MyGeekLife.com

Its been an interesting 3 weeks. I spent the last two in San Jose, CA for (CENSORED). As is obvious, I wont mention my employer by name, nor can I mention what I was doing in CA. All I can say is that I was there for (CENSORED), for (CENSORED).

Over the course of my time, I made it to the computer history museum, In-N-Out Burger, San Francisco, Alameda, Oakland, and Cupertino. Sunnyvale as well. I got to see Pam (Skeletor!) and Mikey-San. Both of these things were epically awesome. I also made a host of new friends. Cory and The Duke from L.A., Val from The SLC, Sammich from San Antonio, Jerry from Austin, Trapp from PA, and of course, The Magician from Miami. During my stay in CA, this was my crew. The referred to me as “The Commander.” I dare say that its a nickname that only they will ever use for me. However, its one I reserve only for them.

Many adventures were had. Much insanity ensued. All of it was certainly awesome. When it came time to go home, I have to admit that a part of me didnt want to. Funny enough, The G-Team echoed my sentiment. Everyone lamented having to go home. On the flip-side, it was good to get home. It was good to make it to Thatch for a drink, straight from the airport. And it was good to walk into my (CENSORED). People were excited to see me, had missed me, and were glad to have me back. Yes, I missed it all right back. I love being in the middle of the chaos and awesomeness.

Now, back home, its good to be here. The house needs a cleaning for sure, and I need to think about organizing and stripping away a decent amount of junk thats built up. But there’s time for that.

In the short term, I must teach some mixology, make a trip to the beach, convince Val The Younger to come visit from SLC, and so on. I’m also tempted towards picking up the skateboard again. There are a decent number of free public parks here in PDX, and I need to get more active. I’m thinking I may turn my days off into “hit the park” days. I havent ridden vert since Wil and I used to go to the Vans park in VA, and I’m missing it. My goal this summer, as of June, is to go twice a week, and ride pools and such. Sure street skating is fun, but I like a good 6-foot mini-ramp, and I’ve always wanted to be proficient at carving bowls. Maybe now is the time.

This is the TEST shipment you asked for

Rebroadcasted from Twitter, through MGL, over to LJ. All for the sake of consistency. And for Crash. Who’s still the white grace jones.

• 21:02 @ehanstad Is all good homie #
• 19:39 @ehanstad tiki bar, biznatch #
• 19:32 @krizsa who, what, you? #
• 19:32 @JhonenV chocolate chip or blueberry muffins? #
• 19:31 @ehanstad tell the wife you’re goin out to get krunk with your homies! #
• 11:51 @djtv what models? #
• 11:51 @djtv absolutely. I have your back. #
• 23:51 @djtv word up. I should be there usual time. woo! #
• 21:56 @djtv no tbf tonight. Gotta work early in the AM. doing @tikibarsaturday. And I think TBTD could be a total yes. #
• 15:12 @katemcphail because I pick on Steve? Heh, someone needs to #
• 10:25 @mikeysan You can have my wallet, just…let me keep my license, and dont hurt the girl. #
• 10:23 @stevekruskamp Who is that gorgeous girl, and what is she doing with you?!? #
• 01:11 Watched Top Gun this evening. Felt a need to fly into the danger zone. #
• 00:40 Quote of the day. "let’s play anal twister!" #
• 20:07 @tbridge I’m gonna open J.J.’s Deep Fried Hamburgers, Bacon & Chocolate. #
• 10:59 I decree, if you @ me about your product, you have 100% ensured, that I will never, ever buy it, on principle. #
• 10:58 Let me just say how much I despise the proliferation of twitter advertising. damned twitterspam. #
• 10:15 good god. Bacon lube. Soon to be a real product. www.baconsaltblog.com/2009/04/the-jokes-on-us.html #
• 19:11 you should check out the trailer for the french film Mutants. vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=55062343 #
• 12:56 i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/jyhash/maccident.gif The Eugene Mac Store. I worked there off and on for a while. #

Finally able to route my twitter feed through MGL, regardless of TwitterTools. Let’s see how long this works?

