Archive for May, 2007
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
I thought this little device was going to be totally useless, but recently, I have been telling Laura about how I have no recollection of what goes on while I am sleeping.
I am talking about our new Sleep Mate Sound Screen. It is basically a noise filter. It kind of sounds like a fan or an air purifier or something. I read the box and it says something about “White Noise.” I am not sure what white noise is, but by reading about it, I have a better picture now.
I remember back when I was going to Binghamton University, one of the guys I was living with used to use one of these machines to keep the noise out of his room when he was studying. This was basically always, since he studied all the time…he had a 4.0 GPA. Crazy bastard. Anyway, I never actually got a look at it, but I always pictured it to be a big blue fan type thing. No, not really. Here, take a look.
It’s only about six inches across.
I have to say, this little noise filter does a great job of keeping the sound of screaming kids and barking poodles away. I wake up so relaxed…it’s nice.
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Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
This post was written by Steve Henry
One never knows what will be found on any given Saturday morning yard sale or a late Friday night at your local auction house.
I started going to these things a few years ago, just for something to do. How exciting it was! I was hooked the first day. I have found many bargains and treasures that I have re-sold on ebay. I once bought an old skateboard…the kind I had back in the 1970s. It was made of plastic, was skinny and was short in length. The lady was asking $2, but I gave her only $1. The only reason I bought the skateboard was because it reminded me of good times when I was a child. That night, I looked up the skateboard on ebay, and to my surprise, it was being sold for $50. I decided to sell mine and I got $54 from a college student in Colorado.
I do not attend auctions for the single pieces, but for what is called “box lots.” These boxes are stuffed with “junk” and usually you cannot see everything in the box. I usually pay between $1 and $10 for a box. I have found many treasures in these boxes including; old coins, antique pottery, video games, tools, antique tools, etc. Some of these things I keep and some I sell. I always wonder if one of my treasures will end up on the television show “Antiques Roadshow.”
Let’s talk about my favorite type of auction. This auction occurs at what is known as mini-storage units. Every month, these businesses advertise auctions on the contents of units that rent has not been paid on. Sometimes the auctioneer will sell the whole storage unit for one price. Sometimes they will do what is called a “piece it out.” A piece it out just means that the auctioneer pulls out things from the storage unit one piece at a time and sells it individually. I love buying boxes this way. The good auctioneers will not open the boxes, but sell them contents unseen. I have found many treasures in these boxes, such as old militaria, and have been able to do some good along the way. For example, one box I bought was full of pictures, some personal memorabilia and a program from a funeral. I looked up the information from the name of the deceased and was able to return the box to the daughter of the gentleman who had passed away 18 months earlier. She was very elated and thought she had lost these things forever.
Below is something I discovered in one of my boxes. It is a whole notebook of drawings and prints from the 1970s…most of which are of characters from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, The Lord Of The Rings, The Fellowship Of The Ring and The Return Of The King. I would like to know more about the drawings and prints. There are many other drawings, sketches and prints in the notebook, but do not have any idea of who made them or where they came from.
Finds like this keep me going to auctions and yard sales all the time. I just never know what I might find.
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Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
I suppose this is the question of the day.
I am currently working on some of my websites’ HTML code…trying to clean it up. The code itself is about three years old and a bit bulky. I am noticing a lot that doesn’t need to be there. The main thing I am coming across has to do with tables. When making an HTML table, you deal with a few tags, but the most frequent one you will come across is the “td” (table data) tag. For some reason, the developer used all “th” (table header) tags. I am not sure if there is much of a difference when it comes to SEO, but I am fixing them all to be “td” tags anyway. Also, I have a lot of nested tables. I can clean that up when I am really bored…one day.
Well, that had nothing to do with what this post is about. This may be more on track…since I am going through the pages, I thought it might be a good idea to run the pages I am working on through the W3C Markup Validation Service. Whether or not getting my pages closer to W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Compliance will have any effect on my rankings is to be seen. I don’t think it will, but I sure will let you know if it does.
What is W3C Compliance? Well, here is a great page on W3C Compliance and SEO. Give it a read and you may learn a little something. Here is a good thread on compliancy too.
