Oh crap! your laptop says "plugged in not charging" when you hover over the battery icon.  It turns out that you probably do not have anything to worry about.Many newer laptops and batteries are designed not to charge to frequently. Several posts I have found across the internet mention a common "80% charge" feature.  This feature keeps a battery's maximum charge level to 80% in order to extend longevity.  Most of the time if you have this featur … Read More

via Flexuous

Figured that since I was at Kent Station and had some time I would go catch a movie.  Went to see “Daybreakers”  (wasn’t bad)  since I don’t get to see movies like that with Steph or the boys.   So while I was putting butter on my popcorn this older lady came up with her grand children. (3 girls maybe 4 – 10 years old)   They were standing there trying to figure out what to get,  so since I was having a nice day I decided what the heck and told the concession lady that I would like to pay for their snacks.  It wasn’t very much money but it was so much fun to see those girls faces and it was nice to do something nice like that.  (I think they were going to see the Chipmunks Squeekwel)  The concessionaire thought it was so nice she upgraded my order for free.  (which was also cool of her)  Anyway I went to see the movie… was one of only three or four people in the theater, which is a very nice way to see a movie.  (but I think the couple behind me were making out)

I included the source file that I created at the top of the picture since the marquee is difficult to read in the picture (even with a little Photoshop magic.) The whole thing is done on transparency film between two layers of clear contact paper. It works out really well (by design) since the height of the opening is 11 inches and the width of the contact paper is 12 inches, it allows me to slip the top and the bottom in between the plastic lens and the face frame to hold it in place. When the holiday is over I’ll take it down, roll it up and put it away till next year. I think we are going to create other inserts for different times of the year. I figure with a hundred years of film we should be able to come up with movies that are appropriate for just about every month.

Christmas Marquee

FYI: One of Steph’s favorite movies is A Christmas Story.

New doors and marquee as seen from the stairs. (click for large view)

Well it has been a while since I posted anything about the construction of our home theater.  We finally got around to buying doors for the opening.  (I think Steph was getting a little tired of the curtains. )  We ordered this nice set of etched pre-hung doors with a square pattern from Home Depot.   It did take about two weeks longer than they originally told us for the doors to come in but we have them on 0% for 12 months and we got a really good deal on them so I guess I can’t complain too much.    When they did finally come in I rented the Home Depot truck and my friend Matt helped me pick these up and bring them to the house.   It was so convenient and cheep that I feel less motivated to buy a truck again considering how infrequently I need it.

We did have a hell of a time finding the correct lock sets and knobs to match the rest of the house.  We eventually had to buy them online as both Home Depot and Lowes had stopped carrying them.

I put the doors up about two weeks ago and have been working on the marquee since then.  I was able to get the marquee finished and put up just this past weekend.   I have included a few more pictures including a close up of the faux burled finish I put on the underside  and a picture of the marquee when it is lit up.

Close up of the underside finish on the marquee. (click for larger view)

The burled finish was fun to do and  was rather easy.  It is just gel stain (a mix of walnut and mahogany)  applied with a paper towel in sort of a wrist twisting motion.  It does do a number on your wrist and because it goes on kind of thick  it takes a while to dry.  This finish was done on top of finish grade birch plywood.    I did two coats in order to give it some depth.
(With sanding with steel wool in between.)    The final coat was a rather thick layer of clear gloss lacquer then another steel wool sanding to smooth things out and one thin layer of lacquer for gloss.  We were all getting high off the fumes for several days, even with the garage doors open.

Home theater marquee all lit up. (click for large view)

The lighting for the marquee is 4 40w fluorescent bulbs in a custom made fixture.    I was originally going to purchase the bulb mounts and ballast separately and then build the units  myself, but when I got to the store I found a much cheaper way of doing this.    As individual components the mounts (4 sets) and ballasts (2 – 2 bulb ballasts) were going to cost almost $100.   I started looking around and found a shop light that took two bulbs (the kind you hang up with the  built in plug) for under $10.  Since these are self contained units I knew all the parts; mounts, ballasts etc. would be included.   I bought two of these for the marquee and basically took them apart and discarded  the metal case.  (yes recycled)  The only modification I really had to make (after mounting the bulb mounts and ballasts) was to splice some longer wire in on one side of the circuit so I could mount everything where I wanted it.  I finished off the wiring by enclosing it all (except the ballasts) in an old electronics project box I had sitting around.  I finished off the whole thing with a fascia made from hardboard (which has enough flex for the curve) and a florescent light panel cut to fit and glued on the inside.  Now we just need to figure out what to put up on the marquee.  For now I think we are leaning toward “Opening Spring 2010″