• 21:02 @ehanstad Is all good homie #
• 19:39 @ehanstad tiki bar, biznatch #
• 19:32 @krizsa who, what, you? #
• 19:32 @JhonenV chocolate chip or blueberry muffins? #
• 19:31 @ehanstad tell the wife you’re goin out to get krunk with your homies! #
• 11:51 @djtv what models? #
• 11:51 @djtv absolutely. I have your back. #
• 23:51 @djtv word up. I should be there usual time. woo! #
• 21:56 @djtv no tbf tonight. Gotta work early in the AM. doing @tikibarsaturday. And I think TBTD could be a total yes. #
• 15:12 @katemcphail because I pick on Steve? Heh, someone needs to #
• 10:25 @mikeysan You can have my wallet, just…let me keep my license, and dont hurt the girl. #
• 10:23 @stevekruskamp Who is that gorgeous girl, and what is she doing with you?!? #
• 01:11 Watched Top Gun this evening. Felt a need to fly into the danger zone. #
• 00:40 Quote of the day. “let’s play anal twister!” #
• 20:07 @tbridge I’m gonna open J.J.’s Deep Fried Hamburgers, Bacon & Chocolate. #
• 10:59 I decree, if you @ me about your product, you have 100% ensured, that I will never, ever buy it, on principle. #
• 10:58 Let me just say how much I despise the proliferation of twitter advertising. damned twitterspam. #
• 10:15 good god. Bacon lube. Soon to be a real product. www.baconsaltblog.com/2009/04/the-jokes-on-us.html #
• 19:11 you should check out the trailer for the french film Mutants. vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=55062343 #
• 12:56 i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/jyhash/maccident.gif The Eugene Mac Store. I worked there off and on for a while. #

Today has had me a bit worried. I wont lie. I have a lot to get done today, before I get on a plane tomorrow and am gone for two weeks. Compounding this is the fact that last night, my car’s sunroof decided to jam up and be in the amazingly bad “fully open” position. No, this doesnt leave my car open to thieves, vandals, and the elements. This is perfectly fine. To my sunroof, I screamed, “You fucker!” It would break, the DAY BEFORE I leave on a two week trip. Karma is reminding me that just when I think its break time, it really isnt.

But I’m a determined motherfucker. The sunroof didnt count on that action. It thought I would bitch, complain, and talk to Mazda. Ha.

Mazda: “The earliest we can look at it is next week, and since you’re car is out of warranty, there’s a $125 base charge to look at it.”

Me: “Are you kidding? I’m going out of town for two weeks, tomorrow. And you KNOW its going to rain between now and when I get back. We live in Portland. Forget it. I’ll fix it myself.”

Mazda: “Sir, there are no user serviceable parts or mechanisms in your car’s sunroof and headliner.”

Me. “Buddy, I specialize in non-user serviceable.” (end call)

So, Mazda is of no help to me today. What does a smart guy, with decent technical prowess do when faced with such a situation. I’ll tell you what he does. He grabs a couple nylon tools, some needle nose pliers, a long handle philips, and a socket set. He then gets down to business.

I removed my car’s foam and cloth headliner. I removed the glass sunroof panel. I removed the plastic under housing. And I found that the motor for my sunroof wasnt seated correctly. The three screws that hold it in place had come loose. Hmm. That might have something to do with it. Then I noticed that the cloth and metal screw rails that are driven by the motor, are out of alignment, and out of the tracks. Hmm. That might have been caused by the motor assembly being the way it was. So I then unbolt the the entire sunroof rail assembly and manually slide the rails back to the closed and locked position by hand. Once they’re in place, I reattach the motor assembly, having wound it back to the locked position, and having given it a decent coat of lithium grease. I plug power back in and press the buttons. Well, look at that shit. The rails are moving through the correct motions, exactly as one would expect! Win. So I bolt the entire rail assembly back to the roof of the car. I re-test everything. Well shit on me. It still works. So I reattach the glass to the rails. I test again. Half win. The rubber gasketing has gotten really weathered, and likes to catch. I think I’ll have to get some rubber renewer solution, and fix that. Sunroof goes up no problem. Sunroof goes down, if you give it a little whack. I’d call that 98% fixed. Once I tweak the position of the glass and fix the gasket, it’ll be 100% like new. In the meantime, my car is sealed against the elements and the outside world. WIN.

