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)

http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/12/15/insulation-sexy/

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/obama-touts-insulation-as-sexy/

I’m not sure I would call insulation “sexy” but it is a good idea.

And then this humorous thought crossed my mind…

An Obama Valentine

Just messing around with Photoshop.

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″

Many years ago when I was in high-school and college I participated in impromptu speech and debate.  For those that are not familiar with what this is, it is a style of speech or debate competition where you go without a prepared speech and without any idea as to what the topic will be.  You are typically given the topic maybe up to one hour before the event and then you have that time to prepare.  The only thing you knew for sure was that the topic would be on some relatively current event or news item.  One nice thing about this was that for the most part I did not practice between competitions.  My primary responsibility was to read magazines and newspapers, clip articles and generally keep up with current events.  I remember carting crates full of magazines to each event to use as source material during the prep time.  One the sources we used extensively was Time magazine.

After college and through the last 15 years or so I have really not kept up with news magazines, (mostly because when you have kids you just don’t have time) So I first moved to sources such as CNN and NPR for news and then later switching more and more to online sources.  About the only time I would pick up a Time or a Newsweek would be when I was in a doctor’s office (and naturally that meant the issue was 3 months old)   When I recently started to receive my free issues of Time I was very disappointed at the level of overt bias and nescient opinion that is actually put into print.

Take for example the October 12th issue of Time.  Now in it I see reflections of the great journalism that I remember Time for.  Take for example  Adam Ferguson’s piece on Afghanistan A Window On the War, or David Drehle’s and Bobby Ghosh’s peice on Najibullah Zazi  An Enemy Within .  These are good pieces of journalism with great photos, exactly what you would expect from Time.  Contrast that to the op-ed garbage from  Joel Stein Dictator of My Dreams,  or Justin Fox’s, Get Homes off Welfare,  or Christopher Caldwell’s  The Phantom Fix (although at least Caldwell’s is clearly labled “Commentary”)

Now in point of fact I do agree for the most part with Justin Fox,  except for his assertion that the deduction for property taxes should be eliminated.  I have to point out that if removed this would smack of double taxation, in fact I think all taxes should be tax deductible… you should never have to pay money on money you paid out as taxes.

Joel Stein on the other hand attempts some form of irony or humor and sadly falls apart on both accounts.  Instead he comes across as serious in his goal to urge Obama into being some sort of benevolent dictator.   Stein makes the assertion that “we” (meaning you and I as well) like to be told what to do by the government and that we “need a dictator”.  Apparently Joel Stein would love make it illegal for you to purchase a soda larger than 8oz, make it a feature of all alarm clocks to nag you into exercising, have the government dictate your default browser settings, and dictate to garbage companies and airlines how they should conduct business.

Now again, my problem is not so much with the content of what he says.  I agree that garbage companies and airlines should charge by weight.  (Personally, I think that would be a a very egalitarian system.  Your airfare is base plus x-dollars per pound of you, your luggage and everything you take on the plane. ) However… I would not force companies to do this, but I would instead “allow” them to do this (without fear of being sued).   Same sort of thing with his issue with the Big Gulp, we should not be banning drinks larger than a given size, but we could tax them and then target that money to an offsetting issue such as health care.

I digress back to what my original point was.   Which is basically that I cannot believe that this crap gets elevated to the point of being printed in a national/international publication instead of being relegated to some obscure crappy little blog like this one.  If I want to explore opinions I go online . There are far more interesting opinions out their than these narrow points of view offered up by the traditional media.  The only thing that publication of these types of opinions do for magazines like Time is increase the perception that the media (and in particular the given news machine) has a liberal bias.   I guess at this point in the political cycle this can be a boon for business…on the other hand I am not sure it is a wise business decision to so overtly put off half the population.   I will continue to read Time till my subscription runs out at least I didn’t pay for it.  I just find it ironic that at one point in time MAD magazine was a parody of magazines like Time, now it feels like Time is a parody of MAD magazine.

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.