Personally I think this is just an absolutely brilliant marketing campaign. I was even taken in for a minute… but only for a minute… There were a number of things that smelled fishy about the whole thing but over all it did sound kind of plausible. If you think the founder was a complete nut. The final nail in the coffin for all believability was when I did a quick calculation in my head regarding the first billboard….

Now 75 cents does sound like a good price for a cup of chowder…. in 2009 that is. However if you do the math or let the Inflation Calculator do it for you it turns out that $0.75 in 1955 (the date of the billboard) equates to about $5.91 in 2009 dollars. So to put that in perspective imagine that instead of 75 cents a cup the sign says $6 a cup. Not such a deal now. So that’s what it would have looked like to someone in 1955. If you run the calculation the other way you come up with 10 cents. That’s how much someone in 1955 would have paid for that same cup of chowder in order for it to have the same effect on their pocket book as 75 cents would now.

More Pictures…
Check out Monica’s Tat.

Here’s the cigar label.

]]> http://blog.justinohms.com/2009/01/17/stephanie-as-monica-lewinsky/feed/ 0 justinohms 2009-01-16 Steph As Monica Lewinsky 2009-01-16 Check out Monica's Tat Presidential Cigar Label http://blog.justinohms.com/2008/11/10/gas-189-gallon/ http://blog.justinohms.com/2008/11/10/gas-189-gallon/#comments Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:37:53 +0000 justinohms http://justinohms.wordpress.com/?p=133 Continue reading →]]> Last night we went to fill up the car and ended up
paying under $2/gallon.
I was so happy I had to take a snapshot of it as proof.

The sad  side was that our little Hyundai Accent would only take about 8 gallons of this “cheap” gas.   I guess I should not complain since that will last us about a week of commutes.

His bit made it into both the 30 sec and 15 sec spots.

It might not mean a lot to many people but for as long as I can remember I’ve had ideas and inventions floating around in my head. A couple years ago I decided to start patenting my ideas…

This was the first of what I hope will be many more to come. So far I am working on three other patents with over a dozen other ideas just waiting for the time and money to be able to file.

For those that are interested I originally filed this patent application back in mid 2005, It was published one year later. It took almost two full years before it worked its way through the queue to a patent examiner. It was returned to me for some minor corrections late last year and approved early this year. After paying the fee to have it issued about two months ago, it was finnally issued today. The whole process took about 3 1/2 years and cost about $8000.

Here is a pdf of the patent.

http://justinohms.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/uspatent007380665.pdf

The patent is available for license.

The down side is being touted in many parts of the media and in some respects I must agree with The New York Times on this one:

“The problem is that lowering gasoline prices at the pump would encourage more consumption. So in the long run, it would push prices up…..
Gasoline taxes in Europe, for example, can account for up to 70 percent of fuel prices. Of course, Europeans pay much higher gasoline prices, but the high tax levels have shielded drivers there from the wild price swings that American motorists have experienced in recent years.”

The main thing I take issue with here is that comparisons of US gas consumption with that of European countries is faulty at best. Consideration must be made for vast geographic differences, availability of public transportation, not to mention historic economic growth. Some (not I) could even make the argument that the European high energy costs may have had a restricting effect on these economies.

Now all that being said… I believe we should have had a high national gas tax for the last 20 years. I believed it when I was in high-school and college and was paying .98 or even .88 a gallon. Why we allowed gas to be this cheap is beyond me. Had we had a high ($2-$3) gas tax at this time or phased in over the booming 90′s we would now have the ability to have a significant impact on the economy instead of the paltry effect that the 18.4 cent/gal. tax repeal would have.

