Fusselman.org

Untitled

Not much doing tonight; Got my UPS back in action, mostly... I'm still having some trouble finding a 48v battery string that all works. Testing batteries from my pile is slow business, as I have only one charger, and want to charge at 2A to avoid damaging what I believe to be about 20ah batteries. To this end, I did throw together a Battery Load Tester as a sub-project to both my UPS and Light EV projects. I also did some updates and rearranging to the Jetta pages, mostly adding part numbers for my personal reference.

Dish'n it Out

So we switched to Dish this week for our TV service. The whole HD-OTA thing didn't quite work out, so far as integrating with Tivo. Tivo wanted us to buy new digital unit and some stuff, and we decided that it just wasn't a cost-effective option. We scheduled our install, and they sent out a guy (sorry, I don't remember your name!) from Blue Sky Satellite to do the install. This guy's work was amazing. He did a nice job hiding cable, and whatnot, and overall just did a very good install. Much better than I'd expected.

I Saw it Again

Another busy week. Did quite a bit of work rebuilding my UPS, which trashed a second set of batteries. I'm redesigning it to run only on an external pack, to help keep the pack cool. I also intend on adding a cooling fan or 2, and the case has been resized so there's no empty space where the internal pack used to be. I'm currently pending a second test, as the unit can't cold-start (IE start with no AC power), as the inverter wont stay engaged.

Antiquated Technology

I was at Borders the other day and found myself a bit overwhelmed. There's something inexplicably emotional about a room full of ground up dead tree. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm revamping my personal organization system a bit, and was actually considering buying a hardbound, blank paged book. A bit more thinking reminded me that my handwriting is almost entirely illegible (even to me), so that even if I were to commit things to this stack of dead tree, my ability to retrieve that data would be severely limited. I was surprised again while browsing the business section (hey, I was there a while), which is laid out such that the books are stacked to the ceiling. There was something comforting about being in that narrow aisle, surrounded by all kinds of knowledge that I mostly didn't care about. Someday, when I have a real office, it'll have shelves of random books taller than I am. On a somewhat related note, Jason recently got my wife a shirt that reads "I don't need Wikipedia, my spouse knows everything"... I suspect this feeling has something to do with that. The book resembles an empty table, while the shelves represent a database, packed with relatively useless information... So I guess I can relate :)

Going Crazy

This week seems like I'm going crazy. Have spent more time outside (with the dog) in the last two weeks than I have in two years (not literally). On the upside, my laptop works great out here :) I've recently taken to reading David Allen's Ready'>http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FReady-Anything-Productivity-Principles-Work%2Fdp%2F0143034545%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1220061964%26sr%3D8-2&tag=fozzenetfusse-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">Ready for Anythinghttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=fozzenetfusse-20&l=ur2&o=1"; width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> which has reminded me of many aspects of GTD, from when I read thathttp://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FGetting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity%2Fdp%2F0142000280%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1218848104%26sr%3D8-1&tag=fozzenetfusse-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">that src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=fozzenetfusse-20&l=ur2&o=1"; width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />. Point is, I need to work very seriously on completing my task inventory, so that I can use my free time to maximum potential.

The Dog Days of Summer

For those of you who haven't heard, Becky finally got her Dog!!! Lil' Molly is pretty cute, now that she makes less messes in the house. I did manage to rewire the TV and whatnot, and added an external HD tuner. Jason came over and we built a pair of HD Antennas (which are really the same thing as any other TV antenna, just tuned for the HD range... Tonight, I put in some time disassembling my UPS and doing some experimenting for Ron's Foam Cannon. Neither went so well.

What doin'

Have some spare time on my hands this week. I've been working on finishing up some things that need done, household stuff, mostly, but also some garage projects. I'm slated to do a shop inventory, as well as rewire the entertainment center, both of which will have some information here.

