2009

12-26-09 (22:22)

  • worked at alumni house today then left for the emerald bowl. didn't stop at the house on my way to sf so was woefully unprepared for the rain that came. brought garbage bag from work and thankfully luke had a poncho so i ended up not soaked. cal/usc 2007 was worse as it was raining literally the entire game. we were basically watching that game in a swimming pool with our clothes on.
  • usc didn't play a great game and neither did bc, but usc came out on top. barkley continues to confound me with some of the decisions he makes, but then he'll have a great pass that will give you some hope. they really need to learn to manage him. get him rolling out more and doing more play action. the run to pass ratio should also be more tilted toward the run. usc was without their #2 receiver and #1 running back which certainly didn't help their offense, but i still didn't think they executed that well. maybe they'll get back on track next year. losing key players as usual (mays, williams, mccoy, griffen, thomas, johnson (wonder if he'll play football again), havili, and i think gable and some others), but not as many as last year which was really a mass exodus that mostly explains this year's results. next year will be interesting. mcknight will have to have a big year because the wr and te positions will be thin.
  • working again tomorrow. first year that i've ever had paid days off for the winter break and i haven't really gotten to enjoy it because of this stupid tiling project. when i worked at tower i had paid vacation, but we couldn't take time off during the xmas shopping season.
  • didn't do much for xmas. we cooked breakfast and stayed home and watched movies. meryl watched 4 and i watched 6. ordered chinese food and had it delivered. first time that i've been healthy and haven't done any work on the house or for someone else in over a year. nice to have a relaxing day once in a while.

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    12-23-09 (19:16)

  • updated the pics page. there's a move on there that's actually from a while back. there are a lot of comments of the pictures now to provide context and tell you what you're looking at. we've inserted comments back as far as a few months ago and will work on adding more to the older ones in the coming weeks.

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    12-22-09 (20:40)

  • it's too bad that that "the great compromiser" is already taken by henry clay because obama is certainly living up to the moniker. the health care reform bill is as good as sign of that as anything. there's part of me that says any step is a good step, but a bigger part of me wonders why so much compromise and time went into a bill that doesn't do a whole heck of a lot. here's a list of the things that i think it does (though it's difficult to tell since there have been so many permutations and there are likely to be more in the reconciliation phase): if you're uninsured you have to buy insurance or you'll get a $750 fee, in exchange for 30 million more customers the insurance companies can't pull their lifetime ban or pre-existing condition b.s. anymore, they also have to set lifetime limits on the amount a person can pay out of pocket and they have to let people stay on their parents' plan until age 26. it also takes 4 years to take effect.
  • it's not a very impressive bill from what i can tell and it's absurdly long and filled with the usual pork barrel politics. it shows why congress is so hated and why the dems are a pathetic party. as far as i can tell the bill is a pile of insurance company stimulus b.s. with a few obvious concessions for the rest of us. if we were run by moral people who didn't have their own selfish agendas all the good stuff that this bill has (pre-existing conditions and lifetime limits being the only two of real consequence in my opinion) would have taken a week or two to be made into a simple and quick-acting law. instead we get what we got which for people like me circa two months ago is just another fee and headache that will do more to pad the pockets of aetna than keep me healthy.
  • what would i like to see? single payer. what would i reasonably like to see? end the preexisting condition b.s., lifetime cap on payments, public option, set up an incentive structure that stresses prevention as well as cost awareness. 95% of fully insured people have no idea what it costs to get an allergy test or an xray or name brand meds over generics. this raises the costs.
  • one of the biggest things i have against it is the principle that just for existing you have to pay insurance to a corporation or $750 to uncle sam. at least with the car insurance mandate you can opt to not drive. it just doesn't seem ethical to require people to do that. now there is likely to be some sort of subsidy and the red tape that goes with it if you don't have enough money, but i'm getting to the point where the more i deal with large companies or government institutions, the less i want to do it. it's not something that is specific to government as the right wingers would have you believe (they think corporations are so much more efficient when that isn't necessarily true). i'm just tired of paperwork and having to talk to 12 different people to get a straight answer about things.
  • the whole system is a goddamn mess i'd like to see it all blown up if you want my honest opinion. the changes we need to enact to get things to truly make sense and work for the people are impossible so i guess that given this reality this fucked up bill makes perfect sense. if i were in congress, though, i can't say that i'd vote for it. perhaps my biggest motivation to vote for it would be to stick it to the republicans who, if the bill fails, will be in power another 8-12 years. that's not exactly a good motive though. it's kinda like voting for kerry even though you know he's not who you'd like to see as president.
  • roof is coming along. they have plenty of stucco patches to do so hopefully they get those done tomorrow. they'll need to use rapid set if they plan on getting it done right. hopefully they don't  do just a single coat. i think they got most of the turret done today so that's good.
  • bought a paint sprayer off luke a couple weeks ago and had planned on using it this weekend for painting the AH bathrooms, but it's not working. sounds like the motor is fried, but can't be sure since the motor is enclosed. opened up the pump part and everything seems to work fine. took the main crank off and tried the motor under no load and it still didn't budge so it's almost definitely the motor at this point. wish i knew more about motors. i know it's a dc motor. i know the fuse is intact. i know roughly how a motor works, but that's about it. can't access the brushes and don't have replacement parts even if i could. nearest service center is in utah which seems absurd. might call around tomorrow to see what my options are.

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    12-21-09 (18:18)

  • working on the newest upload of pics. trying to add comments to pictures, but that's time consuming.

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    12-20-09 (17:39)

  • went to a co-worker's house today to install a garbage disposal. with travel and trips to home depot it took 6 hours. total waste of my time, i don't want to do anymore handyman shit for people after today.
  • got a little painting done in the art room, still need to paint the windows, then it'll be done.
  • luke came by yesterday and helped meryl and me build the fence. with his help we were able to get the majority of it done. we still need to attach the lattice on the top, but we can do that from our side so we don't need to bother her anymore. plus, the dog can't get through so it does the trick.
  • rained a bit today and may rain tomorrow as well. roof is mostly done, though the turret and ridge vents haven't been installed. also need to finish the downspouts and patch the stucco. another two days and they should be done. they have plastic up in the areas that aren't done so i'm not worried about leaks.
  • thanks to the garbage disposal b.s. i wasn't around to help meryl clean the house. would have been nice to get more of that done.
  • had looked forward to time off during the xmas break, but that's not going to be the case because it makes more sense for me to paint the bathrooms at the alumni house before the new tile has been installed than after and have to worry about all the cut-ins around the toilet dividers and everything else. going to have sarah help me and just charge her hours to the alumni house and pay her cash. it should come out even for me after taxes. hopefully we can knock that out in two days; we'll see.
  • brittany murphy died today. that's a huge surprise because i never pegged her as the type to take crack and cocaine and prescription drugs all day long in an apparent attempt to destroy her heart. weird. sometimes you just can't tell. must have been some weird disease because an otherwise healthy looking/acting person wouldn't die at age 32. may her memory live on forever.

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    12-18-09 (12:09)

  • roofers here again today. it's a crew of about 7 guys and they're real pros. there doesn't need to be much communication amongst each guy, they all know their tasks and do it without direction. most of the communication is guys telling each other where they are or that they need help bringing stuff up the ladder or whatnot. the desk jockey came by today to talk about the dry rot costing more and our choice of roofing and gutters. he also tried to talk me out of putting plywood on the roof because the existing 1x sheathing was strong. i said no way, put the plywood up there as planned. it'll add some structural integrity as well as a nice smooth surface for the felt and shingles. i have a time lapse video going so hopefully that turns out well. we'll see.
  • i finished trimming the cd case so that it would fit into the empty wall in the laundry room. took a couple hours, but it's trimmed and reassembled and all the cds are in there so everything is fine now.
  • worked on the window trim in the art room. kicked up a shitload of plaster dust which wafted into every room in the house. stupidly i didn't put plastic up in the doorway until i was most of the way through and noticed that i couldn't see more than 8' in front of me because the dust was so thick. no exaggeration. sunday will now be entirely dedicated to cleanup. cleaning the attic of all the roof related debris and cleaning the house of all the plaster dust. lovely.

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    12-17-09 (17:59)

  • office holiday party today. fake casino setup, got third place mostly from working the blackjack table. thinking i should parlay my luck and try it out at reno. not really.
  • roofers came today and took off all of the old roofing. make a hell of a mess in the attic; more than expected. will be up there most of sunday vacuuming it up. hopefully installing the fence on saturday.
  • will be at alumni house the two days after christmas painting the bathrooms. would be great if i could get it all done in that time, but will probably need a third day.
  • if fence, roof, and gutters are done by end of monday that would be great news. sure i've said it before, but we haven't been able to even touch most of that side of the house yet and we've lived here almost a year. not having to worry about leaks would also be a bonus.
  • pixies are overrated.
  • would like to be done with the art room trim and paint tomorrow.
  • i love days when someone else is working on the house because it feels like i'm getting twice as much done. i'm working on my project and they're doing theirs, it's beautiful making that kind of progress.

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    12-16-09 (10:48)

  • roofers supposed to start work tomorrow. we'll see. weather forecast has been pathetically inaccurate lately. they're about 90% accurate in the summer when a monkey could point to the sun, but when the weather actually changes they're worthless. and i'm not talking about the 10 day extended forecast. i'm talking next day forecasts being completely wrong. i think the "red sky at night" rhyme is a better indicator than the doppler radar b.s.
  • hope to get the fence in on saturday. luke may come by to help.
  • itunes lost all my ratings info. rate over 1000 songs and that's all gone. what a shitty shitty program. so limited and weak, the opposite of media monkey or winamp in its heyday.

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    12-14-09 (18:22)

  • today not much has gone right.
  • having trouble getting itunes to load all the old song ratings and shit. what a shitty program. winamp is also officially crap on vista. tried the older version and it sucks, downloaded new one and it's worse. no one makes good programs anymore. winamp was one of the best programs of all-time until aol bought out justin frankel and co. fucked.

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    12-11-09 (16:54)

  • some heisman stats i compiled:

    • gerhart: 1736 rush yds, 26tds. 149 rec, 0tds
    ingram: 1542 rush yds, 15tds. 322 rec, 3tds

    times held under 100 total yards:
    gerhart - 1, ingram - 4
    times over 200 total yards:
    gerhart - 3, ingram - 1
    0tds in a game:
    gerhart - 1, ingram - 3

    vs. lsu ingram had 144 yds, 0td on 22 carries
    vs. lsu washington's polk had 90 yds, 0td on 21 carries

    vs. tenn ingram had 99 yds, 0td
    vs. tenn ucla's franklin had 80 yds, 0td
     

  • is ingram better than average? yes. he's about as good as the freshman lamichael james from oregon:

    • games under 100 total yards for james: 3 (4 for ingram)
    games 200+ yds for james: 1 (1 for ingram)
    times with 0 tds for james 4 (3 for ingram), though james wasn't the #1 running back for oregon in the first game of the season
    totals for james: 1476 rush, 14 tds, 6.9 yds/carry (ingram - 1542, 15tds, 6.2 yds/carry)

    pac-10 vs. sec 11-8 since 2000.
    usc/ucla vs. sec 8-0 since 2000.
     

  • is ingram the best back in the nation? i think not. gerhart has better overall numbers and was less likely to disappear in a game. i don't think much of the sec is better as a conference argument as you well know if you read this page. gerhart is the clear winner if you ask me as the only two areas he's lacking statistically are in the yards per carry and receiving categories. though it should be noted that he had one passing td which i didn't account for above, so he actually had 27 tds instead of 26.
  • going to the emerald bowl this year to see usc/bc. should be fun. hopefully it's not freezing.
  • a while back i noticed that the jack in the box 16oz shake had about 750cal and that the 24oz shake had about 1450 cal. i'm not a math wiz, but this stood out to me as not making sense. the whipped cream serving in each is the same so there was no explanation for the fact that 50% more shake left you with almost 100% more calories. so i called them up the other day and they agreed that there was a mistake. the customer service lady looked at another chart and saw that the numbers should be more like 800 and 1200 and said she'd pass the info onto her supervisor. it'll be interesting to see how long it takes for the change to take place on the website.
  • i don't know that i have any interest in watching the national championship game. best case scenario the earth splits in open and both teams fall into the chasm and burn. other than that i don't foresee it being very entertaining. kidding.

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    12-09-09 (18:37)

  • work on the house has been slow lately. didn't do anything but clean up today. helped a friend move and did research on how we're going to build the fence also. originally had planned on buying prefab fencing sections that would be easy to install. the bulk of the work would be in digging the post holes and getting them set in concrete nice and plumb and in line with the 2-3 sections that have already been installed. but i went to buy the sections today and economy lumber doesn't carry that same type anymore. they have the same crap that home depot has which is similar to the fence we have now, but a little different. so now it's looking like we have three options: buy the prefab as anticipated, but it won't match at all; tear out the existing section and install a whole new fence of whatever type we like; or, hand build the remaining section to look like the old. that will mean ripping down lattice sheets into 91/4" strips, dadoing 2x4s to accept the 1x8 redwood slats, and assembling all this custom stuff as we go. the only advantage to that is that we could put in the posts and cut the sections to match the gap, rather than having to make sure the posts were perfectly spaced to accept the fencing. i think we're going to make the fence because it'll look the best and we won't have to tear out the perfectly fine sections of existing fence. it'll cost about the same, but take plenty longer. blah.
  • it's currently 45 degrees inside. when we wake up it's usually about 42. one day we'll have heat. last night we used the space heater for the first time and that helped keep the bedroom at a reasonable temperature.
  • roofers had planned on starting monday, but the rain scared them away. turns out that it didn't rain at all for the first three days this week so maybe they should have started after all. rain is forecast for this weekend and next week and the week after that is xmas so i'm thinking we won't get any roofing on until around the new year.

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    12-8-09 (18:17)

  • cal and usc both lost their last game. pretty pathetic. usc had a really down year and a blame most of it on the coaching changes and exodus of nfl talent. speaking of which, there are three starting rookie linebackers in the nfl and all three were on usc last year. so, that's at least somewhat of a good excuse for this year. however, i blame a lot of it on barkley or the qb position in general. corp lost the washington game for us and barkley didn't do much as the year progressed. he really lacked any kind of progress after the osu game, he was either flat or negative when it came to progress and that's a shame to see. the final play of the regular season is a perfect illustration: it was the final play of the game, time had run out, there weren't any timeouts and usc needed a td from like 70 yards away. he felt pressure and moved a bit, but started to get dragged down. he stayed up and considered throwing the ball only to wait another second. then another defender grabbed him and started bringing him down. instead of throwing the ball away or up in the air for grabs he just went down. there's no excuse to not throw the ball up. the worst case scenario is that it gets intercepted for a td in which case the score is different, but the outcome is the same. honestly, i wonder where these guys learn the game sometimes because these very fundamental things escape them. bibby leaving brent barry open for a three in the corner also comes to mind. mental breakdowns in key situations. anyway, maybe next year we'll make some progress. could probably use a new qb coach.
  • have 32 movies to watch this month to finish the year at 300. meryl made a countdown sheet. she's a (helpful) dork.
  • overall happy with the computer. hardware makers have made great strides since i first got into computers. sata cables, plug and play, usb, no tool cases, etc. however, software developers haven't made as much progress. case in point all the reductions in functionality that vista has when compared to xp. itunes vs. old winamp. excel 2007 and lack of support for html which was present in 2003. in that last case they literally moved backwards. devolution. great job idiots. i don't understand why programmers can't just make minor improvements instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every couple years. fucking microsoft. so if you have excel 2003 lemme have it.

