In defiance of "average."

Petty unenthusiasm

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:32:53 GMT

I think it's just gonna be one of those weeks, you know? It could just be that laziness is my nature (if there was a way to confirm this, I wouldn't bother), but I'm in one of those positions where there are many things I could and should be doing, but none I really want to move on. As if I haven't posted this entry a hundred times before.

Here's what I could be doing, and why I'm not.

Getting a flu shot. I actually just called the pharmacy, and, nope, they're still out. They should have gotten more shots in last week. As long as I don't get ill while I wait...
Cleaning my room. Really? For whose benefit?
Studying calculus. My test grades continually surprise me. Plus I think I finally got what's going on this chapter. Except when they write problems requiring weird and crazy algebra tricks that don't even begin to occur to me.
Watching movies. That's probably in the cards for later. I watched Mad Max 2 last night and it was the awesomest thing since awesome came to awesometown. I'm thinking Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome next. I'm happy to say I've been watching more movies lately; but there's also this particular image of the movie-watching escapist that nags at me. It isn't that bad, though.
Biting my nails. Actually, I am doing that again. Grr.
UNO theater stuff. Well, not right now, because if I needed to be doing it now, I'm sure I'd be effectively fired already. But I'm debating doing it later, as in "after-this-show" later. It's my first semester, I'm still not amazingly involved -- even for a tech -- but so far I'm lacking that mix of busyness and the right people that I enjoy about drama. Also, I miss acting at the Rose, but I'm not sure I want to commit to anything beyond just teching right now, because the amount of rehearsals and the amount in my bank account are likely inversely proportional. I can do that for three weeks of tech and performances, but I'd like to keep up the pace at which I'm paying my car debt.
Collaborative playwriting stuff. Probably later, when fatigue depresses my self-consciousness/inertia regarding writing fiction for other people. Although this project I got myself involved in is the present compromise between acting and income, and between acting and not.
Hanging out with people. It's "late" to be going out (by my standards), and my high school friends are less able to do that than I am, anyway. People in the dorm? I'm acquainted with some, but that basically goes as far as talking in the cafeteria and saying "hi" in the halls. I'm not actively reclusive, I'm just not outgoing in the face of the unfamiliar. At all. I'm not really complaining, except that I feel weird about the fact I keep to myself when I do run into people as soon as I step outside my room. I could probably go a day or two without talking to anyone in person, if left to my own devices.
Snacking. 'Cause I didn't stuff myself at dinner. My food supply for when I'm hungry and the cafeteria is closed (mainly on days I work) are a couple cans of orange soda and some ramen. I'd stock more various and healthful items, but usually I do get all my food from the cafeteria; if I got anything fresh or even opened-but-refrigerated it would probably have gone bad before the next time I raided the fridge. Constantly buying food for myself to keep a good in-and-out flow costs money.
OmahaFeed. I need to redesign the engine (which currently fetches and formats various types of feeds with individual functions) to do all the formatting in one function, with a feed type parameter. Then I need to learn AJAX so people can refresh feeds without refreshing the whole page. But that's so much work, you know...
Programming. Oh shit, I do need to study for that. Now.

Work schedules

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:45:28 GMT

Friday, paper tech day, submitted the time-off request a month ago -- can probably change.
Sunday, playwriting meeting, submitted the schedule change two weeks ago -- can't change.
Transition period between paper and electronic time-off request systems -- unavoidable.

Mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

This is my church.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:22:03 GMT

Listening to the KLF Chill Out. If you have any taste for electronic or ambient music, my suggestion is to obtain a copy, dim the lights, put on headphones, and listen quietly for 45 minutes. Chill Out, the album, defines "chill out," the genre; it's a conceptual journey by the two Britons through the American South at night, built on pad synths and reverb, samples of songs and newsreaders and evangelical radio, and the lulling heartbeat of the trains. Ambient music like this, introspective instead of pretentiously new-age, takes me far away. It's a good followup to The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (particularly considering Jimmy Cauty co-founded the Orb).

Two defining tracks: "Wichita Lineman Was a Song I Once Knew" and particularly "Madrugada Eterna" together are a microcosm of the overall album, and are two of its longest tracks.

