MyGeekLife

Today is my Saturday. Yes, Tuesday is my Saturday. I work Thursday through Monday. Weekend days off are a rarity, and I dont see them. Instead, I work the weekend, and have weekdays off. Luckily, The Missus™ also has the same days off. Its good to spend time with one’s girlfriend, at least once in a while.

So yes. Today has been my Saturday. It hasnt been crazy, but its been fun. I slept in, read the news, and goofed off with M. Then, after committing hygiene, we wandered through several of Portland’s better adult stores. Why? Just for the hell of it. We then made it to the Lloyd Center Mall (yux) where we wandered around looking at randomness. In the process, The Missus™ was rewarded with a bounty of new underwear from the great franchise underwear purveyor of the western hemisphere, Victoria’s Secret. This was a plus. While out, we also ducked into Hot topic. I remembered hating them for many years, due to the fact that they took my punk rock heritage and repackaged it for the mainstream masses. Anyone could now get unnatural hair dye, and spikes for their jackets. Curse them for making my rebellion main stream!

Today’s trip to Hot Topic however, was bittersweet revenge. Their inventory of stuff was crap. They sell no hair dye, most of their shit was marked down, they cater to mainstream culture and there were even t-shirts for country musicians on the wall. Hot Topic repackaged my rebellion in order to sell it to the masses. They themselves were then normalized and rendered irrelevant by the same faceless millions that they hoped to sell the rebellion to. What a waste. Hot topic isnt punk, industrial, or goth. They never were. Its a franchise retail brand that tried to be, and then catered to the masses when being punk and goth wasnt popular anymore. Oh, but Twilight is. Bullshit vampire knock offs are everything now. H.T. had an entire wall of that shit. In short, if you want a blue mohawk and spikes on your leather, go somewhere else. But if you want a Twilight snuggie, Hot Topic has you covered like a motherfucker.

Okay, so I needed to rant there. I see that now. I think I’ve made my point. Well, maybe I need to get in one or two more jabs. While in hot topic, M discovered the small stash of Invader ZIM stuff that Nickelodeon is still licensing, in order to milk money out of the aforementioned masses, in order to turn a profit off ten year old cartoons. She couldnt leave without purchasing an iphone case, earrings, necklace, beanie, and so on. If it makes her happy, I’m for it. Conversely, I’m sorry, Mister Scolex, at the pillaging of your creativity. Oh well.

Anyway, I also wandered into the local skate shop, and was disappointed there too. Is nothing from my younger years, the way I left it? Dammit. At least I was able to walk into Nordstroms and find my shaving soap. Yes, Nordstroms. I had to brave my way into a department store in order to purchase a $22 jar of shaving soap. Because I cant use aerosol shaving cream. Because all you morons dont know what quality is, and shave with crap. I buy quality shaving soap. Which means department stores. And scary, patronizing sales people. Are they always that plastic? Fucking creepy.

In the end, while I bitch, and wax poetic about how much I hated the mall, I realize that I spent the day with The Missus™, treated her to new undies, actually DID get my shaving soap, and even swapped out one of M.’s earrings without tearing her earlobe off. I’d call it a good day. Now? I’m going to make mac & beef, play some borderlands with my laydee, and look forward to another day off tomorrow. Nooch.

Way back, on March 9th, I sent a note to the folks at Airwalk. Their website gave details of a shoe I wished to purchase. It was called “The Vic.” It was evocative of the skate shoes I remembered when I was a kid. I wanted them immediately. The website provided almost no information regarding availability, pricing, or well, anything for that matter. I checked their linked retailers. Nothing. So, I went back to the source. I let them know that I very much wanted to purchase their shoes. All I needed to know was where to send or spend my moneys. I heard back, nothing.

Today however, I got an email back. It copied the initial text of my email, and gave me a one sentence answer.

“They will be available at www.airwal.com this fall.”

Okay, so they’ll be available at an incorrect website this fall? Right. But, lets assume for a moment that the person meant airwalk.com. Gotcha. Wait, you have no online store, only links to dealers. Will you be rebuilding your website this year? I dont know.

I would assume that if a manufacturer is getting unsolicited and excited requests for their products, they might show a little enthusiasm themselves. Now, of course I appreciate the reply, but a one word, misspelled reply conveying no return contact info, and even less information regarding my request, might be interpreted as not caring, or having little interest in their customer base at large.