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    12-7-09 (17:23)

  • a lot of the obama speech to justify the extra 30k troops sounded, frankly, like bush 2.0. it was the same policy as bush (though in a different country), but with the changes that time and criticism provide. that is, he was selling the same bag of goods, he just learned from bush that he needed to sell it differently. so that's the cynical view. another view would be that he really thinks the war should have always been in afghanistan and that fighting an entire nation abroad is going to keep us safer than spending that same money and effort locally. or that getting out of the region entirely wouldn't be a better course. the justification i most would have been most inclined to buy was one he didn't mention: morally we can't just pick up and leave after 8 years of unfocused war and devastation of the area.
  • i think that when you vote for the most important person in the world you should do so with all segments of the country/world in mind. so, how would the world fare if mccain were president, how about ron paul, or ralph nader? how would you fare as a rich man, poor man, person of color, child, illegal immigrant, soldier, etc. under the administrations of the candidates? i also think that you should be willing to go to war for the causes you believe in. that happens to be one reason why i don't believe in war unless it's absolutely necessary. it's hypocritical to vote for obama and then say that you wouldn't want to go to afghanistan to fight the war he wants to escalate. the chicken hawks like cheney were called out on this very point so, too, should the liberals who voted for obama. maybe if this were required we wouldn't be so quick to vote for people who believe in the death penalty or unnecessary war.
  • all that said, there is a place in my mind for incrementalism. the belief that change like the kind i'm talking about can't happen over night. we have to continually choose the lesser of two evils until we finally get our ideal. on the one hand it makes sense, on the other hand i don't believe that history is linear in its progression. we take one step forward and two steps back. two steps forward and one step back. it's not always going to be a half step forward until we have world peace and equality of opportunity.
  • mostly i think the thing that limits us is our ability to see through the bullshit and really believe in change. it's such a cynical thing to convey someone like obama as hope and change when he's just a couple degrees different from 95% of the other "serious" candidates we've had since i've been alive. he's a better talker and he looks different, but he believes the same things as clinton and kerry and many other dems. he basically rules from the center, tries to build coalitions and is willing to compromise. compared to bush, the willingness to compromise is nice, but the two biggest compromises i'm looking at right now are: 30k more troops in the mideast instead of 40k (with no real international coalition in the southern part of afghanistan where the shit is really happening), and the possibility of mandatory expenditures for those without healthcare which will go into effect in 2013, doesn't cover 100% of the country, and may not have a public option.
  • the zen master in me says let's just wait and see.

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    12-6-09 (18:21)

  • everything is up and running on the new computer except office, which i don't have yet. still looking.
  • went to meryl's family non-xmas celebration. we went to golden gate fields and lost money betting on the horses. actually, her mom made money, but everyone else lost. fun nonetheless.

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    12-3-09 (20:37)

  • first update on new computer. no time to write. vista is so-so. computer is much faster. yay.

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    12-1-09 (16:40)
    obama's speech tonight will be a defining moment. either the surge in afghanistan will go well like it seems to have gone in iraq and he'll be great or it won't and he'll be a hypocritical war-monger. or maybe something in between. we'll see how he justifies it all and how it pans out.

    11-28-09 (23:12)

  • usc didn't look great today, but they got a win. it was notable, though, because of the ending. usc was up by 14 with the ball and about a minute to go. they went into the victory formation and kneeled the ball. rick neuheisel called a timeout (ucla had all three remaining) in an apparent signal that he didn't feel the game was over. the coach inside my head was confused - was he trying to coach the game to the bitter end? was he trying to teach his players a lesson? it just doesn't make much sense at that point to extend the game, but it's his prerogative. so, i thought what i'd do and the obvious answer was to try to get a first down because two consecutive runs up the gut (the traditional approach to kill the clock) would likely end in a punt and giving ucla the ball back with about 40 seconds left. sure, they wouldn't really have a chance of winning the game, but you'd rather just go for the first down and end the game right then and there. sure enough, pete carrol went for a play action and it ended up in a touchdown. then the idiot announcers compared this to the maneuver that harbaugh used against usc. it amazes me that otherwise intelligent people, when put in media positions are unable to decipher the differences in situations. rather, they go for the most sensational interpretation - in this case that pete is a hypocrite and that the two cases were the same. in this case the leading team was going to end the game with a kneel down, but the losing team's coach wanted to continue to the bitter end. the winning team took a shot down field and it ended in a touchdown. in the harbaugh case the winning team tried to further humiliate the losing team by going for a completely unnecessary 2 point conversion after the game was clearly already decided. if you can't tell the difference then stop watching football.
  • bought new computer. this one is consistently slow and crashes more frequently these days. it's about 7 years old, though, so it's done well for me. new one arrives this week.

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    11-26-09 (11:24)

  • finally uploaded some more pictures. this time they have captions at the bottom (or in the middle if you hover over the thumbnail) which provide context.
  • going to aunt's for thanksgiving.
  • art room ceiling is almost done. meryl's job is to work on the walls.
  • next project will be getting the kitchen pantry up and running which would be useful.
  • also hope to get the fence built next weekend, but have yet to talk with the neighbor about that so we'll see how that goes.
  • have five days off in a row, that's nice.

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    11-18-09 (08:42)

  • stucco guys are here and should start working shortly. might actually finish today which would be good since it would mean we'd be weathertight quicker and wouldn't have to worry about them not showing up later. luckily diana was able to translate for me, couldn't have made it work without her.
  • going to try to get little stuff done around the house today. hopefully watch a movie as well. if i'm going to make it to 300 this year i'm going to have to kick it into high gear for the next 6 weeks. we'll see how that goes.

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    11-16-09 (18:24)

  • officially done with the wiring in the art room. will wire ceiling fan when ceiling repair is done. finally got a light in the bedroom so that's exciting. also, there was one outlet in the bedroom that was left unwired, though the outlet was there, and i hooked that up. in bedrooms code requires a stupid afci breaker which is more expensive, takes up a full slot in the panel, and trips with certain tools (especially older ones). it's supposed to prevent fires, but i think it's obnoxious. anyway, all that stuff needs to be on an afci. the outlets are now and the lights will be later when i replace the circuit that currently feeds the water heater. at this point i've wired all but two lights in and around the house. i've also wired about half the outlets and a few of the ones i didn't wire are newly wired so i won't touch them anyway. wiring is more fun than any of the other trades i've encountered. i think i'd also like working with concrete as a mason, but that's got a lot of heavy lifting and probably doesn't pay as much. next i need to learn more about wiring the house for cable and cat5.
  • supposed to rain tomorrow which sucks. need to get the damn stucco guys in, but haven't been able to get a straight answer from them. will have my friend talk to them tomorrow, she's from mexico so hopefully she can sort it all out.
  • would like to get a lot of little things done this weekend just because there have been a lot of little loose ends that have been bugging me. hopefully get a coat of compound on the artroom ceiling and then go under the house to strap some of the plumbing a little more securely.

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    11-14-09 (18:27)

  • sarah came over today to help with the house. she got a new car so i drove that around the block. nicer ride than i've ever had, though the camry was smoother and historically more reliable, sarah's is more fun, though not as fun as the corrado which is easily the most fun car i've ever had. i never did take it on a turn that it couldn't handle.
  • got the other window in a built the jamb for the crawlspace door that i have to build and install. will do that after the stucco goes in. hopefully the stucco guy will come tomorrow. he only speaks spanish so getting anything out of him has been very difficult. i told him to come last week and he didn't and then i told him to come tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.
  • usc got creamed again. the dynasty is over, i've said that already. stanford is the only team to win in the coliseum since pete came to town, i believe that's what the stat of the day was. impressive streak i guess. stanford beat the two toughest teams in the conference so you gotta give them credit. didn't see the game so can't comment too much on it, but the reality remains that this team has lost so much talent on defense, so much coaching talent in the last several years, and still hasn't really found their stride offensively so this isn't much of a surprise. my dad was expecting a blowout in the other direction, but i predicted a stanford win. the surprise isn't that they lost, but that they lost by so much. maybe next year. meanwhile florida is probably going to roll to another championship in spite of their problems. when you play cupcake teams all year it's no surprise that you go undefeated. if usc played their schedule they would have probably lost to alabama and lsu. if florida played usc's schedule they would have lost at least one game (probably to oregon).
  • sarah also got a new ipod so i hooked her up with a bunch of music and got itunes configured for her.

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    11-10-09 (23:42)

  • frankly, i find non-reality and art more moving than actual life. case in point: the graduate, magnolia, the beatles, etc.
  • i've heard one.be.lo's "s.o.n.o.g.r.a.m." over 100 times and it's just as good every time. notice new things all the time. amazing depth to the lyrics.
  • s curve and bay bridge renovation in general is causing all sorts of problems. haven't heard about any lawsuits yet, but those guys better get some good lawyers. it's ridiculous.

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    11-10-09 (17:29)

  • curiousity gets a bad rap. they say that curiousity killed the cat and all that crap, but i think it's one of the best attributes a person can have. lack of it is much more dangerous than having a lot of it.
  • every year politicians from both sides propose tax cuts and every year they trot out these anecdotal examples of joe the plumber who earns such and such and has a wife and two kids and this is what his taxes are now and under my plan they'll be this. the truth is that no one cares about joe the plumber (neither the real one or the theorhetical one) - people only care about themselves. problem is that no one knows how the new tax code will affect them if they vote for candidate a, b, or c. what i propose is having a simple questionaire online that asks you basic things like your income, # of dependents, what deductions you'll take, etc. and the program will say: under the status quo your taxes are this, under my plan they would be this, under the other guy's plan they'd be this. part of the problem with the plan is that it's trying to simplify a system that is the exact opposite of simple so there would inevitably be discrepancies between the plan as quoted on the site and the actual taxes you would pay. that's not to mention the fact that no president is going to get the exact tax code that they propose as a candidate because every tom, dick and harry has to attach their bogus riders to the package.

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    11-08-09 (17:24)

  • last two weekends we've been contending with the corner of the house and its rot problem. we got one window in today, but the other one has a good deal of rot on the left side which we just uncovered today.
  • so the work proposal was submitted last thursday and was accepted on friday. my boss initially asked her boss for a $5/hr raise for me in addition to the 4 day a week workweek and the benefits package. her boss came back with a $2/hr raise with no option for a raise next year. i came back with a $3/hr raise and he accepted. so, i'm pretty happy with that. i'm generally not one to negotiate, but i figured that's how things are done so i may as well throw it out there and see what happens. all that is pretty good news. i haven't had benefits for 4+ years so it'll be nice to be able to visit a dentist and a doctor to get a cleaning or get my allergies tested. the extra money won't hurt either and i still have the freedom of 3 days a week to do whatever i need to do for myself or the house (mostly the house).
  • niners lost another close game. it's becoming a habit at this point as this is the third time in a row that it's happened. four straight losses, with the first one being a blow out against atlanta.

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    11-03-09 (17:49)

  • ran out of gas on my way back from la. first time i've ever run out of gas. fortunately i had already exited the highway and i didn't bother stopping at the stop sign at the off ramp. after i went through the stop sign the engine cut off and i just coasted into a nice spot at the pump. lost my power steering and power brake assist, but other than that it wasn't an inconvenience at all.
  • budget crunch at work. jokingly told my boss that they should just pay me half of what they were going to give to the reservations replacement and tack it onto my salary. i'd do both for 100% of my salary and 50% of the other person's salary, plus get benefits and that would save like 17k a year (the replacement is slated to make about 35k/year + benefits). she actually seemed to like the idea so she might pitch that to the powers that be. only other stipulation that i threw out there was that i would only want to work 4 days a week. it would be a pretty ideal situation - give up one day off a week for more money and benefits. i'd still have 3 days a week to work on the house and run errands and the like. we'll see how that pans out.

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    11-01-09 (22:56)

  • well the worst time of the year began this weekend and this weekend lived up to that title. it's the worst time of the year because of the time shift which means it'll be dark at 5pm and that's just about as depressing as anything. saturday was awful because when we started working on the art room window we opening up a bucket of worms that will end up monopolizing the next few weekends. we really should have just reinstalled the window, made everything weathertight and gone onto the electrical. instead we broke out all the stucco and revealed all the rotten studs in the corner of the house. killed both our days of work just getting all of that demoed and barely started rebuilding it. working 5 days a week is really hurting my ability to get any kind of real work done on the house and i don't actually feel any richer than i did a month ago. then again we had a big donation to npr, i had a trip to la, i had a broken car window and a few other one time expenses that kind of sucked all my extra money away.
  • the other reason that saturday sucked is the epic loss the usc endured. that was a streak ender. all our streaks are now over and done with. we had all sorts of streaks under carrol. years in a row going to the rose bowl, years in a row winning the pac-10 title, games in a row winning at home, years in a row being within one score of tying/winning every game, etc. saturday ended all that. perhaps this will refocus the staff and players. this is more of what i envisioned when i thought about this year at the end of last year. losing like 8 defensive guys and the starting qb and both the coordinators....i figured 2-3 losses and a rough year overall. the ohio state game gave me false hope. oh well. the worst thing about the loss was that i really didn't feel like the guys were into the game. losing is one thing, but i sensed a lack of effort, like they just weren't up for the game. as a fan you can use a couple excuses like losing the pac-10 sack leader in the first half, or not having 2 receivers, our starting tight end, our starting fullback, one of our starting linemen, and of course stafon johnson. but that only explains the offense's lack of production, not the defensive breakdown. that's more troubling. our offense seems to be figuring things out with barkley and the new coordinator. williams is awesome. mccoy is great and he was missed in this game. but our defense in the last three games has been really bad.
  • then today the nightmare in the back corner of the house continued and the niners lost yet another close game. those close ones are rough because we're clearly a much better team than we were two years ago, but we're just not able to get over the hump. a couple of those close ones were winable and two of them were against unbeaten teams which really would have put us on the map. playoffs looked so good a few weeks ago, not so sure anymore.
  • meryl's mom, stepdad and stepbrother came over for dinner today. we played rockband and beatles rockband afterwards. we beat beatles rockband. pretty fun to play when you know all the songs so well and they're all so good. that was the highlight of this shitty weekend. back to the grind tomorrow.
  • starting on my way back up from la i put my entire ipod on random so the plan is to go through as many songs as i can and rate each one on a 1-5 star scale. the ipod stores that info and then you can sort your collection based upon your ratings. my ipod is the biggest they made (it's now discontinued), but it still doesn't fit all my stuff. 30k songs in all. john gave me a hard drive of a friend's collection - it's over 100k songs so i'll be picking some from there while i'm going through my own stuff.
  • with an 80+ year old house it's just a fact that there's going to be a lot of rot. you need to learn where to draw the battle lines. if i were living in this house for the rest of my life i'd go through the trouble of taking down all the stucco and re-structuring the places that are rotten. i'd replace the structure with pt lumber and my strategy would be different. i'm not going to live here the rest of my life though so we need to learn when to call it quits and move on to the next thing. we also need to be more disciplined about sticking to the project at hand. starting the art room when the laundry and kitchen are still not quite complete was a bad idea. we need to tie up lose ends. that'll be the goal in the next few months: finish art room, laundry, front door, kitchen. then we can move onto things like the side fence, the garage, etc.

    • \

    10-20-09 (20:54)

  • some homeless dude came up to me and ryan while we were eating lunch today. he told us a few offensive, race/religion-based jokes and then asked for change. it was a good laugh so i gave him whatever change i had. i have actual respect for a guy like that who is out working for a living. should have given him more.
  • leaving for la tomorrow.
  • got some more electrical done today. another day i'll finish up the lights and hopefully finish the last few outlets as well.

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    10-19-09 (23:23)

  • johnny's wedding was a good one. meryl remembered that i had been to her grandpa's wedding so that means johnny's was the third in my life (that i remember).
  • need to find a way to be rich.

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    10-15-09 (23:15)

  • notre dame this weekend. that's a trap game if you ask me, usc has to contain the passing game and they'll be okay.
  • johnny gets married this weekend. second wedding in my life, pretty sure. went to my parents' second wedding and that's it. went to jonique's reception, but i don't classify that as a wedding per se.
  • starting to get roof estimates. first one was higher than thought, not thrilling news. ultimately, though, it's just money.
  • not sick anymore. got sick, got well, got sick again all within a month. first time i ever recall that happening. first time i was sick this year and it happened back to back.
  • updated house pics finally.
  • working on the art room. repairing the ceiling is going to take a bit of work, but that should be the hardest thing. all new electrical for the room will take 2 full days. paint. building wall shelving system. could get it done in a week if we really tried and had the week off.

