Date:	2008-05-08 18:52
Subject:	Values
Security:	Public
Mood:	pissed off

I have a friend who bashes Christians a lot. As far as I can tell, his barometer of Christian values is any value any major Christian figure espouses that is not one he holds. Being a non-Christian, I suppose any common values he may have are not exclusively Christian, and thus are not Christian Values. So anything some hated figure like Jerry Falwell or other televangelist says is used to tar the idea of Christianity as a whole.

I'm not religious. I have no use for religion at all in my life. But I do recognize the social utility of religion. Lord knows there are enough people who need the promise of heaven and the threat of hell to to keep them from being a danger to society (and thus, me.). *grin*

Frankly, I usually find the antics of the liberal anti-religious fanatics more annoying.

But not this time.

It's the Proselytizing that bugs me. And I don't mean the door to door stuff. I mean the recruiting in bathrooms.

"Huh?" you might say?

A few years ago I was going into the bathroom at a local Wal-Mart (Not the one I usually go to) and this older man is rushing out, looking somewhat furtive. When I get to the urinal, there's this carefully folded slip of paper designed to look like a quartered $10 bill. If you were to pick it up and look at it, it would unfold to say something like "Disappointed? Jesus won't disappoint you...." and further blah blah blah. This flier was pretty old, since it hadn't been updated to look like the new $10 bill. The man had placed one on each urinal and stall.

These things annoy me for a couple of reasons. First, they must think I'm really, really stupid, and that all they have to do is TRICK me into reading their text and I will magically be transformed. I'm sorry, but if you have to trick someone into believing (that is the idea, right?) then that says very little in favor of your faith. The second is "You're soaking in it". These little tracts are written in such a way that they sound absolutely convincing to someone who is already a believer. But if the intended audience is someone who does not believe in God or the Bible, citing the Bible as proof fails. It's a circular argument, and only succeeds for those already inside the circle.

They also annoy me because they aren't even as inadvertently entertaining as a Chick Tract.

But yesterday I ran across one that REALLY pissed me off. I went to the bathroom at an Office Depot I was servicing, and there on the floor was yet another little religious come-on, titled "Under Attack" On the front was a picture of a New York firefighter looking over the rubble of the twin towers. You can already tell why I'm pissed. I may not be religious, but if there's one thing sacred to me, that's it. Using the tragedy of 9/11 to try to sell people on your church is lower than low.

It then goes on about how we're all going to die some day, and how we must accept Jesus to be ready for death. Remember what I said about circular arguments? The people who write these things fill them up with phrases and Cant that only have actual meaning to those who have already accepted it. Stuff like "the gift of Eternal Life through Jesus" is probably very meaningful to Christians, but without all the background, it's just as nonsensical as "There's no Prob with Bob."

And in fact, I kind of disagree with the premise of belief in Jesus as a sort of holy "Get out of hell free" card. I mean, if I'm going to be judged and held responsible for my actions, then *I'M* the one responsible. Punishing someone else for my "sins" is wrong, and telling me it's already been done 2000 years ago only compounds the injustice. (It also brings to mind the Jules Pfieffer (?) quote "If Jesus was sacrificed for our sins, do we make his sacrifice unjustified by not committing them?"). I'm sure it makes perfect sense to Christians, but it's nonsense to me, and I don't choose to believe in things that don't make any sense.

I know I have some Christian friends who read this. It's not meant to be an attack on them or their faith, but just on these creeps who use this technique of evangelizing. And don't try to explain Faith to me. If it were explainable, it would be Reason, not Faith. the closest you can come is Pascal's Wager, which I guess I've come as close to as I'm going to get by simply not being a rotten person.

Date:	2008-05-07 21:27
Subject:	Till Later
Security:	Public
Mood:	nervous

Yesterday I finished work early. I got home in time to do more Rototilling, and finished off the garden.

And not a moment too soon. While they've gotten very tall under the fluorescents, the Tomatoes are starting to die off. (Oddly, one that went around the shop light is greener). Tonight I was working too late to try to plant. Hopefully tomorrow I'll finish early enough to finish my irrigation project (More on that later).

Other plants seem to respond very well to the fluorescent lights. The Celery, Cantaloupe, Basil, and Forget-me-nots are thriving. The Cantaloupe is clearly more sensitive to pot size. The ones in the 2.5" peat pots are much bigger than the ones in the 2" squares.

The Jalapeños are doing so poorly, I may change around the garden plan.