I think however that The New York Times and others are missing the point. The economy is in the crapper and energy prices are one of the largest factors. While the actual effect of lower gas prices on the economy will be negligible, since the price of gas directly affects the disposable income of the vast majority of households, the perceived effect will be much larger. In the end, consumer perception can have a much greater effect on the economy than even the price of energy, the national debt or interest rates.

For my programming blog: http://blog.flexuous.com/

For my personal blog: http://blog.justinohms.com/

In one of my future posts I plan to include my methodology for moving my blog over including redirects for search engines so that I don’t loose my page rankings and any other links that are out there.

How to paint a plaid wall…..

1: Paint your base color (blue)
(let dry)

2: Tape off in both directions with 2 inch tape, leaving 4 inch squares… paint your square color (green)
(let dry and peel tape)

3: Using 1 inch tape, tape off for double stripes in one direction here the gap I left overlapped both the green squares and blue lines so that the red would hide the transition. Paint with the double line color (red)
(let dry and peel tape)

4: Repeat step 3 in the other direction
(let dry and peel tape)

5: Using 1 inch tape, now tape off for the single stripes in one direction. Line this stripe up with the middle of the green squares. Paint with the single line color (yellow)
(let dry and peel tape)

6: Repeat step 5 in the other direction
(let dry and peel tape)

7: Using four small art brushes and 4 small containers of paint (one of each color) touch up anywhere that needs it.

]]> http://blog.justinohms.com/2008/03/23/wils-plaid-wall/feed/ 2 justinohms PICT6339 http://blog.justinohms.com/2007/12/30/dolphins-at-sea-world-sandiego/ http://blog.justinohms.com/2007/12/30/dolphins-at-sea-world-sandiego/#comments Sun, 30 Dec 2007 17:50:00 +0000 justinohms http://justinohms.wordpress.com/2008/12/30/dolphins-at-sea-world-sandiego/ ]]> Just some video of part of our Christmas vacation in SanDiego. The boys loved the dolphins.

and thanks to my friend Chris (who loaned me his finish nailer and air-compressor) the base boards are all in. The floor took about a weekend and a couple of evenings to put in but since most of the baseboards were already cut (and I numbered them when I took them off) the baseboards only took about an hour to put back in. I still need to fill in the nail heads with color matched putty and caulk the top edge but otherwise everything is done.

Here are a few pictures…

Here is the view from the stairs…

A view from the kitchen….

A view from next to the fireplace…

Wall closed up…

Textured and painted… (You can still sort of see the patch on the ceiling but that’s mostly due to the fact that the paint doesn’t quite match the existing. We a spot like this in the kitchen as well. This should all get cleared up when we have the house painted later this year.)

Some pictures of the island in it’s new home…

The kitchen island wouldn’t have been such a big deal if it weren’t for the fact that in addition to the electrical outlet, it also contains our central-vac kick plate. Since the island moved about 12 feet from the middle of the kitchen to it’s new home in the bay window I needed to extend that length of pipe for the vac. Lucky for me I found this great 2″” flexible PVC pipe that allowed me to extend the line without having to build all the pipes and connectors using standard PVC. In fact because the system does not contain water I decided that I wouldn’t’ even bother using PVC cement and instead just duct taped the overlapping connections. This has the added benefit of being easy to take apart if something does get stuck in there in the future. The electrical was easier to move since I was able to pull the line down and move it so that there was just enough wire to reach the new location without having to install a junction box. I suppose if I had needed to I could have put one in the crawlspace, but I was very tired of being in the crawlspace. Between the duct, the pipe, the electrical, the vac, the speaker wire. (Oh yeah I ran speaker wire to the ceiling before I closed in the walls.) I’ve been down in the crawlspace about a dozen times in the last month. It’s not really that bad down there, I just don’t like it.

This picture the 3 stacks on the left are the old floor and the 1 on the right is the new WRONG floor. We have to take this floor back and replace it with the correct stuff. Technically it’s the same style and color however it has a different locking mechanism because the manufacturer changed to a new system in 2007. Lucky for us they were able to located 1600sqft of the old style in a warehouse in Atlanta. It should get here next Tuesday.