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    10-13-09 (16:57)

  • raining like crazy most of the day. supposed to end by the end of tomorrow. roof is leaking worse than last time. yay. have a couple roofers coming out in the next week to redo the roof. that was something that was waiting for completion of the decks because i thought an inspector would be by to look at the roof, but apparently it's a mail in permit so we may be able to fast track that project.
  • got started on meryl's art room the other day. scraped the popcorn off the ceiling (no asbestos, thankfully) and started putting in recessed lights. will also put in a ceiling fan. need to patch/repair ceiling which is badly cracked first, though.
  • johnny's wedding on saturday, hopefully it's not too wet there.
  • the obama nobel peace prize thing is kind of a shock to me as it seems it is to many others. on the one hand you could make the argument that they gave it to him for what he hopes to do in the future and as sort of a motivator for him to, for example, not increase troop levels in afghanistan and to really be a peaceful force in the world. on the other hand, they explicitly said that they gave it to him because of his accomplishments so far, not for anything in the future. it's just a strange choice. it's not as bad as gorbechev or kissinger, but i don't think that adding 13k troops to afghanistan is something a nobel peace prize winner should really do. he's overseeing the most powerful and dominating military force in the history of the world, a force that is engaged in two wars, so...peace prize? i'm thinking that's not so apt. okay effort with mixed results so far? that's more like it.
  • decided i'm not going anywhere for the holidays. need to make progress on too many things at the house.

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    10-08-09 (18:18)

  • working 5 days a week is different, but not altogether bad once you get used to it. definitely could use the time off to meet with roofers and pick up the custom trim we had milled to match the original stuff for the kitchen and the rest of the house that needs it. in a couple weeks when i get my paycheck, though, i'll be happy about it. it'll be nice to do for a while. i get a lot done at work and it's nice to take a broken system and make changes towards a more reasonable one.
  • no progress on the house lately.
  • today npr had the winner of a contest put on by the health department. the contest was to make a psa for swine flu vaccinations or awareness. i think that the government and public schools should reach out to the public and their student body a lot more than they do. you have a wealth of creativity and talent in the country and it's going untapped in favor of paying "experts" to do what "normal" people could do quite easily. for example, uc davis paid some damn firm to redesign their logo about 10 years ago. why not give the students a chance and give them a free year's education instead? would have cost less, would have gotten the student body involved, would have gotten more total ideas on the table. everyone wins. the cal alumni association did the same damn thing this year - paid another firm to redesign their stupid logo instead of giving out a scholarship to design/art students at cal. this dude thinks that cal is best public school in the world, yet the alumni association doesn't think they can design a crappy logo (i've seen the new one, it's nothing stellar)? it's just crazy.
  • there was another bit on npr today that caught my ear. this one was about healthcare and a study one group did that showed, essentially, that the greater care rate per capita that was given in a given town the more likely they were to not benefit from that care. that is, that the towns with a lower rate of a given procedure had better outcomes. it was a really good piece and it broke down all the incentives that a pay for service system creates. doctors are more likely to recommend procedures, especially more complex/expensive ones and that that leads to people getting too much care (really, just not properly proportioned care). other studies confirmed this and found that as much as 1/3 of all healthcare spending ($660 bil)  is really overspending and, what's worse, is that that overspending is actually making us more sick or in more pain.
  • npr really is critical to who i am. npr is probably the best teacher i've ever had.

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    10-04-09 (14:28)

  • well i definitely was wrong about the cal/usc game. usc didn't play amazingly well on offense, but their special teams finally made some good plays, including one touchdown, and their defense continued its excellent play. the first drive of the game saw cal coming down the field and looking to get a td, but mays came up big with the interception in the end zone. that was a huge play. riley also had a bad game, but some of that was caused by pressure from the d-line. still plenty of work to be done for usc's offense.
  • "Even the speedy Best couldn’t get going against the Trojans. On one play in the first half, he was chased down by Mays for no gain on a third-and-2 run." that's the last line from the ap article on the game. if you didn't see the play then it would be an odd ending to the article, but that play encapsulated the game. jahvid best is one of the fastest people in california - he ran a 10.3 100m in high school. but on that play he ran towards the sideline and mays ran with him every step. that play was between the two fastest guys in the stadium and mays came out on top. i think that usc's team speed is really what hurt cal's offense. i suspect that's the same that happened against oregon.
  • boise state dropped a spot because uc davis put up a fairly good showing against the broncos. go aggies.
  • niners are looking good again. playoffs are in our future this year.

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    10-02-09 (18:51)

  • didn't get all that much done on the house in september. october is shaping up to be just as bad. did work for other people, work got busy, there was the after party lull and college football started. recipe for disaster.
  • i have decided that i'm not going to go anywhere for thanksgiving or xmas in an attempt to get a good amount of work done on the house.
  • chicago not getting the olympics bid wasn't too much of a surprise. personally i would have given it to madrid and chicago would have been second. tokyo got it about 40 years ago so they're out and the u.s. has more than its share so i didn't really think chicago was going to get it, though they would have done a great job. rio i still see as dangerous and i'm unsure about their transit system and engineering capabilities, but i've never been so i don't really know enough to judge.
  • big test for obama comes with his decision on afghanistan. i've been down on him basically since his second month in office, but this could really turn things around for him. if he stands up to the military industrial complex and the hubristic assholes who are talking in his ear about the taliban then he'll move into consideration for my vote in 2012, if he gives in and commits more troops he's doomed in my book. there came a defining point when jfk said no to more troops in vietnam, and, later, johnson said yes. though they are different situations in different regions, i find enough in common that afghanistan scares me. morally, too, i don't think we should be there. if we had a strong coalition from major european and regional players then it would be different. the u.s. is seemingly going it alone and obama has a chance to change america's foreign policy outlook. it's tough to guess what he'll do, but i don't foresee him pulling any troops out. it'll most likely either be a modest commitment of more troops (he might sell this as a shifting of troops from iraq to afghanistan, rather than redeploying troops from the states) or remaining with the status quo. of course, it doesn't matter what he really does because most on the left will continue to support him in spite of their anti-war stance. they love him like college kids love macs and he's better than the alternative.
  • going to be working 4-5 days a week for much of the next couple months i think. again, good for money, bad for housework.
  • we've started spreading our project list into the art room. meryl is all amped up and ready to go on getting that room ready for move in. hopefully it'll just take a couple weeks of solid work to get it prepped for her. reinstall window, all new electrical (lights and outlets), scrape popcorn ceiling (tested for asbestos and it's negative, yay), paint, build custom shelving unit, build legs for table tops, and make closet usable. really not that bad overall. concurrently i'd like to finish the decks and kitchen. after those three things it would be great to extend the fence and get some power to the garage. sometime soon i'll also look into getting a roofer out here.
  • big pac-10 matchup tomorrow. dad came up for the game. usc is favored by 5.5, but that's only because of cal's performance last week. had cal won that game, even by a point, i think they would be favored in this game. cal is a much different team at home and if i were a betting man i would definitely take cal with the points. they may not win, but it's a good bet that they'll be within 5 points either way. i don't see either team running away with it. usc is without their best all around running back and the qb situation is still touchy since barkley has missed a couple starts and isn't exactly a veteran with only 2 starts under his belt. defense will have to contain best. i see him getting about 90 yards and 1td since cal will probably look to get him back on track. usc's secondary is a shadow of what it was last year, but mays being back should help a bit there. if cal had hawkins and jackson they would eat usc's secondary up this year, luckily they don't.

    • usc's playcalling really needs to be better than what it has been so far this year. our offensive coordinator is yet another rookie for this team and he's called plays like it. that said, sarkisian took a while to get a decent feel for the playcalling so perhaps it's just an adjustment period. hopefully he finds some things that work tomorrow. on the road you have to figure that usc is going to give up at least 17-21 points to cal's potent offense so they need at least a few tds to win the game. of course in a tight game like this will be usc can't afford to turn the ball over. cal has a lot to prove after that oregon loss and dropping from 6 to 24 in the ap poll. i haven't heard any rumblings yet about tedford (who is the highest paid employee in the entire university of california system) and if he wins this game i doubt i will. but if cal loses then people might wake up to the fact that in this economy, with the cuts that uc has made across the board, with the recent protests to those cuts, in a public school system, and with poor performance...maybe it's time to dump tedford. the long and short of it is that usc has much less room for error on the road against this team than they have in the past and cal really needs to win this game. cal 21 usc 20.

    9-29-09 (16:35)

  • i hate berkeley. funny because i was actually thinking this on my way to my car. i was holding a box of pizza for lunch and two separate people asked me if they could have it. huh? it's my lunch, no you can't have it. i have an infinitely greater level of respect for the many people who stand on high street or in front of home depot looking for work, than those who sit on telegraph ave. looking for hand outs.
  • then i got to my truck and saw that the passenger's side window was broken and the glove compartment was open. luckily for me the perp was either thwarted off by the car alarm or just grew impatient. they didn't take my leatherman or swiss army knife which were in the glove compartment. they grabbed a hand full of change which was in the cup holder, but that amounted to about $5. as best i can tell they didn't even look in the center console which is where i usually have my ipod. it wasn't there this time because i left it with my job site radio, but i don't think they even looked there so it probably would have been okay anyway. called the cops who basically just write it down in their little book and go about their business. no one was killed so it's not really worth their time. called the insurance company. i don't have comprehensive insurance so i'm on my own. thanks for nothing yet again. called the only ford dealership left in the near east bay and they wanted over $450 to install a new window and couldn't do it until tomorrow; and they're the best of the american car companies. called my mechanic and he referred me to an auto glass place that did it for less than a third of the cost of the ford dealer. all told i'm out over $200 because i had to cut my work day short to take care of this. didn't want to leave my car unattended and half open for four more hours and i'm working tomorrow as well. what a pain. overall i didn't get that upset, more annoyed by the whole thing. the person who did it didn't even do it right. they didn't do a thorough check of the car, they did it at the wrong time of day, they missed the most expensive items in the car: i had a few hundred bucks worth of tools in the back, i could have had my ipod in the center console, they didn't take all the change from the cup holder, i had a couple minor items in the back seat area, and they missed a pretty nice leatherman in the glove compartment which they opened. complete amateur hour all around. i can at least appreciate a job well done when someone puts my truck up on blocks, steals the tires, and hacks out my catalytic converter in under 5 minutes.
  • my first thought once i saw what had happened was "that sucks." my second was "when you live in a sewer you're bound to get dirty."
  • woman in my office was fired and her last day is thursday. throws a wrench into my schedule because now i'm forced to pick up the slack. don't think that they'll offer the job to me which is a good and bad thing. it would be great to have more money and the benefits package, but events/reservations planning is not at all what i want to do.

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    9-22-09 (17:20)

  • went to boston this weekend with meryl to visit her dad/stepmom who moved there recently. always liked that town.
  • usc lost saturday in another post big game upset. there are plenty of legit reasons for them to have lost this game, but it shouldn't have happened. they were starting a guy at qb who hadn't started before, mcknight wasn't 100%, they lost a ton of guys on defense, jake locker (washington's qb) is actually a pretty good qb, taylor mays was out, they lost both their offensive and defensive coordinators, and perhaps most telling - the offensive coordinator is the head coach of the team that beat them saturday and their old defensive coordinator is the defensive coordinator of that same team. those two guys know everything there is to know about the players and schemes that usc was going to use in saturday's game and that's probably what ended up doing usc in. that said, pete carroll didn't learn from his stanford upset a couple years ago when he left booty in the game despite throwing 4 ints. carroll needed to pull corp and put mustain in. this was obvious at halftime, but carroll didn't do it and it cost usc the victory. rough loss that i didn't see coming, but which makes sense in hindsight. another challenge will be notre dame because of usc's suspect secondary this year. notre dame, assuming clausen is healthy, has the passing attack that could pick usc apart. cal, of course, should be the favorite in that matchup considering how usc is playing and that it's a home game for cal. oregon will also be a test, though i think cal and notre dame, because of matchup issues, could be bigger ones. i expected 2-3 losses this year, but never did i expect washington to be one of them.
  • while in boston we did a bunch of the usual touristy things. we went on a guided tour, went to the museum of science and the fine arts museum. we visited cambridge and ate at bartley's. i didn't have the this old house burger and i regret that decision. i had been to a few of these places before, but it was good to revisit them.
  • last night we saw the u2 concert which was pretty good. i like u2, but meryl and her dad love them so it was better for them than for me. snow patrol opened for them and they did an adequate job. u2 put on a pretty good show, though they weren't as punchy as they could have been. that said, it was a 2 hour show and they're old men. getting out of foxboro was a pain and took about an hour. we woke up this morning at 4:30 et and went to the airport. gotta go into work early tomorrow too so that's unfortunate.
  • lots of stuff that needs to be done on the house as usual. didn't get anything done today. work the next three days. hopefully this weekend will be productive. lots of odds and ends to be tied up.

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    9-16-09 (13:57)

  • yesterday was unpleasant because i'm officially sick. worked half a day and called in sick today. still plan on doing some oddjobs tomorrow, though, so that should bring some money in. i had a pretty good stretch without being sick so i can't really complain.

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    9-14-09 (19:19)

  • feel like i'm getting sick. think this would be the first of the year if it turns out to be a real cold. had plenty of allergies, though, so i've actually gone through more kleenex than i would have had i had a couple colds.
  • got started on the side deck, but didn't make much progress because of the unexpected rain.
  • did a lot of gardening over the weekend. planted a new cherry tree in the back. that'll be fun to watch grow. also planted some onions and some flowers up front. we'll see how it all goes.
  • after the deck is done and handrails are installed on both decks we'll try to get the art room window installed and flashed correctly. then we can get some bids on the new roof. also need to extend the fence between us and our northern neighbor so we can finally have access to that side of the house. of course it would be nice to get the kitchen officially done as well.
  • usc game was a good one. osu really played the better game, but usc stepped up at all the right moments and made the most of their yards. their defense stepped up big by getting 7 points early and only allowing 13 (2 points allowed by special teams accounts for the 15 that osu ended up with). special teams were bad, didn't get anything on punt returns and gave up the safety as mentioned. offense was one dimensional and the offensive line was inept for most of the game, but had a couple good drives and that was all it took. really, the defense won the game for them which is surprising because they lost so many great players to the nfl last year. i had them losing this game so they're already outpacing my expectations. that said, i could definitely see them losing to cal this year. cal is more seasoned than the younger usc team and it's in berkeley this year which definitely helps since cal is relatively poor on the road. article in the paper today said they were winless away from memorial stadium last year which is actually false since they won the emerald bowl which wasn't at memorial stadium. but the truth remains that cal isn't a great road team so they have a solid chance at beating usc this year. barkley played a fine enough game, making the right plays at the right time. playcalling was suspect at time and execution left something to be desired. really it came down to the offensive line either making holes or giving barkley time. when they did that they scored.
  • nobody puts swayze in a coffin.
  • got hosed on fantasy baseball in my dad's league. was either one stolen base or two runs away from winning the week. very tight matchup. suck.

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    9-11-09 (23:43)

  • pretty psyched about the game tomorrow. usc vs. ohio state again. this time on the road, this time with a freshman quarterback, this time without the best defense in the country. still favored somehow. i've heard from handicappers that, on a neutral field, usc wouldn't be an underdog to any team in the country other than possibly florida. makes you wonder why they don't get to more national championships while teams like oklahoma and ohio state go there repeatedly only to be destroyed by their competition. can't recall a game in the last 5 years where usc hasn't been able to win with a single play. i.e., they have been within 6 points of every game they have played in the last 5 years. that's a stunning achievement. that said, i think this is the year that could change because of the reasons i mentioned - new qb, new coordinators, loss of several key defensive players, tougher road schedule - nd, osu, cal, oregon all on the road.
  • got my tooth taken care of yesterday. drove out to davis to visit the last dentist i had visited. hadn't been to her since 2005. she said i probably should have gotten a crown and there was a chance i would have to get a root canal (since the old filling was somewhat close to a nerve), but i got lucky and avoided both those things. she drilled out the old filling and put in a new one. no insurance meant that it cost $310 for the amalgam (cheaper silver colored) filling. could have been worse so i'm happy overall.
  • davis was good to visit. i love that place. too hot, but great otherwise. given the population is has a much better ratio of good places to eat to citizens than the bay area. that's coming from a guy who doesn't plan on ever going to chez panisse, though, so take that for what it's worth. i had a slice of pizza at woodstock's and got a milkshake at murder burger afterwards. also went to dimple records which is the record store that replaced tower records. it was a trip to be in that building and see the things that they kept from tower - some of the signage that i helped put together, one of the cd carts, some of the cd shelves, etc. wanted to go in the back room and see how things had changed.
  • plan on getting back into the swing of things house-wise tomorrow. hope to get the deck started and make a big trip to home depot as well as an exploratory trip to a couple nurseries. would like to get a tree as well as a few plant suggestions for some trouble areas.