Date:	2008-05-07 00:44
Subject:	Daily Bread
Security:	Public
Mood:	nerdy

So, I baked my first three loaves of bread this evening. They came out quite nicely.

I think it was a bit unrealistic to expect the temperature control to be as precise as what I was doing manually. But the question is, how precise does it have to be? This cooked well enough, and I didn't have to pull up a stool to run the oven.

I ran the wire from the thermocouple on my multimeter up through the vent under the front of the oven door and up to the rack, thus avoiding the oven door seal. The temperature varied from about 15° above 425° to about 30° below. I would have liked it to be tighter and more centered. The calibration is adjustable via arcane settings, but I'll use it for a while before messing with anything. It may also be more stable at lower temperatures. Time will tell.

And even though I didn't have to pull up a stool, I did watch the bread bake for a while. It's nice to have a huge front window.

(The oven light however doesn't warm the interior as much as on the old oven. Although it's still a nice place to let the bread rise).

Date:	2008-05-05 22:34
Subject:	Stove In
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

Mike lucked out, he was at a Mariner's game. So I asked Gary, but his buddy actually did the helping.

It took a while to transfer the power cable from the old oven to the new one. Did you know that ovens don't come with a power cable? Mainly I had to fight with the strain relief. Did you know that the strain relief comes with the cable, not the oven? Making it fit the new opening took a fair bit of modification, and I had to unscew a lot of things they don't normally plan on you unscrewing.

Anyway, once I got it all in place plugged in and leveled, it worked first time out. It was a bit tricky to get it in place because I had to install the anti-tip bracket. While I'm unlikely to climb on the open oven door and tip the stove over, you never know what the future holds.

I ran up the oven, and then all the burners to burn off any manufacturing leftovers. It beeps when it's done preheating. It got to 400 in 13 minutes.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to bake bread, And for once, I won't have to sit there with the multimeter turning the oven on and off manually the whole time. Although I doubt the oven will be able to control the temperature as tightly as I could (+/- 5 degrees!).

Did you know that ovens don't come with Broiler pans? They seem to be a premium as a reward for registering your warranty and coughing up $9 for shipping.

I'm just going to keep the old one. Never used it anyway.

Date:	2008-05-04 23:51
Subject:	I've got a Stove in my Van
Security:	Public
Mood:	pleased

While I may have had bad luck finding kittens, another phase of my post refinance plan has gone very well. A high priority has been to replace the ancient stove (That's cooker to you, Zaan :-) that was original to this house.

Basically the builder put in the cheapest Kenmore stove he could get... well, maybe one step up from that, because it was self-cleaning. But it is vintage 1995, and the oven thermostat had a hysteresis of about +/- 90°, so bad that if I wanted to bake anything, I had to put the temperature sensor from my multimeter in the oven, and manually control the temperature. I got pretty good at it, and it got me thinking a lot about PID control algorithms - it's a robotics thing, don't worry about that.

Since I frequently use a real wok to cook, not one of those nasty flat-bottomed Teflon-coated things they call a Wok, or maybe a "Stir Fry Pan", which requires the use of a ring, a glass-topped stove was out of the question. Coil burners are better IMHO anyway - easier to fix. That put me in the cheaper end of the spectrum. But the one thing I really wanted in a stove was the electronic thermostat.

This one has just what I want. Coil burners, electronic thermostat, a large window (the old one didn't have one), and self-cleaning. And no funny features I didn't want.

And the price? One reason I went tonight was that Sears had one of their periodic "Friends and Family" sales. I got an e-mail from Impact about it (Impact does some work for Sears). Basically the store stays open late on a certain Sunday and gives you an extra 10-20% off on stuff. The stove I was looking at was originally $429. The sign showed it marked down to $399. Then there was some other sale going on that marked it down again, plus this Friends and Family sale.... In the end, I got the stove for $309 plus tax.

However, being under $399, I didn't qualify for the $75 delivery and installation service rebate. ($65 to deliver, + $10 for Saturday delivery since nobody's home during the week, +$10 old stove haul-away. I'd be out $10). So I had to pay for the stove, go home, get the van, drive to the adjacent warehouse, and have the box stuffed in the back. Yay, I get it a week earlier.

I'll see if I can draft Mike to help me get the stove up the stairs and into the kitchen tomorrow, after I pull out the old stove. As for what to do with it, I'm not sure, the thermostat is the main issue. I wonder if Goodwill takes appliances? Maybe freecycle or Craig's List.... Unless anyone who reads this want to take a crack at it first.