I wanted to reuse the original riser duct that goes from the crawlspace to the 2nd floor but was unable to find a transition piece (oval to 6″ round) that curved the correct way at the top. In the end I replaced that piece with 10″x3 1/4″ duct and new transition pieces for both the top and the bottom. This should have the added benefit of improving airflow through this duct. The drain pipe has also been moved in this photo and now sits in the column just to the left of the duct. I’m just glad that I shouldn’t need to go back down in the crawlspace for awhile.

The first link here is to US Subs: http://www.ussubs.com/submarines/ where they manufacture luxury (yes luxury) submarines. This is an illustration of their top of the line “Phonix” model which is a 213′ luxury sub, capable of descending to 3000 feet. The price tag… well out of my league (in the millions) but if you’ve got that kind of cash sitting around and want a new home where your neighbors won’t bother you well this would be perfect. As a bonus it doubles as a normal (but slow) surface yacht.

This next link is to something a little more in my price range. The tiny 1 person helicopter called the mosquito, from Innovartortech www.innovator.mosquito.net.nz/mbbs2/ . This little guy can be had for under $30,000 in kit form and if configured properly doesn’t even require a license. After I get my fixed wing license, I am seriously thinking of building one of theses. What a fun project.

The books are in fair condition with little damage. The 4th volume is in the worst condition with a rip in the crease between the front cover and the spine. I am thinking about having them re-bound. I have several others that I would like to have rebound as well, including one of my favorite books of poetry that has long ago seen better days.

I love old books like these for reasons like this;
I started reading the first volume and in it Snowden makes a reference to the fact that the location for Washington DC was originally chosen because it put it near the population center of the country. He goes on to comment on how since westward expansion the “current” population center is somewhere in souther Indiana and may even someday cross the Mississippi river. I found this part particularly funny because it has been within my lifetime that the this has happened. When I was born the population center of the country was very near my home in southern Illinois and crossed into Missouri when I was in high school. Snowden was not far off in his prediction, predicting that the population center would be somewhere near but east of Kansas City.

It is interesting reading a history book that has a perspective that from our point of view is itself part of history. By this mean, the book was written prior to both world wars, the rise of communism etc. etc. What made me think of this was this line

“It (Oregon Territory) is possibly capable of supporting a population as dense as that of the German Empire, which now amounts to more than sixty million people.”

What I find fascinating about this is that it is a sentence constructed from a mind that has no knowledge of what would be future events. No prejudice and no reference to the two world wars started by Germany. These events that for us any mention of Germany conjure to mind, where not available to Snowden.

I also picked up one other book that day, a copy of “Van Loon’s Geography” published in 1932. Which was apparently a gift either to or from Gordon N. Johnson for Christmas 1932.

The drain pipe is on the schedule to be moved on Wednesday. I am holding off on moving the AC duct since we are in the grip of a “heat wave” (Being from the Midwest I use that term loosely when referring to the low 90 degree temperatures we are experiencing.)

The first slice through

(I’m mostly using the my recip-saw instead of a sledge hammer to reduce the mess)

A little more progress….

As far as I got today… Boy was that fun

When completed we will have one large room on the first floor (plus the den, home theater and bath) Our plans call for removing the wall between the living room and the dining room, moving the kitchen island, and pulling up and putting back down laminate floor throughout the whole area.

We purchased the flooring that we need last week we got a good deal and spent less than $900 for 300sqft for floor. The nice thing about the laminate floor that we have is that it locks together without adhesive so it can be pulled up and reused without a problem. Because the floor does not run under the island in the kitchen we will have to relay the floor in there this means that we will be pulling up effectively about half of the floor on the first floor.

However before we can do any of that we had to pull down the wall. I started on this today. Here is the before picture.

This is a far as I got today, pulled up the carpet, the padding, and opened up the wall. I knew going into this that there was a duct, a drain pipe and a couple of outlets that would need to be moved. You can see them in this picture.

Here is another example of complexity through simplicity. There are only two instruments in this song a guitar and a banjo. While the piece was originally titled Feuding Banjos and scored for two banjos, the piece that most people are familair with is the one from Deliverance which features an acoustic guitar and a banjo.

The song is a very basic purlly instrumental echo-response piece in which the guitar takes the lead most of the time. The beginning of a song can be likened to a pair of wild dogs sizing each other up before a fight. Tentative hesitation at first building until the actual dual. In the movie this is depicted as Drew Ballinger playing with a retarded hillbilly (yet gifted banjo player) named Lonnie the song.