Now Open: OmahaFeed.com

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:56:06 GMT

I'm pleased to announce the launch of my new site, OmahaFeed.

OmahaFeed's gimmick is that it brings together mixes of RSS newsfeeds into a few simple pages, grouped by broad subject -- Omaha news, national, sports, entertainment, etc. It's really pretty nifty, and even if you don't live around here, maybe check it out for a second just to see, hmm?

It's the first site I've brought live (as a personal project) in a few years, and represents months of work on-and-off -- mostly off -- screwing around in the GIMP, gluing together open-sourced JavaScript and PHP by trial and error, and learning page layout all over again, but with CSS. There's a lot of tweaking to be done, a couple more pages to add, and more interesting/relevant tie-ins to be placed on the pages, but I felt I might as well launch, because it was better than letting the code continue to sit unseen. And there's definitely something satisfying about having my own site again, and on its own domain name, even.

So there it is. Visiting's appreciated, and comments doubly so. Enjoy? Maybe, please?

Most e-cigarette regulation is a solution looking for a problem

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:53:23 GMT

I picked up USA Today earlier (yeah, yeah), and saw an article on the bottom of the front page about an apparent flurry of legislative action erupting over the rising popularity of e-cigarettes.

Basically, e-cigs are a battery, an atomizer, a cartridge of liquid nicotine, and maybe a pretty LED that lights up when you puff. That's right, you aren't inhaling a burning pile of leaves (which, intuitively, is bad for you); you're inhaling a fine mist of mainly nicotine. That's a lot better than taking in the 1000-some products of additive-ridden tobacco combustion, most notably tar. And, secondhand smoke is basically a non-issue; it's not like it's constantly trailing smoke from the tip or you're exhaling like a chimney.

So what do I read? California tried to ban selling e-cigarettes (the Governator said no). Oregon's gotten retailers not to sell them. A New Jersey Assemblywoman wants to restrict them in the same ways as regular cigarettes. A NJ town wants to subject them to the cigarette smoking ban.

Granted: The FDA's found some carcinogenic products in the e-cigarette liquid. These products are usually made overseas and shipped here, and since they're a pretty new invention (the last few years), nobody important has really paid much attention.

The solution? Regulate it. Say "these things can't contain any of these chemicals that are bad for you." I'm sure that manufacturers eager to tap into the American markets will be happy to adjust their formulae accordingly, just like they usually don't paint children's toys with lead oxides anymore. And sure,ban minors from using e-cigarettes, just like they can't buy cigarettes, cigars, chew, or Nicorette patches. Taking this action would be both reasonable and consistent with what we expect the FDA to do: keep us safe and don't let the children have it.

Then, I vote, stop there, before leaping across the line that separates reason from moral panic. Why not let people use e-cigarettes indoors, while they work at the office or relax in the bar? No smoke, no carcinogens (after the FDA does what it's supposed to) -- no problem. Do you have a problem with the Coke can on my desk, full of (wonderful) psychoactive, addictive caffeine? I'm not pouring it down your throat. I'm not even slurping. Does the act of lifting a can to my lips, drinking, and setting it back down distract you that much? Having to watch someone smoke is quite possibly the only danger to others that using an e-cigarette indoors could pose.

So what's so bad about people puffing on e-cigarettes, keeping the mist and the nicotine quite to themselves? Especially when you consider that a lot of people, even most of them, aren't going to quit -- they just aren't, even if they try a dozen times. Nicotine addiction is rightly called such. Addiction aside, some people actually like smoking -- the physical act, the image, the nicotine buzz (really?). So be realistic. Your lifelong-smoker employee is going to be more cost-effective when he's typing away, vaping an e-cig in his cubicle, than when he's stepping outside every half-hour to light up, then eventually not coming in at all because he's dying of lung cancer and your health insurance plan is paying for it.

I have an idea: If we didn't pay legislators to do their jobs, they wouldn't feel the need to legislate for the sake of legislating. They'd solve the real public-safety concerns, and then move on with their lives -- and let us move on with our own.

Disclaimer: I've never even used an e-cig.

Got a few minutes before I leave for work, so.