Date:	2008-05-03 16:51
Subject:	Mission Failure
Security:	Public
Mood:	frustrated

Trying to deal with a low grade background Fury here....

Yesterday I managed to get to the Escrow office just before closing (as in 15 seconds) to pick up my checks. Annoyingly, I guess to make sure that the payoffs got to the creditors they were aimed at, they gave me checks made out to the exact amount I owed to each card (Except for the Wells Fargo card, which went up too much) instead of giving me one fat check for the full amount of the cashout and letting me pay the bills as I saw fit (i.e. electronically). I had to hit the websites last night to get current bills just to get the payment addresses for some of them.

So today's mission was threefold. 1: Get to the Post Office to send off the checks (for security, too much mail theft around here), 2: hit the comic shop which is very near the Post Office, 3: go to the Everett Animal Shelter and pic out a couple of kitties.

I had actually prepared last night for the potential new arrivals, cleaning out the old water and food stations and preparing the litter box. I filled them all this morning. Then I dug the old cat carrier out of the garage and cleaned it up and put a towel in the bottom.

I should have paid greater heed to Banner's difficulties.

The Everett Animal Shelter was devoid of kittens. But they told me there was some kind of adoption event at the PetSmart all the way down in Woodinville and gave me a bad address. I found it anyway. There were actually two shelters there with cats. One had two kittens who were kind of tired out and not very interested in anything. They were $100 each. The other group, Oasis, I have no idea what they wanted for their kittens, because the woman running the set-up there completely ignored me as if I wasn't there. In fact, as I watched her deal with a couple adopting a kitten, she only talked with the woman. I didn't notice it immediately, but I realized it later. After about 15 minutes of watching her gaze through me without acknowledging my presence and vigorously chatting up the other middle aged women looking at the kittens so that I couldn't get a word in edgewise to ask for her attention, I just got really pissed off and left.

Eventually I found myself all the way up at the PetCo in Smokey Point. I'm sure there were other places along the way, but I knew this one because it was next to one of my Office Depot stores. They had nothing. On the way up, I spotted another PetSmart. NOAH was the shelter there, and they had no kittens either. They old lady from NOAH talked to me and mentioned how odd it was that there were no kittens this year.

Out of options, I left, and hit Wal-Mart for some groceries. Mistake. I was in a poor mood to deal with the teeming masses of people. And of course, I got stuck in the self-checkout line behind two consecutive women with no clue how to operate the machine. (Look, it's a BAD idea to buy greeting cards at the self-checkout because they weigh virtually nothing, and the scale under the bags won't detect them, and you'll have to sit there and be confused by the "Skip bagging" screen five times before you figure out the right thing to do.) But I did strike up a conversation with the oddly pretty woman behind me in line, mostly grousing about the idiots ahead of us. Of course, when it was my turn, the machine had to refuse to read one of my items. I ended up punching in the UPC manually. At least I knew how to fix the problem.

So here I am, home, after managing to NOT kill anyone in the parking lot, with kitten chow in the kitchen, but no kittens to eat it, a hundred unnecessary miles on the odometer, and I'm gritting my teeth. It's raining, so I can't work on the garden. Maybe I can bring myself to do something in the shop, but my mood is really, really pissy at the moment. I'm calm, but right under the surface, I know I'm ready to go off at the slightest additional frustration.

Date:	2008-05-01 21:41
Subject:	Working
Security:	Public
Mood:	pleased

Big Target roll-out. The stuff is pretty good again this year. I was paired up with one of the new guys, who is really slow at building, so in spite of the usual piss-poor payouts, I probably made some good money today. (Seriously, I can't believe how slow this guy is. And I can't even figure out why. But he only got 6 pieces done in about 8 hours, while I did 16.)

While I was working I got a call from the escrow company. Since I'd shot them copies of my current balances on the cards and they were more than what was on my original application (Well, Duh, that was made over a month ago) there was some adjustment to be made. Fortunately I don't have to come up with the extra $640 or so at Closing, they'll just leave some balance on the Wells Fargo card.

Since I don't have to make a mortgage payment this month, I'll just nuke what's left and achieve the same effect. I didn't need to have any cash back out of this deal anyway.

Tomorrow's the big day.

When I got home, I spent about an hour annoying the neighbors with the tiller and finished off the second quarter of the garden. So I figure it'll take another three hours or so of work to till the whole thing. And probably another two tanks of gas....

Date:	2008-05-01 00:14
Subject:	Mini whiteboard
Security:	Public
Mood:	creative

I haven't forgotten the Whiteboard, it's just been slow to accumulate. But I thought I'd toss out this one I came up with today.

