Archive for February, 2009

We try to please

Thursday, February 19th, 2009


Here’s a sign inside the mine Loyal Reader Number One recently visited. They try to please. One of the things that struck me about his latest pictures is the condition of all the wood inside the mines. It looks brand new, yet those mines have presumably been abandoned for quite some time, and the wood was presumably in there for a reasonably long period before that. Nothing seems to wear out. As opposed to the pictures he shared from his Utah mine trips – those places look pretty ramshackle. I wonder what the difference is. Picture courtesy of LRN1.

Beautiful, warm, sunny day. It was a shame to spend essentially all of it indoors. It’s supposed to be nice again tomorrow and Saturday, so there’s hope.

I enjoyed attending the branch’s Elders quorum presidency meeting last night. Like all the other branch meetings, it was conducted entirely in Spanish. The good: I’m still able to comprehend essentially everything without having to translate in my head. The bad: I’m finding myself having to think a little harder than I did as a young man as I speak. Hopefully, sustained practice will help me overcome that.

The weekend’s here, and it promises to be somewhat busy. It’s Stake Conference weekend, so we have temple night on Friday, leadership and adult sessions on Saturday, and the general session on Sunday, which promises to be the sparsest day schedule-wise. I’ll do a bunch of girls camp work Sunday to keep myself busy.

Other weekend activities include a possible visit from Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve. LRN6 wants to work on detailing the Suburban on Saturday, which would be great, although my availability will be limited, so we may have to reschedule. We’d like it if they came anyway, of course.

I also need to have a serious look at the pool and pond filters. Maybe I can get that done on Friday. The filters Will Ever Be With Us.

I checked out the additional mine pictures LRN1 linked to in his comment to yesterday’s post. Excellent photos – thanks for sharing. Highly recommended viewing. Since all these photos are the property of somebody else, I’ll refrain from posting any of them here.

Here’s a revolting development in the media center world. I don’t think the Old Media will ever really get it, do you? Every time it seems like there’s a chance, they do something like this.

Today’s odd news: The Maytag repairman has a problem. I wonder how lonely he’ll feel in a jail cell.

There’s even some toilet news today: It’s getting more expensive every day. The news isn’t all bad, though – the Maytag repairman may be getting a break.

That’s it for tonight. See you tomorrow.

Broken Rover

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009


Here’s a position familiar to owners of British vehicles since time immemorial. Even extremely expensive British vehicles. Picture courtesy of Loyal Reader Number One; taken during his recent mine exploration expedition. The guy with the Ford truck had no car problems.

No rain today, for the first time in several days. There’s still a lot of standing water around, as observed from my train window. It’s supposed to be dry through Friday, after which the daily rainstorms resume. Still no complaints – we need all the moisture we can get.

Got the media center program installed on Shemp last night. Its documentation says my machine is fine with the exception of the memory – I have 256 MB and it wants 1 TB. It actually runs (and looks real nice to boot!), but does so VERY slowly. I really need to start looking for some memory for both Shemp and Larry. They won’t really be useful until that happens. Then I can add remote controls. And then some new HDTVs. Then we can start saving money on television!

No toilet news. No links. Maybe tomorrow.

That’s it for today. I’ve been seriously sleep deprived this week and need to do something about it. Such as getting to bed on time.

See you tomorrow.

Dark Mine

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009


Here’s an unidentified mine explorer exploring a mine. Looks dark down there. I’m still working on the “why” (link warning: amusing YouTube video with sound) before I can get to the “when,” “where,” and “how.” Photo courtesy of Loyal Reader Number One.

Slept in this morning after getting the new computer (new name: Shemp) working perfectly last night. I still plan to install an open source media center application. Haven’t decided which one yet. Maybe not tonight, though. It’s already after 9:00.

Anyway. I’m feeling much better – the headache is basically gone and even the throat feels a little better. Cautious optimism reigns.

Worked a little on Girls Camp tonight. One step at a time, I’m getting there.

No toilet news tonight. I don’t know what’s wrong. So we’ll have to settle for wedgie news. That’ll teach ’em.

See you tomorrow.

Winch

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009


Here’s Loyal Reader Number One with a mine winch. Picture courtesy of LRN1 and taken just before he descended into the bowels of the earth. Part of my famous Machinery series. More mine pictures to come.

