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Monday, April 23rd, 2007
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3:09 pm - finis.
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I am sad to announce that ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lieutenant_030 passed away this morning at 11:45. He had been fighting gastric adenocarcinoma (stomach cancer) since last September. He was so brave, always looking toward the positive amid this awful disease. 28 was too young.
Love. Love. Love. Love. Love. Love.
- istar
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
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3:25 pm
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I've not been feeling well mentally and physically, so I've been seeing people about it.
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(comment on this)
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| Monday, April 16th, 2007
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4:39 pm - The cities of our sleep
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I've been knocked down drug out recently, but hopefully on the mend. I've been feeling more energy coming into my system, so hopefully that will have an effect. Methadone and a Valium derivative along with just not enough calories. The cat is well.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Saturday, April 14th, 2007
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2:16 pm - My new cat Neva says hello.
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| Tuesday, April 10th, 2007
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3:35 pm - San Francisco part 2
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During the first night, a couple of college-age fellows moved into the coach across from us. In the morning, I awoke to a foul, earthy smell. Imagine a powerful combination body odor, cannabis, socks, obseity and stale bong water all at once. I just could not believe how bad it was. Thankfully, Marissa could not smell this from her elevated position on top bunk. The smell faded into the background and later our co-passengers chatted with our cabin steward, a medium-height black woman in her 40's. One of the passengers was something of an Amtrak fan, who by his own admission bought official t-shirts and mugs on eBay. They got into talking about tedius shop while the rest of the passengers tried to get her attention. I would have loved it if she'd mentioned to our co-passengers the presence of showers on the train.
We left the train at Emeryville in the Bay Area for a bus across the Golden Gate. After some baggage confusion, M and I boarded the bus and took up some chairs in the back. A young guy a few seats ahead of us was going a little stir-crazy due to the delays and was taking out his overflowing punk-rok energy in figeting, constant complaining, and low-grade vandalism. The bus was in kinda shoddy shape; a piece of my seat popped out and bruised the back of my leg. After some more odd delays, we were underway.
Crossing the Golden Gate was as fun as always. What a great bridge and a great vista. The city was nice and shiny in the distance and the water was blue.
Our route into the city was pretty crazy, with a lot of lurching speedups and slowdowns and at least one u-turn. Finally, we were plopped onto the street with our luggage. Finding the hotel was a little bit of a to-do but eventually, we were outside the York.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Monday, April 9th, 2007
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11:10 pm - San Francisco part 1
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M and I boarded the Pacific Coast Starlight train mid-afternoon Wednesday. We'd splurged on sleeper accomodations and so were soon sitting on big comfy chairs in a private coach. The sheer comfort, romance and peace of the ride quickly made it my new favorite mode of transportation. We crossed the snow-encrusted Siskiyou mountains of southern Oregon and passed into California late that night. Both seats in our coach came together to make a bed and another bunk folded down to make a second. M and I slept in the separate beds, avoiding a close cuddle in the single-sized accomodations.
The train featured showers, free coffee, juice, breakfast, lunch, dinner and a daily wine-tasting. It was also almost perpetually late. Our arrival in the Bay Area was two hours off and our arrival home was more than three hours late. We were simply not as cool as the freight trains, so we had to step aside as many tons of wood and goods traveled the rails ahead of us.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Friday, April 6th, 2007
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11:27 pm - Where I'm at.
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| Wednesday, March 21st, 2007
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12:11 am - The dollar
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I hope the new dollar coins don't tarnish in the same way as the Sacajawea dollars did. After looking fairly flash when brand new, they start looking dull very quickly. They tone about as badly as modern zinc pennies.
Although I know I'm in the minority, I do like Susan B. Anthony dollars for keeping their shine through the years. They have a somewhat unfortunate size and milling, resulting in the "quarter" mistake, but those small mistakes resulted in larger mistakes in later coins. Although the size, weight and shape were main criticisms of the coin, they had to be maintained in later coins to work with old vending machines. So, the only tools left to differentiate these new dollar coins from the old ones were color and milling. Taking a lump of some pretty base metals and trying to make it shiny and "golden" just seems tacky to me. 12 cents of metal and work goes into each coin and although I do believe in fiat currencies, I do think our coins should be honest.
It's odd that almost every country seems to have solved the "single-currency-unit-coin" problem better than America. Look at the British pound coin, the Euro coin or the Candian dollar for some ideas.
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(comment on this)
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| Monday, March 19th, 2007
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10:05 am
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In the warehouse next door, they indeed have the Bachman Turner on Overdrive. Time for a short break.
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
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11:13 am - There comes a time when we have to stand up to our household appliances.
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So, my heater malfunctioned last night. It is one of those wall-mounted units hooked up to a thermometer that blows air through heating coils. I noticed it was awfully busy last night. After a while, I decided that I had had enough heat and went to turn it down. Dialing down the potentiometer to zero, the thing kept on.
I pondered my options. I could contact the facilities people, but they were undoubtably off at 11:00 PM. So I would have to wait until the next morning before any help from them showed up. I could wait for it to shut off automatically, because simple things shouldn't fail. Or I could take action.
I was about to decide on a wimpy, rational solution when I remembered one of the founding dictates of nerdism: Don't call for help until you've reduced the problem to a heap of parts.
