More junk….

Ordered a power strip last week (note: a power strip, not a surge protector). For the past couple of months, I’ve been charging my power bank (my cell phone charger) and my bicycle headlight off my computer’s usb hub. Only issue with it was pretty much everything. It meant setting my backpack on my computer chair, so the usb cords could reach, and there were several nights when I was woken up by my backpack falling off the chair. There was one unused outlet in my room (right by my bed). I realized I could plug it in there, and then route my cables underneath my bed, and keep my backpack where I used to keep it at, and charge my gadgets without tripping over cables or being woken up by stuff falling out…

Tonight Purge is over…

Ok tonight, I threw out my stereo. Farewell Sony MHC-F250AV. May The Flying Spaghetti Monster convey you to The Beer Volcano and Stripper Factory in the afterlife. I remember when I first bought it. It had all the fittings for Dolby Pro Logic home theater, but I didn’t use it when I first got it as my TV at the time was only 5 inches. I thought about getting a larger TV, but that never happened. I got it when I lived in my first apartment in Puyallup. In 2003, I finally really realized that with the All In Wonder Radeon video card (aka Radeon 7200) in my computer, I could wire the sound card of my computer into my stereo, and have home theater at last in my room. And then later on as my music library grew, I used to listen to the mp3’s on my tower. Mainly because it sounded a lot better than my computer speakers.

Then I got my first smart phone. And the realization that I could take my entire library with me. Then I started getting larger TV’s. My brother handed me down his TV, and I started watching it without using home theater. And after that, my boss at Mrs. Fields sold me his 55” TV, and I finally ran out of space in my room. So, I retired it in 2014, throwing it in my closet. Last year I finally got some computer speakers with some horsepower, and I switched most of my music listening to streaming Spamazon (my roommate got me an Echo for Christmas). BTW for $7.99/month, you can stream anything in Amazon’s catalog….

So, farewell stereo. You were the high point of my tech when I first bought you, and you served faithfully for 14+ years. But times have changed. And I need to clear 10+ years worth of junk out of my room.

The purge continues….

Day off today. First day of my scheduled weekend, but it’s day two off. I took a sick day yesterday, but that will be a later post. Continuing on my long-term room cleaning project (aka The Purge). Today, I got the garbage off the floor to the side of my TV stand, and I made some headway into my closet. Among the discard junk I found today was a 7 port usb 2.0 hub, and my original cable modem. I’m throwing them both out. My tower currently has a 10 port  usb 3.0 hub, so I don’t need another 2.0 hub on it (and I even have another 3.0 hub for my laptop). And the cable modem, well it’s just old. When I went back to Comcast, I bought another cable modem because the speeds that are being offered are higher than what the old modem can handle, and I wanted something ipv6 compatible….

My room will be clean. It will take more than one afternoon to do it, though….

The first heat wave is over…

Turned off the AC in the living a couple of hours ago. While I was taking out a bag of garbage, I noticed the wind had picked up, and it was cooler. The weather has changed, as the weatherman predicted. I had the living room AC on, but when I went out, I noticed that the compressor had shut off due to it cooling enough. So, I shut it off since my roommate had gone to bed, and I retreated to my room. My AC is still on, but the temperature is currently 67. And the compressor just shut off as I was writing this.

While riding my bike home for the past couple of weeks, I noticed my chain was making a lot more noise. Time to oil it. From experience I know that WD-40 is not the best thing for bicycle chains. If you have a chainsaw, you can use bar and chain oil. But while searching Wally World, I found chain oil specifically for chain drives. So I gave it a shot, and hopefully I’ll have a not so squeaky chain tomorrow.

Now to pack my lunch and go to bed. Goodnight.

If you’ve ever thought…

If you’ve ever that separation children from their parents, then caging them in abandoned Walmarts, and/or tent cities was ok, and approved by the Bible, then please tie a millstone around your neck and go jump into the sea (to paraphrase another Bible verse). There are some who would say that children are separated from their parents when the parents are arrested for crimes, but there is a difference. When parents are arrested for crimes, there is an effort to place children with relatives or foster care. Traumatic, but something resembling a family. The children are not locked away in cages or tent cities.

What President Cheetos-Face has done is wrong. Intentionally harming children just to coerce Congress to fund a wall. Punishing children for the crimes of their parents (which are only being selectively enforced for racist reasons). Today, he signed an executive order ending the separations (still a bad situation as they will still be detained, but not as bad).

The sooner Donald Trump is constitutionally removed from office, the better the nation will be. Racist, corrupt, and incompetent.