Dyson vs. Bissell

Per the previous post, Becky won a vacuum. Today, we had a chance to test it. Last night, I had a chance to finish some things up down in the shop. I got the grinder stand in order, and did some exploring of options for the bandsaw. Aside from that, I'm gonna have some free time next week, and am working on my to-do list for next week/weekend. If you have any great ideas, let me know.

Wow

As usual, it's been a while since I updated (about 10 days to be exact). Not a ton going on of late. Found out today that Becky won a vacuum she'd registered for a while back. It's a Dyson, and it remains to be seen just how awesome it is.

Feeling Old

After being sweated out at the Jazz and Blues festival tonight, we went to see Wall-E. As usual, there was plenty of talking kids; One of the downsides to seeing kids movies so early in the evening. Anyhow, in one of the scenes, Wall-E is playing Pong, essentially with himself (the second paddle wasn't moving)... One kid ask (loudly) "Mommy, what's Wall-E doing with that remote?"... I realized, then, that there are kids that have never seen Pong... I understand that it was made before I was born, but it was a big part of my childhood, in the pre-NES days.

Busy

Received an email about the AUX box this week; The vendor claims that I can mix-and-match parts of the working aux-only unit with the PC control unit to get me what I need. I haven't seen the instructions for that, yet, so we'll see. Bought a Bandsaw off CraigsList today; Started setting it up.... Tracking on a cheap-ish bandsaw is a pain to set. Details to come.

Success at last (sort of)

Received (replacement) my AUX box (for the Jetta in the mail today. Got it all hooked up, and to my delight, my "Check Magazine" errors are a thing of the past. It works great, except for just one little detail. It's the wrong one. I'd initially ordered the USB Control box, and that's what they'd sent me, at first. When they sent the replacement, however, it was the non-control one. Either way, they're on the job (again), and we'll see how it goes. In the meantime, this thing sounds great. Crystal clear audio from my laptop, shuffle, etc. Perhaps tomorrow, I'll give it a whirl with the BT Audio Bridge and my phone, if I have time left, after building the Grinder Stand.

Delayed

I've been meaning to update for some time. I've been busy with things like fixing Becky's bike, working on Dave's Van Seat and dealing with storm related things. In case you hadn't heard, Omaha got pummeled by hail and high winds last Friday night. We're all OK here, just some exterior damage. I was driving home at the time that the storm hit, but my Jetta seems to have survived without hail damage. On a related note, I had some time to clean my intake snorkel last week.

66 Cents

Today, patience paid off. For a long time, I'd been shopping for a lamp for the drill press; My criteria were pretty simple: It had to be halogen (To keep the head small) and it had to be cheap (preferably free)... I'd seen all sorts of little halogen setups at stores between $10 and $20, but the fact remained that I'm a tightwad, and really didn't "need" one... I could afford to wait for a deal.

Jackin' around with Dave

Last night, about 23:20, I was downstairs trying to finish up my Picture Frame project when Dave called. It seems that he'd had a blowout on his way to work and while changing the tire, he'd had the jack slip and had dropped the van. On my way over, it started raining (which always makes working outside more enjoyable) but it'd mostly stopped by the time I got there. It sort of looked like he'd picked up under the control arm, and (maybe) leaned against the side of the van and it shifted. Anyhow, it was resting on the side of the jack. We were able to resolve the situation by picking the van up from the front and slipping a jackstand underneath. Ironically, his spare was a bit low as well, though that's a whole lot better than flat.

New Things

This weekend's been pretty busy but none too exciting; Went to the farmers market downtown and to lunch with Ben and Jeremy and drove around Dundee briefly, looking at neat old houses. Today, I went down to Lincoln for Fathers' Day.

Passport to Hell

Tonight, I helped my friend Seth fix an elusive electrical problem in his car. He'd been going without for a few days, and was getting sick of hitching a ride to work. Anyhow, we finally got it worked out. Also, last night, finished up assembling the IKEA bookshelf. It doesn't quite match the ones we had before, but it's pretty darn close. Finally, and on an unrelated note, I finally am getting to uploading pictures of Dan and Emily's wedding.