In his article he refers to the primary system that Washington uses for constitutional offices as an “open primary” this is not the correct term. The correct term is a “non-partisan blanket primary” aka. a top 2 primary. The primary difference being that in an open primary a voter is allowed to vote in a single party primary, you just pick which when you show up.(Illinois has this system) In some states that have open primaries, you can even vote in one or more party primaries. (Wisconsin has this system I believe) However in a non-partisan blanket primary, all the primary candidates are put on the same ballot. The two candidates that get the most votes, regardless of party affiliation, are then put on the general election ballot. Contrast all of this to the closed primary in which only registered party members are allowed to vote.

Now there are pros and cons to each of these systems. The arguments can get rather complex and even delve into game theory. The most basic problem with a non-partisan blanket primary can be shown very easily either when a third party is introduced into the equation or a district leans heavily one way or the other. Third parties tend to be shut out of the process, as the large voting blocks of the established parties will invariably end up with the top two counts in the primary. In districts with a heavy political bent, often the only candidates that will make it to the general election will be from that same political party.

There is also another problem that can arise regarding manipulation. Here political parties discourage participation by there own candidates (typically the more moderate of candidates) in order to assure they secure one of the top two positions. Imagine an evenly split electorate 50% liberal, 50% conservative where two conservatives are running and two liberals. Now imagine that the conservatives dissuade a third conservative candidate from running because of fears of dilution of the conservative base. At the same time they secretly support three more “liberal” candidates. It is easy to see how in this scenario the top two vote getters would both be conservatives and would therefore be the only choices available in the general election. Even in a district that is evenly split.

Because of all these problems, in my opinion, the non-partisan blanket primary is actually inferior to the imperfect open primary.

A a more democratic way to solve this problem is to do away with the primary system all together and move to instant run off elections. You would then allow anyone who can meet the criteria, (typically a given signature count and a modest fee) to get on to the general election ballot. Then the electorate votes in order of preference. The system has a lot of names, Instant-runoff voting (IRV), alternative voting, ranked choice voting, or preferential voting. I will not go into details there is a good article on wikipedia on the subject. The primary advantages of this type of system are that it eliminates the need for a first round primary (and the cost of operating it if paid for by the state), it allows third party candidates a greater voice, it dissuades negative campaigning and promotes the election of more moderate candidates across the board.

I will disagree with Jonathan Alter on just one point, moderates do not necessarily have better manners. They are just less likely to get a pat on the back for showing them in public.

If you post a comment here, I do not have to approve it. (I probably will but you cannot make me.) Nor however, can I prevent you or anyone from starting your own blog or posting other comments somewhere else online that disagree with me. This then is the point of free speech and why I have come to believe that there are few good reasons to attempt to limit it and almost never a good reason when the discourse is civil. Yes, it is ironic that the best weapon against the freedom speech is the freedom of speech.

I think I need to express at this point one of the things that has begun to frustrate me about the attitudes in this country that ties directly to the question of free speech. There is increasingly an attitude that we have a right to not be offended by those around us. That we in some way have the right to curtail the activities or rights of others simply because we become “offended” by what they say or stand for. Now I am not advocating that harassment or bigotry should be tolerated. No, no one should be subject to these. However if you are in an environment of your own free will. (i.e. not compelled by legal or financial necessity), you do not have the right to not be offended. You have the right to remove yourself from the situation, you have the right to complain. You do not have the right to curtail the offender’s actions or speech (unless there is danger involved, i.e. shouting fire in a theater or starting a riot) In fact this thought process is completely upside down. You do have the right to be offended…. but your recourse is limited to your ability to speak out against those that offend you, not by stopping those that offend from speaking. You do not have the right to not hear opinions that you do not agree with.

This then ties to a central part of discussion that I decided to mostly avoid. (Although in retrospect I might post some of this.) That part of the discussion is the role of corporations in the public discourse, political or otherwise. First let us clarify a few things. Corporations are not people but ultimately are owned by people. Corporations are not democracies. Corporations are a form of plutocracy, in the corporation those with the most wealth (stock) have the most power (votes). There is nothing inherently wrong with this concept. We only get into trouble when we start to think of corporations as democratic, they are not. The urge to restrict corporations from public discourse arises from the fact that in our society many corporations hold a great amounts of wealth and with that wealth comes the potential for turning our society as a whole into a plutocracy. (Or for the Marxists out there… more of a plutocracy that it already is.) This reaction is primarily a fear based response that shows a lack of respect for the electorate. However, this fear is not entirely unfounded as on the whole we tend to greatly ascribe to the theory of rational ignorance when voting. The more a name or image is put before us in a positive light, the more we are likely to support it or the individual, even if upon closer inspection the underling positions are diametricly opposed to our own views.