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    9-8-09 (21:53)

  • sunday's party was fairly successful. meryl's mom and stepdad came over to help clean up beforehand, which was a big help. place looked almost normal for the first time probably in years. felt like we were done, but really we have a lot of work ahead of us. meryl is taking two weeks off and i'm going to try to take it a little easy.
  • it's football season so taking it easier from now on should be easier to do. biggest usc game of the year on saturday, looking forward to that. went to the cal/maryland game last saturday. cal looked poised to challenge in the pac-10 this year. they have a lot of the right elements to make a good run - good qb, solid defense, great rb and good coaching.
  • last night while watching movies i had some popcorn. about halfway through the bag i felt a jagged edge on one of my teeth. turns out that either the corner of my tooth chipped off or the filling chipped off. some of the filling is intact, but the corner of whatever was once there is no longer there. feels like a massive hole in my tooth, but those things always feel worse in your mouth than they really are. need to go to a dentist in the next week or so. wish i had insurance.
  • feeling unlucky lately.

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    9-3-09 (21:05)

  • i want to find a t-shirt or bumper sticker that has the obama horizon logo on it and have it say "hype" instead of "hope." this escalating war in afghanistan is pissing me off, especially when pakistan is the more worrisome nation, if you ask me. ted koppel was on npr today and echoed that sentiment. like me, he thinks both countries are troublesome for the region/world, but pakistan has nukes and seems possessed by their hatred of india. personally i don't think we should be over there at all unless we have several other meaningful commitments from other countries with us.
  • pretty much finished the deck today. the handrails and guardrails still need to be ordered and installed and there are two posts at the bottom of the stairs that need to be installed, but that shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. it's fully functional now for the first time in a while. it's nice to have access to the backyard from that side of the house, rather than having to go around and through the art room to get outside.
  • saw a fight in front of home depot last week. by the time i looked up i saw one guy on the ground and the other guy kicking him. the guy on the ground wasn't moving at all so i yelled "hey" and the kicker looked up and then ran away. it took a bit for the guy on the ground to get up and he looked dazed, but he got up eventually. then two guys came rolling up and asked where the other guy ran off to. some old lady pointed him out and they ran after him. all i could think of was "menace II society" which, if there is any moral to the story, it's that retribution comes eventually and it usually comes harder than you think. t.i.o. - this is oakland.
  • our little party is on sunday. we have a lot of cleaning to do at this point. don't think we'll focus too much on getting any more construction done since things are pretty stable at this moment. plenty left to do, but this is as good a point to pause as any. lots of cleaning needs to be done all around and in the house. also need to buy food and drinks. i think luke and meryl's mom/stepdad are going to be the only people i actually know at the party. not sure about my grandma and mom.
  • john hughes marathon is going well. i think we've gone through all of the films of his that we own. next we'll have to rent she's having a baby, great outdoors, curly sue and others.
  • updated picture album should be up shortly.

    • 8-30-09 (22:29)

  • being off for four days in a row is nice and allows me to be more productive.
  • the countertops went in on thursday. really like the stone, but not in love with the fabrication and installation. we used "best granite" based in hayward and wouldn't recommend them. they did an okay job, but some of the details weren't great. oh well. after the countertops went in i worked on getting the sink hooked up. that turned out to be a hassle. had to take a few trips to home depot to get the right stuff for both the faucet supply and sink drain. faucet supply ended up working out, but the drain was very slow.
  • it was really hot (96) on friday so i tried to work on little projects inside the house even though the deck was the next big thing on the list. meryl and i installed the upper cabinets in the kitchen so the cabinets are officially complete. there's still some trim to install at the base, but i consider that part of the trim work more than the cabinet work. meryl got a final coat of paint on the front of the front door so it looks nice.
  • got some draino on saturday and found that the drain didn't drain at all. ran a snake down the drain and it stopped about 4 feet in. wasn't sure if it was a clog or just a bend in the pipe that i was hitting. thought about hiring a plumber with a snake /fiber optic camera, but knew that i'd be looking at at least $125 to do that. so on friday i worked on the problem an hour or two. finally i decided to go up on the roof to see if i could clear out the vent pipe. ran into a clog about 15 feet down and then again at about 18 feet and then it was clear for the 25 feet of snake that i had available. went back to the trap and hooked it back up. turned on the water for about 5 minutes and it worked just fine. surprising how much of an effect the vent being clogged had on the drain. not sure what was in there, but there aren't any trees above the roof so it was more likely a rat or squirrel or something like that.
  • yesterday was another hot day (93). i got a couple piers in for the deck supports, but abandoned that project in favor of installing the doorbell and doing some caulking around the front of the house. also did some cleaning up around the house. started trimmming the kitchen window.
  • today was a good productive day. we got the major structure on the deck built. still need to put in the landing at the bottom of the stairs as well as the building the stringers. after that it'll be time to lay the decking. hope to have that done in time for the party on sunday. building the stairs is going to be the most challenging part since i've never done that before. looking forward to pouring the landing.
  • big news of the last few days is that with the cabinets in and the sink working, the kitchen it completely functional. we've done three loads in the dishwasher so all the stuff that was in the attic is now clean and most of it now has a place in the cabinets. we cooked tacos tonight as our first official meal. pretty exciting stuff.

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    8-24-09 (23:01)

  • with the help of our neighbor we got the laundry cabinet up on the wall. unfortunately when i did the sheetrock on the ceiling i didn't notice how far out of level the ceiling was so now the cabinet is level-ish and there is a gap between it and the ceiling on the left side, but it's even with the ceiling on the right side. would have taken about 15 minutes to fix if i had noticed this when doing the sheetrock. very frustrating.
  • also frustrating is the dryer vent situation. i wish i had known about an in wall vent box before i did the rough in. instead of using that i'll have to buy an adjustable elbow which will do the job, but isn't as perfect. a similar situation arose with the water supply line for the frig. they have an in wall valve that i didn't know about when i did the rough in for that. had i known then the frig would be able to be closer to the wall than it will end up being. so far there have been a half dozen or so rookie mistakes that have annoyed me. not bad overall, but frustrating when you find out the solution about a week too late to do anything about it.

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    8-23-09 (21:51)

  • finished priming and painting the laundry room today. meryl helped paint after work and we busted it out. looks good and i'm glad that's done. that room still needs trim (already purchased) and flooring (not picked out yet), but those things can definitely wait.
  • next project is the back deck. kitchen is basically on hold until the countertops come in (friday).
  • i wonder what bolt could run in the 400m. he'd be top five in the world within a couple months of training.

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    8-23-09 (11:23)

  • sarah came over yesterday and helped me texture the walls in the laundry room. that was helpful. today i'm hoping to sand, clean, and prime the walls. maybe get some paint on it tonight when meryl is home.
  • just dodged a bullet. i was working on my dad's fantasy football draft and heard a hissing sound coming from the kitchen. walked over there and saw the newly hooked up frig water line spraying water at the back of the frig. luckily it was still pulled out so i could turn off the water at the location, rather than having to go to the main. if i were running an errand at home depot or if i were in the back or in the laundry room with the radio on, i might not have heard it. if it had been spraying for 15 minutes instead of 15 seconds there's a chance we would have ruined the freshly laid flooring. got lucky. i had planned on replacing the line today, actually because the old line, which i reused, gave the water a bad taste. no more reusing old water lines for me.

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    8-20-09 (23:41)

  • my entire life i've been interested in track and field and during that time the 100m dash has always been the most glorified event. the record has always moved down given a few years of waiting, but it's moved down by a few hundredths each time. with bolt, though, we have a new paradigm. this guy is either a freak of nature who is now genuinely the second best sprinter in world history having the best single year in recorded history, or he's a huge doper who is also quite talented. i'm hoping it's the former. he is shattering records like no one has done before. today he ran 19.19 in the 200m which is just crazy fast. to give perspective, the world record before bolt was 19.32 by michael johnson. the record before that was something like 19.66. when johnson ran that time in atlanta in the gold shoes it was amazing and most people who follow track assumed it wouldn't be touched for at least 20 years. ato boldon thought it wouldn't be touched in his lifetime. bolt comes along and barely breaks it in beijing with a 19.30. today he smashes that by more than a tenth. he was in lane 5 which is perfect for him. usually you get lane 4 when you have the best time, but lane 5 is perfect because he doesn't run the curve as tightly as true 200m runners. what he is doing is the equivalent of chamberlin scoring 100 in a game or dimaggio hitting in 56 straight. it's absurdly good and you should enjoy it because that kind of athletic greatness is more rare than the kobe bryants and tom bradys that we hold up today.

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    8-17-09 (20:19)

  • seeing my aunt's family in action was pretty cool. they make a good argument for home-schooling, so long as you do it right. i think a couple of the biggest worries when it comes to home-schooling are the social implications and the gaps in knowledge that may come from being taught by only two parents. there is probably a network of parents, though, that help teach different subjects so that helps with both of those concerns. it's not as if it's a new idea, this is how people learned what they needed to learn for hundreds of years; modern education as we know it is a relatively new construct, so that's important to note. the biggest hurdle of the whole idea is modernity itself which requires different skills than life in the past: the ability to sit at your desk for hours on end, for example. as well as all the hoops that we're supposed to jump through to get into college which is a prerequisite for most high level jobs. that said, i have no doubt that my cousins are going to find a niche that works for them. the other half of that hurdle of modernity is the fact that we aren't subsistence farmers anymore - we need cash to live. so if you're not independently wealthy or you don't have one earner who can provide for the entire family, the home-schooling option goes out the door. it's a luxury for most.
  • this is a busy week. the weekend was busy and we're going away this weekend again. i also have my first day back at school and a cousin's birthday and of course the house and work. speaking of work, tomorrow i'll be going to a co-worker's house to check out some projects she needs done. she is going to have an addition built and i was going to give her some ideas on that as well.

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    8-16-09 (15:07)

  • usain bolt ran today what he should have run in bejing (if he hadn't coasted to the end). the guy is already in the top 5 sprinters of all-time if you ask me. carl lewis is clearly number one because of his dominance over the course of 16 years, but bolt is obviously the fastest man ever and has smashed the 100m twice and broken the 200m record of michael johnson, which i thought wasn't going to happen for another 20 years. amazing talent. johnson i wouldn't consider a sprinter since his best race was actually the 400m and he never ran anything less than 200m. gay looked great in the race and ran a pr (9.71, just .02 off the previous world record and the 3rd best time in history), but was overshadowed by bolt's great start. bolt had a perfect start and led wire to wire. this is rare for him because of his size. it takes him a while to get up to speed, but once he gets going he toasts everyone else. bolt still needs to work on his turn in the 200m because he could even shave a couple hundredths off that time. it's gotta be rough for gay, he's a great sprinter and possibly the second best in the world, but few remember second best. goosebump stuff here.
  • speaking of which, i didn't remark on the great work of lance armstrong. his third place showing in the tour this summer cements him as the greatest biker of all-time (miguel indurain is the second best tour-de-france rider ever). he's ten years older than the other top competitors and has now been on the winning team 8 times. it's just crazy how good that guy is. if he had won this one i would have been ready to place him in the top three athletes ever. we'll see how he does next year with his own team.
  • went to fresno this weekend with meryl and sarah. it was my grandma's 80th birthday and fun was had by all. it was the first time i've seen a lot of that family in many years. we all convened at stacy's house which was the perfect venue because it's a good size and it has a lot of entertainment. from the usual stuff like a pool and ps3 to the unusual like a trampoline inside the living room, a zip line between two trees in the front yard and the chickens on the side of the house. fun stuff. i should visit more often.
  • didn't get any work done on the house. started today off with a dump run. working on finishing mud in the laundry room. finished the range hood vent. will likely have the stove and frig in later tonight. yay.

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    8-12-09 (21:48)

  • got most of the base cabinets in today. there's only one left to do, but we have to get the dishwasher in first; at least that would be best. also put on some of the hardware.
  • we'll be ready for the counter top guys probably by the end of the day tomorrow. not sure if we'll wait to do the uppers, or if we'll just go ahead and get it done. it may or may not help the installers to have space to angle the countertops in.
  • also got some mud work done in the laundry room. that should be done by friday night.
  • still need to finalize the venting connection for the range hood. there are all sorts of loose ends that need finishing up all around the house. that said, i do feel like we've made a lot of progress and are looking to make a lot more in the next few weeks. we've brought a lot more light to the house, the front door area is a lot better looking (stucco, new front light, foyer light), the laundry room is drywalled and moving along, base cabinets are almost done, etc. in the next few weeks we can reasonably expect to have done: doorbell up and running, appliances in, countertops installed, cabinets finished, functional sink and dishwasher, cleared out breakfast nook, cleared out living room, back deck, fully functional laundry room. all this is good.

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    8-11-09 (18:42)

  • haven't gotten much done the last couple days. fiddled around in the laundry room. had some joint compound fall in my eye. flushed for about 10 minutes and it's better today. that sucked.
  • stucco work is done. they showed up sunday and finished. looks nice. it'll be a couple weeks before we can prime and another week after that before we can paint.

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    8-9-09 (08:50)

  • stucco guys didn't show up yesterday to get the job finished. called, left a message, called several times throughout the day and didn't hear back. luckily we only paid a fourth of the cost so far and they've done half the work. he asked for more, but i told him i'd give him a check at the end of the day. then he said, that he'd just get the rest on saturday. so, i'm not sure what the guy is thinking, but we're ahead at this point so i guess that's a good thing.
  • started work on installing three of the base cabinets yesterday. also installed part of the range hood yesterday. still need to hook up the ducting for that to be complete. need to make a home depot run, again.
  • next weekend is my grandma's 80th b-day so i'll be going to fresno for that.
  • updated pictures.

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    8-7-09 (17:49)

  • sad news about budd schulberg. on the waterfront is a great one. damn.
  • working in laundry room as the floor in the kitchen is still tender. i stupidly forgot to get water-based poly so the smell is bad and it takes longer to fully dry. as far as results go, the floor has probably been my biggest disappointment so far.

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    8-6-09 (16:14)

  • sad news about john hughes. he was a great writer-director, though he fell off later in his career. much more important in my life than michael jackson.
  • put up drywall on the last wall in the laundry room.

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    8-6-09 (09:31)

  • turns out that staining the floor is more an art than a science. it's less splotchy now, but not amazingly even. we got the first coat of poly on last night and will do another tonight.
  • stucco guys worked an 11 hour day to get everything demoed and a first coat up. will finish on saturday. good guys, hard workers. hopefully they'll be able to match the existing stucco well. that's really the test.
  • we also started working on the laundry room cabinet yesterday. sarah came over and helped with that a bit. good visit.

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    8-5-09 (10:53)

  • stucco guys are here. that's a relief. they're making a shitload of noise, but i think it'll work out in the end.
  • looks like i'm a firefox browser now. ie was crashing and slow. firefox is ok.
  • first coat of stain is on the floor. it's a bit splotchy because of our application method. second coat i'll be doing by myself and that actually might work out to be better because i can work in a straight line.
  • trimmed some of the tomato plants and other vegetables we had growing. they're a bit out of control these days.
  • just wired up a timer switch for our front porch light. will test when the stucco guys aren't working on the front door.

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    8-3-09 (22:50)

  • didn't get a heck of a lot done today. put putty in all the holes in the flooring and started sanding it down. hopefully will have a coat of stain on the floor tomorrow night, we'll see.
  • stucco guy says he'll be here on wednesday, so hopefully that actually happens.
  • have a deadline is a good thing, but it's raising the pressure level.
  • went to another neighborhood watch meeting today. we didn't get too much done.
  • updated pics.

