Category: Uncategorized

Today, I was working from home.  Man, I have to start taking notes about what happened at work.  I am forgetting stuff lately – not good.

I am going to put some weed killer on the grass before the weather gets too warm and it goes against the instructions.  Don’t need a yard full of hay.  That seems to be the way any more.  Also have to continue trimming the bushes.  The weather is beautiful today.  We shall see…

Ratpuke7

I am officially brain numb.  I’ve been watching (for the last 3 hours) some training on a new product from Microsoft called “Power BI”.  It’s very powerful and seems to be simple to use.  This should really be a good competitor to SAP BI/Business Objects (BI/BOBJ).

Well, I think my wife’s working career is officially coming to an end.  There are some financial ducks that I need to get in a row fairly quickly  to be able to adapt to this new world order.  No more disposable income 😛

-Rat

 

 

Lyrics out of “Stairway to Heaven”.  I still don’t understand JDE or agree with it.  What a “Charlie Foxtrot” (CF=Cluster Fuck).  How can you migrate code when the code exists in 2 separate states? 

I met this chiropractor the other day at the health club.  While not a traditional artist, he certainly is an artist.  You can call it data manipulation, photography, layer and markup manipulation with software, call it anything you want.  It’s still art.  Steve is a character, that’s for sure.  I love his enthusiasm, it is certainly contagious.  His day job is chiropractic but his love is art.  It seeps from his pores.  He probably wouldn’t agree but I can feel his passion.  Anyhow, he heads up a photography club in the area that meets twice a month.  I really want to attend.    I just have to figure out the details.  It sounds like its winding down for the year though.

Ratpuke7

Well, Happy Birthday sis!  I hope your vacation/trip to Arizona was good.  Post many pix!

My wife is letting my sister-in-law have the twins communion party at our abode on the South Side – a month earlier than I anticipated (ugh)!  I’m going to be a nervous wreck with 4 weekends less to get all the stuff done AND I will be in Rochester MN for 3 days the week of.   And, I have taxes to complete, and I have a basement to clean.  Not everything is going to be on time and some stuff will need to be triaged.

Ratpuke7

I got a brainstorm this weekend to put in a new light switch.  So, it was the 30 min light switch, switch.  I do not like turning on and off the outside lights every night, so I got the bright idea to use a programmable light switch.  Which is good in theory, however there are 2 things that make it difficult – the first is that there was no neutral wire and second, there was a red wire and an orange wire.  What the hell?  Who does this?  Apparently, everyone.  The orange wire was really 2 wires and are the load wires, and the red is really the line wire (a second hot wire).  Third, a real prerequisite for this switch is that you really cannot have only 2 wires – the reason is that there is a digital timer that gets its power, then there is a switch.  So upon further review I have to find the neutral wires (I think I remember them nutted together in the back of the box).  These instructions are not for the faint of heart.

I started back at the health club last night with a trainer (a new trainer) for the first time since the move.  I missed my buddy Ryan.  Pants are tight, shirts are tight, can’t hardly tie my shoes.  Everything gets me out of breath.  Pathetic.  Its hell getting old.  The FNG is ok though.  I am sore and have some tendonitis in my bicep/forearm front outside.  I could tell that the deadlifts were killing me.  Oh, and don’t get me started on mountain climbers – ugh.  I know I didn’t have enough protein last night before bed, I can just feel it.  Have to incline treadmill it tonight and stretch out.  Killer again.  No fun.

Ratpuke7

I’ve been fighting a cold or the flu for the past week.  I feel pretty good today.  We are supposed to go to the gym tonight.  We should be signing up for a new trainer – the both of us (he’s a newbie).   Hopefully, once we have a schedule, I will be going regardless.  At least that is my hope.  I need to drop some weight.  Next, I will be fighting my appetite.   I also know that spring is on the way, I have to reconfigure my sump pump before the rains.  Always a fight.  Can’t wait to see my kids this weekend for breakfast.  Flipping Game of War, that is the next fight. 

Ratpuke7

Happy Birthday to my favorite sister-in-law that will never be…Doreen.  Hope John recovers 100% from his bone infection, and have fun with “Mona” in Arizona watching the world champs.  You’re missing crappy weather and flu.  Wear sunscreen and drink plenty of bottled water.

Have I said that I hate my job?  Familiarity breeds contempt.  That goes both ways.  I don’t like being marginalized when everything goes well for so long.  They have not figured out that its that way for a reason.

I figured out that even with a blown tweeter, my 1.5x$1800 speakers sound way better than my 2x$300 speakers.  They also sound more efficient – who’d a thunk?  I have to find some way to hybridise them.  A cheap bread-board, some terminals and a way to add resistance to parallel connected speakers?  Maybe I will just bite the bullet and take the tweeter off and look at the connection and the crossover.  I just galls the shit out of me that I have to fuck up the case and trim.  At least I can put the speaker cover over when I am finished.

I decided to create a cover page and remove my logo to protect my anonymity.  Ha, it was on for almost a month.  My cover page kind of explains my feelings.

Listening to Spa – like: Stellamara – Immrama, Dana Cunningham – River of Grace, and Thomas Otten – Close to Silence.

Ratpuke7

 

 

Listening to Foreigner, Starrider.  What a catchy little tune.  I think that this is the week I need to get off my duff and get the basement moving forward.  The season finale of Six is tomorrow night (DVR), but health club is tonight (yeah!).  The communion party is fast coming and the pressure will be on.  I need to get out in front of the fun.  Have to speak with my boss concerning getting 3 days off for going to Rochester and IBM for SAP/IBM seminars.  I’m not really holding my breath because its not in the cards, but our IBM VAR is saying that he can get the trip reimbursed.  Very cool.  Thanks DataNational!  Ha! Added my logo to the site.  Inch by inch…

Ratpuke7

I think I am going to put my 2 rear channel Mirage speakers downstairs in place for my Energy’s.  That still bugs me – having the most expensive audio things water damaged and parts nonfunctional.  I wish I knew when it happened, not that it makes any difference.  Still,  It will make cleaning the basement a little easier.  There are some things that  I have to get done for the communion party. 

• Install the timer for the outside front lights
• Refinish the island
• Refinish the kitchen table
• Patch up the chairs
• Refinish the game table
• Clean up office
• Refinish the bathroom mirrors
• Paint bathroom vanities
• Clean up basement
• Powerwash the patio
• Set up patio

Ratpuke7

 

Be gentle on thyself.  I was good yesterday and had my first stumble today.  Not at Dunkin Donuts mind you, but an unsuspecting me had a donut sneak up at work – in the middle of the day.  Fucking devils.  I am reinvigorated for another fight with my food.  One day in, lent is a challenge.  Brought a lot of my crap from work home yesterday.  My new digs look like a tornado went through my office.  Busting out some stuff that I haven’t seen in a while.

Bummed about my Energy Reference speakers.  I was trying to hook them up the other day so I could have tunes in the basement.  One speakers tweeter is shorted out, the other has a shorted out woofer.  Maybe the crossovers are bad, who the hell knows.  There is no easy way to take the speaker apart, so I’m starting to think about writing them off.  Maybe a larger set of Mirages with a sub or a set of Klipschs. 

Ratpuke7