Now, bear in mind that Airwalk was at one time one of the premier skate shoe companies. They attempted to reach a broader market by using stores like Payless Shoe Source as an outlet for their wares. Time has shown us that this plan didnt work, as Airwalk has in time, lost the skate shoe market, and at this point, is carried by very few retailers. None of these are outlets for skate shoes. Given this, I would hope that Airwalk considers their retail options carefully. If they wish to trade on their skateboarding heritage, it would be smart to earn back the loyalty of those of us who once bought and used their products. I say this in that it might help them to regain the brand loyalty of other skateboarders, and such, in the long term.

But, thats just me, and I could be wrong.

Yes. Watch the video. And then let me ask this simple question.

Are you fucking kidding me?

MS opens two  stores. What one might call their flagship stores. Their first entry in to the brick and mortar retail market. And in order to to look spontaneous and hip, they have their employees bring the store to a grinding halt, in order for them to do the electric slide?

I have questions.

1. Do their employees really have so much free time on their hands, that they can drop what they’re doing, in order to dance?

2. Did they go through some kind of corporate, leader led training for the slide? What is the punishment for non-participation?

3. Are their stores really so empty that they can have enough floor space to do such things?

MS is apparently not down with the lingo. They’ve seemingly lost touch with what the kids are into, and apparently still haven’t managed to grasp, figure out, or understand “cool.” They do however, manage to bring their store to a grinding halt in order to dance to one of the 5 songs the DJ at my parents wedding was forbidden to play. I’m appalled. Seriously.

At the moment, that’d be me. I’m quarantined at home with the flu. Now when I say flu, I mean Type A Influenza. This qualifies as Swine Flu, H1N1, or by its more casual name, Bacon Lung™.

For me, it started monday night. I got home from work after coughing all day. The new car stereo had arrived, so I sat down to solder the wiring harness, and get it all hooked up. A brilliant idea. I finished this wiring in about an hour, and then shuddered. An involuntary twitch. And it was like someone turned on a switch. I couldnt stop shaking/ shivering. It was probably the most creepy sensation I’ve ever felt. One minute fine, the next one, bam. I dosed myself up on robitussin, and Tylenol, and headed for bed, figuring I’d be better in the morning. It takes a lot to make me sick. See, I dont get sick.

Well, Tuesday morning brought the realization that I was not healthy. All night had been spent shivering and sweating, while coughing. I still had a fever of 101. I called in to work. Not coming. I’m sick. I spent the day on the couch. napping, watching horror movies, and taking meds. Trying to let my body rest. By tues night, the fever was 102. Wednesday came, and I now could add aches, chills, sinus pressure, dizziness, and confusion to my list of symptoms. I spent the day on the couch, in a oblivious haze, feeling horrible. When chris got home from work, I took my temp. 103.5. Okay, dammit. I’m at almost 104 degrees. All the traditional wisdom says that if you get over 102-103, you need to see a doctor, because something is bad wrong. I wasnt capable of driving, so chris took me to the local emergency clinic. They were super nice, and agreed that I was very much not healthy. The took samples of mucus, and ran tests, confirming what I already knew. I has the flu. And not only that, I has the bacon flu. And a pretty good bout of it too. On the upside, the doc said that my immune system is strong, and is putting up a decent fight, so I should be pleased by that.

Anyway, the doc wrote me a note for work, and sent me to walgreens to get prescriptions filled for tamiflu, motrin800, and a cough suppressant. I hit the drugstore, got the goods, and came home to pass out. so far, the motrin has gotten my fever down in the low 100s, and has quelled many of the other symptoms. I’m partially functional now. However, I’m still highly contagious. I’m to remain at home until after the 31st, or until I’ve not had fever or symptoms for 48 hours, which ever is longer. The reality, I probably wont be back at work until tuesday. Honestly, thats fine with me. I dont think I could weather an 8 hour shift right now. I’m still relatively exhausted. Oh, and I’ve been coughing so hard, I’ve pulled my stomach muscles. they’re now sore too.

In all, this adventure has been less than awesome. I havent had the flu since 1999. I’d say that after 10 years, I’m probably due. It doesnt mean I have to enjoy it though. And the kicker? I’m too sick to install my car stereo. Sucktacular. I swear.

Let me be absolutely crystal clear. I hate the marathon. With an unending passion. A torrential river of dislike.