Ok, one day off is in the books…

And it’s time to go to bed. I think we hit the 80s today, and I’ve had my AC on full blast pretty much all day. It never got above 72 in my room. Philip set up the other AC in the living room Sunday. I tried running  them both to cool down the entire apartment, but it didn’t work out. My AC will keep my room cool, and the other AC will keep a zone in the living room cool. Enough to keep the heat wave bearable. And since they’re both portable models, we can put them away at the end of the cooling season.

But there is a drawback. We’re going to be hating the electric bill when it arrives….

But it’s time to go to bed. Tomorrow, it’s a day trip to Mrs. Fields (my second job), and a visit with the owner (my other boss)….

Back to square one….

A know a couple of posts ago, I said I was installing OpenSuSE or bust. Turns out I have an iffy connection to the FTP servers. Too many times, the installer would be attempting to download a 250kB package, and the connection to the server would timeout (while it would download a 1.2gB package with no problem). Anyway, I was going nowhere with it, so I aborted it, booted back into Windows 10 (April Update), rebooted the cable modem/router, and deleted the partition. At least I can resize the Windows partition on the go.

I guess dual booting Windows and Linux is not in the cards for me. But on the bright side, I still have it on a virtual machine (and I also set up a Fedora virtual machine today, too).

The end of 7 year relationship...

7 years ago, my tower at the time started just turning off. Some summary Google searching revealed that my CPU was overheating. I cleaned off the heat sink, and I was good to go. But while I was troubleshooting it, I also went to Worst Buy, and looked at laptops. I saw one that looked good, so I applied for the Worst Buy card. And got approved. Ordered the laptop. 3 1/2 years later, the Tower failed. I requested a limit increase, was approved, and got my current Tower. Through the years, I kept using the card, and they kept raising the limit....

I finally realized a couple of months ago that my ever increasing balances were not good for my financial health, and I cut up my cards. Including my Worst Buy card. And tonight, I finally contacted Citibank, and closed the account. It's going to be a couple of years before I finally pay it off.

Making the decision to cut up your credit cards is never easy. Going cold turkey is never fun. I just hope I'm not over my head already....

One more try....

I'm writing this from my phone. Because I'm currently downloading OpenSuSE on my Tower. Again. It has been 4 years since I successfully ran a dual boot on my system. Every other time I've tried it, I've ended up calling it off about halfway through or just out and out wiping the whole system. Not this time. It's going to happen.

Will if not, I still have a recent backup....

Once again, the end of another good thing...

My laundry is done ünd put away. My lunch is packed. I've even turned off the TV and the computer. It's time to go to bed, abs with it, the end of another weekend. Didn't do much this weekend. Though I ended up having to wipe my phone. My alarms are set, and my bicycle light is charging. It's time to go to bed. Goodnight.

They’re contenders….

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to say this. But the Mariners are contenders. Of course there were a couple of recent seasons when they were eliminated from contention on the very last day. And then there were the times that I has happy that they were just attaining .500 (I think last season, they clawed their way back to .500 at least 8 times). But as of this writing, they are on top of the Al West, leading the ‘Stros (the current World Series champions in The New World Order (Mind-Control Division) by a half game. And they’re currently 20 games over .500. I think they’ll make it to the post-season this year.

But if they’re going to make it the post-season (and the World Series) this year:

• The pitchers need to stay healthy. King Felix, Big Maple, Wade LeBlanc, and Edwin Díaz are all parts of why we’re so good. If the pitchers go down, that’s when the slumps start.
• The players need to stay clean. I’m looking at you, Robinson Canó. Though I think he might be on his way out with the way Dee Gordon is playing (though Mr. Gordon has been suspended for performance enhancing drugs, too).
• The bats need to remain alive. This is the first year since 2001 when so many players have been a valid long ball threat.

When Ken Griffey, Jr came back to Seattle, he was a has been in the twilight of his career. And his retirement (literally in the clubhouse one afternoon, IIRC) cost us also the manager. Ichiro came back in the twilight of his career. But instead of retiring, he has instead ‘reroled’ as a special assistant in the front office. He may not have the on the field performance, but he can still be a mentor off the field. Like The Edgar, our hitting coach.

I think they’ll at least get a pennant this year. Now the Sounders FC, on the other hand….

The Purge will continue…

I’m talking about the cleaning of my room. Didn’t do much this weekend (I basically just wanted to watch the Mariners beat up what ever hapless team they’re facing). But I think the next Target will be the foot of my bed. I now have a redundant easy chair that for logistical reasons can’t be disposed of. Yet. But I can relocate it to another place in my room. And I’ll be able to properly sight my air conditioner. Which according to forecasts, will be needed on Sunday.