Happy 0'th Anniversary!

Just got back from Minneapolis where we attended Dan & Emily's wedding. As mentioned, I was the "best man", though I'm unclear as to just what I was the best at. People said my speech was nice; I'll get my outline posted sometime, maybe. Anyhow, we hit IKEA as well, and got some fun stuff. Becky got to ride home in the front seat, this time.

Foiled Again!

After all the headache with getting my aux-box cable, I'm having problems making it go. The headunit reports that the Magazine needs Checked... Unfortunately, what the headunit doesn't know is that the interface box has no magazine to check. I'm still pending tech support, but it seems like this is going to be pretty slick once it works right. I sort of wonder if there's not something wrong with the box itself... Time will tell.

2d6

After an open air concert tonight, we had Jason and Megan(sp?!) over for Settlers. Megan had never played, so Becky was explaining the rules. While explaining the resource-giving phase, she referred to the dice rolled as "2d6", which I thought was about the most awesome thing ever, since I thought she'd done it on accident, and that my D&D-ness was wearing off on her. Unfortunately, that was not the case, as she later admitted that she'd said it intentionally... Perhaps next time.

Box Day!

My interface arrived today, due to complete my Custom Input Jacks‎ project. Unfortunately, my friends at InDashPC sent me the dash cable, instead of the trunk cable as ordered. Further unfortunately, IDP doesn't have a phone number listed on their site, or invoice, so I'm stuck with "1-2 business day turnaround" on their email form. We'll see how this ends.

This didn't make the Feed?!

Last night, I sent Dave a link to my Custom Input Jacks‎. He seemed a bit apalled that it "hadn't made the feed", since he doesn't actually read websites, just watch their RSS feeds. I'd considered setting the feed up for the What's New page, but there's a lot of "details" type cruft on there. This is part of the reason I've avoided Wordpress or similar, because there's so much "back story" that wouldn't make the front page anyhow. In any case, here's the list of things I've been working on:

Sunglasses

Becky and I were at Target on Saturday, shopping for new glasses. She was trying on like every pair of glasses in the store, and while (we) were waiting, the clerk offered to straighten out my seriously frakked sunglasses. To make a long story short, by some fluke, she managed to break one of the lenses. Thankfully she didn't cut herself, though she felt really bad about it. In the end, they made it right: Turns out Sunglass Hut and Target Optical are some kind of preferred RayBan resellers, and co-owned somehow. To that end, I was sent down to the Sunglass Hut at the mall to pick out a comparable pair, gratis. Can't say as that I mind a new pair of shades just for driving to the mall. Thanks guys!

Finally!

Tonight, I finally beat Super Paper Mario. I'd managed to get about 45 minutes from the end without resorting to a walkthrough or FAQ, and it recently started bothering me that this game was sitting "incomplete" for so long. So tonight, I sat down with a mission. Finish Super Paper Mario, by any means necessary.

We Made it!

Well, we actually made it to the renaissance faire. We saw the obligatory gal in a chainmail bikini, the guy eating a turkey leg, and the guy with the 3-pointed hat. I also got to play with some foam swords. When we got there, Becky ask what one did at a renaissance faire, and I didn't have a really good answer. There were a number of shops on the "main drag", some wandering performers, a half-dozen stages with rotating performances, and some places to get food. We wandered around a bit, watched some shows (the whip guy was pretty good, though he tried a bit too hard with the jokes), and bought a themepark-priced soda. All in all, a pretty decent afternoon.