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:32:44 GMT

I went to see Funny Girl at Mercy on Friday (for the sake of my younger friends in theater :P). The costumes and set were excellent, the singing was pretty good, the mere act of tap-dancing is an impressive feat. I thought the plot itself was a little incoherent, but the cast still did a fine job. It was basically just an evening well spent.

Then last night I saw You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at North. My dad played piano for a one-act production of the same when he was in high school, and when I was a little kid I'd listen to the tape Grandpa made of it, over and over again. So I definitely knew most of what was coming, which didn't stop me from laughing, applauding, and thoroughly enjoying myself. The set was suitably cartoonishly bright and simple. The singing was amazing, pretty perfectly harmonized. And, of course, I knew basically everybody on stage, but to pick favorites while playing favorites: Rachel always, always pulls off the evil sweetheart role (even in real life), and the added existential angst was hilarious; who wouldn't like Katie's flamboyant Snoopy?; and, of course, Stephen was the ever-hopeful and earnest Charlie Brown.

It was so weird, though, to suddenly run into almost all the people from North who I used to see so much, after...well, half a year of not. Especially since DJ, Matt, Richard, and I went to Rachel's afterward to watch Shaun of the Dead (first time I'd seen it, excellent comedy); so it wasn't just the current underclassmen I was seeing. It's a scene I miss, and people I miss, and I'm probably gonna continue failing to keep up with everyone like I should and like I want to. It was so much easier when we all happened to be in the same building, eating the same (quote) food (unquote), taking the same classes, doing the same shows. And Facebook is not the easy solution. lol

Removal of eBay listing 260493447362

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:10:42 GMT

To whom it may concern:

My eBay listing, number 260493447362, titled "Windows 7 Ultimate, full
version, CDs and key -- NR!" was recently removed from the site
"because it violated eBay policy." This was done at the behest of
Microsoft's NetSafe team, claiming unauthorized distribution of
Microsoft software.

The notification e-mail I received, regarding the listing removal,
noted consequences up to and including the suspension of my account in
response to various possible violations that my auction may have
committed. None of these violations apply. The copy of Windows 7
Ultimate which I offered for sale was authentic, full Microsoft
software, obtained from a Microsoft Expert Zone promotion. As such, it
was not a backup copy, pirated, duplicated, bootlegged, academic,
beta, or OEM software; nor was its sale a case of unauthorized
distribution, as is made clear by the case of Matthew Elder.

Several days ago, Mr. Elder attempted to sell a Windows 7 Ultimate
party pack on eBay, which was subsequently taken down at Microsoft's
behest, with justification similar to what I received today. I would
like to remind the NetSafe team, as Mr. Elder did, of the "first-sale
doctrine." I legally was given authentic Microsoft software by the
company itself or its authorized agents, and as such have the right to
resell the software.

Please refer to the federal court ruling allowing the reselling of
promo CDs ("UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Troy Augusto et al".,
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/umg_v_augusto/LA07CV03106SJO-O.pdf),
as well as "Microsoft Corp. v. Zamos" (which Microsoft lost),
concerning the right of a student to resell academic-discount copies
of Microsoft operating systems on eBay. For further reference, the
neowin.net article concerning Mr. Elder's dispute with the NetSafe
team may be found at
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/10/16/man-wins-right-to-sell-windows-7-party-pack-on-ebay
-- I should note that Mr. Elder's auction was subsequently reinstated.

I would appreciate it very much if my auction listing were similarly
reinstated. Furthermore, I request that the NetSafe team notify eBay
that I was not in violation of eBay policies, that I might not be
subject to penalties for violations which I did not commit.

Thank you for your attention. I look forward to a timely reply from
your team, and/or the satisfactory resolution of this matter.

Regards,
(name)
eBay user attacca12

I gots new shooooooes.

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:55:32 GMT

Mono-black chucks, just like my last ones. But less holey. *rimshot*

Mr. Billings

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:52:47 GMT

Apparently Mr. Drew Billings died a couple of days ago. As my technical director, mentor, and comedian during the brief time we worked together on Aida, he'll be missed very much.