What I am coming across when I run pages through the validator is many of my “alt” attributes are missing. No big deal…I’ll just put them in. There are a few more little things, but I am still coming up with about 40 something errors per page. Now, I am not going to be one of those people who sit up all night perfecting their websites to be 100% W3C Compliant, because the outcome isn’t sure to have much of an effect on my ranking anyway. When working on projects like this, you can go crazy. I know a guy who has a pagerank of 1 and has become absolutely obsessed with his site’s W3C Compliancy. I want to meet him, grab him by the shoulders, slap his face and tell him, “Dude, your site has no ranking whatsoever. Why in the world are you going crazy with this stuff?” This is an example of two things; 1. How many webmasters don’t keep their eye on the big picture, and 2. How violent I become when I am exposed to idiocy. And just to let you know, no, I have never met this person, he is a frequent writer on a web forum I visit a lot.
I had a little conversation with Paul this morning, who is into the web thing more and more these days. He is striving to break a million too. I mentioned that I was going to write a post on how (if) W3C Compliancy affects SEO. Before I could finish the sentence, he said, “No.” I told him that I wasn’t even finished talking yet and he became heated and through me out of his office. Just kidding, but he did say no.
He has been down the road of attempting to validate his sites and tells me it didn’t make much of a difference. So what does make the difference? Ahh, well, if you wanted to know that, I would have to ask for a teensy bit of money.
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Sunday, May 6th, 2007
Well, it’s another year for the Bear Mountain Dogs Walk for Cancer. I think it might be the “Dogswalk” for Cancer though. I did a post on this last year, so you already may have an idea of what goes on with the walk, but I may have better photos this time. Of course, I brought the camera with this in mind.
So basically what happens is this…you register for the walk and you go there and walk. Around the lake that is. Of course, there is the whole park to explore afterwards if you want, but the basic jist is the walk around the lake. If the Bear Mountain Inn is open, you can hang out in there too. Today, the Inn was closed for renovations.
So here goes…
This is the Bear Mountain Merry-Go-Round. This is where some radio personalities and vendors set up shop.
Ahh, the walk begins. The photo above is the first leg of the walk around Hessian Lake. The whole walk isn’t even that long…maybe 3/4 of a mile.
Who else but Holly and me? Laura took about five pictures of us on this bench, but this was the best one. Holly freaks out a little bit when the camera comes out.
These are just more pictures of Hessian Lake, from different angles. In the last one, you can see the top part of Bear Mountain Bridge.
This is a very important shot that Laura took. Doesn’t it look like I am standing on the edge of the picture?
Another important shot by Laura. Her whole family was impressed by my balancing skill.
Here we go down the last leg of the walk. This is a slight decline heading towards the canoe area and back to the big field.
Finally done. I don’t think we were as tired as the dog in the picture, but it’s a decent little workout.
After the walk is finished, some people come up to you and hand you a bag with little goodies in it. Mostly it is promotional items for dog food companies, but sometimes you get lucky with a frisbee or something. Also, the big thing is to walk around and visit all the tables giving out free stuff.
Another year down and a good tradition followed. Till next year!
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Sunday, May 6th, 2007
I had to get this picture in here for my loyal reading fans. I took it this morning…it is Simon the cat in his new hammock.
When Stephanie visited earlier in the week, she came bearing gifts. One of them was a brownie that I ate this morning and the other was this cat hammock. I was concerned that none of our cats would use it, but this morning Simon inched his fat body right in there.
Here is a little bit of caution…whenever accepting cat gifts from people and you suspect the item may have been around another cat or cats, be sure to clean the item in bleach. There are certain viruses that can be easily transferred from cat to cat this way, such as Feline Leukemia. You can easily soak a cat hammock like this in a bleach solution in the bathtub.
Better safe than sorry, especially when it comes to fat cats like Simon.
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Saturday, May 5th, 2007
I thought this nice sunny day would be a good time to show off our bulbs that have bloomed so far.
Ok, I am going to try to identify these as best I can. I remember that we bought a big collection, but may be wrong on what they exactly are. That’s half the fun. I know we have Hyacinths, Tulips, Daffodils, Crocus and Dahlias. Here’s the thing…remember I told you that Laura’s friend gave us a bunch of stuff last summer? Well, those are all in our gardens too, so that’s a bit of a problem. Also, there were tons of bulbs already here when we moved in. When I cleaned out the triangle garden last Autumn, I sifted through the soil and replanted all the bulbs. Who know what was in there.