Remembering the Renaissance

Becky tells me that I'm "forgetful like an old man". I admit that I often forget things, and occasionally find myself wondering what I was looking for in the fridge, but I don't think I'm so bad. I chalk it up (mostly) to so much "useful" processing going on in my head. Anyhow, I was cleaning out my to-do list in my phone tonight and came across a reminder to go to a renaissance fair this year. Just so happens that the Midwest Renaissance Festival is this month. Ironically, Becky just told me tonight that we have nothing going on this weekend... Perfect timing.

The passing of an old friend

Samantha "smooch" passed away approximately 9pm on Wednesday May 7, 2008 after collapsing in the kitchen.

Busy but updates

I've been crazy busy lately, but have found time for a few updates anyhow. I've started using Google Analytics to find out what brings traffic to my site, and plan to start maintaining content based on those results. In the meantime, I've updated a page on my workstation. I also had a chance to haul my VMWare server downstairs tonight. I was afraid of the impending storm; thought it best to get it on the Beastly UPS in the cave. I know I need to update my Datacenter page, but I'm sort of holding off until the fileserver/VMWare transition is complete. As always, don't forget the What's New page.

New Content

I've spent quite a bit of time recently working on my page, though most of it's not obvious by looking at this page. Part of the reason that I chose Mediawiki to being with is it's ability to deal with my huge volumes of projects, rants, and other "non-Blog" content. Keep an eye on the What's New page, so you don't miss anything.

Feedin' on RSS

Dave had been giving me trouble about my site's lack of an RSS feed (due to the fact that this is Mediawiki, and not one of the fancy "blogger" engines)... so I figured I'd make something up. In the "Special Pages" section on the left-hand side is the RSS Feed link. You can subscribe to it with Firefox, or your feed reader of choice. Improvements will be made, but for now, it just parses the front page and gives links to the titles. Source code to come, as soon as it's not ugly.

The Fridge Debacle

So Sunday night, our fridge quit working. After hours spent looking for the "defrost timer", we came to find out that it's actually part of the "everything module", and is actually solid state. Read on for the whole story.

Craig Saws All

So I bought my first item off Craigslist today; After tossing my Firestorm tools for want of workable batteries and chargers, I was in the market for a new reciprocating saw, and was planning on buying a Harbor Freight cheapy, when I found a well-used Milwaukee on Craigslist. I believe it to be a model 6509, given it's bolt-down blade holder and detachable cord (the name plate is mostly worn off). For $20, it was a steal. I had to bang out the shoe a little, and give it a good washdown, but it's pretty decent. The rubber "gear case cover" is torn (off) and the (detachable) power cord is beat to death, but both are easily replaced for approximately $20 total, but I can do without the boot, and the elecrical tape "cord cover" works fine for now. Photos are now here.

Vacation and what's next

Now that we're back, I suppose it's safe to say that we were recently in the Bahamas, for quick vacation before Becky's new job. Photos of that are available in the gallery. We didn't take nearly as many pictures as we did in Europe (I took 1 2gb card (500 pics max), no battery charger (or spares) and no laptop), though I think this is largely due to there being less things worth photographing.

Spring is about to spring

It seems fitting that I write on this day, the end of Winter. The weather has been pretty decent lately, and I find myself more motivated down in the garage. I've also been busy working on the BRAN website (I should get back to that, probably). I've spent quite a bit of time cleaning up, getting ready for my next big project (no clue what that is, yet). I stumbled (again) upon Jake's page, over at Steampunk Workshop, and that seriously motivates my project-ness, even if those projects are fairly useless. Perhaps someday, I'll have the space to be awesome like that. It seems that the main thing holding me back is my raw material storage. Given enough materials, Project Greatness happens on its own. I tend to find that my biggest problem is not enough time for all the projects I've started, or want to start: Computer hardware, House, Software, D&D, Car, Home Theater, and the list goes on. If you have a solution to this problem, please let me know!

Updates

I've noticed that I'm not nearly so good at updating as I'd like to be. Sorry. In any case, I've been busy with work, working on projects, working on my car, etc. Had to replace a glow plug this month (writeup to come) and have done some other mods.