Yes, I’m cleaning my room. This is going to be a very long-term project. When dad had his stroke, there was concerns about his house and his room being accessible, and there was an extended, multi-day project to de-clutter it (he’s been there for 22 years). I’m in my 10th year here, and stuff needs cleaning…

Ok, hopefully this will last for a while….

Like I said last week, I wiped my tower once again. Went with Windows 8.1. Then, the night after I restored my Steam back-up (normally about an 8 hour job), as I was riding my bike home, I decided to give Windows 10 another chance. So, I did the stupid thing and upgraded to the April Update. Fortunately, most of my work was still intact, so I could just finish up the install. Tonight, I finished the build. Unlike when I did the clean install, I didn’t have any ‘permissions’ issue with the TV Tuner. And as for the lack of Game Explorer, the Xbox app (through the windows store) provides a lot of the functionality (if not all of it). Too bad Microsoft hasn’t done much to announce that.

It’s a good thing I’ve finished it (and I also have all the Windows 8.1 apps that I’ve missed). As my phone took a dump on me Sunday night, and I have to now rebuild that (I’m actually 75% done with that). This time, I’m not installing all the news apps that I used to install and never use (mainly I use Google News and MSN News). The hard part, is since my phone has a fingerprint scanner, I set my phone to sign in to most my financial apps with my fingerprint, and I now have to remember my passwords to sign in again…

Next up after all this will be my laptop…

What did I do this weekend?

Basically I installed Windows 8.1 on a whim. Don’t ask me why I did it. But there’s just something with the Windows 10 April update, that I don’t like. Maybe it’s the lack of the Game Explorer that’s been around since Windows Vista. Maybe it’s the new camera permission that’s fucked up my TV tuner. But it all works in 8.1. Maybe I’ll give the April update a try down the road.

Actually I’m surprised at how much I got done in the past 2 days. Normally when I install Windows, I start from scratch, wiping everything on the hard drive. That’s what I did. And I got pretty far. Normally what I did in two days takes over two weeks. And I also went to the Credit Union and deposited the rent money (and paid the rent, too)….

And when I finish this, I still have the laptop to finish…

The Purge Begins…

While setting up my Air Conditioner today, I realized it’s time to de-clutter. Going through my junk drawer (my top dresser drawer), I realized that I basically still had every ATI video card I've ever used. Including my original All-In-Wonder Radeon. All my previous towers that I’ve owned I parted out at the end of their useful lives, but most of the parts were at least 10 years old, and they’re not really compatible with what’s out there now (otherwise, I’d still be using them). So, they all got tossed. Along with several miles of cables, a few pairs of headphones, and at least 6 Comcast remotes.

My junk drawer has a lot of space now, and also the top of my dresser does as well (which means I can re-home my echo, since I had to unplug it for the AC). Next up will be my desk, and my entertainment center. But those should be a piece of cake. The real fun is going to be my closet. I have at least 2 printers, a stereo, and who else knows what….

So, like I said, two years ago...

This was originally going to be the previous post, but I realized that it was two years to the day that my mom passed on....

Anyway, one of the decisions that was made was that I got her air conditioner. Work (actually the commute) at the time dictated that I get up at 1:30 in the morning, which meant going to bed during the heat of the day. The AC was in my room for about a month and a half, and then I decided to move it to the living room, so my roommate could survive the heat wave that hit just at that time.

Anyway a couple of weeks ago, I saw a good deal on a refurbished portable AC unit, so I pulled the trigger. It arrived last week and I set it up today. And my room is air-conditioned again this summer. Though when I set it up, I heard some bad reviews about the noise. Unfortunately they were true. But I found a work around. Where the ac is spotted in my room, yo cant see the base of it. I quickly realized that the noise was worst when the AC was resting on it's castor. But if I wedged something underneath it, so that it's not on the castors, the noise is reasonable. So it's now resting on my old pair of Wolverines that I can no longer wear.

I am now ready for summer. I hope...

Two Years Ago....

Two years ago to the day, I went to Mom's apartment to check up on her. And I was the first to discover her passing. Of course, I called 911, and Central Pierce Fire & Rescue made the determination that she had passed. There was some more investigation (sheriff had to rule out foul play), and then the funeral home carted her off, and that was it. She had just paid her rent, so the landlord gave us the entire month to move her stuff out. The death of a loved one is a sharp and sure way to remind one of the frailties of life. Tell those around you that you love them today. They may not be here tomorrow.

May Barbara Bryant spend all eternity frolicking in The Beer Volcano and The Stripper Factory. Ramen.