I know these are Hyacinth(s). Is that plural? Anyway, these are early Spring blooming flowers and look pretty good. I would like more of them…like a forest worth. Be careful, the deer like them and ate our early ones until I sprayed them.
These are tulips, I think. There may be a Crocus in there. Maybe? Probably not, but when I was going through the bulbs, there were some mighty big ones in there. There are some strange plants emerging from the ground right now, so I will let you know what they are when they bloom. Also, I know that there are Daffodils mixed in there. The Daffodils are the sideways leaning flower. (Update: There are no Crocuses in here. I just remembered that the Crocus is low to the ground…so none here, yet.)
Now here is the one I am really confused about. Could this be a Dahlia? I don’t think it’s just a fancy Tulip, I am hoping for something more exotic. Can anyone help out with this?
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Saturday, May 5th, 2007
Well, it’s done. The porch demolition is complete. Now I just have to clean up all the building material. I have decking (floor) that I am throwing away and wood that I am burning and some that I am keeping.
I got up nice and early this morning to do some work on my sites and then tackle the porch project. I took off all the decking, removed all the joists and beams and removed the footings. I was kind of concerned about how the heck I was going to get the footings out. Here, take a look at these pics.
This picture was taken about a half-hour into it this morning. I took the rest of the floor apart and some of the joists.
Ahh, finally getting somewhere…along with a little sunburn.
So how do you remove a footing? Well, if you are lucky like me and have some that aren’t built to code, you make a lever. Since the bolt was still sticking out of the top of the concrete footing, I just used a big washer, a nut, some strong rope and some junk wood and got a little creative.
What I thought would be the worst part of the job took about twenty minutes to complete.
There, done. I have to clean up the mess and then get some of that waterproof Tyvek stuff to seal up that one exposed area. Also, I have to screw the stairs to the back of the house so we can continue to let the dog out. We really don’t feel like going for a walk at 6:30AM.
Related links:
Deck-Building Basics
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Saturday, May 5th, 2007
This post was written by Steve Henry
My beautiful wife, realizing that the weeds around the house have grown to over three feet tall, surprised me with an Anniversary Edition Craftsman 32cc 1.9 cubic inch 2-cycle 17 inch cutting path gasoline weedwacker with Sim-Pul technology for smooth easy starts.
Personally, I don’t mind weeds. I think weeds get a bad wrap. Weeds should have just as much right to grow as do grass and flowers. Weeds can be beautiful too. It is part of nature.
Anyway, I got the hint so last Sunday, April 29, 2007, I fired up the weedwacker and went to work. I live in Southeastern North Carolina, in what is known as the sub-tropics. Wilmington, North Carolina to be exact. Home of the famous Azalea Festival. The reason I mention this is to help explain some details to the people reading who are not familiar with the Southeast United States.
The Southeast has many creepy crawly creatures that like to make homes in overgrown areas with lots of weeds. Many, many reptiles and live hand in scale with humans. There is also a plethora of small rodents and mammals crawling around out there…so makes the circle of life. I like to refer to my backyard as “The Jungle.†We have a fairly large backyard that is fenced in by a wooden 6 foot fence. The first half of the yard, the part that is next to the house, is cleared (except for my overgrown weeds). The back half is “The Jungle.†Many a day I have heard things rustling through the underbrush in the jungle. It doesn’t bother me, because I am a tree-hugger nature boy, and I love all animals (except that German Shepherd that lived up the street when I was a kid, the one that used to chase me all the time).
So I start wacking the weeds next to the house. I have to admit, there were a lot of weeds. It took about 30 minutes. I had forgotten about the hole my dog Keesha had dug last fall. Keesha is an Akita.