Atheism, death, fear thereof

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:14:41 GMT

I wonder about death a lot, and about living until dying. As an atheist, I do find it accurate to say that "When you die, nothing happens." Callous though that may seem, I also freely admit that death means very much: to the dying, until he is dead; and to his friends, family, and acquaintances for some time after.

The key word is until. It's logical for a conscious person to fear the loss of that consciousness, because consciousness is self, and self-preservation is instinct. And I do fear it. But when my consciousness is lost, that loss ceases to matter to me.

Common sense, of course, can be freely acknowledged even as we are beset by, or indulge in emotionality. For example, though we're not being tested for any reward or consequence, most of us want to leave a certain mark on the world, or on our own selves before we cease to be.

In light of that, I submit a quote from Off the Map, which I've been reading off and on lately. Unfortunately, taken on its own, this quote may seem trite, but in the context of the rest of the book (worth the $2 -- yes, seriously -- and far more), I think it really is an explanation, a calling, and a comfort to us irrational human beings.

Hibickina and I walked through Tarbes, talking about Jean-Pierre and all of the stories that sit untold in the hearts of older people. We're all fed such false messages about success in life, made to believe it's a point of arrival. So most of us spend our whole lives waiting to arrive. We expect that once we get there, the long story of the life we just lived will be infused with meaning. But while we're waiting our voices dry up. They forget how to ask, they forget how to listen, they forget how to tell.

Keep that in mind, even if you think this life is just one chapter.

Math, I has it

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:03:43 GMT

I find "misplaced" items twice as quickly as I did in my old room, which was four times the size of my present digs. This suggests an inverse square relationship between room size and item location, and proves the futility of sleeping in my closet in an effort to seriously expedite recovery.

Oh well. Found my bath bucket, anyway.

Got the stereo hooked up and I'm good.

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 05:55:46 GMT

It's a cozy 8x11 box. The bed's lofted, the other wall's already lined with my bookshelves, the closet's filling, and I expect to monkey my way around here for the next nine months. Once I put up some posters to cover what the bookshelves didn't, and drag in another computer (and temporarily acquire some flatscreens, because this desk cannot take my beloved Trinitron behemoths), and maybe haul in all my 8-tracks -- yes, there's room -- it'll be a worthy substitute for home.

I love my old bedroom, essentially a studio apartment without the facilities, but I also like a cozy space. When I was a kid and we lived in the house on Redick, I made a clubhouse out of the walk-in closet (3x9, if that). Tied a flashlight from the hangar rack, set up some chairs, added books, and called it awesome. It's all about the atmosphere and the stuff; I was surrounded by stuff in the bigger room, and about half that stuff surrounds me in here in the smaller one. Cheery paint job there, plenty of room for posters here.

But uh, dragging it out in nine months is gonna be a royal pain. Why no year-round lease? And where's my hot tub?

Five-second rule!

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:38:14 GMT

So today was the first of two "Durango Days" to get incoming students pumped for life at UNO. We had an orientation type thing, which wasn't particularly stimulating, but the recruiters and helpers put on skits about good decisions, there were prizes (didn't win any, got a T-shirt anyway), and there was delicious food.

I met Glenn, one of my soon-to-be roomies, when we were in line next to each other. He spoke up first (you know I wasn't gonna) and we chatted, and eventually we became part of a small group of froshes (are university freshmen still froshes?) and non-newbies. A girl and I decided to add each other on Facebook, and I found out about/got invited to a pancake feed at 10. Which made having tacos for dinner kind of weird.

The security lady waved me through, and I wandered down toward the dining room. As good luck would have it, I ran into D'aante (sp?) and Dan, and was quickly introduced to Chris and...Alex? and...uh...I'll get everybody's names, eventually. We had pancakes flipped at us (I was 1 for 2 -- see subject), enjoyed them muchly, then headed up to a lounge, whereupon we wrecked the feng shui to create space to play Signs. It was fun, and I wasn't even stuck in the middle that much. :P

Corny as it sounds, I'm not so nervous anymore. The guys took me in from moment one, kept me talking, drew me out of my shell a bit, and it was a lot of fun. In five hours I have to get up for a service learning expedition (good thing I got that case of NOS...), and then I'll spend my last night here, packing up the essentials -- stereo and PCs.

