulled in the boxed parts that I needed to build out to full length. By two in the afternoon, I had the whole thing back together, no left over parts, in the library:

Quilting Machine in the Library

Quilting Machine in the Library

With that done, I did a bit of prep disassembly on the cutting table, and then had a late lunch while I waited for Marcia to get home. She helped me move the cutting table pieces between rooms, then I reassembled that in the fabric room. Then I disassembled the breakfast nook table, hauled it downstairs, and put it back together there. We put the embroidery machine on that. THEN I moved the previously disassembled round table bits into the breakfast nook and reassembled it there.

It was a long day of work, and a lot of stairs, too. We still have to find homes for a few displaced things, but progress on that tomorrow (I hope). Whew!

Twitter-spotting #43

By | |
1 Comment

“@TonikJDK: Fair warning. If I see someone wearing Google Glass I will run up and yell ‘Safe Search off, horse porn!!’”

’nuff said.

*      *      *

“@tenderlove: I wish name tags were a hip thing. It would prevent many awkward situations.”

There are so many ways to interpret this. My first reading was that he wants nametags on peoples hips, instead of the standard left-breast position. After all, that would prevent the awkward excuse, “No, really, I was just trying to read your nametag, ma’am!” Then I realized that he probably meant hip, as in cool. But really … hip ain’t cool.

Hip was before cool, and hip may be again, someday, but today isn’t the day. Today we have hipsters, which is an utterly different species from the hipsters of yesteryear. Today’s hipsters are, among other things, utterly lacking in hips. You can’t wear skinny jeans much if you have any hips. And, hipsters ain’t hip.

Now, nametags. I’m not in favor of those. I’m utterly terrible with names. Some days I wake up, look in the mirror, and mutter, “Who …?” That’s just one example of how bad I am with names. Nametags would remove most of my excuses, leaving me with just “being a dumbass with a name-forgetting fetish”. And no one wants to cop to that. So down with nametags. Up with confusion and being called Bob!

*      *      *

Finally, a big thank you to Jeri Ryan, who sent me to PetaPixel’s snowflake post, which led me to http://chaoticmind75.livejournal.com/, where Alexey Kljatov keeps his blog. Wowser!

George Lincoln’s Birthday

By | | ,
Comments Off on George Lincoln’s Birthday

Or something like that.

I neglected to check in last night – I actually stayed off the computer all day yesterday. I checked email on the phone a couple of times, for reasons about to become apparent, but that was all. Woodshop work, and Top Gear UK rounded out my Sunday.

Saturday was a big system upgrade project. We’d been preparing for the event for the better part of a year: endless cycles of build, test, and document. Towards the end I was losing sleep thinking about it each night. Finally the day came, and all of the prep work paid off. There was precious little that didn’t go according to plan, but I did spend about 12 hours welded to the laptop, working remotely. Whew! I was really looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

Around 0100 on Sunday morning, truck and siren blaring by in the road. Sigh, someone’s had a fall, or a stroke, or a heart attack. Then, more trucks and sirens, and still more. Looking out a back window, I saw flames much taller than the house they were consuming,  about a quarter mile away from our place. While the sirens stopped, the engines at full rev running the pumps made the next couple of hours sleepless, too.

I drove past yesterday – the house is gutted, it’s going to be a scrape-off. Good news, though – everyone made it out of the house okay! All the stuff can be replaced, with time and money.

*      *      *

Wonder of wonders, still no new casualties announced in the last week. Glad of that.

Last Week

By | |
Comments Off on Last Week

More like: The Last Week. I finished up all of this week’s work yesterday, and did a big hunk of the final week’s worth of schoolwork today. So close I can taste it, this school thing, it will be done. I also did a bit of cleaning here and there, and tidied up the woodshop.

*      *      *

Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Lance Cpl. Anthony J. Denier, 26, of Mechanicville, New York, died Dec. 2, while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
  • Sgt. 1st Class. Darren M. Linde, 41, of Sidney, Montana, died Dec. 3, in Lashkar Gah City, Helmand province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Spc. Tyler J. Orgaard, 20, of Bismarck, North Dakota, died Dec. 3, in Lashkar Gah City, Helmand province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.

This ain’t the Sandy that Bruce sings about!

By | |
Comments Off on This ain’t the Sandy that Bruce sings about!

Winds ebb and flow, with the gusts a bit stronger, hour by hour. Light rain and drizzle overnight lead to 0.6 ” of rain by the time I left for work this morning. I came home shortly after noon, and it’s been raining gangbusters all day. The 24 hour total for Sandy in our back yard is 3.3″. I stand ready to fire up the generator when the power fails, which I expect this evening or overnight. Once gone, it’s likely to be days before it’s back. Right now, BG&E has 44K outages, and the others are likely following suit.

