| Boss shuffle |
[Jul. 27th, 2006|01:14 pm] |
So boss #1 is leaving in a couple of weeks so he can finish building his dream home. New #1 boss has that long to come up with the future direction before he takes over. Unlike the other changes, this one might actually impact me some how, but hopefully not too much. |
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| Sudoku completed |
[Jul. 26th, 2006|08:41 pm] |
Yay! I've now completed all 120 (including 12 training puzzles) in Brain Age for the Nintendo DS. I thought they were all pretty easy until the last seven. Those all took around 30 minutes each. |
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| A few more pictures |
[Jul. 26th, 2006|08:37 pm] |
There are some pictures of the window in the area by the kitchen that used to be the dining area. We put 3Form plastic with reeds in it so some light can go between the laundry room and that area while not having to actually look from one room to another.
I forgot the pictures of the shower glass in the bathroom which really is the last of the bathroom pictures I think. We did forget one thing in all the bathroom plans and that was where to put towel racks or hooks. We think we have that worked out so there might be one more picture, but everything else really is done. |
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| Tuesday Movie Roundup #3 |
[Jul. 25th, 2006|03:34 pm] |
Failure to Launch - Not quite the typical romantic comedy. Yeah it has the same overall formula, but the situation is unique and that makes the whole thing pretty fun to watch.
Clerks - I watched this again this past weekend with someone who had never seen that. I'm not sure how they came to be in that situation but it was still great watching the movie again. I was more aware of nervousness of the one-scene actors this time.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - This movie was just fun from beginning to end. Good humor, good action, and fun characters to watch. I'm looking forward to the third one in May 2007.
Clerks II - I've been waiting for this movie for a long time and after seeing it I am very satisfied. Kevin Smith has a talent for dialog and for making you laugh at things you wouldn't laugh at otherwise. It seems like Kevin Smith has fully let go of making the actors say the dialog in the rhythmic pattern he has in mind which is probably for the best. Also, Jason Mewes no longer seems wooden in front of the camera like he would in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. |
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| Trophies |
[Jul. 24th, 2006|06:10 am] |
We didn't get the tv room finished or the shed, but good progress was made on both. A good reason for the slow speed was that the tv room is where we stored pretty much everything during the remodel. Now I have a number of things to unpack and find new homes for and that is how I came across the trophies. These are things that go back to junior high school bowling. I'm not going to be displaying them anywhere so I decided to take pictures of them before they left the house. |
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| The weekend... |
[Jul. 5th, 2006|03:00 pm] |
Saturday we tried to go to Sacramento to Nicole's brother's BBQ, but after 2 hours and only getting 80 miles and hearing that traffic was the same the rest of the way we gave up. On the way back home we decided to get lobsters to compensate at 99 Ranch Market so we got two 1.5 and 1 3lb lobster. Yum!
Sunday we emptied the office and the other bedroom which took about 6-7 hours since this is where everything has piled up during the remodel.
Monday we primed the office, painted the bedroom, and then painted the office. We also got baseboards for the bedroom. Mmmmmm fumes.
Tuesday we painted another coat on the two rooms so now they are done and a lot of things that had no home can finally go where they belong.
Oh yeah, we can use the shower in our bathroom now that they installed the shower glass. Unfortunately there are scratches on the shower glass so they are bringing us another one in two weeks. |
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| Certificates eat my brain |
[Jun. 28th, 2006|05:11 pm] |
Why are digital certificates so difficult?
What I want:
- A root certificate from which to create a signing certificate
- A signing certificate
- A certificate to put on a device to validate code signed with the signing certificate
- To be able to do all this with openssl or the Java keytool
With the Java keytool I can make a self signed certificate and sign with that, and export the necessary component for verification, but some devices soom to want a root that the signing certificate is based on. It has no distinct root cert.
With openssl I can make the root cert and then the signing cert, but I'm not sure how to make the verifying cert. |
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| His Excellency George Washington |
[Jun. 28th, 2006|09:39 am] |
Before reading Joseph Ellis' "His Excellency George Washington" I think the most I knew was that he was the first president (two terms), he was the general in the revolutionary war, he had a wife named Martha, and he had false teeth. American history classes never talk about his except to acknowledge he was there before going back to the constitutional talk. Joseph Ellis' previous beek, "Founding Brothers" made me think there was more there and this book provides. It covers from George Washington's childhood through his death and shows the influences that led to the decisions he made throughout his life. Like "Founding Brothers" it gives a feel for the time and the people, and makes it feel close rather than like history. If you ever wanted to know more about the man whose name and face is everywhere in this country I recommend this book. |
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| Tuesday Movie Roundup #2 |
[Jun. 27th, 2006|09:03 pm] |
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift - I can't recall the last time I've seen so many cheesy cliches strung together. This movie was fantastic and is easily the best of the three Fast and Furious movies. More racing and less half-assed cop story to get in the way.
Elizabethtown - It started off slow and a little awkward and I didn't much care what was going on. After a little while though I felt myself sucked in by the characters and they held me there until the very end.
Vanilla Sky - I wasn't trying for a Cameron Crowe fest but I'm not complaining. Again, great characters, and a fun story for them to run around in. The imdb lists 4 theories about what is going on and I think I have to go with the basic explanation that the movie presents out front.
The Greatest Game Ever Played - Why do I like golf movies when I don't like golf? I don't know but this is another golf movie that I really like. One thing I have to say though is that the CG ladybug is just wrong! I think it's one of the worst examples of bad gratuitous CG ever. The CG ball and flying effects didn't distract from the movie and helped make the game seem more action oriented. Oh yeah, based on a true story. |
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| What's up with the house? |
[Jun. 26th, 2006|09:40 pm] |
I haven't posted and house updates in awhile because I haven't really known what to post. Mostly we're waiting for some last few things. In the bathroom I painted the trim behind the "floating cabinets" and the bathroom pocket door. Now we just await the glass that will allow us to shower without spraying the bathroom.
