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I would dissuade you from using All Temp Service of Hackettstown NJ for your plumbing and HVAC needs. I wrote the letter below to All Temp and called several times for a followup. I received no response whatsoever, though their answering service knows me well now.

Continue reading ‘Don’t use All Temp Service of Hackettstown NJ’ »

Aren’t they pretty.

Instructions:
Continue reading ‘Installed Brian’s Latest Comments’ »

Today I was called a big lug. As in “Ya big lug.”

I got all mushy over it.

Can you believe the kinds of Customer Service emails I get?

From: André Sala
To: support
Subject: big probleem with TonicTV
Created: 12/19/2005 11:20:07
Greetings.

I am Borat and I having technical difficult with your tonicsTV software package.

I am running most up to date versions of Windows 95, and I have absolutely most top of line computer laptop.

I have to like very many channels, and will looking forward to many video blog channels.

I have checked all connections and even try fresh new battery. Will you fix?

Thank you.

Borat.

My flight got in from EWR at 4:30am EST. There was an electrical problem on the plane so they had to turn around and get us another one. We suspected something was wrong when they had a lot of trouble playing the “seat cushion as floatation device” video. They had to close and open the TVs from the ceiling 3 or 4 times and the sound kept not working. We knew there was a problem when the captain came on and said, “We’re probably going to be turning around. We’ve just about finished troubleshooting the electrical problem…” People shouldn’t be “troubleshooting” at 10,000 feet! A flight attendant came on a couple times with an unsure note in her voice. That didn’t help things any.

We landed a bit heavy (I’m guessing because we were heavy with fuel). I wasn’t really unnerved until I saw the 2 fire trucks and assorted support vehicles at the end of the runway. Getting off the plane, the right side of the cabin was dark and the left side had emergency lights on. I’m guessing that if both generators had failed, we might have had Trouble.

We got off and found another plane at the opposite side of the terminal. I watched our new flight crew read some sheets of paper very intently. I’m guessing it was what they should do on this new plane in case of a water landing or somesuch. Joy.

We got in the air at 10pm, 4 hrs late. Got in at 1:30am. The baggage carousel broke after spitting out 1/2 the bags so we switched to another one. Joy. I found a van service (we don’t have these in NJ). For $15 they took me right to my door. A cab would have been $30. After me, they dropped off a few other folks in SF.

I dropped into blissful San Franciscan sleep on my matressless floor at 2:45am (that’s 5:45am for you east coasters)

After all that rigormoral…. I’m back! Yeah!

My flight leaves for San Francisco in 16 hours. My parents will be away from their house for a while so I suggested they turn off the water main while they are away. Last winter the heat went out; I got it fixed but if no one had been there, the pipes would have frozen and the downstairs would have become a small frozen lake (like my neighbor’s was last winter!)

So I went over to shut off the water main in the basement with my dad to try things out. I found the pressure reducing valve and a shutoff valve between it and the outside. As I turned it off, I noticed that it was starting to leak. By the time it was mostly off, the water was a mostly constant stream. Once off, it was down to a once every 2 seconds drip. I tried opening a turn and closing it to clear debris but each of the three times I did it, the water leaked a little faster while it was open.

Now there is a problem! It’s possible that if I open the valve all the way, it will seat itself and stop leaking. (that’s not the problem). It’s also possible that if I open the valve all the way, the valve will break completely, leaving me with an unstoppable torrent of 75 PSI water!

Since it’s 1 am, I figured it was best to shut off the valve and put a bucket under it til morning. Tomorrow I will call the property owner’s association to see if there is a shutoff valve outside the house. After that, I may call a plumber or (dare I?) try opening the valve all the way.

I heartily welcome any suggestions!

update Before I woke up, my dad turned the water on full, guessing it would be alright (a wild guess, seeing as we both agreed to leave it off last night). I’m glad I didn’t get a morning swim. Now the high pressure valve only drips once a second. Now what? Follow the same plan?

Christmas eve morning, my dad’s organization, The Twelve Santas delivered toys and food coupons to 37 needy families in the area. All of the money for gifts and gifts themselves were collected by the members of the group, which now number more than 12. I got the tremendous privilege of playing Santa. I’ll try to write more about it later but it was incredible seeing the expression on kids faces. Even the older kids that didn’t “believe” would look at the huge bag of toys I had just handed them and then back at me…. and then to the bag again and then to me waving goodbye without asking for a thing in return. The possibility of Santa became real again.

I had dinner with my dad’s side of the family on Christmas eve. C, a friend of mine from SF joined us since she was spending Christmas in New York with a friend. She hasn’t really told me why she didn’t spend it with family but that’s ok.