The weeds had totally covered her hole, naturally I stepped in the hole, tripped and fell. I chuckled, because I bet it looked pretty funny. I got up and wacked the hole, which is right next to the house. I then stopped the Craftsman weedwacker. I suddenly noticed numerous unusually large geckos running away from the area. I thought this to be a little strange, since this was something with which I had never noticed of their character before. I then noticed some sort of commotion about 25 feet away near the corner of the house. I walked over to inspect what was happening. Apparently, I had disturbed many creatures, two of which were a young opossum and the largest Cottonmouth Water Moccasin (Agkistrodon piscivorus) I had ever seen. The cottonmouth had its fangs sunk into the opossum. I was totally in awe. This is something you would see Steve Irwin (Crocodile Hunter) examining. The opossum stopped struggling after about 10 seconds. For some reason, I automatically tried to help the opossum, like it was a murder victim or something. Without thinking, I had grabbed my trash grabbers, those things you can use to pick up trash without bending over. I reached out and hooked the snake and picked it up. It would not let go of the opossum. So I grabbed the opossum with the tongs and started shaking it. After about a minute, the snake fell to the ground, not very happy with me. My neighborhood is built on what used to be a swamp. Cottonmouth snakes are not uncommon, but usually do not come this close. I figured it must have been living in that hole that Keesha had dug.
I did not want to kill the snake, since I am a tree-hugger. It was obviously very angry at me and coiled to strike. I tried numerous times to pick it up with the grabbers, but apparently, to my dismay, Cottonmouth snakes like to climb. This thing wanted a piece of me bad. I then decided to chase it away, into one of the many streams or ponds that are around the house. The snake was very adamant about getting around me and going back to that hole. It struck several times, hitting the grabbers with an impressive force. I now know why they are called Cottonmouths. Very white mouth. I jumped back, and the snake made quick move toward the house. I did not want the snake to get to the hole or the house, because right beside the hole, is the back garage door, which is broken (it is on my honey-do list) and has about a 2 inch area on the bottom that is wide open. I knew the cottonmouth could fit under this, and this is where he was heading. I have small children at home, and really don’t need large poisonous snakes in my garage or next to the house. The only thing I could think of doing was throwing the grabbers at the door, and hopefully scare the snake into a different direction. It worked, but the snake turned and started to climb up the electric outlet box. It got pretty high, and then I noticed the vent that goes into the attic. It is not that high, only a single story house. The snake was heading right for it. It then fell off the house, then started climbing again, straight for the vent. I ran to pick up the grabbers and noticed an old rusty machete lying on the ground. I don’t even know where it came from, since I have never bought a machete. I ran back to get the snake and all of sudden the snake falls, but falls on the other side of the fence, and has a straight shot for the front door. I hop over the fence and fall, then quickly notice that I am face to face with the beast. I did not hesitate swinging the machete with full force. My aim was true, and I hit the snake in the head. I then jumped up. I felt really bad, because I knew the snake was dying.
I stood there and watched over it for the next 30 minutes, while it tried to still bite me. I figured it must be in pain, so I swung again and put it out of its misery. I put it in a bag and had a proper burial. I still feel bad for killing it, but I guess this is what happens when humans start encroaching on wildlife. I will leave “The Jungle†for all beasts that wish to live there.
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Friday, May 4th, 2007
Jeff has done some handywork on the 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1. Here is the list of updates:
The rear sheetmetal was temporarily hung for alignments of both proper gaps and proper fit. Lots of vise-grips!
- New quarter panels were hung
- Rear window filler was installed
- Outer wheelhouses were hung
- Trunk floor sections were hung
- Rear crossmember was installed
- Rear body panel was hung
- Tail lamp pockets were installed
Many of these parts can be found online or in person. I will update this post with specifics on exactly where to find them.
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Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
It’s getting there.
Today, I took out all the screws holding the decking down. Many of the screws broke, so the boards are still somewhat held down. When I am ready to take them off, I just peel them up one by one and they “pop.” I am trying to do this slowly because the guys are scheduled to be here at the end of May. I don’t want to have it taken down too soon, but I do need to dig out those three footings. I have no idea what to expect with that. I kicked one today and it had some play in there, so hopefully it won’t be too hard to dig them out.
I think I will get the whole thing down this weekend. I need to pile the decking up to get rid of it, burn some wood and stack the wood I am going to keep. There are many good 2×8s that I would like to use for the base of the railings, so I need to keep them in good shape.
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