Even the first time you hear this song it seems immediately familiar. This is due in part to two effects. First the song borrows major parts of its basic melody from the classic song “Yankee Doodle”. Additionally because of the way the song starts by the time you get to the highly active middle of the piece you have heard all the major elements of the melody played several times at much slower speeds by both the guitar and the banjo.

The acoustic appeal of the song relies upon the complex nature of the overtones created by the banjo counterpointed by the richness of the guitar. Because these are the only two instruments used in the piece their sounds are not overwhelmed by other distractions (drums, base guitar, piano etc.) this is especially important for the banjo which can tend to get muddled by both the piano and drums.

The Good: A fun song

The Bad: A frighting movie

Why I have it: A song you can listen to over an over… but you will end up humming it.

Why you should have it: There are many references to this song and the scene in the movie in popular culture. As a bonus you will know to run the other way if some hillbilly starts playing this on some back country road.

Recommendation: If you don’t like scary movies, a least watch the movie up to this point. The Dueling Banjos scene occurs early in the movie so you just stop it after this point.

Now it is not that I dislike this song but it is not one of my favorites. However on the way into work this morning Steph and I had a conversation about what it was like back in Jr. High School. Then later when this song came on I thought about that conversation. This is one of those songs that I associate heavily with Jr. High.

At first glance the fact that I associate this song with Jr. Hight might seem really odd considering that I was in grade-school when this song became a hit (Billboard #1 single Nov. 6 – 20 1982) It is mostly because I remember singing this song in chorus. In the school I went to chorus was a pretty big deal. It was not a thing just for geeks. In my class most of the cool kids and most of the smart kids were in chorus throughout Jr. High and High School. In fact if I remember correctly probably around 20% of the students in the school were in the chorus for my class, probably at least a quarter of the class were in the chorus.

Anyway, I remember singing this song it was one of the few ‘pop’ tunes that we allowed to sing by Barb our choir teacher. As I recall I think we even sung this at a concert or two. I’m sure someone did this as a duet at some point in time as well.

The song itself is culturally significant having appeared in the movie “An Officer and a Gentleman” and there are many references that have appeared over the years both to the song and to it’s appearance in the movie.

Aside from my reminiscent connection singing this song in school. I do enjoy this song. The lyrics are for the lack of a better word “uplifting” and as a true duet is fairly rare thing in pop music.

I have always been drawn to this songs melancholy yet bright melody and lyrics. Fundamentally a song mirroring the movie it came from about falling in love an opening ones self up.

The song which was produced in 1982 sounds exactly like the time it comes from. It is a good place to examine the sound of pop evolving from sound of the 70s into the sound that would typify the 80s. While not yet employing the synthesizers of the 80s the bright piano (which is heavily sustained) and bass guitar are processed to broaden the sound and open up the overall sound of the song. On the flip side there is a hint of high-hat cymbal and “chicka-wa-wa” throughout that is very reminiscent of 70s.

The Good: Piano in this piece is beautiful with a simple melody. Jenifer Warnes voice is beautiful.

The Bad: If you don’t like Joe Cocker’s voice probably not the song for you.

Why I have it: Because I remember singing it in Jr. High and hearing it at every wedding I’ve ever been to.

Why you should have it: Culturally significant. Again another wedding song.

Recommendation: Beside getting this song see the movie as well.

I think that perhaps is why it makes the perfect piece to start with as the basis for Cannon in D are themes found through out music. While I will not go into too much technical detail on the Cannon the basics are that the Cannon in D is a harmonic sequence of chord progressions played by three violins in a round or cannon, the theme melody is based on a descending major scale played over and grounded by a simple base line.

In a lot of ways Cannon in D can be thought of as one of the first examples of “Progressive” music. The melody builds up and over itself increasing in complexity and energy toward the middle of the piece. That complexity is one of the things that I love about this piece. When arranged for and played by a full orchestra (the piece was originally scored for a three violins and a basso) it can be quite fun to try to follow the sound and timbre of a single violin, flute or piccolo throughout the piece. (These are the instruments most often scored to the violin chord progressions.) Additionally in fully orchestrated versions watch for additions of harp, harpsichord, and the occasional dulcimer there are even versions with acoustic and electric guitars floating around. In fact Cannon in D as been arranged probably in more ways that almost any other piece of music.