Its one thing to take over my street and my city. Its another thing to wake me up at 6:45 in the goddamned morning, blasting classical music out of P.A. speakers. It was so loud, I thought it was my alarm clock. I actually had to get up, get dressed, and go outside to find the person in charge and inform them that they were filling our house with unwanted music, and that we were trying to sleep. The guy in charge seemed generally clueless, but was nice enough to turn it down at 7AM. at 7:45, just as I was getting comfortable and settling into my last hour of sleep, I’m fucked again. Only this time it isnt classical. Its bad 80′s hits. Not even good 80′s songs. Bad ones. And louder.

Goddammit, this is my house, my street, my neighborhood. Yes, the city approved this bullshit, but I live here. not 100 feet from this. Nobody asked me. Nobody got my approval. And I’m the one that gets rousted out of bed early, cant park on my street, and has to be primarily inconvenienced by this crap, along with my immediate neighbors.

Yes, as of this morning, formal complaints are being filed to the city, and the portland marathon. As many people as there are that like the marathon, I’m not one of them, and dammit, they’re going to know about it.

As much as I love my city, and I do, there’s one thing I dont love about Portland. During spring/summer/fall, there seems to be some sort of marathon, race, run, charity walk, parade, or other road closing, traffic blocking, city disturbing event that gets in the way of modern transportation or commerce.

Earlier this year, it was the parade during the rose festival. Oh, yes. Lets block off all the main arteries in and out of downtown, for the parade. Shit, even better, lets shut down a bunch of the streetcar lines, so that people in the uptown neighborhoods cant get downtown without walking for 45 minutes. And oh, shit. Its going to rain that day. Yeah. I loved walking to the streetcar stop, to find out my line was shutdown. I then loved walking across NW Portland, in the rain, in order to get to work. Oh, and lets not mention that I had to take the most circuitous route possible, because I couldnt cross any closed streets.

Then, lets not forget that more recent aids/cancer/pink ribbon shit, that also took a human pizza cutter to downtown, yet again making my commute a pain in the ass.

Of course, no rant is ever complete without a climax. That would be tomorrow. Tomorrow is the portland marathon. This motherfucker criss-crosses North portland, northeast, northwest, and southwest portland. It blocks off most of the major north/south arteries on either sides of the river, trisects downtown, and, wait for it, yes, goes right down my motherfucking street. Yes, I kid you not. Several thousand fucking people will run/walk/jog/limp/etc right past my house. Pulled from their website,

NW PORTlAND

• NW Portland along NW Raleigh between NW 17th and NW 25th: This area is readily accessible by car for an individual who has earlier watched runners and walkers on both SW Broadway and SW Naito. There is adequate parking in the Northwest neighborhood area, particularly between NW 17th and NW 20th (see map). This area is near Mile 12.

Oh yes. I concur. This area is very much accessible by car. Its a crowded neighborhood of row houses and upscale shops where people fucking live and work! There’s plenty of parking. Because nobody ever comes here, doesnt live here, and wont have anywhere to go while you pricks take over the city. And of course, if you’ve seen a bunch of fuckers run by you earlier in the morning, you should totally come to my house tomorrow, park on my street, and watch the same fuckers run by again. Oh wait, you cant. My street is blocked off for a stretch that runs for 8 blocks!

This shit happened last year. Without anyone bothering to mention the marathon, I came out of my house with Cat, and found my street awash in runners. And nobody could understand why I was visibly upset, nor could they fathom why I might want to move my car. God forbid I should magically know they’re coming, or want to oh, say, go to fucking work!

What really chaps my ass, more than the rampant marathons and other traffic fucking incidents, is the fact that nobody even bothers to think, “Oh, Shit. we’re gonna block of residential streets for over 8 hours. We should notify people in advance, so they can move their cars, or make other arrangements.”

Its pure providence that a coworker reminded me of the marathon. I’ve already moved my car. I’ve already planned an alternate route to work. If I’d come out the door, and seen a marathon blocking my way in the morning, I seriously think I’d have lost my proverbial shit. I’d have gone bananas.

To the portland marathon. I make one simple request. Use non residential streets for your damned marathon. Or, if you do/have to, maybe you should let us residents who live on those streets know whats up. Maybe you missed it, but some of us dont work a monday-friday schedule. Some of us work on sunday. Some of us dont like being late to work. And yes, some of us dont like you. Next year, if you plan your way down my street, I’m taking the day off, so I can set up on my porch, and hand out free cigarettes to the marathon entrants. Just to piss you off.