The inherit problem is not that a given voice is too influential, but that not enough voices are being heard and those that are being heard are unaccountable. Perhaps instead of trying to curtail the political speech of corporations, we should be holding corporations responsible for the political speech they do carry out and trying to increasing the political speech of everyday individuals. If we remove caps on political speech from corporations but require them to endorse political advertisements the same way candidates do, we the consumer could hold corporations responsible for the positions they take. No one would fault a beer company for opposing a tax on alcohol, however a pro-life or pro-choice ad by that same company might offend people enough to stop buying that given product. The net result is that corporations would begin to perform a sort of self censorship and would not involved themselves in public discourse that does not directly relate to their business. In addition to this ‘branding’ of political opinions, we could increase the number of voices being heard by putting a tax on political speech by corporations and distributing this money to those with differing opinions. (Not necessarily opposite just different.) Corporations would be allowed to support any political position they like but would have to contribute to this fund that would be available to just about anyone. (Any individual that is.) Now I do not know the details of how that would work (if it would work) or how it would be allocated. That is a discussion for wiser men than I. The point I am trying to make is that the problem may not be the one that was originally postulated and the solutions may not be clear and as obvious as may first appear. It may be necessary to come up with new ideas.

I will skip for now the inequalities when speaking of the fourth estate because I believe for the most part the power of the news media is waning. However it is ironic that being mostly corporations many are heavily biased one way or the other (FOX News, Washington Post, NY Times, etc. etc.) However they are mostly exempt from rules that other corporations must follow regarding political speech.

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/2008/11/25/obamas-ecomomic-team/ http://blog.justinohms.com/2008/11/25/obamas-ecomomic-team/#comments Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:19:15 +0000 justinohms http://justinohms.wordpress.com/?p=136 ]]> Lately I’ve been having a lot of those moments when multiple events coincide with each other thereby causing new analogies, thoughts and ideas to form.   Mostly this occurs because I have a habit of reading 4 or 5 books at a time.   Inevitably these books tend to overlap in content even if they do not at first appear to.  There always seems to be a connection, a common thread or an augmentation and compliment to each other.  Today I had another such moment but with today’s news and one of the books I’m currently reading, Alan Greenspan’s autobiography “The Age of Turbulence”.  If you haven’t read it I highly recommend it.   Greenspan’s life spans most of a century and he provides his perspective on the economy and the famous people he has met throughout his life.  To top it off his personal style of writing makes for an entertaining read.

Today I just happen to get to chapter 7 “A Democrat’s Agenda” in which Greenspan talks about when he first met Bill Clinton while Clinton was president elect.  Greenspan makes note of how Clinton, like Kennedy appointed a fiscally conservative centrist economic team.   Lloyd Bentsen,  Roger Altman, Alice Rivlin,  Robert Rubin  etc.  I cannot help but draw parallels between Clinton’s choices and Obama’s.   In a lot of respects the economic situation that Clinton inherited from GHW Bush is similar to the situation that Obama is inheriting from GW Bush, differing mainly in the fact that by the time of the election that pushed GW’s father out of office, we were already well on our way out of the recession that had dogged the nation for two years.  This time we are still in it.

That recession and this one are very similar in many ways.   Both recessions can be partially attributed to the increasing size of the federal deficit brought on by the increased military spending.  The first Iraq war then and the on going wars in Afghanistan and Iraq now.  In both situations these ongoing military actions dramatically ballooned the national debt.  The primary difference between now and then is that while GHW was forced to raise taxes (breaking his famous “no new taxes” pledge)  his son has been able to keep his tax cuts intact and even expand them over the last 8 years.

When you factor in the effects that an increased national debt has on the money supply and the effect that increasing oil and energy costs have on growth you have a recipe then as now for a recession.