So the car was my big victory today. Before that, I made it over to Zorn’s house, and set up the G4 I’d built for him, and upgraded his Wi-Fi. Excellent! Two wins for the day.

Previous to that, I also managed to entirely rewire my Les Paul. My bridge pickup was not active at all. I took it to a shop in Springfield ages ago, and had some rewiring done. Back before I taught myself how to wire guitars. They claimed they’d swapped out all the electronics with new wiring and SwitchCraft hardware. They LIE. I conveniently found the Epiphone logo on a bunch of stuff inside. Total fail. And the Bastard was wired wrong too. When set for both pickups (pickup switch center setting) I would either lose the bridge pickup, or either volume knob would shut down all volume. This is not correct, quality, or awesome. There’s an alternate wiring plan that allows you to blend volume with both pickups active, by keeping volume control independently active. Its exactly the same number of solder connections. Just that 6 of them are different. Oh, and did I mention that there was a ton of really thin, shitty wire in my gorgeous guitar? Unacceptable! So I ripped all the wiring out, and redid that bitch. My way. Some testing and tweaking later, and it sounded way better than it had before, and it worked correctly. As it should have all along!

Lastly, I’ve been studying like crazy, and have been building out my G5, since it needed some love and time.

So to recap, I’ve rebuilt a guitar from the ground up, built two computers from scratch, rebuilt my car’s sunroof, studied, and made it to see Star Trek (which was exactly the star trek movie I wanted to see.) Now all I have to do is pack, and make it to San Jose in one piece. I think I can pull this all off. Now, I need a drink, and a nap.

Next Post, from Sunny California! I love my home state!

Its strange. I cant say that my life has any particular routine (other than tiki bar friday), but it seems we’re keeping up with the norm. Chris is job hunting, I’m either at work, or asleep, and in between, we fill the time with friends, movies, and nerdery.

On the nerd tip, my G5 is now up and running. Aptly named The Boom Box, I’ve finally got everything pulled together into one place, which is amazing. It pleases me to no end. Following that, I also built another machine completely out of spare parts, in order to fulfill a promise I made to a friend. Now I need to pull together the monitor and airport card, in order to make good on it all. Go figure.

I’m also in the process of dedicating my time this week to review. So much to read! There is a test coming up next week, and even though I’ve been passing the same test every year for nine years now, I get to take it again, as a formality. And of course, being me, I want to nail it. So I’m reading up and stuffing it all back in my head so that I can do just that.

In between building and studying, I’ve been trying to do a little cleaning, which has had a questionable result. It seems like as soon as I get some thing cleaned, other things are messy again. I cant win.

And of course, as of Sunday, I’m out of town. I’ll be in California. A chance to do work related stuff, and see some friends. Maybe some tourista stuff too. We’ll see.

Until then however, I keep cleaning and studying. There’s also been some video gaming, and some movie watching too. The house has also been party to some quality time involving an Amy type house guest, and a Meghan type houseguest. It seems we’re good at having a third person in the house, and it seems to be a trend. Maybe the futon really is that comfortable… Wait, I’m saying that, and I realize that chris is asleep on the futon, snoring happily. Yup. Must be comfy. Wait. It was only my bed for 2 years. Heh.

And now, having put fingers to keyboard, in order to feel like I’ve contributed to my own digital presence, its time to tackle the kitchen, and get that bitch clean. More Later.

Lastly, Happy Birthday to my friend, my brother, Mr. Jim. Happy Birthday as well to my lovely and awesome niece, little miss Hob-Goblin.