Sandy’s making landfall at the southern-most end of New Jersey right now, and will spend a bunch of hours dumping hurricane-force winds over several hundred (mental math problems, sorry) a couple of hundred thousand square miles of eastern seaboard, including us. After that, it should start tapering off for us, say by midday tomorrow, as life starts to really suck for Pennsylvania for a day or two.

Dangerous Sandy

By | | ,
Comments Off on Dangerous Sandy

A bit of light drizzle, some breezes, and a second day under cloud cover. That’s what has happened so far. But Sandy approaches. The patio furniture is stowed in back, the hanging baskets and flag removed from the front, and the generator is tested and ready. I gave Marcia a walk-through on starting it up today, and she feels content with that.

At this beginning of things, our rain gauge stands at 2.96 inches, as of 1700 EDT.

School countdown: 7 weeks left.

*      *      *

Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Chief Warrant Officer Michael S. Duskin, 42, of Orange Park, Florida, died Oct. 23, in Chak District, Wardak Province, Afghanistan, from small arms fire while on dismounted patrol during combat operations.
  • Staff Sgt.  Kashif  M. Memon, 31, of Houston, Texas, died of wounds suffered Oct. 25 when his unit was attacked by small arms fire in Khas Uruzgan, Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan.
  • Sgt. Clinton K. Ruiz, 22, of Murrieta, California, died of wounds suffered Oct. 25 when his unit was attacked by small arms fire in Khas Uruzgan, Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan.

So This Happened…

By | |
Comments Off on So This Happened…

So this happened:

My new ride

My new ride

Frankly, I’ve been tempted by BMW ever since I spent a few days driving a 325 while visiting with my folks a couple of years back. But it took this long to execute on the temptation. The Prius was such a sane, safe choice: great gas mileage, some fun bits of technology built in, and … great gas mileage. But while it is only three years old, it was starting to get rattly and junky – primarily plastic things on the interior failing. The driver’s seat starting to come apart. Stuff like that. And frankly, it’s not a fun car to drive.

The ’12 BMW 328i seems to be pretty good on the mileage front (nowhere near the Prius, but I’m gunning for high 20’s/low 30’s), it’s a solidly Munich-built F30 sedan with the Premium package. Marcia thinks it’s boring because it’s white, but I like white because it’s understated, it doesn’t look dirty 10 minutes after washing the way a dark color does, and better visibility – other drivers can see me better.

I got the model with the premium package for but one reason: The way the seat cushions sat in the shell of the manual seats was immediately uncomfortable and painful for me to sit in, digging into my left thigh. Probably just an interaction between me, my height and weight, and that particular seat design. The same model year car with the power seats was comfortable. And to the eye, they looked identical in the areas that bothered me. Weird. Still, didn’t pay for navigation. There’s bluetooth integration for the phone (but to use the iPod features of the phone, I have to plug in).

The car is seriously fun to drive, even sedately. Marcia drove it home from the restaurant the other night, and she enjoys the car, too. She thinks it’s a very grown-up car for us to have. Oh, yeah … and I have a sunroof again. What will I miss from the Prius? The gas consumption, surely, and the backup camera.

*      *      *

In other news, I get to keep my job. Yeah, also understated. I just had my annual review, and the company seems pleased with my continued dedication to and quality of work. It’s nice that I got a little bump in the paycheck, but as I told Russ, it’s really all about the facts that I enjoy my work and the people that I work with immensely. And that’s what it’s really all about, folks.

*      *      *

In other, other news, class starts tomorrow. All things being equal, unless I screw something up or the school’s computer systems go insane and decide I need more classes: I’ll be finished on 16 December, and graduating with a 4.0 (at least as far as all the classes I’ve taken since I started at UMUC in 2008 are concerned). Hooraw! Wish me luck.

Fresh Pi, Have a Taste

By | | ,
Comments Off on Fresh Pi, Have a Taste

Here’s a shot of the screen:

Big screen running from new computer

Big screen running from new computer

The screen is running from my newest linux-based computational device, which you can see at the lower left of the picture above.

It's a Raspberry Pi!

It’s a Raspberry Pi!

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it, yet, but at $35 plus shipping, I’m sure I can find a cost-appropriate use… I got in on one of the first few batches manufactured, placing my order last February, I think. It arrived today, a few weeks ahead of original schedule. They’re supposed to be opening up ordering again in a few days (whenever “mid-July” is, in marketing-speak), at this Newark/Element14 page.

Anyway, I’ve got to go roast coffee, but I thought I’d show you the newest small member of the menagerie around here. Ciao!