Mixed bags

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:49:15 GMT

Had an excellent time -- more than excellent -- hanging with Northies and ex-Northies, eating good Mexican, wandering through downtown and the parks, laughing my head off at every sophomoric moment of Superbad. (Note to self, need that soundtrack, badly.)

At the same time, I drove home with one of those random, unsettling premonitions that something horrible was going to happen. A mugging, freak car accident, intruder in my room, something dire and maybe fatal. I get these from time to time, and I guess it shows my late apprehension and doubt that I can really rely on myself, alone and only.

I'll sleep fine, but still conscious of the fact that I'm jumping out of the nest in a week.

The day pirate Facebook went too far.

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:21:33 GMT

"Todd _dad be claimin' you swam from her depths"

Even if the e-mail notifications didn't consistently reverse gender references... oh wow.

Best laid-in-bed plans

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:27:19 GMT

Yesterday afternoon, I thought I'd pull an all-nighter to forcibly reset my body clock and so start going to bed earlier, to get ready for school.

Then I remembered social obligations today, and decided to sleep from about 2 to 8, get a mild case of sleep deprivation, and so rest earlier tonight.

At 1 I downed all the Vault I had stocked for the all-nighter, reasoning that in an hour it'd wear off and I'd be crawling to bed.

Funny how these things work. Got up and went back to bed again about four different times, and finally gave up at 5.

After half an hour on the exercise bike, and a quick shower, I'm temporarily a morning person. In a way. I feel good for now... *crosses fingers*

Empty promises: "Cash for Clunkers," bailouts, the suspension of the natural economic cycle.

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:46:07 GMT

The government has so far spent $1 billion incentivizing people to buy 200,000 new vehicles, under the Car Allowance Rebate System, or "Cash for Clunkers." The initial funding allocated to the program is almost exhausted, so Congress is poised to pump another $2 billion into the program, pulling the money from renewable energy funding. Pretty much everybody thinks this is a Good Idea^TM.

Why do I not sound happy? Consider that the CARS program is touted as a way to help the environment, aid the US auto industry in particular, and revitalize the economy. It does none of these things.

Let's tackle the environment first; environmental friendliness is perhaps the most-touted benefit of the CARS program. CARS' explicit aim is to get old "clunkers" off the road, by incentivizing consumers to buy brand-new cars. As for their old cars, the engine must be disabled in such a way it's rendered unusable even for spare parts, and only certain other parts of the car may be sold as spare parts. Whatever hasn't been sold off in 180 days is crushed.

There's nothing "green" about senselessly wasting parts that could be used to keep other cars on the road. For that matter, there's nothing "green" about trading up to a new car, when your old one runs perfectly well. Building a new car takes a lot of energy and creates a lot of pollution (including carbon dioxide!), just as the production of home solar panels is more wasteful than continuing to draw your power from a massive power plant, even if you pay off the energy savings in 10 years.

Gas mileage -- the requirements of CARS regarding the new purchase do next to nothing to improve average fuel economy. Cars being traded in must get a combined city/highway rating of 18mpg or worse, but the new car needs to get only 23mpg to qualify for the $3500 voucher, and 28mpg for $4500. In 1989 -- 20 years ago -- a Geo Metro got a combined 46mpg rating, without fancy hybrid engines with environmentally-unfriendly batteries. Anecdotally, a friend of mine claims to get 50mpg with her Volkswagen New Beetle TDi (diesel). Cars with that kind of fuel effiency are as rare in America as they were 20 years ago, while car companies are promoting sedans with abysmal mileage as the "fuel-efficient" choice of the environmentally-conscious consumer.

Note further that I said cars; light trucks (pickups) being traded in need only a 2mpg improvement, and some SUVs are still classified as light trucks to avoid safety and emissions requirements for cars. SUVs, as unnecessary and wasteful as they are, are still very popular in America. American car companies, the American Congress, and the American people are unable or unwilling, after having years to learn their lesson, to produce, mandate, and buy cars that are inherently efficient, and truly environmentally friendly. While the waste of perfectly-good, operable used cars is inexcusable, the architects of the CARS program could have at least pushed for stricter fuel economy requirements. Their failure to do so betrays the fact that helping the environment is not a serious consideration of this program.