Everyone knows Cannon in D, it’s played at almost every wedding and has been sampled or riffed by hundreds of artists and used for commercial purposes for decades if not centuries. In fact one of my earliest memories of hearing the Cannon was from some wine commercial in the 1980s.

I cannot recommend a particular arrangement of Cannon in D they are all lovely and you can definitely find one to fit your musical tastes.

The Good:
Probably the most classic of the classics

The Bad:
Probably the biggest cliche in music

Why I have it:
One of the earliest foundations for western music. It’s a relaxing piece without being depressing.

Why you should have it:
Everyone knows Cannon in D and while overplayed it is a timeless piece.

Recommendation:
Just find an arrangement you enjoy and listen to more than one.

We planned it for about a month and took the day off on Tuesday. We headed up to Crystal http://www.skicrystal.com/
rented snowboards and signed up for lessons. The weather was beautiful. It was snowing all morning so there was plenty of fresh snow on the ground. Ironically it was both overcast and snowing, and clear and sunny all day depending on which way you looked. It wasn’t very busy so while we paid for group lessons, we ended up getting private lessons. Our instructor’s name was Josh and our lesson went 10 – 12. We learned the basics, how to get around with one foot in the bindings, how to do j-turns, toe edge and heal edge slides, floating leaf, how to ollie and the important ones, how to stop and how to fall. The snow was extremely sticky and therefore slow so we were not able to get a whole lot of freeriding in. Never the less we both really enjoyed. Since the season is coming to a close we are going to start looking for some boards and boots on sale so we are ready for next year. We had a fantastic time and we will be going back.

For anyone who hasn’t tried it and is looking to learn I would highly suggest Crystal. I have several friends that go skiing and snowboarding at different resorts and most think Crystal is one of the best in the NW if not the best. Also they have some great deals on rental equipment an lessons. Just as an example Steph and I paid just $55 each for snowboard and boot rental,a two hour lesson (which turned out to be a private lesson)and a lift ticket. For the more advanced, the word I hear is that even when busy there are seldom lines at the lifts as many of the lifts at Crystal are 4 or 6 person lifts.

I also went out searching across the internet for a little new techno music and came across the band Freezepop. If are not into techno music you will not like them. However in a genre that has long been mired in the ’80s they have fresh sound that at the same time is a little retro. I haven’t fallen in love their sound yet, however they have a prodigious discography that I definitely feel is worth exploring.

_________________________________________________________

Background:

Laura Schlessinger is a US radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show.

Recently, she said that as an observant Orthodox Jew, she holds homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned in any circumstance. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a US resident, which was posted on the Internet.

_________________________________________________________

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the Specific laws and how to follow them.

a) When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odour for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odour is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

b) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

c) I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence.

d) Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?

e) I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

f) A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Lev. 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this?

g) Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

h) Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.19:27. How should they die?

i) I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

j) My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? (Lev.24:10-16) Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging. Your devoted disciple and adoring fan.

The shutters I am building will be 4’6″” tall with one being 4’6″” wide and the other being 10′ wide. The smaller one will have 2 panels each with about 48, 1.5″” slats tilted at a 45 degree angle and spaced 1″” apart. The larger one will have 4 panels with the same slat layout.

I am building the smaller shutter first and ripped down all the vertical framing pieces. I was in the process of cutting out the 3/8″” slats when my table saw kicked back the stock I was feeding. Somehow when it happened I nicked my right index finger on the saw blade. At first I didn’t think I had cut it all that bad. I went inside, called up to Steph that I had cut myself. Steph brought down the first aid stuff, band aids, ointment, etc. I flushed out the cut at the kitchen sink. I got a good look at it, it was a rather deep cut about 1/4″” into the tip of my finger.

I was getting ready to bandage the cut up when I had Steph get me a chair. I felt a little woozy. It wasn’t until just after I sat down that I realized that I was going to pass out. Steph says I passed out 2x for 30 seconds and 20 seconds. I just remember once so I would guess that I passed out for almost a minute. I didn’t loose that much blood, nor have I ever been affected by the sight of blood and I’ve had cuts much worse than this. (Like when I drilled through the webbing by my thumb on my right hand.) At any rate I don’t know what happened but I did pass out so Steph called 911.