Things I’ve learned since my temporary internment here at BWI.

The wifi only really works in the gate area. In the ticketing area, you’re fucked.

There’s really no such thing as comfortable seating in this airport. And dont even think about a place to lay down.

Granite is really, really hard. I dont recommend trying to sleep on it.

There’s a stained glass crab the size of a volkswagen in the BWI airport.

Terminal A has all the cool shit. Terminal D has, well, shit.

My MacBook Pro, while so many things, is not a pillow, no matter how much I want it to be.

William Gibson’s “The Difference Engine” is very eloquently written, but makes no damned sense when you’re sleep deprived.

In the three years since I moved away from DC, the traffic between Fairfax and BWI has become intolerable. I’m not flying in or out of this airport ever again.

I’ve always maintained that with average normal people, common sense goes out the window when dealing with phone problems, computer problems, and rush hour traffic. I can now add airport security screenings to this list.

The TSA really needs to stop hiring the bottom of the barrel, lowest common denominator, middle grade morons. Now, I’m sure some of their people are bright and motivated, but I’ve not yet encountered them. All I’ve encountered are the people that get paid minimum wage, sit on their asses, and could give a shit. Seriously, tell me it isnt a government operation.

People have forgotten that its not okay to cut in line.

Airport chinese food does not, I repeat not count as food.

Most all airline agents (that I’ve encountered so far) will go the extra mile to help you, if you show them some courtesy and appreciation. (Like Dalton said, “Be nice.”)

Music begins with Hall, and ends with Oates.

Apparently shitting in a TSA x-ray machine is a suitable retaliatory measure, given my situation. Its been recommended by multiple people.

right now, I would kill, KILL for a bottle of gatorade, and a package of Twinkies. And by twinkies, I mean snack cakes. Not two cute gay guys in a sleeping bag.

My MacBook Pro really DOES have an amazing battery. (Thank you MotherFruit.)

Never ask airport police if you can borrow their Segway for a few minutes in order to “Check that mother out.” It seems they dont have a sense of humor.

For once, I’m atually looking forward to sleeping on a plane.

And last but not least, I’m firmly reminded why I only come back east about once a year. I always have too much to do, not enough time to do it in. I never get to spend enough time with the people I’m coming to see, and I end up not getting to see most of the people I’d like. And yes. I have to leave Portland for a week, once a year, in order to be reminded how much I really do love her.

I’m sitting in BWI airport at the moment. At 6PM, my flight took off. 2 hours in traffic. And a mad dash to the gate got me to my plane in time to see it taxi from the jetway. Pure fail. And of course it was the last flight heading west. The result? I spend the night at the airport. I have standby tickets first thing in the morning. No seat assignments though. No guarantee I’ll get on either of the flights I have boarding passes for. It’s all up to luck now.

Reality says “no, you won’t get any sleep tonight. No, you won’t make it home in time for work, and no, nobody will be available to pick you up at the airport.”

Courtesy of reality, I had to use another day of vacation time because of this, and I’m stuck in a less than comfortable airport all night. Sure, I could have gone back tithe parents house. But I would have had to get up at 3 so I could be here by 4 in order to catch a flight, maybe, at 5. Then not only do I get no sleep but neither does the moms. Screw that. There’s no reason for us both to suffer.

As I sit here on a marble slab, outside security, I have no signal from airport wi-fi. I found a radiator, so I’m not cold. It could be so much worse. I’m sure of that. I’m hopeful, but there’s still time for this to get even more Fucktarded.

I swear, I’m never flying out of bwi ever again. Ever.

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!

Due to paperwork that must be drawn up by a lawyer and voted on by the still 2 separate boards, and the timing with Social Security, the acquisition can’t take place until Jan. 1st.

Riding 36 miles last week was indeed too many. Ankle is grumpy.

Ballot is ready to be mailed. woohoo! If you haven’t already, go vote. No vote, no complaining.

Amusing: Friendly Atheist offered $10k to spend summer with Christian family.

On the same note as above:
While I’m not surprised, I’m also not happy. Darth MILF-ius has spent taxpayers money to promote religion.

Also, Texas is looking into revising their science standards. Since Texas standards dictate how the text books for the rest of the nation are written, this could end very badly if Don McLeroy has his way. Click to read more on this topic.

Now I’m debating between the bike light project and this LED blaster project. Well, not between which one to do, just which one to do first. Too bad I’ve got a conflict with the arduino board workshop