The part of CARS that the media loves the most is an abject failure when you look at it from two key points of the waste hierarchy, the trinity every American child knows. CARS does not reduce production, pollution, waste, even taking into account a slight improvement in fuel efficiency and emissions. CARS does not promote reuse of components. Recycling the automobile scrap metal is made the first and only resort -- but it's the last part of reduce, reuse, recycle for a reason, since it's the most energy-intensive of all the options.

Next, the car companies. Government intervention in the automobile industry has been extensive and highly publicized, and, dating back to the end of the Bush era, is practically ancient history; it's nearing that dangerous tipping point where an important issue slips from discussion, just like the war in Afghanistan. CARS is supposed to encourage us to "Buy American (Cars)" and help lift the Big Three from bankruptcy or near-bankruptcy.

Like I mentioned before, the $1 billion in CARS funding has been credited with the sale of about 200,000 new cars in the past month. Note that Americans buy millions of cars per year. It's impossible to prove that CARS is responsible for a rise in sales; many people who were already intending to buy new cars doubtless received an unexpected windfall; and perhaps car sales are improving for entirely other economic reasons. Further, even if sales have risen compared to, say, June, 200,000 cars is still a drop in the bucket, and is definitely not going to instantly make the car companies profitable. This July, compared to last July, people bought 1/3 to 1/2 as many cars and trucks.

I'd reason that once the CARS money runs out, sales will either not be affected, or slump. The program may have acted like an advertisement, suddenly reminding people how much they want new cars. However, few can afford to act merely on such petty urges, even with the financial incentive that CARS provides. This may just be why, given the "success" of the program (CARS is almost out of money already), additional funding is probably going to be approved, sapping money from other worthy programs, in the hopes that the few who are so easily influenced will continue to flock to the car lots.

And, finally, we come to the economy itself. Encouraging automobile spending is supposed to keep the auto industry afloat, preserve jobs, encourage the flow of money, lead to economic recovery, etc. We're constantly reminded of how important the Big Three are to the American economy, and this is true; by association, what's good for them is supposed to be good for us.

However, as I've shown, the industry is in no hurry to make serious improvements to their product lines where it counts (fuel efficiency); CARS, if anything, subsidizes the production of mediocrity, and unstable business practices, that doomed the Big Three to their present situation. Why don't we throw the auto bailout money to Honda? They're still barely profitable, which is more than American car companies have been able to say about themselves for some time. Instead, we pump money into GM in particular, and, having shown no progress toward truly changing the status quo, we may expect to do it again in another decade or two.

In the meantime, we live in a country with a staggering government deficit, and a national debt that will soon cripple us thanks to its interest payments alone. These chasms only widen as trillions of dollars are printed, with nothing of worth to back them, to try to keep the banks and industries afloat. We live in a country with a negative per capita savings rate, where people use credit cards to spend more than they have, to spend more than some of them can ever hope to repay. And we're encouraging these people to buy cars they can't afford, or would at least be unwise to purchase. These cars are discounted with more money created in the abstract, added to a debt no one can comprehend. A trillion is 1,000,000,000,000. The national debt is currently estimated as ten of those.

CARS is one more attempt at perpetuating a system that cannot last. Consumers' ability to spend will collapse again; these companies will collapse again; our economy will collapse again -- and since we don't repair any damage once we reach a point that resembles prosperity, at some point, the cycle's unsustainability will be something we can no longer escape from.

The solutions? Some of them, at least? Hold onto your old cars, as long as they can be kept running at reasonable expense -- readjust your definition of "reasonable." If your old car fails, buy another used one and avoid paying the "never left the car lot" premium. Cancel or cut back on your cell phone plan, cable plan, Internet plan, utility use. Ignore the latest crappy movies, expensive restaurants with false personality, fast food with no personality. Join a Freecycle group, watch Craigslist, go thrifting, shop the clearance bins. Watch TV less and sleep more. Save a solid portion of what you earn when times are good; cut back enough to save the same portion when times are not so good; and you'll be able to sustain yourself when times are truly bad.