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    8-2-09 (22:33)

  • stucco guy was supposed to show up yesterday to submit a contract, he was a no show. a lot of contractors can be real lazy bums. as much as i love the trades and self-reliance, there seems to be a lack of customer service that also pervades the trades. does one have to be unreliable to others to remain free? it would certainly appear so as some of the most "free" people i know are also absent-minded and lack the kind of structure that civilized people expect.
  • anyway, i still hope that he does the work. will call him tomorrow. need him to get this done by the end of the week so we can move on with plans for the back deck, etc. we have a deadline now with this damn labor day party so things need to be constantly moving forward, quickly.
  • spent all weekend on the floor. meryl helped a few hours each day but had work and some wedding to deal with so she missed out on a lot of the "fun." finished laying down the flooring, including in the pantry area in the kitchen. that area by the electrical box and pantry took a long time. lots of hand planing to get boards to fit tight, lots of measuring and then getting up to make a cut and then remeasuring and getting back up. my back and knees aren't very happy right now. finished laying the flooring this morning and then started sanding the floor. we were cheapskates and decided not to rent a commercial sander so we used the sanders i already had, including one that i bought the other day and have had my eye on for a while. first did the whole floor with 60 grit, then vacuumed and did the whole floor with 80 grit. then vacuuming and wiped down the floor with mineral spirits. now we're putting putty in approximately 3,000 nail holes as well as gaps, cracks, and checks in and between the floor boards. then we'll sand again with 150 grit. vacuum again. mineral spirits again. precondition the entire floor. light sand to knock down the grain, then clean again, then first coat of stain. then wait a couple hours. then stain again. then wait. then polyurethane, three coats with a light buffing and 12 hour wait in between.
  • work tomorrow. ugh. this weekend went quickly.

    • 7-28-09 (20:35)

  • try to work an hour or two after getting home to get the electrical done a bit sooner so the focus can go back to the kitchen. still need to wire up a lot of the fixtures, but the switches are almost all done.
  • speaking of electrical. i called the electrician who did our service and who i have worked for in the past to touch bases with him. he called back later and said he might have some work for me. this is a good thing money-wise. i also think that career-wise being an electrician would be pretty fun. since it appears as though i'll need some dental work done in the future it would also be good to lay the ground work for getting full-time employment with benefits.
  • meryl has been working on the underlayment for the hardwood in the kitchen. we're going with red rosin paper, but the more i think about it, the more i think we should have gone with kraft paper. ugh.
  • not sure why there's much talk about sotomayor being confirmed. should be a no-brainer. she's a bit quick to imprision people for my taste, but she'll do. the report i heard said she consistently chose prison for defendants (both white and blue collar) more than her peers. don't think that contributing to the police state is really the way to go, but she seems solid otherwise.

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    7-26-09 (18:28)

  • not as productive today as yesterday. had to go into work for about 4 hours, 5 hours lost when you factor in drive time. painted the second coat in the kitchen in the morning, though, so that's done. onto the flooring now. could do the overhead cabinets if we felt like it.
  • all the electrical is roughed in for the lights that i've been working on this week. hopefully that'll be done by this time next week. drywall hopefully up in the laundry in that time as well. we decided we're going to pay someone to do a bunch of stucco work - mostly on the laundry room exterior, but also by the front door to finally get that finished up. hope to get that done the first week of august.

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    7-25-09 (22:26)

  • got a lot done on the house today. on thursday i started working on running some electrical to a switch near the sliding glass door in the laundry room for an exterior light that we're going to have there. that ended up taking me down a slippery slope into electrical hell. i started working on one circuit which led me taking out all sorts of wires running all over the place. next thing you know we don't have light in the laundry room or office. so now one light turns into me finally tackling: hallway light, laundry lights, exterior light by laundry room, office lights including getting the sconces to be on the switch, front door exterior light, door bell, front foyer light. so thursday i was planning things out and trying not to open up many walls in the process. today i got almost all of that stuff roughed in. electrical is a challenge in existing conditions because you have an ideal way of running a circuit, but then there is the reality of the situation. do you really want to open up the walls in the office so you can put in a new electrical box that will fit more wires so you can run the next circuit with less wire and less hassle? in this case i opted not to do that. i only opened up one small section of wall in the laundry room and put in one new box by the front door (but it won't require any patching because of my amazing cutting job). electricians generally don't take this into account because they generally don't bid in patching the drywall/plaster. when you're the electrician and the drywall guy then you think about the process a bit more. of course it does mean that a few of the lines aren't properly stapled within 8" of the box, but i don't really see a way around that. so, by this time next week we should have a door bell and lights in places that we didn't before: front foyer, front exterior, hallway and the sconces in the office will be operational.
  • also got a first coat of paint on the kitchen walls. this is the second color we've tried, hopefully the last.

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    7-22-09 (18:43)

  • top obama voting areas: d.c. with something like 90% of the vote going to obama. hawaii (his birth state) with over 70% and vermont with about 70%.
  • vermont is interesting because it's so rural and has so many farmers, yet is the second biggest state supporter of obama. seems like a contradiction to some. to me it's the best of both worlds.
  • another early day at work today to continue power washing the windows and patio. that patio is ridiculously dirty and could probably use another washing to clean up more of the grout.

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    7-21-09 (18:54)

  • finished updating the vermont trip page.
  • also the pictures should be working.

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    7-21-09 (15:48)

  • woke up before 6a today to get to work by 630. had to pressure wash both the patios in anticipation of some big event that they were having at the alumni house. tomorrow i have to do the same to finish the last bit of the patio and go to work on the windows. don't want to know how much water i used.

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    7-20-09 (14:17)

  • bad news.
  • working on trip page for the weekend in vermont.
  • unimpressed by the new prodigy album.

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    VERMONT TRIP

    7-16-09 (10:29)

  • started painting tuesday, but it turns out the color is too orange for our taste. got some more samples and will try again when we get back.
  • this weekend is my birthday celebration. meryl had been keeping it a secret, but she let it out in comical fashion the other day. we're going to vermont to see the ben and jerry's factory and have a good time in general.
  • a stucco guy was supposed to come by today to look at putting new stucco on the laundry room exterior, but he's 45 minutes late so i'm guessing he doesn't want the work.

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    7-12-09 (13:54)

  • you probably won't stay tuned for the entire 20 minutes, but you should. great topic coupled with thoughtful and intelligent real world insight.

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    7-11-09 (12:03)

  • would like to take a moment to highlight the life of a great mind. charles dalziel is known to only a few, but he saved thousands of lives and is in just about everyone's home. he was a cal grad who also taught electrical engineering there. later, he went on to invent the ground fault circuit interrupter (gfci). it's the outlet with the little red/black buttons in the middle that you find in wet areas such as the kitchen and bathroom. most people won't ever have to thank him for his invention, but if you ever drop a toaster in the bathtub and only get a brief shock, he's the one to thank for your life. added some stuff to his wiki page the other day because it's pretty sparse.

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    7-10-09 (22:18)

  • thursday was pretty productive. meryl's dad came over and we installed the sliding glass door in the laundry room. it weighs like 150lbs so getting it up into place was tough. the frame needed some straightening once in place, but we got it done. took about 2 hours to install and waterproof it. after that meryl and her dad went to work on the bathroom demo. they took out the toilet and sink as well as most of the lath/plaster and tile on the walls. i went at the cement step by the kitchen entrance with the rotohammer. got it broken out and chipped into small pieces so that we can dispose of the concrete over time.
  • meryl is away for the weekend so i'm tackling the kitchen texture myself. still trying to fine tune the curved archways so the pvc bullnose doesn't show. worked on that and primed the small half of the kitchen as well as the ceiling in the main part of the kitchen. we need to prime first because we're doing a knockdown texture and the joint compound will dry at different rates depending upon whether its on the drywall or the mud. pain in the ass. everything takes longer than i hoped.
  • painting should be done by end of day tuesday; at least that's the plan. texture should be done this weekend. hope to finally patch the stucco this weekend as well.
  • went to a neighborhood watch meeting a couple nights ago. rep from oakland pd was there giving us tips on being safe. basically he said that being afraid and aware were real important. not real helpful. mostly a waste of 90 minutes.
  • after the kitchen is done i hope to catch up on all the little things, the half done projects that have been sitting around waiting for a spare few hours to get finished off. front door lights, door bell, stucco, painting stucco patches, and all the rest.

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    7-7-09 (21:38)

  • hopefully the michael jackson nostalgia doesn't last much longer.
  • this two week period will always be remembered by me as the time i turned 30 and people told me i was old, and the the time when a shit load of people died. palin committed political suicide. fawcett, mj, mcnamara, mcnair, mcmahon, and malden.
  • hope to prep for texture tomorrow. will also waterproof the opening for the sliding glass door in the laundry room. hope to spray texture on friday, install door thursday. saturday final coat of stucco beneath kitchen door. need to give that a few weeks to fully cure before paint, unfortunately. should have gotten to that last week. finding a good texture took a few tries, but i think we found a good way of achieving what we're looking for. not sure it'll come out perfect on the rounded corners and archways, but i'll do my best.

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    7-4-09 (21:42)

  • some big fireworks being blown up in oakland today. i think oakland gets into it more than any place i've been. it sorta fits into the lawlessness that many in this town seem to embrace. saw a guy pissing on the street today.
  • meryl's dad came over thursday to help with the sliding door in the back. before he came we started taking out the drywall and we purchased the replacement door from hd. 6' slider for under $300, thought that was a pretty good deal. we took out the old door which proved a bit more difficult than anticipated. then meryl and vince worked on swapping out the door and the door track so that it would open the way we wanted it to (the default is right to left, and we wanted it to slide left to right). while they did that i built a temporary wall in front of the doorway so that we could demo the crappy framing job that was there before and basically start from scratch. the laundry room was once a covered patio and it's framed at 24" o.c. and in generally poor condition. about the time they were finished i was finished so we worked on taking down the old wall and then started framing in the new one. yesterday and today i worked on that some more and finished it up. meryl worked on the drywall in the kitchen; it's starting to look really good. just some fine tuning left to be done before texture and paint.
  • this morning we went to fenton's for my birthday breakfast. had planned on ihop because they were reputed to give freebies on your b-day, but that turned out to be false. after breakfast we came home and got to work on our respective projects. the framing in the laundry is complete and looks real good. need to water proof the opening and then it'll be ready for the door, which will go in on thursday when vince is coming again to help. door is pretty heavy so we definitely need another set of hands to get it done.
  • after a day's work we went to fuddrucker's to claim my free birthday sundae and have dinner. then we saw food inc. overall a good day. hopefully tomorrow will be even more productive.
  • so far i've hauled in a couple pairs of basketball shorts from meryl and a kick ass camera from my grandma. will have photos of the house online within the week.
  • allergies don't seem to quit. i'm thinking the high dust volume in the house is a contributor. also the overrun weeds and grass probably aren't helping.

    • 6-29-09 (21:50)

  • bought a new lawnmower yesterday. it's an electric one so it's quieter, requires less maintenance, and is better for the environment. it seems to have plenty of power. my major gripe is that the only ones available in our price range (under $250) require a cord. the more expensive ones are cordless which would have been nicer, but it's not the end of the world.
  • drywall is making good progress in the kitchen. finished the ceiling in the step down area of the laundry room. the other half of the laundry room has pretty bad plaster problems. we decided to try to repair the plaster. big wally's plaster magic is a good product, but expensive, so i'll try my own way borrowing their technique. we'll see how it works out. if all else fails we'll have to take down the lathe and plaster and put up drywall.
  • updated the pictures. and movies page.
  • obama ran on hope and is now ruling with only "realism" in mind. it's gotta be a disappointment to real liberals who voted for him. after he won i felt a small sense of regret for not being a part of the historic moment. it was a great night and i wasn't a part of it in the same way that others were because i didn't vote for the guy. now i feel vindicated because his moderate record speaks for itself. sure he's better than mccain probably would have been, but he's not the guy he said he was going to be. of course no president ever is, but he also lifted our hopes as much as anyone else ever has so he has to take the fall when he isn't "a fierce advocate for gay rights," as he said he would be. or when he doesn't take a stand on medical marijuana. or when he extends the timeline for withdrawl from iraq. or when he increases troop levels in afghanistan without any meaningful coalition (at least that i've heard of). or the lack of transparency in the white house for which the daily show has been raking him over the coals lately.

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    6-28-09 (14:32)

  • cockiness, it would turn out, is not the sole purvey of the united states, as many would have you believe. brazil came out cocky against the u.s. in today's soccer match and almost lost as a result. unfortunately the u.s. wasn't able to capitalize on the two goals they got in the first half and ended up losing to brazil 3-2. tough game.
  • drywall in the kitchen is almost done. still need to figure out what we're going to do for the texture. finished hanging the drywall in the laundry room and put up one of the new lights. still need to take down some of the old crappy ceiling tile from the other part of the laundry area as it is now in the way of installing the other light.

    •  

     

    6-27-09 (22:40)

  • warm day.
  • got the second coat of drywall on most of the walls in the kitchen. meryl is pretty good at it so i started working on hanging drywall on the ceiling in the laundry room. will probably end up drywalling the other exterior wall in that room as well since it's in bad shape and it could use some insulation. we'll also be replacing the sliding glass door there.
  • went to the a's game tonight. they failed to make a suitable rally late in the game and lost 11-9. they suck. we had seats right behind home plate and it was all you can eat so that was nice. i had 5 lobster sandwiches, a pizza, a soda, a malt, and got a bunch of candy/peanuts for movie watching.
  • funny.
  • i think it's real.
  • looking forward to the soccer game tomorrow, though i'm not entirely hopeful.

    •  

     

    6-25-09 (20:13)

  • making headway on the drywall. got another stucco coat up as well.
  • michael jackson is dead. my reaction when meryl told me was: good, it's about time. he's probably the most overrated musician of all-time. he had a couple good albums and a few great songs. i attribute much of this to paul mccartney and quincy jones who produced his better stuff. thriller was a great music video as well, but his body of work isn't at all equal to the amount of money he made or the number of albums he sold or the mania surrounding him. it'll be nice to be done with the jokes and the speculation and the fondling trials.
  • imdb has too many damn pop-up ads these days.

    •  

     

    6-23-09 (20:04)

  • just finished doing a bunch of yardwork and cleaning up. that's a rewarding job, but not one that really helps get the kitchen done. hope to finish the first coat of drywall mud tomorrow and perhaps get another coat of stucco on as well. you're supposed to wait a couple days between coats and about 30 before painting. going to look for a primer that can coat quicker. it's a ph issue.
  • discovered another load of rot, this time on the back side of the house. rim joist is ruined, repairing that will be fun.

    •  

     

    6-18-09 (22:11)

  • hope to be productive this weekend. several movies i want to watch and definitely want to get some stucco on the patch below the kitchen door as well as getting started on the taping of the drywall. today we picked up the decking material which we special ordered a week or so ago.
  • painting the kitchen at the alumni house went well today; very productive. looks like we should be able to finish on the schedule which is always a good thing. got an extra day of work out of it so that's good money-wise.
  • went to pcbc yesterday. nice, but not as big/good as i had expected. the biggest builder's show is in las vegas, maybe i'll make the trip for it one day. there were only a couple tool exhibits, one of which i've already seen before. i've considered working as a tool representative or something similar in the past since i love tools so much, but that seems like more salesmanship than anything else. being a tool critic would be fun. i guess i'm just more inclined to tell others how to do something better. movies, tools, etc. it seems to be what i'm good at. anyway, it was mostly geared towards building products - flashing systems, roofing and insulation materials, siding materials, etc. got some swag, but nothing too exciting. grk fasteners sold me on being the best in the world. formerly that title had gone to spax, in my opinion, but i now think grk to be even better. take that germany, now the best consumer screws are made in canada.
  • got another jury summons. 3 in less than 2 years, this is ridiculous. figure it out you idiots.
  • wrist kinda hurts.

    •  

     

    6-16-09 (18:21)

  • nice website dedicated to mechanical pencils and pens. he doesn't review the great y&c grip500, but good site nonetheless.

    •  

     

    6-15-09 (21:37)

  • worked on painting the kitchen at the alumni house today. worked all day with the help of donna's husband and we didn't even finish the ceiling. as depressing as that is, it's not so bad when you're in the trenches with someone else. hopefully just three more days of this. hopefully.
  • after work meryl and i worked on finishing the drywall in our kitchen. still not done. made the decision to add a receptacle in the tv room which added some time. also cleaned up a bit. a couple more nights and we should be done hanging the drywall. mudding and taping will take a while. drywall is something i regret not paying a professional to do. would have been a lot faster (a couple days) and the result would have been better as well. we don't really have the money to do that, though, so you gotta do what you gotta do.