My uncle Frank “Sglick” (pronounced sss-click) Cavagnaro died Christmas morning in his bar at age 77. The thought I can’t get out of my mind is how much he loved owning his bar. He had regulars that came in at 10am just about every day. It wasn’t big, it wasn’t ostentatious, it didn’t have a big sign, the only special drink I know of was local beer he served on draft in tiny 6 oz glasses for about $0.50. I imagine that his was the kind of place that he’d pour your drink as you walked in the door and it’d be ready for you before you finished your hellos and sat down. I’ll be at the viewing Wednesday.

I wrote 175 personal holiday cards over the last 2 weeks. If I missed you, please forgive me and send me your email address. The responses I’ve gotten back have universally been touching. It’s good to have friends.

Christmas Day dinner was at Bean’s house with much of my mother’s side of the family. It was dinner for 16 or so.

Tonight was dinner and Barry & DeAnn’s. More of my mom’s side. There were 18 places at dinner! What a family!

This Christmas, I sent greetings to most all of my friends. (if I missed you, I do apologize!) Along with it, I sent the most adorable card from JacquieLawson.com.

Here is a local archive of it.

Really, I mean it.

Merry Christmas and all that jazz!

(By the First Intent Doctrine of the Constitution, I have apparenelty just violated the law. Well, tough!)

The Macy’s Sterns and Foster bed that has given me 2 back aches in the past 1 1/2 weeks has been returned. I was very nervous about the propect because I bought an “as-is” floor model. $900 instead of $2400. But when 2 people told me, “hey your bed feels funny. there’s like a hole over in this spot”, I knew that going against the “as-is” contract was perfectly fine.

Kathy, the manager on the 7th floor at the Union Square Macys (literally) didn’t bat an eye at me wanting to return the bed. I told her my problem, that I hated the bed and she said, “Well you have two options… … exchange… or … return with a $65 delivery fee to get it back to the store”.

Carmen graciously around for the delivery guy at 11 this morning.

Tonight, I’m sleeping on the floor again. But that’s ok.

The Burning Man 2006 Theme has been announced.

Art inspires

I’m a member of Tradesports.com. Last fall, I had a good time trading Central Park weather futures. IE, the number of inches of snow in Central Park at the end of each month. I liked excercising my statistics skills.

Most people think of Tradesports as a sports book. But wait, there’s more. Insurance companies have a lot in common with gambling houses.

Read this Annoucement I just got from them
Continue reading ‘Online Gambling or Vital Financial Tool?’ »

Being in the rockin’ christmas spirit, I present this excellent application of The Trans Siberian Orchestra’s music.

An astounding Christmas lighting display set to music
(sorry, removed to protect bandwidth.)

(This local 5 MB copy will only be held online for a short time to protect my bandwith limit. Googling for “Wizards of Winter”or “Wizards_of_Winter___SM.wmv” should find it)

http://www.gkko.com/

When you are at a public access terminal, it’s very possible that a keylogger is sniffing your keyboard. But sometimes it’s just so convenient that you have to use one of these machines anyway. To try and beat it, do the following:

1 Open notepad
2 Type part of your password in the password window
3 Using the mouse, go to the notepad window
4 Type some nonsense characters
5 Using the mouse, return to the password window

Repeat steps 2-5 a few times.

Make sure that the password window doesn’t show your password on the screen because bad people might have put a program on your computer that takes screenshots every few seconds.

(tip from Security Now Podcast, Episode 17)

- Catch fish
- Slice fish (note that “kill” did not occur in this progression)
- Eat fish while it pleads for you with it’s eyes to finish it off.
(Kevin Rose’s sushi experience)

Yum!

My cutting board came with instructions in 18 languages. I’m almost surprised that English was at the top. It cost me $10, 75% less than similar ones I found at Bed Bath and Beyond. And by appearances, it is one of the better and more attractive cutting boards I have owned. The instructions it came with are clear, concise and useful. All hail the Swedes!

My new kitchen table is just about exactly the size I needed, 47″x30″. It’s stylish in it’s simple lines and real wood construction. It’s rather small but it’s a small eat-in kitchen. I’ve been shopping around and I nearly bought a set at Macy’s that wasn’t quite the right size for $750. I found some that were close to right at “Furniture 2000″ near my office. But no.

I’d like to find something that totally grabs me but I’m getting tired of shopping, and tired of eating dinner on the edge of my bed. I’m not sure the table I got is exactly what I want, but the Swedes took 85% off the price and sold me a quality eat-in-kitchen table and chair set for $100.

Purchases like this are blowing my budget for shopping for my apartment. I had set aside $6000 (great thanks to my folks) to furnish the place and so far my expenses, top down have been:
$900 bed (that I might get rid of, it’s giving me a back ache)
$400 tableware for 4 (they make me happy :-)
$120 office desk off craigslist (It’s the right size, I can’t think of what more expensive things would replace it)
$100 table and chair set (see above)
$90 overpriced but fabulous santoku kitchen knife (satisfying my kitchen nesting instinct)
.. umm..
$18 cookie sheet
$15 shower hanging thing
You can see where I’m going with this…

My budget is being blown in the other direction. I can’t think of what to spend this money on. Though I still have 2 rugs, a desk chair, some kind of comfy chair and wall art to buy. Four grand for all that stuff? I’m going to have to get like… real art or something. Now I’m seriously thinking about that Sharper Image massage chair too.