A recession is an adjustment of our capitalist system, much like the evolutionary process in times of hardship, weeding out the weaker and unnecessary companies and expenditures. Our current habits, trying to maintain things as they are, only prolong the lives of the weaker and unnecessary. The faster and more thorough the readjustment, however painful in the short term, the longer and stronger our prosperity will soon be.

What do I know? I'm a student, paying no living expenses, my spending totally devoted to luxury, and I'm about to enjoy four or five fully-paid years in college. But it's easy to see these things from the outside looking in, and hopefully I'll do my part to realize what's going on when I'm inside it all.

They don't pay me enough to do this.

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:47:35 GMT

In fact, by the end of it, I was spending plenty out of my own pocket. Really, what are friends for?

Jessica's DS works again. She gave it to me at the end of the school year to try to fix the broken mic, and, yeah, it's taken about three months of very sporadic work. Disassembling a DS is a bitch, a DS Lite is a bitch and a half, and she has a Lite, so my fears of losing crucial little things (the trigger button springs are evil) were justly magnified. Besides the hassle of just assembly and disassembly, I replaced the mic but broke the tiny cheapass plastic power switch.

"I really hope I can fix that." And, indeed, eBay has many Hong Kong sources of DS power switches, as they do for mics, LCDs, touchpads, etc. It's great, the two week shipping aside. Unfortunately, some readers may utter an emphatic groan when I remark that the switch is surface-soldered; the pins don't physically go through the board, to be covered with solder to affix them in place, but are soldered parallel to pads on the board itself. These pads are very easy to break off, and if it's an essential pad, well, you're fucked. Luckily the one I took off in removing the original switch wasn't essential. (If you hadn't guessed, surface-soldered objects are nasty to try to remove.)

I put in the new switch.

Then discovered the new, as-yet-never-even-used mic cable, anorexic little thing, had snapped. Uh what?

Then the new switch was jammed. I'm not sure if that was defective, or if the heat from surface-soldering warped the plastic; in afterthought, I lean toward the latter.

After I acquired a new switch and new mic, and bought a nice soldering station with a variable-heat iron to try to avoid a repeat of previous events, the special triwing screwdriver I need for Nintendo's special triwing screws went missing. Another week of "order from eBay and wait." I got two this time.

Monday, inserting the mic took about an hour, but I eventually made it. (Damn, do I love tweezers. I mean, damn.) The original replacement power switch was essentially chipped off the board, which was probably a bad idea, but it took me about twice as long the first time I removed it, and both approaches (chipping vs. heat-and-pry) took a lot of fudging. Then I got cold feet and decided to wait until I could buy more stuff to deal with installing the new switch.

Today, I equipped myself with fine-gauge solder (easier to work with in tiny spaces), decided I'd deal with the lack of a similarly shrunken soldering iron, and bought a heatsink in defense of warpage (which will be handy for work with other heat-sensitive components in the future, but did not fit today). Plus I got some awesome cheap tools for when I can no longer effectively steal my parents'.

I put the new switch in, kept cursing and making sure the switch still worked. Spent half an hour after that triumph reassembling the DS.

The new mic doesn't work. It isn't snapped, it's securely connected, and I'm 100% sure that it is genuinely defective.

But the DS powers on and everything else works, so aside from a little crack in the plastic and a couple months' of dust, tonight I hand it off again in the same shape it was three months ago. And I wasn't even confident it'd be in that kind of shape until I did the final testing tonight...

Oh well. Valuable soldering experience, attempts to render favors, useful additions to my toolset, and an excuse to use my special tools. Hell yeah.

P.S. If anybody wants their DS repaired (if it's out of warranty), I can do both screens, the touchpad, the mic, maybe the speakers (haven't tried), and (god forbid) the power switch, plus custom case swaps. Offering my services on such an infuriatingly tiny appliance is nothing short of masochistic, so a nominal energy drink and stress ball purchase fee may be assessed supplementary to materials and tools.

Moxyoronic

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:04:25 GMT

How fucking dumb is RadioShack that their soldering station's plastic base and electrical cords melt when exposed to soldering irons?