"He's like an Idiot-Savant who isn't actually good at anything."

and a few days before:

"How do Pimps get paid?"
"By the piece."

I may repeat these in a proper update.

Date:	2008-04-28 21:19
Subject:	Holy shit!
Security:	Public
Mood:	ecstatic

Date:	2008-04-28 20:51
Subject:	Sign of the Times
Security:	Public
Mood:	pleased

Things worked out pretty well today. While I was at my first work order, in nearby downtown Everett, I got a phone call from the title company. My paperwork was ready. Since they were in south Everett, and my next call was in Wallingford (North Seattle), I took a little time to stop by and sign a 3/4" thick stack of paper.

The new mortgage closes on Friday. I don't have to come up with any cash, in fact, I'm going to be getting some back. (In part because of the timing of the first installment on property taxes, they don't know which escrow account it's going to come from, so both need enough to cover it, and I get it back from the other.)

Date:	2008-04-28 00:18
Subject:	Garden stuff
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired

( 4 pics )

Date:	2008-04-26 21:38
Subject:	I got yer stimulus package right here....
Security:	Public
Mood:	content

Man, I wish I had a dirtier post to go with that title.

I decided to do some yard work today. The lawn needed serious mowing. Well, not so much in the front, the moss has pretty much destroyed my front yard, but the back was horribly long.

So I dug out my ancient mower, which probably has about 1 of its original 3.5 horsepower left in it now, removed the blade and sharpened it, then reinstalled it. I really should have balanced the blade, because man does that mower shake....

In any case, I managed to get it all cut, taking an extra half tank of gas to deal with the overgrowth in the back. I definitely got a bit of sun, as my reddening noggin tells me. I didn't feel like getting out the blower to push all the clippings into the blackberries. I'll probably do that tomorrow.

Then I decided to pay a little attention to the garden plot. I really need to get it ready for planting. The seedlings are getting a bit too big to keep indoors any more. I've been dithering about whether to buy more steer manure and rent the big rototiller again. I just don't like the whole rental business and the timelines associated with returning the gear. Still, it would have been cheaper than what I did next.

So there I was, raking the end of the bed where the carrots were, trying to smooth it out, and realizing just how hard-packed the path from last season was, and pulling out a lot of rocks. I decided that I did need a tiller. I decided to go look at what the stores had in the way of a Mantis or something. I didn't want to spend too much.

Well, they're all a lot more expensive than I thought. Even the smallest dedicated tiller was almost $300. But then I was looking at the gas-powered trimmers, and all the accessories you can get for them. And I started doing a little math, and then I remembered I had a coupon at home for $25 off a purchase of $250 or more. I did take the time to comparison shop at Wal-Mart, but Lowes had the advantage with the coupon, and they had a special on the low-end Troy-Built trimmer (They're all the same 31cc motor, but the trimmer heads are different). I managed to JUST hit $250 with the trimmer, the tiller attachment, and an edger, plus a new gas can for the two-cycle mix. (Okay, and another $2 for some 2-cycle oil). The coupon basically covered the sales tax.

The tiller and edger are not actually "Troy-Built" but they fit. In fact, apparently ALL the manufacturers adhere to the same standard. And there must be some association, since the manual for the tiller had some of the same illustrations as the manual for the trimmer....

As it turns out, I could justify all this, since I DID need to do some trimming, and my ancient little electric string trimmer is certainly not up to the job (I bought that back when I got the Vancouver house, along with my mower). I tell you, It was a real Tim Allen moment when I got the thing started and saw what it could do. And the less said about my manual push-edger, the better. It was reasonable in Vancouver, where I had no sidewalks, just a short driveway that needed the occasional trim, but it doesn't work so well here.

Anyway, with the four hundred and some-odd dollars that I should be getting this week, the expense is more than covered.

And tomorrow I'll be edging the sidewalks and driveway and getting the bed ready to plant. And I'll be wearing a hat this time.

Unless it rains.

(Man, I'm getting so mundane lately)

Date:	2008-04-24 22:40
Subject:	*boggle*
Security:	Public
Mood:	impressed

Will Smith in a superhero movie.

Hancock.

Looks like it could be really good.

Date:	2008-04-24 22:04
Subject:	What a day
Security:	Public
Mood:	aggravated

Oak Harbor, Bush Commercial Quad roll out, Two experienced guys helping this time.