I ended up lying on the floor until the paramedics got there. They gave me O2, checked my blood pressure, pulse and blood sugar. With the exception of my blood pressure, everything was normal. My blood pressure when they got there was REALLY low even for a person that has low-bloodpressure it was only 80/40. By the time they left and Steph and I left for the hospital my blood pressure was only up to 107/80, a little low but fairly normal for me.

We had to wait for about 2 hours at the urgent care center. By the time we saw a doctor, the wound had mostly healed itself probably because of the constant pressure we had kept it under. The cut was now only a surface cut. My nail was cracked and some skin missing but the 1/4″” cut had closed and most of the bleeding had stopped. They cleaned the blood but decided that because the cut had closed there was no need for stitches, so they dressed the wound and released me.

Well the shutter project is on hold for a week or two. It is sort of a pain to type. All in all it’s not so bad but it will probably hurt in the morning.

I spent last weekend finding the correct stain combination. The winner was a 50/50 mix of Minwax Mahogany and African Rose Wood gel stains. All of the pieces have between 3-6 coats as well as an under coat of stain prep wood sealer and then about 3 clear coats on top. The whole process took about a week. This was the first time I had used gel stain instead of liquid and I have to say that I will not be using liquid again if I can avoid it.

The cap in the front is removable allowing access to the storage areas on the left and right and to the top of the component shelf. The three caps in the back are all glued down with construction adhesive. Despite my best efforts at clamping and weighting it down I still had to use a couple of finish nails in the center board to correct the warp. I caulked the seams and painted and everything is done.

The only thing left to do is install the lights and mount the TV. For the lights I have chosen frosted LED lights from TheLEDLight.com. I will be installing 11 of these one in each box, on the sides, three in the center top box and two to back-light the TV.

I already have the mounting bracket for the TV, we purchased it at the same time we bought the TV so I’ll be glad to finally get to use it. Once the lights are up I have to figure out exactly where to mount the bracket in order to have the TV centered.

I am a Lewis Black fan and he is just what you would expect in this. I could have done without Bob Saget but since he produced and directed … what are you gonna do. I would never have thought that such a thing could have come from him… he looks like such a straight up guy. Tracy Morgan is alright but I wonder when is he gonna get some new material maybe it’s just me but he’s been on the same kind of humor for the last 6 years. Christina Applegate is great she does have a lovely voice. My two favorite appearances in this are Carlos Mencia (Steph and I are fans of his as well.) and Dr. Katz (I loved the cartoon from years ago.) All in all if you are into quirky and low brow humor rent it. It is a good laugh.

Here is the the front panel in place.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,243219,00.html

As anyone whom has spent anytime dealing with probate can tell you they are in for a long drawn out legal fight on multiple fronts. While I am sure they will prevail in the end, the sad thing is that James Brown Jr. will probably not have access to the resources of his father’s estate until he is out of high school.

The nice thing about buying it used is that I didn’t have to put it together. It weighs about 500lbs so it did take several people to lift it in and out of the truck. I was, however, able to break it apart into about 6 major pieces in order to bring it up from the garage to the bonus room. The hardest part was the base unit which is where most of the weight (around 300lbs.) is located. Amazingly enough I was able to manhandle even the base unit up the stairs to the bonus room, by myself.

I’ve started using it every night whenever I get home from work. I love it. It gives me a second wind for the night and I think working out helps me sleep better. Hopefully I will start to see some improvements. I think I’ve already lost about 4 lbs. Steph has decided that she likes to use it in the morning so at least we are not both trying to use it at the same time, between the two of us we should get our money’s worth out of it.

I’ll post some stats on my progress … once I’ve made some progress.

It may not be a popular position to take, but a foreign policy that states that we will work to spread democracy and end tyranny whenever and wherever possible is one I can support.

BTW if you want to have some fun putting words in Bush’s mouth check out this site….
http://www.bushspeech.org/

Next, I will be working on painting over the pink and red overpaint with white primer, finishing up the electrical wiring and building the front box.

