Fargin cheap Bandai...
Disc 1 of Planetes just detonated while trying to get it out of the case. Disc 2 feels just as flimsy. I guess it's now Heisenberg's anime. (Yes, I know that's not really accurate.)
You could be forgiven...
...For thinking I'd died. I promised myself I wouldn't let the place go feral for a year, and seeing as that is just a few days away, It's obvious I need to put up something, anything.
The long and short of it is, life with a toddler is busy. He's trying to get my attention through the glass door as I type.
The big thing at the moment is working on a move. Not far, but into a house that has room for us.
I've been tossing around ideas in my head for what to do with this place (the blargh that is), and nothing has struck a chord. As it is, nothing is really going to take off until the move shakes out anyway.
Anyway. That's an update, if you can call it that. Maybe I'll throw up some pics if time allows.
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Looks like a beautiful place. Those desktops are nice, too, but of course I am contractually obliged to use only space-themed shots for my wallpapers.
Posted by: Mrs. Peel at June 24, 2009 03:32 PM (kTwMy)
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So I need to some how get some astronomy into my next set of pics? I'll need a tripod, but I think I can manage that.
The lake is really popular with eagles. There are a bunch of trees with giant nest set into the tops. I thought about putting up a lot more pictures of the dam, but I was honestly surprised how little (none, really) security consideration there was.
Damn *hic* it!
I haven't had the hiccups in years. It's a good thing too. When I get them, they don't go away until it's gone well past annoying, blown right through painful, and settled somewhere near "just kill me now." This afternoon is gonna suck.
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I usually hum show tunes, e.g., http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUFO2tUBV4c and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvVX2yZiZN4.
Alas, I can't carry a tune to save my life, and even if I could, that second one is totally out of my range.
Posted by: Mrs. Peel at May 27, 2009 06:14 PM (kTwMy)
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Aw, hell. I forgot mee.nu doesn't automatically make links. Here they are for people who are too lazy to cut & paste: first and second
Posted by: Mrs. Peel at May 27, 2009 06:15 PM (kTwMy)
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Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers is just about in my vocal wheelhouse. Occasionally he'll climb a bit too high for me.
The other Brother, Bobby Hatfield, I can do pretty well if I drop him an octave or two.
Mee.nu
has bracket tags that will automatically embed various web videos. Just
put "youtube=xxxxxxxxx" inside brackets and it will take care of the
rest.
Content of a sort
While I was thrashing about looking for something, anything, that would pique my interest enough to write, I realized I don't have an "about the doucheb... author" page. That is now remedied. It will eventually end up somewhere in the homepage template.
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Nice to meetcha. My about page is shamefully low on detail compared to yours...but then, it took geoff (the original, not the new harkonnen guy) about an hour to track down my real name, so I figure I've shared enough information online already.
Posted by: Mrs. Peel at May 20, 2009 04:24 PM (kTwMy)
Those IB guys are pretty good PI's. Eddiebear tracked down Cranky after he disappeared from the tubes, but it was just a bit too late.
I almost put up my ham callsign in the about page, but with that you kind find a full name and address in about 30 seconds online, if you know where to look.
I think we're both in the Hostages Facebook group, so it would be pretty easy to find my full name there. I'm the only Will in there. (At least I seem to recall getting an invite and joining up, but since they redid the page layouts, I have a hell of a time getting to my "groups."
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I got invited to the Hostages group but didn't join because I felt delicate about joining a group for a blog on which I never comment (due to the majority of the conversations taking place while I am asleep)...but I am in the Moronosphere Facebook Bureau.
Posted by: Mrs. Peel at May 21, 2009 04:07 AM (kTwMy)
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Well, I mostly lurk over there too, but when a good joke thread starts early (or I'm not particularly busy at work) I try to chime in. It's a private/invisible group, so the only people who can see it are members.
I did not know there was a Moronosphere group. I should probably get Billy up in the sidebar at some point.
Still alive, just not very lively
August and September have been a living hell at work. Mostly because it feels like I'm the only one with a metric assload of work to do (and I'm not far off the mark in the impression).
Finished the third volume of Gurren Lagann, Just as good the 3rd, 4th, 5th time now? I've lost track. It really is good to see a character shed the emo-nebbish funk in such a fashion.
I guess I stopped putting up new content right around the time my A/C gave out. That tends to put a helluva damper on things. Given how much heat both my computers pump out, I shut them both off that week and read a book while they ordered the new compressor. Thank god for home warranties.
I've got plenty of thoughts on the bailout, but none of them are fit for a blog with anything less than an X-rating.
Got tripped into World of Warcraft by a friend. I find it fun, but I'm also glad to discover I don't carry the gene that causes people to ruin their lives over a damned video game.
Thinking about a mini-one-day road trip up to the cool pines for a classic car show this weekend. I haven't decided it it's going to be worth the gas. Then again it sure would be nice to get the hell out of Dodge for a bit.
Holy crap! He lives! Ok, I've seen you most weekends for the last month, so I knew you were alive, but good to see you writing.
Hit 60 lastnight on Roena
Pine sounds nice... nicer than the rest of frickin' AZ.
And the bailout? A simple "Eff That" will sum up my feelings on the subject.
Posted by: The Right Wife at September 26, 2008 06:44 AM (bobxt)
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I think I managed to get in an hour on Wednesday night, but that's been it for the last few days. Got home a shade after midnight last night after two late softball games. It's like I'm brunging the candle at both ends, but not in the fun and crazy way.
Posted by: Will at September 26, 2008 07:40 AM (oj5wx)
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I've also noticed a severe inability to type worth a shit, and it's getting worse.