I grabbed a pair of gloves and a screwdriver.
The faceplate came off fairly easily, revealing the mechanism itself. A couple buttons marked "Reset" were visible, but I couldn't get them to do anything. I then started in on the screws holding the mechanism to the wall. Some boxes provided a platform that I could tip the heater onto.
Carefully wedging the heater outwards with my gloves and insulted screwdriver, I finally tipped it onto the boxes. The thing is running all the while. I see the motors and the transformers and finally the wires leading to the wall. Carefully grasping the wirenut on top of live connection, I unscrewed it until I saw a spark and the wire came loose. I had shut down the heater and kept it from boiling me with my own electricity.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Monday, February 26th, 2007
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12:03 pm - Quick note
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I'm generally feeling on the upgrade this week. I'm learning lots of stuff at work and spending time on nerdy projects at home. Looking forward to seeing M again.
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
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3:27 pm - The coin business
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I'm kind of in a bad mood right now because I've tried twice this week to visit a coin store to find that they are unexpectedly closed. Seems the proprietors would rather go for a walk and enjoy their retirement than take my money. Most shops now seem to be just open 9-5 weekdays, except some are closed on Mondays, some on Fridays and most are lax in their open hours within that. Almost none are open on weekends or when people with regular jobs can reach them. I benefit from an irregular job but still have a very hard time finding an open store.
So in the future, I wish to see a national chain of coin/bullion/gilded collectible crap stores. The company would start by building a coin/condition grade database connected to online price lists. They would then open up satellite shops in different cities buying up collections. A customer would come in, give their coins (or bars or medals) to the counterperson. The counterperson would place each coin on a translucent scale between two cameras. The cameras would identify the coin and the grade. The scale would check the weight. An online database would be consulted, giving the buy and sell price on the counterperson's screen within a second. Entire collections could be sold within a few minutes.
Once there was enough stock, and all the old men had been bought out, larger stores would open selling these coins. The more expensive coins ($20 ) would sit on little LCD pads giving their current price. Cheaper coins would be arrayed on trays in $1, $2, $5, etc. sections. Customers would bring their buys to the front, where they would be scanned and priced on the spot.
I know it's not a utopian idea, but I think it could realistically make money on a large scale. It will sort of be to current coin shops what Barnes Noble is to a small bookstore; less character but guaranteed stock, larger selections and more dependability.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, January 12th, 2007
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1:43 pm - Free stuff from the former Wacky Willy's!
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http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/zip/260689713.html
"We're closing our surplus warehouse doors and everything that remains is FREE!!!
We hate to think of throwing it all aways, so we need YOU to come and take what you want...
Holiday decoration
Electrical parts
Computer components
Paper goods
Novelty items
Much, much more!!!
Come on down, load up a box or ten and take it all away!
2562 NW Wilson, Portland
Noon-7pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday!"
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(comment on this)
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| Saturday, December 30th, 2006
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3:54 pm - New Years Eve Party
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istar and I are having a New Years Eve Party!
Please come down for:
Food
Drink
Cheer
Super Nintendo
Capsela toys
Games
Robots
and Whatever happens to be Clever
On:
Sunday, December 31st 2006 9:00 PM
At:
920 NW Naito Parkway #J-8
Near:
Old Town/Chinatown MAX stop
Broadway Bridge
various hospitals
downtown
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, December 26th, 2006
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2:57 pm - On this day
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| Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
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10:31 pm - Birthday party 28 on the 28th.
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Good day. My 28th birthday is happening at Castle Sandmore (aka The Compound) in Sellwood this Saturday (the 28th!).
The address is 8405 SE 32nd Ave (near SE Johnson Creek and SE Tacoma).
The time is at 9 PM.
Food and drink (and entertainment!) provided.
Your presence will be greatly appreciated.
The house is reachable on the 75 bus line (stops right outside the door) as well as being close the the 33 that runs down McGloughlin. Reply for better directions.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Monday, October 16th, 2006
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8:52 pm - A question
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It's interesting. Dealing with this stuff. I'm back from the hospital and recovering. The question I have is what to do now. I know it in a larger sense, and in the sense of tomorrow and the next day. But right now this minute...
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006
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9:17 pm - Research assistant wanted
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Hey. I'm seeking a research assistant to help with my American synth book. Basically, I have a mound of material that needs to be sorted, refined and expanded. Scanning, citing, hardcopying, photocopying, sorting, page-protector inserting, data entering, etc. Part-time, fair pay (I hope), guaranteed hours, self-directed.
Here's a more technical description:
http://www.synthpunk.org/research_assistant.txt
If you or someone you know is something of a research geek (and might like this project), please contact (or have them contact) me at salien at earthlink dot net.
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(comment on this)
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| Sunday, August 20th, 2006
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12:53 am - Update
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| Thursday, August 10th, 2006
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12:15 pm - A few things happening.
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To those who wonder just how I keep busy these days, I dedicate the following post.
My main goal is finding another interesting job. It always sounds odd and kinda reductive when someone details their exact role within the computer world, so all I'll say is that I'm looking for something having to do with either quality or development. Those are two goals I can get behind.
Second to that is finishing another album. It's not going to be another opera, but more like a standard song-cycle.
The third is finally updating Synthpunk.org. I'm going to give it more scope.
Take care.
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(comment on this)
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