Yes, it is a lovely shade of pink!

I was most fascinated by the fact that this was the very plane that Nixon took to China And the boys… well I think this picture says it all…

We were additionally affected by the storm by having a 100 foot fir tree land on our house. Here are a few pictures.

We filed the claim immediately (about 10 minutes after the tree hit the house) and we hired a guy to come out and remove the tree on Friday morning. The roof currently has a big blue tarp on it. We have one big hole and about 6 smaller holes in the roof and two 6″ holes in the ceiling inside. Some drywall is cracked in the master bath directly under where the tree hit and the door to the master closet will no longer close. Our insurance guy is supposed to be here in the morning and we have a company scheduled to start repairs on Friday. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon and in the mean time hopefully the tarp will hold and the roof won’t leak. For now we are all just glad the power is back on.

I’ve started putting on the 2nd coat on some parts of the wall (cubbies on the left). Hopefully, I will get a chance next weekend to finish up the mudding and get the finish coat on. The only hard part of all this is that working in the cubby holes does a number on my wrist.

I’ve added supports to the back of the wall and placed the plywood center support in place. As with most of the wall, this is all glued, as well as mechanically attached, in order to minimize vibrations. The supports are laid flat against the wall in order to facilitate the installation of the next wall and leave a gap between it and this wall.

I had to shim with cardboard above the plywood to compensate for the difference in thickness between the plywood and the drywall.

Next up… mud fun fun mud!

To help with sound control, all of the openings have double dry wall backs. To minimize screw heads on the finish surface that would have to be filled with compound ,I decided to use a combination of back screwing and construction adhesive wherever I could.

I was able to get a large part of the drywall complete this weekend.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
-Albert Einstein

Related Links:

Meta Physics: Most Simple Scientific Theory Reality

The Universe as a Hologram

The bench is supported by 3 2x4s in this manner with two more as decking. It is strong enough that I was able to stand on it and jump. I had to construct the beam a little differently as the total height of it could only be 6″. The beam is the only part of all of this that was not contrusted in place. I constructed the beam on the floor and then lifted it in place. Here is a photo of the cross section of the beam which is constructed from 2x4s and 3/4″ plywood.

The combination of the plywood and 2x4s enabled me to get to my nominal 6″ height for the beam. While I was putting in the beam I realized why I had decided to build everything in place. I had a hell of a time getting the beam to sit level in both directions. I ended up having to attach one corner and then using clamps to twist the assembly into position. Eventually with some shims and the clamps I got it to sit properly. Here is the comleted framing.

Finally, before I quit for the weekend I positioned the 3/4″ plywood backer and marked it for any openings that must be cut out. This backer will be to provide extra support for the TV mount. There will actually be a 3rd wall built on the other side and the mount for TV will be attached to studs in that wall as well as the ply wood. However I had the plywood left over from another project and figured this would be a good way to reinforce this very important section of the wall. The plywood should also help noise reduction between the two rooms.

Next weekend (or perhaps this week if I get to it) I will start on the the electrical and the sheet rock.

Next I had to remove the finish nails from all of the old baseboard I did this by pulling each nail through the back of the piece since to pull them out the front of the trim would have ruined the finish. The reason for being so careful with all this is naturally so that it can be reused at some point in the future. However none of this trim will end up back in the movie room since we will be putting special trim in there.

Next came the carpet. I pulled it up all the way around the room from the tack strips and rolled it up. For the moment, I’m storing the roll in the room. I’m not sure what we will end up doing with the carpet from here and from the living room when we pull it up. But I want to hang onto some of it to replace some of what is on the stairs that has worn down a bit. I pulled the carpet pad up and am also storing that in the room as well. We will probably reuse the carpet pad with the new carpet.

Saturday and Sunday I spent building the the two “”ladders”" on either side. Originally, I had wanted to build these on the ground and then raise them like you would a wall, however because of the need for all of these pieces to be perfectly level I decided to build them in place. It took longer this way. However, I was able to compensate for variations in the surrounding walls, floor, etc. as I went along.

Simple Minds

Nirvana

Green Day

Erasure

Elton John

The Boss

The Proclaimers

Michael Jackson

Blondie

Cyndie Lauper

Tear for Fears