Things continue on as normal these days. I could almost say I’ve got a routine going. Not that it’ll last long, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. Of recent, I re-certified again, which means this is year number nine. I came close to lapsing, due to various issues, but I managed to resolve them, and get it done. At the same time, It looks like I’ll be out of town during May. It’ll be good to be in Northern California for a while. I’ll get a chance to see Mikey-San, Pam, and Carina. I’m gonna try and run into Connor as well. If I’m lucky, I’ll also be able to catch up with my Aunt. I havent seen my father’s sister since his funeral, which was in 2000. I need to rectify that. Also on tap, I plan to make it to Forbidden Island Tiki Bar. I’ve been promising myself this for ages, and now I shall deliver. It’ll be good to see San Francisco again. I’ve missed her, and secretly, she is my favourite city. I cant ever tell Portland that, but I do love the City By The Bay. But thats not this week. I have time to prepare.

Speaking of preparation, I need to get myself back into travel mode. I havent been on the move since last July. Before that, TMS had me traveling all of August through December, a year ago. Then I was home for the 4th, and I havent traveled since. I need to get my game face back on in terms of packing, organizing, airporting, and airplanes. I’ll also need to get myself back used to staying in hotels. Sure, two weeks is a short stretch (I did it for a month once), but I need to retune my mindset anyway.

In other news, I’m finally replacing my G4. I’m swapping up to a G5 thats old enough to support a lot of my upgrades, but new enough to perform the way I want. Sure, my MBP will outshine it in spades, but it IS a G5. Despite its age, its exactly what I want.

Aside from that, its been a busy weekend. Work folks took Crash out to celebrate, and I wasnt one to miss it. It wasnt too late a night, but it was good. Then the weekend continued with a birthday celebration for The Dudge. I absolutely wouldnt have missed it. Of course, once we got talking, it was easily 1AM before we wrapped up. Good thing I had today off.

Today was laundry, and grocery shopping, and music organization, and other household chores. This was followed up by homemade tacos and movies with Mr. Bread. Tomorrow, the week will continue with a decent spate of work which should lead me into next week without fail. Things continue on as ever.

And of course, here in loverly Portland, the weather ha started to get warm. We’ve been in the upper 70’s to low 80’s with sun finally. But of course, the rest of the week will take us back into the upper 50’s, as portland realigns itself with its cooler than everywhere else norms. And, strangely enough, looking at the SF area, it looks like the temperatures will be more like portland than not, which I like. Now if only Portland would go back to being rainy and gray. I’ve no idea why I like it that way. Or why I like it so much. In fact, despite the mountains of snow we got this winter, we didnt have days on end of soaking, perpetual rain. I almost feel left out. I miss my days on end of rain.

On yet another topic, I’ve also decided its time for a new pair of shoes. Its been a year now. More in fact, if I remember correctly. So I’ve been hunting websites, looking for shoes I like. Of course, I found one pair from Airwalk, but they are absolutely unavailable anywhere. So I’ve been looking over a lot of the secondary options, most to no avail. I’m not going to spend 8 hours a day standing in a pair of Chuck Taylor’s, so I need something better. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find the elusive “right pair” yet. Nothing is really jumping out at me, and most everything is way more than I intend to spend. Rest assured, what I get will be some form of skateboarding shoe (old habits die hard), its just a matter of finding the right pair for me to feel like spending the money on. So, my current shoes live on for a little while longer.

And given that its now 2AM, I have to sleep, so I can get up and work till close tomorrow. A Bunny Ranch Warrior’s work is never done.

More later.

I realize that I’ve been less than forthcoming with the writings in this space. Over time, I’ve been wrapped into many other things, which seemed to sap my desire to blog my existence. Not that they werent interesting, or that I didnt have anything to say, but more that I didnt feel like taking the time to write these events down. Something I wish to remedy. To that end, I plan to make a point to post something once a day for a while, even if its of no singular importance. Be it a photo, or a small update, something. I also plan to make myself more present in the twitterverse, as I’ve been sadly lacking there too.

Now, I think a lot of factors have led into my lack of writings. Firstly, there’s the job. Blogging about work is very much verboten. And seeing that I like my job with MotherFruit™, I make a point not to say anything. My previous rantings aside, as well as all thats come before, in the here and now, when it comes to the technology that spawned my career, inundates my daytime life, and pays the bills, I no longer say jack shit. Do I want to? Ha. HA. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Of course I do. To think otherwise would be stupid. But I cant. And I wont. Given the current economic climate, a good job is gold, and I have a good job. And I shall not in any way, risk angering my frutarian masters. Nuff said.