Pretty good weekend. Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve were here, as discussed on Friday. I was incredibly busy on Sunday. As usual. Enjoyed the day and the weekend, although we did have a lot of rain.

Stayed home sick from work today. The Loyal Readers were still here, since it was a federal holiday. We had a nice day home together, in spite of my coming-and-going splitting headache. I’m hoping to be feeling better by tomorrow morning.

More rain today. We’ve been needing it. It’s supposed to rain practically every day for the next week, and who know how much more after that? Things are really greening up, and it’s not even spring yet.

LRN5, LRN6, and LRN12 gave me their desktop computer, which they didn’t want anymore. I helped LRN6 get all his software set up on his laptop – mostly iTunes, to be exact, but I also get it completely updated and all that stuff. It seems to be working fine now.

The new machine’s hard disk was pretty gunked up, but it’s a nice computer, if a little old. It runs at about 2.6 GHz, but is fairly crippled by only having 256 MB of memory. That can be remedied, though, although none of the memory I have around the house is of the kind it needs. Soon. Anyway. I uninstalled a bunch of stuff and got it at least functional, but it was still pretty slow. I decided to reinstall Windows, which I did. Then I found out I didn’t have any of the Dell drivers. Oops. No audio, minimal video, no network, et cetera. LRN5 promised to look for an installation disk, if such a thing exists. In the meantime, though, I got onto the Dell website, searched hard, and found the drivers. Got ’em installed and it’s working great! It’s installing updates right now. Service Pack 2, to be exact.

Don’t panic about the disk, LRN5. In fact, never mind. Although I’ll gladly take anything you do end up finding – might have something useful on it.

Nothing much else new today. My day was pretty much spent working on computers and playing with LRN12. Both of which I enjoy. I really hoped to do some High Council work, but you can’t have everything. Real Soon Now.

Today’s toilet news: They’re getting expensive.

It’s almost midnight and I need to get to bed. See you tomorrow.

Grocery store

Friday, February 13th, 2009


Here’s the grocery store in Baikonur. Fortunately, it never rains. It does snow, though. And it gets real cold.

Can you tell I’m running short of Great Art, Loyal Readers?

Another rainy/sunny day here in Lardville, though. Highs were only about 50 degrees, which is a little cool for this time of year, but I really can’t complain. There’s some snow visible at the top of the mountains near work, but many trees around Sunnyvale are also in full blossom. Spring appears to have come a tiny bit early this year.

Got out of the office an hour earlier than expected. That’s a Real Good Thing, since we have a Stake Adult Pizza Party tonight at 7:00, giving me a whole hour and a half at home. That’s luxurious.

Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve are going to spend the weekend with us. LRN6 is hoping to detail his truck. I hope it’s possible, given the predicted rain situation. The bright hope is that they’re predicting clear weather on Saturday afternoon. I guess he could work on it in the garage no matter how bad the weather is. It’ll just get dirty a little faster.

I enjoyed reviewing Loyal Reader Number One’s pictures from his latest mine exploration trip. Finally got to see them last night. I’m hoping to get his permission to use a few of them here. How about it, LRN1?

We got a cable TV bill last night. We’re paying those thieves a hundred bucks a month just for the television part now. I think that’s up about 70 percent in two years. Even if it’s not quite that much, it’s WAY more than I’m willing to pay. I need to get serious about computer/internet/netflix solutions right away. I’m looking right now for a remote control to use instead of a keyboard/mouse. Any ideas, Loyal Readers?

I also need a video card that can connect to my old tube TVs with either RCA connectors or good old fashioned coax cable. There must be something cheap but good out there.

Time for the traditional Morrowlife weekend preview. Let’s see . . . I need to prepare a Sacrament Meeting talk for Sunday. Topic: home storage. It’s kind of a tough topic this week, but I’ll come up with something. Maybe even something good – we’ll see. I also need to get an appointment to meet with an Elders Quorum presidency and make a whole bunch of YW camp phone calls. Probably need to look at the pool and pond filters too. I’m sure I could find something to do to one or more of the cars in case the opportunity presents itself. And who knows what’s on Loyal Reader Number Four’s mind? And of course there’s always jacuzzification.

Plus, Saturday is Valentine’s Day, dontcha know.

Today’s toilet news: This just seems like a bad idea. I mean, what if they just decide not to buy any?

See you Monday.