In the kitchen the garbage cabinet has been fixed to be a one-piece pull-out instead of two doors that had to be opened all the way before you could pull out the cans. We're still waiting for under cabinet lighting and the installation of the blower unit for the down draft.
What's left aside from that? Painting the office and the other bedroom. Then finally things will be able to be moved into their places. One of the problems of remodelling something is that you decide to do other things while everything is messed up.
For us, that meant re-texturing the living room and the master bedroom and a wall in the "tv" room. We also have an electrical panel switched from the projection wall in the "tv" room to a wall in the laundry room. The water heater has been replaced with an on-demand heater (I can see it has cut gas usage by 1/3). The old water heater took up a corner of the office room so there's 10 more square feet in there now that the heater is on the outside wall. Since the kitchen floor was being put in we had them re-coat the rest of the floors with more of urethane. We removed the shelf in the laundry room and shortened the interior window that looks into it so that needed a wall build-up. Also since we needed new windows in the kitchen and bathroom we decided to get new windows throughout the house. Re-texturing, windows, and all that means that when we're done we'll have painted pretty much the entire house. |
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| The physical state of me |
[Jun. 20th, 2006|10:36 am] |
As of this morning I weigh 220.8 pounds.
According to a website that uses the Navy's method of calculating body fat I'm at 27%.
Time to turn that around.
I've read that the Navy's method is at least and generally more accurate than other body fat measurement techniques that can be easily done. |
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| Tuesday Movie Roundup #1 |
[Jun. 20th, 2006|10:31 am] |
I think I'm going to consolidate my movie posts to Tuesday.
Nacho Libre - Nachooooooooooooooooooo! It's fun. It's rediculous. It seems like it wanders aimlessly from time to time like every idea was thrown in and not enough of them were taken out again, but I don't care. It was fun!
Scary Movie 3 - The first of the Zucker style Scary Movie movies. Why aren't the Wayans brothers on this anymore? Their versions tend to push a little more while the Zuckers fall into their groove. Their groove is still funny, but I liked the change. If you like Airplane/Naked Gun style humor you'll like this. It's not as consistently funny as those and I think that could have been helped a great deeal by losing the 8-Mile parody. That was just boring. |
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| What I learned about dryer vents |
[Jun. 16th, 2006|06:03 am] |
If the dryer's heat is working but things aren't getting dry it's because exhaust air isn't working. I knew that already. That's bad because it can start fires, but that didn't happen here and I knew that too. The likely culprit was the flex hose (knew that) but amazingly there was very little in there.
The problem was the vent opening on the outside of the house. It has a screen inside of a mesh just small enought oprevent a bee from gaining entry and just small enough apparently to gather up enuogh lint over time to become completely blocked. More likely is that lint formed little clumps over time that were then caught up and blown to the screen where they got stuck. Anyway, some cutting pliers to remove the screen fixed the problem. I'm not really worried about critters getting in there. Hopefully I don't regret saying that. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 16th, 2006|05:55 am] |
Waiting... - This movie wanted to be Clerks, it even says so in the credits. It has the same problem for me that Road Trip had. The characters themselves were fun but their interaction fell flat. There were a few good scenes but mostly it was a lot of not caring.
Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - This is now my second favorite Wallace & Gromit after The Wrong Trousers. I loved all the small visual jokes, and that the rabbits say "whee!" a lot, and the general silliness. Definitely one to check out if you haven't yet. |
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| Forgot two movies |
[Jun. 12th, 2006|04:05 pm] |
They weren't forgettable, I was just forgetful.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - This goes high on the list of good adaptations of books to movies. The look was great, the characters came out very well, and nothing was left out. One thing I would have added was a little more of Edmund being a snot and being a slave to the Turkish Delight. It wouldn't even take much more film... a line or two to try and convince them to head towards the witch's palace, some more agitation shown in the beaver's den, some complaining to himself and saying how he's going to get some more Turkish Delight when he gets to the witch.
Keeping Up With The Steins - A Bar Mitzvah comedy movie! I think it's good for people who haven't been through one as well since Nicole liked it, but if you were there you'll enjoy it more. |
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| Movies in the last week |
[Jun. 11th, 2006|09:16 pm] |
The Break Up - An unromantic darkish comedy that I think works fairly well. I bought the relationship as feeling real which is what lets this work. It's also the only film I've liked Jennifer Aniston in.
The Omen (the original) - I haven't seen the new one yet, but I wanted to refresh on the old one first. It was the first time I had seen it in widescreen and it's very wide screen. The cinematography felt like a more modern film and it still manages to be a good creepy film.
Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip - The is a cool documentary about the automobile drive across the country. 1903, no coast to coast roads (let alone paved), and cars averaged 20 miles before a breakdown. It seems like a fantastic and nightmare trip all at once.
Over the Hedge - This was a fun movie overall. There was never a moment that I felt was dragging, but the finale made the earlier parts seem not as good. Like there wasn't a steady building but more of a slow up hill with the end being a huge increase in slope.
Watermarks - Another documentary about the women's swim team at the Hakoah sports club in Austria before and through Hitler's takeover. A lot of it focused on reuniting the remaining members that are still alive and I think it would have been better with less of their daily lives. |
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| You're Pitiful |
[Jun. 9th, 2006|08:38 am] |
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It's the new Weird Al song, but it's not going to be on the next album (which will appear some time this year). You can get it at this mirror or just go to weirdal.com. |
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