Oh and I need a bike (motorized?) but that comes out of the transportation budget and not the housing budget. Maybe Housing will float a bond ;-)

I’m getting a lot of my stuff out of storage tomorrow. We’ll see what that spurns.

I often use the name “Gadlen” online. A lot of people have asked where the name comes from so….

It was originally a character in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. (a very sophisticated, grown-up comic). There were these two characters, Gadlen and Hobbes who took care of Dream’s castle while he was away. They are quirky little characters, very much sideline characters… getting just a tiny bit more stage time than the more famous pair, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

I liked that. I liked the allusion to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and the buzz about “the two least known characters in Shakespeare”. I loved Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead” and how absurd the movie, Shakespeare’s characters, and Gaiman’s characters are.

I liked their jobs, immortal caretakers… janitors in an impossibly beautiful castle. I liked their boss (Sandman #50 still sends a shiver down my back).

I liked even more that when I did a search on the internet in 1992 or so and I didn’t find the word in use by anyone else. It’s good to have a unique name on the internet. Even today, if you google for “Gadlen“, many of the 150 or so links are to me. Having to get an email address like baseballfann5798@aol.com is no fun.

I have used the name in a live action role playing game. I played D. Gadlen J. Chimeran, Dark Hobling of the Fourth House of Inverness. It was quite a bit of fun. I’ve used the name Gadlen all over the ‘net, it’s a bit of a pen name. I’m Gadlen on Gmail, Yahoo, AIM and a mess of other places.

“Lee, you sure use a lot of plugins on your site. Could you give me a list of all of them?”
“Sure thing. I’ll give you the whole rundown..
Continue reading ‘How Does the Site Work? Plugin and Mods Rundown’ »

Friday night: After work, had a very fun time with Laura from Sacramento at LL in Northbeach

Saturday: I had a wonderful breakfast at Boogaloos, a 3 block walk from my house, and some wanderings through my neighborhood. Laura showed me where Osento is. She says that’s where all the contented ladies in the neighborhood eminate from.

Saturday night: Saw The Extra Action Marching Band. A fantastic experience. Imagine a marching band, only grown up and their outfits don’t fit anymore (in a good way) and they play in a club, on the dance floor, with everyone else dancing among them. Imagine swaying in a frenzy of bodies so thick that it’s hard to fall down, and then you get shoved aside by a tuba player that’s so close, you just miss getting beaned by it as he passes you. The band does all those football field maneuvers you’re used to, only in a slightly smaller space. “Ill advised performance art”. Hot, sweaty, loud, overwhelming. It’s a good thing!

Sunday: (after recovering from Extra Action) shopping. I now have beautiful flatware from a great little shop in SF called Dandelion. Of course, I have no table to put them on and no utensils to eat with, but all things in due time. I went back to Union Square to do a high-end run. I’ve got most of what I need to make pies now :-)

I was very impressed with the sales staff at Williams-Sonoma. They were way more nice and helpful and knowledgeable and everything than I’ve ever seen in other stores. I was shown a zester that worked like a bastard file; I liked it but was concerned that it was hard to clean so she said, “Well, let’s go get a lemon and find out!” I now own a bastard file zester. :-)

And the location, wow, they have a mezzanine and balconies and curving stairs and grand expanses and everything. I’ve been in other Williams-Sonoma stores and never got that treatment. And they had excellent selection and even the spatula I wanted :-)

I bought a fancy Sterns and Foster mattress and box spring from Macy’s. I got it home Thursday Dec 1st. It was an as-is showroom model. Priced at $2,400. I got it for $900. It’s all kinds of fancy.

I think it might be too soft in the center. I woke up with a back ache this morning. Actually, it’s more of a…. divot in the middle. The sides are firm, the head and foot are firm, there’s just this sweet spot that my hip falls into. Fuckin. That’s EXACTLY what I was trying to avoid in getting a nice bed. Am I out $900? Grrr.

Couple that with the horrible experience I had at the Select Comfort store in Walnut Creek… The salesman would not quit with his ultra-hard-sell sales schpeil until I said, -twice-, “I would like to evaluate the bed on my own. Could you please go away and let me.”

I was too tired to shop last night so I went home. Home. It was really really nice. My car in my garage. My beautiful entryway leading to my well maintained stairs. My door, my fridge, my bread, Holly’s jam :-), my fancy-schmancy German Williams Sonoma knife, my food, my plates. It was as quiet as I wanted and needed.

Things are going well on the Western Front.