I mean it's pretty hard to keep a corded iron from brushing up against/getting tangled in the cord, and if I'm trying to rub the tip in the sponge on the base to clean it off, maybe part of the iron's gonna hit plastic there, too.

Yeah, takes more than a little sponge to clean that crap off. Way to go, dudes.

Drive safe?

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:53:04 GMT

Yellow does not mean "speed up."
Yellow does not mean "speed up."
Yellow does not mean "speed up."

Think I handled the pull-over well, though. The funny thing is that I felt my stomach sink just half a second before my brain consciously connected the sudden flashing lights in my rearview. No one said my brain or body was coordinated.

Oh well. I'll do better, I promise.

...And that's the thing; I don't feel pleasant at all about my vocality about my fuckup, but I kind of want to put it out there so I remind myself I was, in fact, in the wrong. And I'm not a glutton for self-punishment; I left that behind with my white robes. I even decided to tell Dad -- and am genuinely relieved and kind of surprised that he took it in stride.

So, indeed, a scarlet (yellow?) letter I draw upon myself.

Night thoughts

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 07:34:53 GMT

Cassie just did the cutest little move ever, curling up on the floor and bringing her paws up over her eyes. I d'awwwwwww'd and wished I had a camera handy.

Also, the Aida premiere yesterday was simply amazing; today had more noticeable rough spots (second-night jinx); and I'll be very sad when we start taking apart my hard work tomorrow night after curtain call. It's weird to think that all of that set, all that, will just be gone by Sunday daybreak, after spending the better part of a month working on it, platforms to painting; and then, this last week, enjoying the musical with better-than-front-row seats.

P.S. The living room is my new favorite space to be, until Monday. This house is perfect without the family.

So I lost my tweezers earlier.

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 06:35:12 GMT

I'm screwing around with them, picking up bits of dust etc.

Then they slip out of my left hand and roll down onto my shirt.

I feel around for them, can't find them.

Get up.

Use a flashlight to search under the desk.

Take off my damn pants in case they fell down there and I couldn't feel it (yeah, right).

I still dunno where they are.

I'm a fucking magician.

Life's a blessing. Theater's a blessing. Theater's life.

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:56:03 GMT

Aida premieres in a week and so far things are going swimmingly.

I found build crew to be a very tiring, very satisfying experience, and it came at just the right time, when the monotony of summer nothingness was about to put me on a real downer. I helped with platforms, from hefting them out of storage to the final coats of paint. I spent more time on a ladder, or working up high and sans guardrails, than is believable to anyone who knows my suspicion of heights. I focused lights, and button-pressed on the soundboard.

Now the techies are actually rehearsing with the cast, and thus getting up just as early, instead of coming in as they depart. I'm trying to stuff into my head the cues for moving benches about, and next week it's all going in writing. (Notes save my life in any drama production, in any role; pure and simple.) I'm also frantically searching my head to place names with faces, so "Hey you, the Egyptian guy" gets the right microphone pack, and I don't feel so aloof. And I'm also pretending to be professional and smooth in helping people attach and remove packs from their bras and leotards. (I know it's just the job, they ask me for the help, and I of all people shouldn't care; someday, someday, I'll believe it, too.)

I pick up a new tidbit of knowledge about theater or the theater every day, and I feel a little more like my disposition matches my age. I've gotten rewards like these from every production I've been on so far, and as much as the month I took off was a wise idea, I'd lose out on a lot if I let this hobby fade away.

So hey, can I do this again next year?

Michael Jackson

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:22:38 GMT

"America is the only place where a poor, black boy can grow up to be a rich, white woman."

That being said, I was pretty shocked to read he had died, and even more surprised when news sites confirmed it. To die at 50 is not insignificant and definitely something to mourn; not to mention his catchy contributions to American pop. I didn't know he was about to launch a comeback, either. Music will be a little less without him.

I'll be playing Off the Wall and Thriller tonight for sure.

Dungeons and Dreamers

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:41:32 GMT

I died in the Dungeon of Miles Attacca

I was killed in an opulently-decorated torture chamber by Punkrocker Knux the mind flayer, whilst carrying...

the Wand of Miriamthebat, a Figurine of Ned Vizzini and 36 gold pieces.

Score: 43

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