Posted by: Will at September 26, 2008 07:41 AM (oj5wx)
To augment poor cell phone coverage when we're gallivanting around the hinterlands, I've been talked into Amateur (Ham) radio. After blasting through the Technician-level test a couple weeks back, it took the FCC almost two weeks to get me in the ULS. (No, I'm not going to put up my callsign. I'd like to keep a fig-leaf of Internet annonymity. You can get a lot more than a name from a callsign.)
Until I figure out exactly how much vandalism I'm willing to do to the interior and exterior of my truck, I'm sticking to a (not-so) simple 5W handheld radio. (A base station is simply out of the question. I don't want to invest in that much equipment. I'm really not in need of another neglected hobby, and the HOA would have my nuts if I tried to put up a decent antenna.)
So far, I've been using the wide-band receive to listen in on a couple of nearby repeaters and some aircraft frequencies. I now know that the airport tower near me shuts down at 9pm and re-opens at 6. Beyond that I haven't so much as "kerchunked" the radio.
I blew through the Tech test so fast that they asked me if I wanted to try the General (pretty easy when you've just been running through online tests over and over). I wasn't prepared for that level, and I'm not sure I'd ever want to take things that far. 6m, 2m, 1.25m, and 70cm are more than enough for my needs. It's not like I'm really looking to get into DX.
Posted by: Will at August 05, 2008 02:15 PM (WnBa/)
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These days people who are inclined to get into DX create web sites.
Posted by: Will at August 05, 2008 11:20 PM (oj5wx)
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Well, time once was where DX was the only way you'd converse with people from foreign countries. You'd make a contact, chat for a few minutes, send a little postcard and get one yourself, and maybe years later you'd talk to that person again, and remember the last time you talked and what it was about.
But these days, it's just a lot less special. I mean, yeah, I could talk with a guy in Germany, if I set up a lot of equipment, got my antenna aimed right, and had good band conditions.
Or I could just switch windows to my IRC client, where I have a -choice- of Germans to pester when I need help deciphering Japanese people speaking bad German. ;p
The hobby just doesn't have the luster it once had. Cheap, easy, ubiquitous communication has made most of its aspects redundant, like being a classic car aficionado without the sexy aspect. About the only thing that it does uniquely well is handle disasters - no infrastructure required, after all.
It doesn't help that band conditions are crap lately. Go go Maunder minimum...
That said, it's not a bad hobby. You can learn a lot about physics and circuit design. And nobody is more polite and helpful than a group of hams.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at August 06, 2008 01:08 AM (pfysU)
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DX has become far more technical than social (at least from all the recent literature I've been looking into). Now it's more about seeing if you can tag Siberia on 1W than just finding anyone at all to talk to in Siberia.
Posted by: Will at August 06, 2008 08:56 AM (WnBa/)
Visual Oddity
Something very odd happened to the image of this KC-135 taking off out of Williams-Gateway Airport. Whatever captured and processed the image managed to break the outline apart from the color. It looks like a grey blob being followed closely by Wonderwoman's personal tanker aircraft. The strange purple blob in front of the aircraft's shadow is even more confusing.
Requiem for the Exhausted
How is it I do less relaxing on the weekends than I do during the week? Tore an engine down all day Saturday out in the heat, then spent all day yesterday helping a friend move (that'll teach me to offer help... three months ago when it was cooler). I feel like I could liquify and leak out of my seat at any moment.
About the Author
Who: Will Where/when: AZ, various locales within the Phoenix metro all my life
I'm a 29 year-old half-redneck with a bachelor's in aerospace engineering, but a distinct distaste for the office non-sense involved with the engineering profession. I picked up drafting to cover living expenses while going to school, which lead to my current job in the drafting department of a construction company (which isn't much better).
I'm a jack-of-all-trades. I owe a lot of my knowledge to my dad. I've got a basic working knowledge of framing, welding, plumbing, electrical, "low-tech" automotive (ECU's and other modern electro-auto widgets are out of my league, but there's not much else on a car I wouldn't be willing to try and fix), and a hundred other little trade-skills I can't think to mention at the moment.
I've dabbled in more hobbies than I can remember: The Manly - /flex Hunting (guns, quads, camping, hiking (when I can manage to keep in shape)) Fishing (never learned to ski, but it's on "the list", knee-boarding's in there too) The Rusty - hobbies I'd be hard-pressed to be "good" at again right off the bat Horseback-Riding (a small bit of professional training in Western and English) Radio-Control (planes, cars, boats, but helicopters were too expensive) The Nerdy - that which only other geeks would understand Computers (built 3 PC's now, and looking at converting an old machine to Linux) WoW (picked this up late last summer, it's a welcome diversion from chores) Anime (been on a general downward trend since late 2008) Videogames (also cut way back since graduation) Ham Radio (just started last summer, haven't had the budget to properly gear up yet) Fantasy / SciFi literature (Tolkien, Jordan, Feist, Erikson, Scalzi; didn't really start in on this until mid-college, so I'm way behind my nerd contemporaries)
The List - stuff that just hasn't happened yet Snow Skiing (loved it the one time I went, but hard to make stick in AZ) Water Skiing (dad wasn't into when I was young, and it'll be a while until I can make it happen on my own) Sky-diving (I have no illusions that this will become a long-term hobby, once or twice will do)
Philosophically, I'm a lapsed Christian with classical liberal values. I should explain.
My dad was not a religious man. Sundays were just the day to finish off the project you started Saturday (and couldn't get to during the week). My mom would have preferred we at least nod in the direction of the Sabbath, but if that's what she wanted, it was up to her to make it all happen. As it turned out, we did hit the occasional Easter or Christmas service, but regular church attendance was not in the cards.
*clicks save and bails for a bit*
Posted in Meh by: Will at
09:06 AM
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