    •  

     

    6-14-09 (22:10)

  • didn't get a heck of a lot of work done on the house this week. almost finished hanging the drywall. we have one more arch to do as well as the patch in the tv room and breakfast nook. then we'll have to mud and tape everything.
  • friday was johnny's birthday. we went to oakland ice and played broom ball. it's basically hockey without skates. instead of a puck there's a ball and the stick that's used is different too. running around on the ice with shoes means plenty of tumbles for all. ice is hard. you can get running real fast so long as you don't worry about slowing down, slowing down is usually the time when you lose your balance and fall on your knees. my knees still hurt as a result of the 4-5 falls i took. it's a fun game because the ice equalizes the talents of the various players and because you can't really sprint, you don't get winded. my team lost.
  • dad came up from fresno yesterday. brought my aunt and her four kids (one of them is my god daughter). pretty interesting bunch. the youngest one is real talkative and social. we went out to eat and then went to the park to play ball. threw the football around, played some basketball and just had a good time. a couple kids that we met at the park played with us and it was a fun time all around. no idea where their parents were; made me feel as though we were in the 50s or something.
  • not looking forward to work this week. i've got to paint the alumni house kitchen. i'll have one person to help, i think, for most of the time, but painting is a drag. there's a decent amount of prep work that needs to be done, and some challenging aspects of the kitchen that'll slow the process down. one wall has a bunch of windows with metal frames that need to be painted. the windows are above the cabinets which means they're about seven feet high and go all the way to the ceiling, which is about 16 feet high. the ceiling is also not going to be much fun. then there are cabinets to paint as well. it'll take all week i'm sure and after a day at the park and broomball and drywalling today, i don't feel like i'm going to be entirely rest for the job.
  • didn't have allergies for a few weeks, but they're back again. lovely.
  • glad that the penguins won the stanley cup. sad that the lakers won the nba championship. pretty mediocre playoffs overall. the lakers are a talented team, but not dominant in my opinion. orlando very easily could have been up 3-1 in that series. one layup and one free throw would have put them in that position. literally. a layup and a free throw. when that's all that is between 3-1 up and 1-3 down that shows you how even these teams really were. nba needs to change the 2-3-2 format in the finals as it's fundamentally unfair to the team with the 3 home games in a row.
  • got 10 pounds of free organic chicken the other day from my other aunt. this led us to finally buy a grill. put it together the other day and promptly cooked 3 lbs of chicken the next day. that's been dinner/lunch the last couple days. still hope to get the kitchen functional in the next 6 weeks.

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    6-9-09 (21:21)

  • daily show is funny even without bush to make fun of. i have noticed that they make fun of the media a lot more now rather than making fun of politicians like they did before. so fox news gets a lot of shit, but they also save some time to make fun of msnbc and cnn for the odd things they do to fill 24 hours or the inconsistencies/hypocrisies they exhibit. they'll occasionally call obama out for some of his issues which is good to see, but there has definitely been a shift towards making fun of the media rather than the government. the msnbc financial drama is the most obvious example, but it extends beyond that.

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    6-9-09 (18:27)

  • re: courtney lee's missed layup that cost orlando the game - it's the nba and it was a makable shot. there are a lot of people who are defending him and saying that it was a difficult shot and blah blah blah. getting to the nba is much more difficult than making that shot. nba players make that shot. winners make that shot. losers miss it. orlando is going to lose the series and lee missed the shot. it's not the end of the world. he's not an awful guy, but he should have made the shot.
  • re: pao gasol's goaltending - yes it was basket interference and according to the rules it should have been called and the game should have ended with orlando winning because gasol touched the net and the rim. in reality, though, his hand didn't affect the shot at all.

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    6-7-09 (21:22)

  • got the kitchen door installed yesterday, that was good. worked on drywall in the kitchen today. also took a big load of trash to the dump. got the rough brush strokes of the two decks planned. will order the trex decking tomorrow night. also got some organizing around the house done. bought a bosch rotary hammer. big purchase, only the tablesaw has been more expensive. found a new one for $190 less than it would have been if i bought it at home depot, though, so it was a good deal. overall a decently productive weekend.
  • orlando blew a opportunity to make it a series, but lee missed the open layup and they lost the game. down 2-0 they don't have a chance.
  • roy halladay is definitely my favorite baseball player. he really hasn't gotten much recognition until this season. he's a workhorse who consistently pitches full games, gets plenty of strikeouts, avoids injury, and dominates batters. great player.
  • the days i look forward to since we've gotten the house: pay day, trash day, the next day off. i'm always waiting for one of those days. there is always something to put in the trash, always something to do on the next day off and always something to buy when i get paid. that's been my life the last 5 months.
  • stepped on a rusty nail earlier today. that kinda sucked. foot hurts, but it'll probably be fine. got my tetanus shot about 6 years ago so i'm in the clear there. always wondered how that whole 10 year thing works. does it always last exactly 10 years, or is that the minimum or what?

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    6-5-09 (17:56)

  • this is the kind of thing that people would probably say "only in america" to, but it was first created in china and appears to be as popular abroad as in the u.s.
  • the opening that we created to fix the dryrot has been closed up and is ready for stucco and (hopefully) the door. i've decided that i'll install the door first, then start the stucco, then do the deck.
  • this weekend i hope to get the door installed, a coat of stuco on the patch, and the drywall in the kitchen all ready for the mud/tape process.
  • lakers are the most talented team in the nba. i have little doubt that they'll win the series, but i think the magic could push it to six games.

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    6-4-09 (10:01)

  • rained two nights ago and was supposed to rain last night and today. so far nothing. that's good.
  • yesterday we chipped out the stucco where the deck used to be and exposed the cripple wall holding up the south end of the kitchen floor joists. we built a temporary wall to shore up the floor joist and then cut away the rotten cripple wall. turned out that the mudsill was rotten in parts too, so we took that out as well. put in a new mudsill, sistered on new floor joists to the old ones which were rotten on their ends, and built a new cripple wall. took out the temporary wall and now everything is being held up by the new structure. a pretty simple process overall, but it takes time and it can be nerve-wracking when you're cutting away a wall that once held up a large part of the exterior wall and interior floor. next step is to finish the sheathing, weatherproofing, and get a coat of stucco on.

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    6-1-09 (19:04)

  • finally updated the movie reviews. also updated the recommendations.

    • broke.

    5-31-09 (17:38)

  • been better about watching movies lately, but worse about reviewing them. have about a dozen to review...
  • one step forward, two steps back. got the laundry room wall done-ish. the bad wood is out and the good wood is in. it's fairly well-weatherproofed and the drywall is up. the utility sink and washer/dryer are functional. with the drywall in it looks like an actual space now. still need to mud and tape and paint and put up the countertop (for folding clothes) and utility cabinets. further down the line is redoing the ceiling and flooring.
  • the two steps back part came today when we started installing the kitchen door and discovered far more rot than expected. major rot issues there led us to demolish the stairway (the one which was once our primary entrance point). so, that's two decks gone in a week. we still have two means of egress, though, so that's probably okay. we'll have to get a rotohammer and chip away about 15 sq. feet of stucco to expose the exterior side of the rotted structure. shore up the floor joists, remove rotted cripple wall members and replace everything. then restucco, rebuild the deck and install the door. what a pain in the ass. this is definitely the biggest surprise of our renovation so far. we'll see if the understructure in the bathroom is worse...
  • cavs were completely exposed against the magic. mike brown has to be the most overrated coach in the league. what kind of offensive genius does it take to tell his players to give the ball to lebron and stand around watching him work? if he passes it to you and you're open, take the shot. otherwise pass it back. they play a lot of one-on-one basketball and the team lacks ball movement or any kind of offensive structure. defensively they're decent.

    •  

     

    5-28-09 (22:47)

  • watching cavs game. they blew a big lead and are now in a dog fight. pathetic, one man team. mike brown was the coach of the year and i consider him highly overrated as a result. adelman did a lot more given his circumstances.
  • started doing the drywall in the kitchen the other day. finished the ceiling today. having a drywall lift helps a lot. i was able to do the entire ceiling by myself. we bought the lift knowing we could sell it later and use it on a few projects in the meantime. it'll easily pay for itself as a day's rental costs about a fourth of the purchase price and we should be able to get at least half the purchase price back upon resale.
  • need to update the movies list, seen several since the last update.
  • hope to be real productive this weekend. we tore down the back deck the other day so that's the next side project on the horizon. also started doing some demo on the bathroom because meryl's dad was around and we figured we may as well get as much help as possible. finishing up the laundry room should happen this weekend. also hope to get the kitchen door installed.
  • jon came over today to check out the progress. sometimes it seems like there hasn't been any progress. i think that feeling comes mostly from the fact that the kitchen hasn't come along as quickly as i would have liked. 5-23-09 (17:17)
  • had a little issue with the flooring the other day. a while back i looked at it and thought it looked more red than i thought white oak should look. we did some investigating and realized that the white oak that we ordered was actually red oak. lame. took it back today and got a replacement. lucky us that they took it back since we bought it months ago. now we have to wait for the new stuff to acclimate.
  • tomorrow we'll work on the laundry room exterior wall. need to cut part of it out, weatherproof it and get it ready for stucco on the outside and drywall on the inside.
  • waiting for the drywall lift to start the drywall in the kitchen.
  • cavs game last night was crazy. they blew a 20 point lead and hedo hit a great shot to pull ahead by 2 with 1.0 seconds left. lebron got the inbound pass at the top of the three point line, turned around and made the game winner before time expired. he's on my all-time team already. he just needs to learn to play more consistent defense.

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    5-22-09 (18:05)

  • finally installed the front door on wednesday. that was a long time coming. first one i've done. it's not perfect - space between door and jamb is uneven, but it's functional. not real certain why the jamb is off the way it is. still need to do the finishing touches like the trim, stucco, painting, and patching the cement landing.

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    5-18-09 (18:22)

  • more pictures of the tree cutting here.

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    5-17-09 (18:51)

  • rockets lost, that was predictable, but unfortunate. lakers are a good team when kobe plays team basketball and the others get involved early. the rebounding discrepancy and height advantage were the stories of the game to me. i knew going in that the rockets were going to have to have a great game, they didn't.
  • meryl's graduation was yesterday. the ceremony itself was long and hot and full of long winded people who were full of hot air. not really, it just sounded good. she's done a good job so yesterday was a nice way of acknowledging that she's done with papers and homework.
  • luke, vern, ryan, and claire came over to watch the game and work on taking down the monkey tree in the front.
  • we watched the first half of the game and then showed claire the house. afterwards we went outside and plotted ways of taking down the tree. the neighbors weren't at home so getting onto their property to place the ladder and rope was out of the question. nevertheless we moved forward. i got on the ladder and took down some of the branches. with them out of the way we got the rope around the trunk of the tree. after some discussions on strategy and assigning roles to the various people involved (luke was captain of the five people pulling on the rope to persuade the tree away from the house, i was operating the chainsaw), we went to work. i started a wedge cut about four feet up from grade level while the five of them pulled taut on the rope to apply tension to the tree from the get go. after a bit of work i got the front wedge out of the tree. then the fun began. at this point a passerby in a minivan had stopped in the middle of the road to watch. i cut evenly from behind the trunk, towards the center of the wedge. shortly i heard the tree begin to break. i took a step back and watched it fall parallel to the face of the house. guided by luke's call to pull hard the five of them pulled on the rope which eased the tree just far enough away from the house to make for a successful felling. in falling it took out one bush up front, but we have hopes that it will survive. it didn't hit the water main or the power lines and only some of the branches grazed the front of the house, leaving no visible damage. after we exchanged high fives. luke and i worked on cutting up the trunk into 3 foot pieces while the other four broke off the branches and piled them along the side of the house. if you didn't know better and had seen it from afar, it would have looked like we had done this many times before. truth be told, luke and i had taken down one chinese elm before which was bigger, but not as precariously positioned as this one. in a matter of minutes the tree was gone off our front lawn and in pieces on the side of the house. now we have a stump in the front and several containers worth of branches on the side of our house. easily saved a few hundred bucks and had a good time in the process. many hands make light work.

    • before

    after

    5-13-09 (21:16)
  • got the door hardware installed today. will install the strike plate after i hang it.
  • john comes up from la this weekend. luke is also going to be in town to help ryan move and he'll be by to help me cut down the tree in our front yard. it's going to be a somewhat complex felling. the tree is leaning over the house and has a bend in the trunk. the initial bend of the tree has it leaning away from the house and then about six feet up the bend goes towards the house. i've estimated the tree to be 32-35 feet tall. our power line is about 39 feet away. if we cut it lower then i think it'll be easier to get it to fall away from the house (because of that initial bend away from the street in the thickest part of the trunk). if we cut it higher then we won't have to worry at all about it hitting any power lines, but it'll be tougher to get it to fall away from the house. if we could get a couple ropes high on the tree then i would worry less about the possibility of it landing on the house. absolute worst case scenario would be it falling in the opposite direction that i plan on pulling it: into the neighbor's power line and onto her house. more likely bad outcomes: it falls on our house, it's taller than i thought and hits our power line. we'll see how it goes.
  • meryl's graduation ceremony is also this weekend.
  • rockets couldn't buy a bucket in last night's game. obviously they need to win the next two. they're capable of winning at home and extending the series, but game 7 is tough. they don't have a superstar to rely on in the crunch. no mcgrady, no yao. they're also really lean on the interior. hurts their defense as well as their offense and rebounding on both ends. yao is the tallest player in the nba and mutumbo is probably in the top five. both are out. gotta feel sorry for rick adelman who continues to have shit luck. first with the trailblazers when they got to the finals twice and lost to the bulls and pistons, i believe. then he had some great years with the kings and lost to shaq and kobe, was the victim of a clear conspiracy on the part of the nba and refs which cost them the series, and also had a bad case of the injury bug - webber and bibby both missing time. now he's with the rockets and has two of the most injury-prone stars in the league. mcgrady being #1 in the league (you can bet he'll miss significant games every single year).
  • rockets clearly don't have the talent with those three guys injured. they try harder and play better defense (which i've always felt is more about game time effort than any other single attribute). offense is about preparation and skill and agility and 'x's and 'o's, but trying harder isn't going to make the ball go into the basket more often. rockets are definitely a more fun team to watch than the lakers. hate the lakers.
  • plan on installing the front door next wednesday. that'll be a long time coming. i think a lot more progress is going to be made in the coming weeks now that meryl will finally be done with all the school-related stuff and there aren't any visits from friends and family on the weekend coming up.
  • kitchen: door, drywall, paint, floor, cabinets, range hood, countertop, tile, sink, etc. laundry room: exterior wall rebuild and weatherproof, insulate, drywall, paint.
  • went on the roof today to take a look at the tree from that angle. the roof is a lot more steep than i had anticipated which limits access to the tree. also makes me rethink doing any work on the roofing myself. perhaps demo, but nothing else. difficult conditions to say the least.
  • watched several episodes of frontline while working on the door. great stuff.
  • magic appear to be the most poorly coached team in the nba playoffs. they had a big lead twice against the bulls and wasted it. saw the game last night and thought it a pathetic coaching job. if rick adelman went to the east with orlando he'd have a clear shot to the finals against the cavs. much easier road than going through the lakers and nuggets. magic should fire van gundy.

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    5-9-09 (21:18)

  • people are starting to realize that the swine flu was a bunch of hype. hilarious.
  • got a good amount done today. meryl helped all day and we got the drain for the laundry room in as well as putting in the gas supply. we are almost able to do a load of laundry. we still need a vent for the dryer, but that'll come in a couple weeks because it involves a lot of other work on the exterior wall (water damage). also need to add some support for some of the drain pipe and gas pipe. some fine tuning tomorrow and we should be basically in business.
  • long day.
  • hate the lakers. rockets have to win the next one or they're done. david stern is probably going to get his way, though, and it'll be a lebron/kobe finals.

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    5-7-09 (10:13)

  • lakers game was trash. crawford had it in for artest and threw him out based upon reputation. so, as he judged artest prematurely, i judge him prematurely - he doesn't like artest and wanted an excuse to throw him out. he's done this before with tim duncan (and was suspended by the league) so i have cause to believe this. asshole. david stern wants a kobe/lebron finals and won't let the rockets or anyone else get in the way of that outcome. asshole. rockets are doomed because the chips are stacked against them. nba sucks.