Both recessions were triggered or made worse by a meltdown in the banking system.  The Savings and Loan crisis of the early 90’s and the sub prime mortgage mess of today are exactly the same, both were caused in large part by bad real estate lending, and asset-liability mismatch.   The result then was the same as today a frozen credit and and overall decline in liquidity.

The great test of all this will be the next four years.  Perhaps this situation can more closely be likened to the state of the economy when GHW took office not when Clinton took office.  If GHW was able to see an economic turn around on his watch (which he was never given credit for) then there should be no reason why the same cannot happen under Obama’s administration.

What’s the point of all this?  Well it gives me great comfort to think that we’ve been here before, we survived and after we entered into one of the greatest periods of economic expansion in history.  Obama’s choice of advisors shows perhaps he will steer clear of aligning his administrations policies with the far left of his party (at least for the first few years) and the econnomy will recover in the next 12 – 20 months as many are predicting.  To quote Mr. Greenspan, “I don’t know that I’d have changed my vote, but I’m reassured.”

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.

Living in the great blue state of Washington I knew there was no chance that a vote for McCain would matter in any manner at all that mattered and I was confident that Obama would win by default.   Facing this I was further confronted by the fact that in most elections the choice one makes in the polling booth is often less a reflection of one’s true desire for one candidate as it is more a fear of what “the other guy” (otherwise known as the guy that all the idiots are voting for)  will do if elected.  With these two realizations I was confronted with a sudden freedom.  Since my vote would have been primarily be a vote “against” a candidate that would hence be swallowed up one way or the other in the winner-takes-all electoral process I felt no need to express my choice by the commonly accepted terms of “this guy or that guy”.  So as to exercise my own desires I chose not to be constrained by the presumed duopoly.  I in fact did decide to vote for a third party candidate.

Since one could argue that the exercise of discarding a vote into the great vacuum of lesser party candidates is possibly a more noble cause than simply following rote political theater, I took this task very seriously.  (You can thank me later for attempting to preserve the democratic system.)  Once the choice had been made to vote for a  third party candidate I was determined to make sure that my vote would be one vote that truly counted for not counting.   The ballot lay on my desk for weeks at home while I researched each of the political parties and candidates I had available for my decision.   I poured over data from Wikipedia and Google, I read bios and party histories.  I had to ask myself some tough questions; Did I believe in redistributing wealth like the communists?  Did I believe that there should be no government like the Libertarians?  Did I buy into the xenophobia of the national socialist?  Do I support strict immigration control like the Constitutionalists? What about the environment, was the green party right for me?   Did I really believe the claims of the independent with the long scary hair that he had a perpetual motion machine that would solve the energy crisis?

I had always known that there is this great smorgasbord of political views available out there.  Sure many taste bad, and ALL have a bitter aftertaste that makes them hard to swallow. However with this new freedom now I was no longer confined to a choice between a turd-sandwich and a giant douche.  Now I could choose if I wanted a green pile of poo or a true red pile of shit.  I could get my B.S. with our without immigrants or I could even choose a bonafide nut.

After much deliberation I could not decide if I should “throw my vote away” to the Constitutionalists or the Libertarians since in my heart I would consider myself a Constitutional-Libertarian.  I figure they had both earned my vote after years of slaving away to preserve the illusion of an open democratic republic.  In the end I firmly rested the final decision upon the fact that in the end my choice would not matter. I flipped a coin.

Flipping a coin elevates me only slightly above the generation that would base their choice on their favorite color.

Stop here unless you want to hear my “crazy” political tripe.

I won’t tell you which I finally voted for.  It does not really matter.  Not because my vote did not matter, but because your vote did not matter either.  We have fought wars against regimes that dictated the existence of only one party by force of law.  I find it pathetic then that we as a nation accept a only slightly better two party system willingly and with little dissent because it gives us an illusion of choice.  Fundamentally we are a country ruled not by and for the people, but by and for the parties.  We have allowed the two political parties to write their very existence into laws and regulations at every level of government.  We permit the parties to determine election rules and redistricting.  The very rules that govern how congress operates are controlled by the parties.  The rules for even getting on the ballot in most states favor the two primary parties.  The process that determines the ultimate “choices” in the quad-annual-lesser-of-two-evils decision that we end up with are run by the capricious rules of the parties themselves.  With primaries (paid for by the tax payers) that are only counted in part (if you are lucky) or not at all (if you live in the wrong state) and caucuses that often digress into little more than semi-civilized cage matches between competing bullies operating as proxies for their respective candidates the two parties have little interest in reforming the system and offering anyone real choice.