In other news, the personal life changed again and I am now single again. I cant say that this is a great thing, nor a horrible thing, but rather that it is. I keep mindful of the thought that you dont know if you dont try, as I hear Everlast from House of Pain saying “and life goes on…”

As far as Life In Portland™ goes, there seems to be lots of consistency. Get up, go to work, come home, eat, entertain, clean, go to bed. There are weekly trips to the tiki bar, a decent spate of snowboarding, the Annual Caitlin Visit of Snowboarding Victory, there’s been an Evan visit, and there was even a Jim and April visit before Christmas. Upcoming, there’s a Jenifer visit, possibly a Parents visit, and I dont know what else. I’m still itching for a day trip to Seattle, I expect The Parents™ will be out to visit eventually, and when certain things I cant speak about (this sentence will become routine) take place, there will also be a two week trip to the San Francisco bay area. Yes, Pam. Yes Carina. Yes Mikey-San (Dr. Awesome). I owe you all face time/hang out time. I havent seen Pam since Vegas. I havent seen Mikey since Richmond. And I havent seen Carina since well, since my NoVa days. I need to spend time with these people.

Of course, there are portland folks I need to spend time with too. I lament I havent seen a lot of the MF crowd in way too long. I dont talk to any of the TMS folks at all, except for the ones who migrated to MotherFruit™. But that makes sense. The upside is that I very much wish to make time for these folks. The downside is that I spend all my time on the clock, so when I get home, its pass out time. Go figure.

In yet other news, it looks like I’ll be home at the end of september. And by home, I mean NoVa. That crazy guy I call Jason is getting fucking married. At his insistence, I have taken up the mantle of best man, and will be in attendance, wearing a very classy bowling shirt, and a giant sombrero. I may also be flying a kite during the wedding, if I can get away with it. Will I be drunk during all of this? Heh. I’ll be lucky if I can even stand.

Strangely, given all of the busy, and all of the insanity, I’ve still made time to create bacon chocolate bars, make bacon vodka, work on my beer battered deep fried cheese burgers (The Wuncler Burger), and work on the liquor collection. Its coming along. Its not amazing yet, but getting there for sure. Now, I’m delving into things like fried chicken, french fries, tacos, and so many other things I love to cook. Once could say that I’m becoming friends with my kitchen again. This pleases me to no end. Especially since I love to cook. In fact, tomorrow’s meal extravaganza will be homemade fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cornbread, and strawberry pie. I cant wait. Its gonna be awesome. For serious.

As of this moment though, I’m quiet. Its quiet. I can hear myself typing, and Chris is in his room reading. I’ve finished up the laundry, and soon I shall make something to eat. Then maybe throw in a movie. We’ll see. Tomorrow, more posting. I promise.

Well, its safe to say that right now my head feels like a ripe melon. What I thought was a bout of allergies, seems more like a head cold. I dont have any of the other other symptoms of a cold, but my head is all clogged up. Zyrtec is the only thing keeping me functional right now. And considering that I’d really rather not be down for the count right now, it kinda sucks. I’ll get over it though. Its just a matter of time, and patience. 

In other news, Twitter Tools has been updated. Here’s to hoping that it might actually work, when it comes to digesting my Twitter postings. All I want, is for wordpress to make a digest of my tweets. Daily, and weekly. One day, maybe I’ll have this. Who knows.

And on that note, its time for me to go to bed. Decongestants and sleep call to me, as I must be on the clock by 7AM. Yay.

Since day one, something about The Boondocks episode “The Itis” aired, many of us were enamored with the concept of The Luther Burger. Yes. A bacon cheeseburger sandwiched between two Krispy Kreme donuts. It was one of those things that was always talked about, but never really experienced. Well, yesterday Chris and I decided we needed to solve this once and for all. We went out today and procured all that was necessary in order to construct The Luther.