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    5-1-09 (18:04)

  • rockets-lakers game was a good one. rockets are my favorite team right now. they have adelman and artest (ex-kings) as well as battier (one of the best defenders in the league) and yao (solid player, no nonsense type of game). brooks was a joy to watch and had a big game. rebounding was awful, but the rockets got the win. would love to see adelman pull off a win against his rivals. realistically they're a player away from being real contenders. mcgrady is not that player. would love to see more offense run through yao like adelman did with divac. yao isn't as good a passer, but he's bigger and an adequate passer. rockets actually play defense so that's fun to watch too.
  • got a pretty good arc welder on craigslist yesterday for $60. pretty sweet deal. will come in handy from time to time. 5-1-09 (18:04)
  • rockets made the second round of the playoffs, that's good news. artest is better than mcgrady.
  • got the front door framed and it's waiting to be hung in the opening. need to get the opening prepped. not sure exactly what i'm going to do with the sill.
  • ran a new circuit to the laundry room, need to add a couple outlets.
  • still need to rehang the door in the kitchen as well as insulate. main goal this weekend, though, is getting the front door in.
  • it's fucking raining again. hate that shit. makes everything slower and more messy. wouldn't be able to survive as a contractor in seattle.

    • swine flu is way overrated. according to the WHO numbers i got today the mortality rate is like 3% for those that get it and not that many people have gotten it. wake me up when a 1,000 people have died.

    4-28-09 (19:19)

  • totally psyched about the crabtree pick for the niners. of all the guys in the draft crabtree may have been the one on the top of my wishlist as a niners fan. not sold on any of the qbs as a sure thing so the receiver position was next on the wish list. crabtree was the best wr i saw last year. also like nicks.
  • nate davis is also a good pick up in the later rounds. people were excited about him early so he's a good value in the fifth round. not sure about the rb pick up in the second round. would have liked a defensive lineman instead.

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    4-23-09 (18:11)

  • did some work for my boss's boss today. electrical, took a few hours. then went to class. then went to another guy's house and did a little plumbing. they're redoing part of the bathroom and wanted me to install the new toilet and sink. i need to start charging more for this stuff because it drags me away from the house and frankly you can't get a plumber or electrician in your house for under $100/hour.
  • yesterday was relatively productive. took the front door to the door guy to frame. should be done next week.
  • got the new range hood. we had looked around at appliance stores and online and weren't able to find anything for a long time. finally, meryl found one online. i saw that they were based in hayward so we saved $60 on shipping. it's exactly what we wanted - good style, good power, quiet, and cheap. can finally rough in the electrical for that. then gotta rehang the kitchen door (a pain), insulate, and hang the drywall.
  • also constructed the arch detail for the pass through to the tv room and entryway between the breakfast nook and kitchen.
  • elsewhere we still need to do a lot before the laundry is up and running. back garden is looking good. got a new game plan for the garage, but still need to figure out what's happening with the floor/foundation.

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    4-22-09 (09:53)

  • finished making the raised vegetable bed on sunday. mom helped with everything and the three of us were able to clear the area, get the bed built and everything planted in just one day. feels like the first done project so far.
  • will hopefully take the front door to get framed today.
  • working for other people tomorrow.

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    4-14-09 (20:32)

  • dad visited sunday. it was a short visit, but he got to see the house.
  • mom is coming up thursday. she's going to give some pointers on the garden front so that'll be good.
  • had lunch with my old boss today. he's still working on the kitchen at the alumni house.
  • painted the first coat on the door today. still need to patch some holes then i can really paint it up. that's on the docket for tomorrow.
  • thursday we're going on a shopping spree. got a 10% off coupon at home depot. those are rare so we're going to take advantage of it.
  • hope to get the door framed next week, we'll see how that goes.
  • windy today. hate wind more than any other normal weather event. rain isn't great. snow is fine. sun is fine.
  • updated movie stuff.
  • did taxes last night. hate that as much as looking for a new job. looks like i'll get some money back this year, though, so that's nice.
  • did invoicing at work today. the new girl is a scatterbrain who can't get stuff done in a timely manner so i've gotta help out.

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    4-11-09 (20:46)

  • heard about a study that showed that color blind workplaces don't work as well as those that celebrate diversity and acknowledge the differences of the workers. they talked on npr about the tight rope one has to walk because people want to be noticed as different, but also want to be judged on their own. good show.
  • started work on the laundry room because i cleared that area of the tools. probably shouldn't have done it because now it's a distraction from other things, namely the kitchen. there were some problems in the laundry room - one side has fallen about 1-2 inches out of level - in part because of water damage that deteriorated the structure underneath that corner of the addition. ended up leaving the building where it is and replacing the underlying structure. now i need to replace the part of the exterior wall that was damaged and i may as well stucco over it while i'm at it. that added a few days to my workload.
  • roughed in the cold water supply to the laundry room today. one line for the future utility sink and one line for the washer. still need to do two hot water lines, a gas line, and (this is the bigger project) the drain. i have two options with the drain - tap into the 2" copper drain that is underneath the nearby bathroom sink, or tap into the 4" cast iron pipe that serves as the main drain for the entire bathroom. tapping into the bigger drain is preferable, but more costly and time consuming. haven't decided yet. may as well replace the electrical that feeds that part of the addition while i'm in there, too.
  • kitchen is close-ish to being closed up. gotta make a couple small plumbing tweaks and get the range hood so i know where the electrical for that is going to go. after that i have to fix that side door, then insulate and drywall.
  • painted one side of the front door with primer today. used my hvlp sprayer for it. not in love with hvlp sprayers. they're great on the one hand because they provide precision, but they require a hefty air compressor and, since you have to thin down the paint so much, also require multiple coats for adequate coverage. think i'm going to just brush the rest of the door even though that will also take a lot of time (because the door has 18 panels on each side) and i don't like the brushed look as much as the sprayed look.

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    4-4-09 (19:04)

  • since when are we allowing insane people who aren't able to keep a stable home to adopt kids who have living family members who are willing and able to take care of them? i guess when it's madonna it's somehow different. she's literally insane and has been divorced like three times. she shouldn't be allowed to adopt anyone.
  • worked in the garage most of the day. cleaned it out and made it more usable. built a large (4'x7') workbench the other day which is already coming in handy. cleaned up the other workbench that came with the garage. will replace the masonite top when i get a chance. also started prepping the front door for paint. we still don't have a front door in the opening, but at least we have a reasonably sized front door now. sanded it down and cleaned it up. need to patch some spots and do some sanding in the moldings. then prime, paint, get it framed and hang it. easier said than done.
  • still bewildered by how the garage has gotten to where it is. i don't know if the roof ridgeline has fallen over time or what happened to that damn thing.

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    4-3-09 (18:08)

  • haven't been able to devote much time to the house these days. working for other people mostly. alumni house for charter gala on sunday, meryl last saturday, zalman (the electrician) the last two days, etc. sunday is booked. might get some stuff done saturday. next weekend my dad is visiting. mom the weekend after that.

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    4-2-09 (13:53)

  • worked the last couple days for the electrician who did our service change. he needed some help with a plumbing job he has going so i did that for the last day and a half. didn't get any work done on the house and scratched my cornea in the process. win some and you lose some. forgot my safety glasses at home. will try not to do that again. hopefully tomorrow it'll be back to normal because i have a busy day tomorrow.

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    3-30-09 (19:42)

  • yesterday jon came over and helped with the garage project. problem: garage has three cross beams/joists running from opposing top plates, all three have fallen off the top plate on one side or the other. south wall is about 4 inches out of plumb. north wall about 2 inches out of plumb. south wall is partially off the foundation. solution: i rigged up a 4x4 in the middle of the garage and 2 2x8s on the south wall. using two come-alongs we pulled on the wall. doing this we were able to get the bottom of the south wall back on the foundation. replaced part of the mudsill and attached it to the foundation and rest of the south wall. we were unable to get the top of the wall any significant amount closer to the north wall. after jon left i extended the cross beams by sistering a 2x4 to them. this sistered 2x4 now rests on the top plate on all three beams. they're attached to the top plates using hurricane ties. overall it was a mixed results type of day. i really would have liked to get the south wall within 2 inches of plumb, but that was not to be. even if i had adopted the word for word plan of the engineer i don't think that the come alongs would have had enough power to move the wall. the wall itself isn't the problem, it's more that in trying to move it we were trying to move the entire roof and west wall that became a problem. the good news is that the band-aid that we applied should make the structure a little more stout. it's now at least partially attached to the foundation and the cross beams are holding the roof together a lot more than they were when they were dangling in the middle of the garage. ultimately this project is probably going to require a professional to lift the building, replace the slab foundation, and straighten it. no idea how much that would cost or if there is an easier way to get: 1) the building straight 2) a new foundation (which is badly cracked and not at all flat/level).
  • didn't do any work on the house today. next priorities are: tying up a couple small loose ends with the garage. finalizing the plumbing (hook up rough-ins to main water supply) and electrical (hook some things up to the panel, rough in power for the range hood, which i completely forgot about) in the kitchen. moving onto the next phase in the kitchen.
  • it's really useful to be able to do this stuff. there are definitely plenty of things i can't do and plenty of gaps in my knowledge, but i think i have the broad strokes down at this point.

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    3-29-09 (10:50)

  • dad was supposed to come up to visit this weekend, but has bad headaches so that didn't happen.
  • worked on meryl's project with her two dads for about six hours yesterday. built a makeshift roof, covered it in cloth and built a couple hanging stands for the projectors. she's working on the finishing touches today. she threw her back out last night while sneezing, though, so that's going to be tough. thankfully i haven't thrown my back out in a while.
  • friday was a day off for the alumni house staff, but i went in and worked on the slate project. got 5 big pieces in so that was a success. the slate project isn't near done, but i've taken care of all the major, visible patches so that's nice. also worked on a fire safety issue. a productive day.

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    3-26-09 (11:19)

  • the tournament hasn't been as good this year. my teams have all sucked, there haven't been many big upsets, there just isn't an interesting narrative to the tourney thus far.
  • allergies continue to kill. have tried many methods, but nothing has worked so far. i'm going to run the air purifier more often. have tried all sorts of otc drugs as well as local/organic honey. next up, standing on my head while chanting the hare krishna mantra. that or just toughing it out.
  • plumbing has been more of a pain than anticipated.
  • meryl's almost done with her project. that'll be good because she'll be less stressed and be able to help with the house again.
  • need to do my taxes.
  • money doesn't grow on trees, but when you sell blood and bone marrow it does grow in your body.
  • bulbs.com has good prices and availability, but there seems to always be a problem with an order. i've ordered several things from them for myself and the alumni house and there's always a missed shipment or a broken bulb or something. that said, they're good about fixing the problem.
  • found a lot of structure problems under the old laundry room and the main bathroom. my guess is that there was a steady leak in a toilet as well as one for the clothes washer. when we do the bathroom (next big project) i'll have to reframe a lot of the bathroom. that'll be interesting.
  • of all the types of pollution i think that noise and light pollution are the most underrated.

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    3-22-09 (21:53)

  • didn't get much done on the house this weekend. went to santa cruz yesterday to visit luke and help him on his house. we ran an ethernet cable to his tv and i gave him advice on all the things he should do. also played on the xbox and had a good lunch. good visit.
  • did get the sink water supply roughed in. ended up wasting most of my day moving the drain down a few inches because we got a deep sink and garbage disposal. wanted to make sure we're going to have enough pitch on the drain.
  • still need to run pipe to the frig and work on the rough in for the bathroom which shares a wall with the kitchen.

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    3-19-09 (22:22)

  • put up the sheathing for the shear wall today. plumbed the gas pipe yesterday. wasn't able to do the pressure test as i would have liked, i must have been doing something wrong because i couldn't get any pressure in the system. did go under the house and did a visual (water/soapy water) test on every connection in the system. found one minor leak on the opposite end of the house, so it wasn't associated with my work. took the fitting out, put some pipe dope on it and tightened it up. all seems to be well. there was only one gas connection to be made so that's done. took out some extraneous pipe. eventually i might have to expand the system when we get a heating system (probably will do that after the kitchen is done).
  • next will work on the water supply for the sink and frig. shouldn't take too long, hopefully get that done this weekend.
  • march madness is upon us. this is the best time of the year for that reason and the daylight savings shift.
  • worst time of the year for allergies which are killing me right now. would love to have an allergist run some tests so i know what to do/avoid, etc. we've gone through 4 boxes of kleenex in 2 weeks. seems as though my allergies get worse every year. none of the otc drugs i've tried have worked.
  • listen to car talk just about every time i'm in the car. i download each new episode and i've gotten a lot of older episodes using itunes gift cards.
  • ucla escaped tonight. i knew that if they were going to win it was going to be with defense and, sure enough, the last play was a great defensive stand with collison and shipp coming up big. collison in particular did a great job guarding maynor. "president" obama was featured on espn giving his bracket picks (baraka-tology). he picked vcu over ucla as well. asshole. he's also going to be on jay leno soon. the guy should get back to work, not sure why he's wasting his time with distractions.

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    3-15-09 (21:53)

  • meryl's making me watch tv guide's sexiest men in movie history. hope paul newman wins.
  • finished the rough electrical today. not sure how to wire the under cabinet lighting because we haven't purchased them yet.
  • also installed some blocking for the overhead cabinets. should add some for the range hood as well. after that and a couple small things i'll move onto the plumbing. after that it'll be insulation and flooring time.

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    3-14-09 (18:15)

  • wired a few more circuits today. one for the dishwasher, one for the garbage disposal (which i also ran to an exterior receptacle for weed whacking and the like), and one for the north wall outets (3 of them). need to run one more for the frig and another for more outlets and the exterior light outside of the kitchen entry door. also going to run one circuit for the undermount lighting. after that i'll be done with the kitchen-related electrical, at least until it comes time to hook up some of the lights at the very end of the project.
  • next up is plumbing. running gas to the stove, which is currently only electric. running water to the sink and 3/8" water to the frig (for the ice maker and water dispenser). also discovered that it would be a good idea to address some of the rough plumbing issues for the bathroom while the other side of the wall is exposed. that'll add time now, but make life easier when the bathroom is renovated.
  • had planned on working on the garage tomorrow, but it's slated to rain and meryl needs to use it for school work.

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    3-12-09 (15:33)

  • pg&e showed up an hour late. missed class, but we're officially done with pg&e so that's nice. got to talking with the guy and he was actually pretty cool. talked about his house in georgia and what he wants to do with it, talked about his divorce, his racing, his wanting to travel the country, etc. he even knows a neighbor of ours which was neat.
  • got a decent amount done in the last couple days. wired a few outlets in the kitchen, finished the wiring for the overhead lights in the kitchen, started getting rid of the old clothes washer plumbing.

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    3-11-09 (15:04)

  • new kitchen window is in. window from laundry room is out and patched. patched around the new kitchen window until i ran out of stucco mix. would love to run to home depot to pick some more up and finish the scratch coat, but i'm waiting for pg&e to show up.
  • they said they'd show up today, but they showed up yesterday and had a problem with the LB connector at the base of the service head. eventually they just sealed it and rescheduled the service appointment for today. it's after 3p and they're not here yet, i'm guessing they forgot about me or something. this is the essence of dealing with pg&e. monopolies are wonderful.
  • never got around to posting my little tour of sodas:

    • leninade 7-14-08, 17:30.
    smooth, not overly carbonated, no syrupy texture, not very lemonade-y
    kolashampan 7-14-08, 20:05
    sort of like an orange cream soda, from el salvador. right amount of carbonation. more strange than good.
    boylan sugar cane cola 7-18-08, 16:44
    brewed smell, smooth, more coke than pepsi, unrefined flavor
    berghoff famous rootbeer 7-21-08 19:00
    henry weinhardtesque, not too much different from average rootbeers like ibc
    dr. browns cream soda 7-25-08 13:43
    slightly too much carbonation, high fructose corn syrup and you can tell. not wonderfully smooth. pretty standard as far as cream soda goes.
    san benedetto 7-25-08 14:35
    pretty good orange soda. has bits of orange (or something) in the soda that sorta freak you out at first. nothing stunning. refreshing.
    americana root beer cream style 8-1-08 19:20
    microbrew root beer - only brew 600 gallons at a time. very unique flavor, smooth texture. sassafras root, vanilla, and licorice flavors. complex flavor, yet can still be enjoyed to quench thirst. pure cane sugar. right amount of carbonation.
    fentiman's victorian lemonade 8-8-08 19:30
    a fermented lemon drink that is brewed with ginger and herb extracts. smells and tastes like a lemon beer, though it has only .5% alcohol by volume. the brewed flavor drowns out everything else for me, not enjoyable.
    route 66 root beer 8-10-08 18:02
    pretty standard root beer to my taste buds. about as good as ibc, maybe a little smoother. metallic after taste.
    cock n' bull ginger soda 8-10-08 20:12
    powerful taste, not smooth like ginger ale. too much ginger. couldn't finish this one.
    mason's root beer 8-10-08 20:39
    smooth root beer from la area
    sunkist float (orange and cream) 8-11-08 20:15
    creamy, slightly carbonated half and half bar flavor. good.
    green river 8-13-08 18:00
    sort of a cross between sprite and ginger ale. a nice, solid, basic soda.
    moxie
    solid cola, better than pepsi.
    colombia
    hank's root beer 8-17-08 19:00
    creamy, good root beer. one of the better ones so far.
    red ribbon root beer
    brewed root beer that didn't do too much for me.
    ramune melon flavor 8-22-08 19:00
    coolest thing about this soda is the process involved with opening it. you take off the cap and push it down to pierce the top. this shoots a little marble from the top into the bottle. interesting. the soda itself is decent enough, but nothing special. it's all about the bottle here.