Fundamentally the parties are not to blame it is the populous as a whole that accepts the situation and even promotes it.  We like to see things in black and white, right and wrong, good and evil. As a christian centric culture this is how we have been brought up as a people to view the world.  We require every candidate to have a position on every issue.  Put all these things together with human nature and the desire to belong and what we end up with is a system where people are rarely if ever in full agreement with the person they support and more often only in close alignment on some core belief that the individual holds higher than other beliefs.  We end up as a populous that is very amicable to manipulation. This is because once we settle upon a candidate we so strongly want to believe anything that they say we will gladly deceive ourselves.   We remember the things that candidates say that agree with what we already believe and gloss over the things that conflict with our beliefs.  When all this comes together, we stop hearing alternative opinions, we focus on the negatives of those we oppose and disregard the positives while focusing only on the positives of those we support and much to the delight of the two parties we stop thinking and looking for alternative solutions to problems.

As long as we continue to require every candidate to hold a position on every issue, as long as we allow the parties to control the election process, as long as we let extremists set the political agenda, as long as we accept a two party system we will have the choice that is no choice.  Would you go to a restaurant with only two items on the menu?  If you were presented with two bad choices in any other aspect of your life would you just accept them and not look for other options?  Diminishing the power of the duo party is the real change we need and the only way to really put the country first.

How then do we do this?  There are many places to start; primary election reform, instant run off elections, changes in rules regarding ballot registration, campaign finance reform, media buy rules,  electoral college reform and voter education are just a start.  I’ll be going into more details on these issues and my opinions on these in the future on my blog.  In the end we the people will have to be the motive of change that seizes control from the parties and reforms our system to more closely resemble the democratic republic we were founded to be.

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.

No I’m not talking about the ancient history of the internet, i.e. the 1960s – 1980s military and educational network. No, I’m talking about the early pre-commercial modern internet. (You know the one Al-Gore “invented”.) It was this early internet that so many geeks tried so desperately to get on to. We were all out there hanging around on BBS systems all clamoring for an ISP. I was lucking in that in 1991 I started working in the computer labs at college. North Central had a relationship with University of Chicago, University of Illinois and AT&T so we were fortunate in that we were on the internet long before many small colleges. (This is back when AT&T actually manufactured PC hardware, our labs were entirely donated AT&T equipment.) So in 1991 is when I first got on the internet and had my first real internet email address.

Ok well back to my point… which is that this early internet, full of very little and most of it from government or educational sources was not of much commercial interest. The internet was a tool to be used for serious research. That is until… porn. Porn was the first business model that worked online. With high margins and easy marketing, porn built the internet. Sort of like casinos in Vegas the fall out from the revenues of porn oon the internet helped the internet grow. From the porn purveyors’ hosting providers and large bandwidth resellers (yes MCI, and AT&T both benefited from porn) to every AOL, and Compuserve. Really we have the libido’s of a million geeks to thank for funding the early growth of the internet.

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.

It wasn’t bad enough that Mr. Silver cursed every wedding, prom and dance I’ve ever been too with this disjointed, discombobulated dance floor seizure. Now he has the audacity to try to sue people for doing it badly. Well, Richard (Dick) perhaps you should be suing yourself, there is after all no way to do this “”dance”" in any other way than badly.

Why on earth anyone would want to purposely claim to have invented this thing I cannot imagine. My working theory is based on a quick search of Google. I can find no other accomplishment for Dick. My theroy is that Dick is simply trying to resurect his 15 seconds of fame as some sort of compensation for a mid life crisis.

All of this is why Richard (Dick) Silver is the Jack-ass of the week.

Here are a couple of links to stories.

http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6156021.html
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37420

Personally I find this Craptacular version on gizmodo funny as hell!

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 2×4s 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 2×4s and 3/4″ plywood.

The combination of the plywood and 2×4s 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