Upon arriving home from shopping today, I got to work in the kitchen, and crafted excellent bacon cheeseburgers. I then placed them on top of Krispy Kreme donuts, instead of buns. We then queued up The Boondocks episode of The Itis. When Riley eats his Luther, we ate ours. 

The Luther is hard to describe. Its like any other burger, except it has a very serious level of sweetness. It was unlike any taste combination I’ve encountered before. 

Now, we can say we’ve done it. I doubt we’ll ever do it again. It was interesting to say the least.

I initially started writing this post on the 11th. However, I got distracted, and I didnt get around to it. So I’ll update the post, and bring things up to speed from then on. Since then, things have been steady. Working, sleeping, some christmas shopping. And as stated, I turned 33. Not that horrifying, but a good time rather. Jim and April flew in for a week, so I got to chill with them, which was a load of fun. We also made it out to tiki bar on my birthday. Many people came out that night, which ruled. Much tiki, and much fun was had. Sadly however, Jim and April had to go home. Here’s to hoping they make a return trip. 

Also of note, my amazing and sweet girlfriend surprised the hell out of me. These days, I really dont worry about presents on my birthday. I’m happiest when people come out to celebrate. However, my awesome and wonderful girl totally hit one out of the park. Tiki Farm had posted a set of tiki mugs ages ago called Rigor Morty & The Dirt Nappers. They were a zombie tiki band, that felt old school Hanna Barberra. 

Well, I had mentioned how awesome I thought they were, and then I promptly forgot about them. I figured they’d long be sold out before I’d ever get around to ordering them. Well, a couple days after my birthday, a package arrived. Lo and behold, there was a box containing the whole set. I almost fell over. My wonderful girlfriend had just gone way, way beyond anything I’d imagined. She pulled off one of the best birthday presents ever. Now, I’m trying to figure out where to put them, so than be displayed decently in the house, as prized pieces in my collection of tiki. 

Now, we’ve progressed into a very strange week in Portland. It started out with threats of snow and ice that didnt materialize. Then, we got a dusting. Then, they said we were in for the storm of the year, if not the last several years. On saturday, it started snowing. It snowed all day. heavily. They closed the mall early. I needed chains to get home. It snowed all night, and then started icing. By the time it slacked off, we had about 8 inches of snow on the ground. We had a half inch of snow on top of that, and another 2 inches of snow on top of that. The roads are snow packed. The freeways are closed in some places, and chains are required. Flights are cancelled. And tonight, I went urban snowboarding with friends. We hit one of the parks, and cruised the hills. Then, we rigged up a tow rope to the subaru, and we went tow-boarding. We also found the main drag, west burnside, was snow covered, and lacked cars. So we strapped in and cruised down west burnside. Man, how I love me some urban snowboarding. 

Of course, then it was time to wrap things up, in case people had to go to work tomorrow. Now, I’m in the living room, watching death race with chris, and looking forward to a day off. Soon, bed. And now, my previous draft picks up where I left off.

(From 11, Dec.)

I’m sitting here, watching Iron Man with Jet and Chris. Its nice and quiet. Jet has her head against my left arm, which makes me happy.

Tomorrow is gonna be crazy, and I know it. Jim and April arrive tomorrow night, after I get off work. Between then and now, I have presents to wrap, and more than a little cleaning to do. But by this time tomorrow, I’ll have friends from far off places, here in portland, and I’ll be on my way to an awesome weekend.

Of note, I got an early birthday present yesterday. The upside, its awesome. The downside, I paid in flesh.

Muh Tiki.

My friend Ximena owns a place called Skeleton Key Tattoo here in Portland. She’s also a tikiphile. She loves tiki and polynesian pop. After a little bargaining, we worked out a deal. The art however, is a little more special. There are three statues in Thatch Tiki bar, behind the bar. They are a trio known as the Baby Eating Tikis. They are classic portland tiki, priceless and awesome. Sketches were made, and art was designed. Then, Ximena took a needle to my right arm. 5 odd hours later, she was done, and I know have a tiki of my own.