It went pretty quickly. That was actually part of the problem. I'm supposed to be the team lead, but in the rush to put up all the signage, which is supposed to be my responsibility, they got ahead of me and stuck the OfficePro wood block sign on the side of the Quantum locker. Nothing for it, can't take it down without leaving a dozen screw holes in the side of the locker.

This is the second time this guy misread the layout too. In some ways, having trainees is better.

PLUS my service visit to the store had to happen at the same time. And I had the wrong project plan document, and screwed up my report, and Tech support was closed already.

Feh.

Date:	2008-04-22 19:29
Subject:	Crazy people
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

Last week when I was doing the Bush Commercial Quad rollout at the Shoreline OfficeMax, I had an encounter with a crazy lady.

Earlier I'd gotten a call about my mortgage being approved, and shortly afterward I was talking with the appraiser about when we could do the appraisal.

As I was standing there talking on the phone, this rather impatient and agitated lady with some binders in her arms was staring intently at me as if she expected something. Now, the fact that I have a name badge on often causes people to mistakenly assume I'm an employee and that I know where things are, so I take a moment, lean towards her and quietly say, "I'm sorry, but I don't actually work here."

She suddenly snaps "You asshole!" and stomps off. But unsatisfied, she pops back around the divider, leans in and carefully reads my name badge aloud and says, "I'm going to report you!" and again stalks off. The appraiser and I found this somewhat amusing.

Alas, poor Pat, the cashier did not, because she had to endure the crazy-lady's profanity laced diatribe, and apparently explaining that I was not an OfficeMax employee and I only assembled the Furniture was wasted on deaf ears. I'm still not clear on what it was this lady actually wanted from me.

The story spread quickly, and soon we were all laughing about it in the back room. And since this was one of the stores I'm handing off to the new guy, I said "Dammit, now I can't work here anymore!"

Date:	2008-04-19 11:04
Subject:	Keeping you appraised
Security:	Public
Mood:	bitchy

I learned something from the appraiser. All this time my house has been taxed as having a finished basement. But it's not. Even the drywall I've put up isn't enough to make it finished. It has to be painted and have flooring.

I doubt I can get any back taxes back, but if I'm willing to wait forever in line, I could perhaps lower my taxes in the future.

Date:	2008-04-19 02:57
Subject:	It's SO empty here.
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

The kitchen is completely clean. There is NOTHING on the dining room table except an oil lamp as a centerpiece. There are a few things on the coffee table, but the sofa is also clear.

The bathrooms are clean, floors scrubbed, towels I've never used are hanging up.

It's so not me. It feels like I'm moving out or something.

It's like, I could even Entertain in here, it's so sterilized.

But at least I can visit my stuff in the spare bedroom. That is PACKED with junk now.

I still need to vacuum and move those tomato stakes tomorrow before the appraiser shows up at 10:00.

Date:	2008-04-18 17:15
Subject:	Where the fuck is Al Gore?
Security:	Public
Mood:	pissed off

I want to kick his ass.

It's APRIL EIGHTEENTH, and it's SNOWING!

Global warming my ass!

I'm glad I haven't planted my garden yet.

--

And annoyingly, now I can't mow my lawn before the appraiser comes.

Date:	2008-04-17 23:25
Subject:	Weird...
Security:	Public
Mood:	anxious

The clean kitchen floor makes me feel uncomfortable.

Maybe it's some kind of nesting instinct, but my clutter makes my place mine and cleaning it up alienates me.

Date:	2008-04-17 00:06
Subject:	Good news Bad news on the Mortgage front.
Security:	Public
Mood:	pleased

My Underwriting was approved with no additional conditions. The appraisal is scheduled for Saturday morning.

Bad News: That means I miss a second SRS meeting in a row. Even worse, it means I really have to clean up around the house, especially around the kitchen and bathroom, the appraiser told me. Plus I somehow have to fit in time to mow the lawn....

I just spent most of this evening cleaning part of the kitchen counter and mopping the floor (Including moving the fridge) in the kitchen and the front landing. This was NOT easy. The damned linoleum has this dimpled texture that really holds on to the dirt, and the kind of crap I track around tends to really stick, especially given how long it is between moppings. (Forget cleaning the carpet, I'd be better off just tearing it out than trying to steam clean it.)

Other bad news, given the time it takes to process everything, my lock will run out before it's done (thanks to that stupid paperwork glitch). On the plus side, my broker will either extend the lock or reprice if I can get a better deal at her own expense (again, thanks to that paperwork glitch).

Man, I also need to go through and hide the porn....