    3-3-09 (18:53)

  • sold some white blood cells today. helped pay some bills. also doing bone marrow this month. should actually be out of the hole by the end of the month.

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    3-2-09 (20:11)

  • finished installing the can lights in the kitchen. they're on 3 way switches which made it a little more complicated. miswired one of the lights, but it worked fine after i fixed that.
  • selling some blood tomorrow. definitely need the money. it seems all i do is work on ,think about, and spend money on the house.

    • started installing the new kitchen window. not done yet because it started raining pretty heavily.

    2-27-09 (05:46)

  • updated the academy page. did the recap.
  • good article.
  • can't sleep, allergies killing me. probably the down comforter. didn't have any allergies until i was about 25.
  • got the recessed lights in. started wiring them up, may finish tomorrow or i may watch a movie. maybe both. three way switches on either side of the lights makes it a little more difficult. overall, though, the can lights have been insanely simple to install. i really enjoy electrical work because it's some of the most gratifying work you can do. it's tough at times, but, unlike painting, it feels like you're always moving in the right direction. painting is good for the final result, but prep work and going over the room several times (once to clean, once to remove hardware, once to sand, once to patch holes, once to sand patches, once to spot prime, once to mask key areas, once for the first coat, once for the second coat, once for the touch ups, once for taking off the masking) gets really obnoxious. when you're done with a wiring project you've got light where there once was none. plus, anyone thinks they can paint, but not everyone is willing to even touch electrical work. it's also a more cerebral job - how do a i wire a three way or four way switch, where am i going to run the romex, what size circuit will i need for an appliance that uses 2200 watts, what does the code say about stapling requirements, what size box should i use for 5 pieces of 14/2 romex, etc.? if you don't get those things right then it's a bit more serious than being able to see roller marks on the ceiling.
  • nice to have a president you can respect. it feels like my entire adult life has been marred by that last idiot's rule. the office of the presidency is actually relevant again. i don't agree with everything obama stands for or has done, but he's at least respectable. you can have a conversation with the guy. frankly, i think he's a better leader/speaker than nader, but that's about the only area where i think he's superior. if i had my way i'd have nader pulling obama's strings. obama selling nader's policies. that said, given the fear-addled state of our economy, being a great leader may be the most important quality going forward. so much of this crap is a downward spiral and feedback loop of fear. the media says we're in a recession so everyone stops spending money. then the media reports that so people start laying workers off and tightening budgets. the media reports that and we all start pulling money out of the banks and they collapse. i'm not saying there aren't serious flaws in the economy (there are), but i do think that a lot of this is worsened by people's overreaction to it. since most people are essentially sheep, it's very possible that the most valuable thing right now would be to have someone who we trust say everything is going to be okay, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, go spend money. obama can do that better than nader regardless of the fact that he's already pushed back his withdrawal of troops from iraq timeline or has had several cabinets appointments go sour or pulled lobbyists into his administration against his campaign promise. i used to feel that the president needed to be a good leader to those in the white house and an intelligent policy thinker. but with the financial crisis i'm learning that sometimes idiots (i.e., the majority of the population) just need a good team captain to rally the team together after an interception.
  • meanwhile, the republicans are looking like a bunch of assholes by holding out votes and refusing to bring anything of substance to the table. they're also looking like complete panderers with guys like their new chair (steele) and jindal (who gave the response to obama the other day). they look as lost now as the dems did just a couple years ago.

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    2-19-09 (19:31)

  • put together a couple saw horses today. built at least partially from stuff that was laying around the garage which is nice.
  • didn't go to my class today.
  • cleaned up the garage and got another pull board on the leaning wall. next i'll need to attach the 4x4s to the foundation, jack up the cross members and start pulling the wall back into position. that'll be a big day.
  • next step in the kitchen is to rewire the lighting in the dining room and breakfast nook. after i get that sorted out i'll wire the kitchen lights and outlets. after electrical i'll do the plumbing, replace the rotten wood and close up the walls. could use some drywalling practice and i'm going to get plenty of it.

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    2-16-09 (16:10)

  • rained almost the entire last 3-4 days which slowed down some of our activities on the house.
  • we have about half a dozen leaky spots in the roof which means we now have at least as many pots, bowls, and buckets catching drips in the attic and the first floor.
  • framing is essentially done. still need to replace some rotten wood. might need to frame the opening for the window. also have some sheathing to put up, but the substantial framing is done. started working on the electrical yesterday. we bought some can lights and insulation. will also work on the plumbing in the coming weeks. yesterday was productive. i worked for 12 hours and felt like we got a decent amount done. even worked a bit on the garage, just laying the groundwork for pulling it back into position.
  • today was less productive. ran errands and haven't gotten any actual work done yet.

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    2-9-09 (14:57)

  • cabinets arrived today. look pretty good. kitchen isn't nearly ready for them yet.
  • updated house pictures page.

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    2-8-09 (18:52)

  • missed the pro bowl today. it's usually not very exciting anyway.
  • saw ucla cream notre dame yesterday. first ncaa basketball of the season so far. they looked good. aboya is improved and holiday is as advertised. with kevin love they would have had a shot at the title again.
  • made decent progress on the kitchen. demo is done and started framing.
  • originally the kitchen was a small boxed in room between the dining room, breakfast nook, and laundry room. yesterday i tore down the walls to the laundry and breakfast rooms. today we tore down most of the wall to the living room. we framed up a bit of that wall, but still need to construct the knee wall. tomorrow i'll do that and hopefully frame up one of the other walls as well. also need to do some lawn maintenance. reason i have tomorrow off is because the cabinets are coming.

    • before

    after

    before

    after

    before

    after

    2-7-09 (19:27)

  • going to try to watch as many of the aa nominated pictures as possible before the awards. i've seen all the best pic noms so far so that's good.
  • kitchen demo is almost done. i took down two of the walls today, one more to go. it's a lot more open now with the pocket doors out. hopefully tomorrow we'll get the wall separating the tv room and the kitchen down. would also like to get some electrical done. also need to finish making the hall closet organizer.

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    2-6-09 (17:51)

  • started ripping up the rest of the floor in the kitchen. actually it's the floor in the old laundry room, but it'll be part of the kitchen in the future. laundry room will go where the tools are when the garage is done so the tools can go there. if the inspector had seen the state of the kitchen we'd be working on getting drawings together for the city. we'd also be saving our nickels to pay for the permits. the city may or may not have been cool with the plan (which includes drastically altering three walls) and could have required an engineer or architect (or both) to sign off on our plans. it could have cost us an extra $1000.

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    2-4-09 (15:52)

  • electrical inspector came by today. apparently we picked the right electrical contractor because the inspector knew him well. he told us some stories, looked at the main panel, asked if the grounds were properly bonded and then wrote the approval sticker and left. whew. dodged a bullet. now it's time to move on with the kitchen.

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    2-1-09 (15:02)

  • superbowl is supposed to start right about now.
  • we've been busy moving stuff into their places. got the bedroom closet up and running. i built a custom shoe rack for meryl and we attached it to the wall and mounted a couple bars for hanging clothes. cleaned the bathroom. started prepping the garage for the work that needs to be done there.
  • updating the photos page. might be uploaded by tomorrow morning (its several gigs so it takes a long time). usually takes a couple hours just to run the update.

    • steelers by 5.

    1-31-09 (18:58)

  • realized what revolutionary road was missing: a strong, smart producer who could have strategically nudged things in the right direction. it was just one person away from being the best film of the year.
  • got the camera to work:

    • the office

    the backyard, no more ivy on the fence.

    the living room, hardwood acclimating to the house. it'll be a while before it goes in though.

    tv room. ran a new circuit to the arched alcove. it also runs to the office. has ethernet, satellite, and power outlets. sweet.

    the kitchen.

    1-31-09 (12:01)
  • nothing is working right now.
  • try to charge my phone and it says "usb charging not available." try to hook up my ipod to my truck's radio and the ipod adaptor i got isn't compatable with my radio (i called the company prior to ordering, just to make sure, turns out they were wrong). i try to sell some baseball cards on ebay and i get the biggest dickhead in my long (11 years+) ebay history. my camera doesn't communicate with my computer anymore (it did two weeks ago). this is just the tip of the iceberg. everything i've done since moving into this house seems to be cursed. i don't get it.

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    1-29-09 (10:13)

  • been pretty busy with the house.
  • electrical inspection is probably next wednesday. hopefully the inspector doesn't raise a fuss about all the other work being done in the house and just looks at the new electrical and signs off on it.
  • going to take some hazardous materials to the alameda county disposal site today.
  • yesterday was a productive day. got the internet situation sorted out - they gave our internet service to someone who was going to get our original new number. when the number was changed to our new new number they forgot to hook up the dsl with it. it should be on by tomorrow. got power to both the bedrooms and their closets. it's on an afci circuit breaker which conforms to code. we still don't have real power to the office or the add-on (which is where all the tools are right now). the garage has temporary, illegally connected power. getting power to the garage on a more permanent basis will be a long project costing a few hundred bucks. plan on running a dedicated #6 line out there with a subpanel so it has a 220v circuit and a few more 120v circuits. it'll be a proper woodshop setup. also setup a dedicated circuit to the tv area, so now it has a new 15amp circuit all for itself instead of running off the old knob and tube wiring.
  • finances are tight and will be for a few months at least.
  • so far it seems as though obama has been doing some good things. the stimulus package didn't get any republican votes which, to me, means the bipartisan feel that everyone was reporting was basically bullshit. in this regard he doesn't seem to have changed anything and it seems as though his "mandate" (by modern standards) doesn't count for much. it mostly, though, makes the republicans look like petty children.

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    1-22-09 (18:31)

  • john roberts is a moron.
  • i'll be glad to not have to hear about bush anymore. not having to hear about him is worth him getting off scot-free for his various war crimes and abuses of power.

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    1-22-09 (12:37)

  • would like to get moved into the new place by sunday, but not sure that that'll happen. would also like to get some of the preliminary work for the garage done. the front door is going to be a challenge. the rough opening isn't large enough so i might need to do some creative things to make it work.
  • gotta like the steelers in the super bowl. i almost always bet on the best defense when it comes to championship situations.
  • apple sold more ipods and iphones than expected. it would reason that microsoft (as the budget computer software provider) would do better in these times than apple, but the opposite is true. that's true, i think, because apple buyers aren't normal consumers, they're members of a cult. they're like cal fans or obama lovers or people's temple members - reality isn't as important belief. apple buyers also tend to be richer in the first place so the economic downturn doesn't effect them as much.

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    1-19-09 (23:20)

  • stressed out as usual. trying to do too much for too many people and don't have the time or resources to get it all done.
  • updated the best of the year. finally added the best singles and best albums.

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    1-19-09 (12:50)

  • electrical service is mostly done at this point. demo on kitchen is done and we did most of the demo in the laundry room. shouldn't have started that, though, because the subpanel is in there and i'm afraid the inspector is going to make us jump through all sorts of hoops after seeing the state it's in. potentially a critical mistake that could cost hundreds of bucks (permit fees) and 1-2 months because of trips to city hall, waiting for the inspectors, and the learning curve. i thought about it at one point, but then had my blinders on when we were doing demo and continued it outside of the kitchen. stupid.
  • all sorts of little projects to do which include trips to the hardware store which slows everything down. once the garage is in good condition i think many of those trips will be cut out because i'll be able to stock the garage with the necessities (plywood, mdf, dimensional lumber, etc.).

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    1-11-09 (19:34)

  • demolished the kitchen this weekend. meryl's dad came yesterday to help for a few hours. the kitchen is almost completely down to the bare bones. there are a couple square feet of flooring left to do, but we got too tired tonight to finish. pretty sure they have asbestos, too.
  • jon, monique, johnny, leigh, and ryan all came over today. arrived at more or less the same time, too, which wasn't at all planned.
  • took two runs to the dump, tore apart the ceiling, got most of the floor done, sold a mirror, got some cheap window coverings, and found a place (urban ore) for the cabinets and sink.
  • sore, got a blister and my hands and arms have little nicks all over them from the lath nails. overall a good weekend.
  • yesterday's playoffs were decent. haven't seen today's yet.
  • movie watching the first couple months of this year is going to be pathetic.
  • updated the top ten of the year. didn't finish the music portion, will try to do that soon.

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    1-9-09 (23:46)

  • finally got around to finishing the top ten films of the year. will work on top music of the year this weekend.

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    1-9-09 (11:14)

  • apparently i needed to include pictures of the fireplaces. here they are, along with the lamp my dad had made for me which is an homage to "a christmas story."



    • 1-8-09 (19:20)
  • wrote to bill plaschke of the la times (and pardon the interruption on espn) yesterday and pointed out that usc has been within one play of winning every game they have played since 2002. why no one has brought this up is beyond me. he wrote back and said it was a great point.

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    1-8-09 (15:15)

  • working on the house most of the day. still cleaning and moving, haven't torn into it at all yet. cleaned out the attic, rest of the house is pretty good now. will do some landscaping this weekend to make it more presentable.
  • front door, new electrical service, gut kitchen, fix garage. those are the first four.










    • 1-6-09 (20:50)
  • i don't like it when teams go for 2 point conversions with more than 4-5 minutes left in the game. osu went for a 2 pointer with over 7 minutes left when they were down by two. obviously they wanted to tie the game with a single play and the announcers supported the decision. they didn't convert. afterwards they held texas to no points and ended up getting a touchdown. osu was now down by 4 points. had they taken the free point they would be down 5 and be in a position where a 2 pointer could land them up by 7. they went for 2 again and failed again. my point is that you don't know what is going to happen later in the game so you should take the points when you can get them. only go for 2 when it's necessary or you have some sort of trick up your sleeve. we'll see what happens.
  • well, i was right. osu lost by 3 points, 24-21. had they gotten the extra point the first time then they could have either gone for 2 to be up by 7 or gone for 1 and been up 1. when texas scored later they would have either been tied or down by one. either way they would have been a field goal away from winning. as it was they were a field goal away from tying, big difference if you ask me. in sum, taking the extra points gives you options, going for 2 point conversions is risky and takes options off the table; they should be reserved for desperate times.
  • osu found a way to lose another big game. osu stinks in the post season (probably in part because of the 6 week lay off). big ten also proved that they are the worst of the big conferences. they're on par with the acc or big east at this point. where was chris wells by the way? what a chump.
  • rose bowl was pretty good. game was over after the first half. usc actually played their worst second half of the year. they just didn't seem to take it real seriously in the second half, they were coasting. of course the worst half of the year was the first half of the oregon state game. that was the half that ruined their season.
  • 2008 was a bad year for updates. updated less than any year since 1999. need to work on that.
  • currently working on a best movies of 2008 list. also on best music of the year. getting the house, though, has slowed everything else in life. haven't seen a movie yet this year, for example.

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    1-4-09 (20:21)

  • hectic last week or so. been working on cleaning out the house and moving stuff in one car load at a time. cleaned out the crawl space today. picked out a front door yesterday. bought a new dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer yesterday. we've got two leaks that i'll have to take care of this week. progress on the house is really going to slow down once school starts. top priorities are getting a new electrical service, getting the front door installed, getting the kitchen gutted and back up and running. that last one is a big project. the garage repair will probably coincide with the kitchen renovation since there will be time when we're waiting on cabinets or countertops to be fabricated/delivered. the garage has fallen off the slab foundation, the roof rafters are broken or have fallen off the top plate and the foundation is cracked and completely out of level. should be fun.

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