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Author: |
Rembrandt |
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8/23/2006 4:12 PM |
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Mindless rantings of a dizzy geek. |
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Hot Tub - 1, Me - 0 |
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Project: Hot Tub Rewire
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By Rembrandt on
2/19/2007 1:37 PM
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So, I spent part of Saturday checking out the wiring of the hot tub.
The first thing I discovered, was that the GFCI switch that controls the whole thing had a crack that ran 80% of the length of the housing.
Mystery #1 solved why it wouldn't run.
The wires leading to this switch were also exposed (no insulation) about 3/4 an inch before they were connected, AND this exposed wiring was freyed about 50% of the way through.
Mystery #2 solved.
I wish I had taken a photograph, it would probably be very useful in the court case that will most likley result from me not paying the ripp off hot tub place.
The GFCI should have been the FIRST thing a repair guy whould have checked, especially if it was triggering all the time. The fact that components burned out after he installed them doesnt bode well .. It says that there is a short somewhere eating up voltage.
[A short which I haven't found yet, but at least i have been able to jury rig the hot tub to keep it from freezing, its not safe to USE, but at least it wont freeze solid and screw stuff up.]
More to follow.
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I love when you cant even PAY someone to fix something. |
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Project: Hot Tub Rewire
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By Rembrandt on
2/16/2007 1:52 PM
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Anytime Spa and Pools. Strike them from my list of companies to use. They came out last year to fix a broken filter casing, and ever since - our hot tub hasnt been right. This season - they came out to fix a burned out heating element, which I am very suspicious of, as its burned out twice since the cannister replacement. Possibly a leak ? who knows.
They obviously haven't diagnosed the problem. They came out 2 days later to fix a burned out switch.
Last night I noticed .. again .. that the hot tub wasnt hot .. or running.
Great. At least I haven't paid their invoice yet. I need to get on the phone with them to see what their warantee is on parts etc. I have no intention of paying for botched labor, nor defective parts for that matter. Their tech wasn't able to diagnose the problem, the hot tub doesnt work, i'm not putting more money in the kitty.
Tomorrow I'm going to crack open the wiring to see if *I* can fix the damn thing. its got to be a short somewhere, or water in the line as the GFI keeps tripping.
Nice.
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It all starts with an Idea. |
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Project: Adventurers' Club Masks
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By Rembrandt on
2/16/2007 12:07 PM
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I'm not sure who here has been to The Adventurers' Club in Downtown Disney Orlando.
I've
gone a few times, its a fun place - because they like to play with the
drunks. There are all kinds of 'tricks' like barstools that move, or
strange lighting effects.
My favorite, is a room called the
'Mask' room, where there are a bunch of audioanimatronic masks covering
the walls. every once in a while, one moves. It blinks, or its eyes
light up, or it closes its mouth .. etc .. not enough so that you would
really notice, but enough so out of the corner of your eye (especially
if you have been drinking) you might say .. 'hey .. did that just move
?'
Needless to say, I was fascinated with this room BEFORE I went to disney with my best friend and his (now X) wife.
Kevin suggested out loud (after a few beers) 'How cool would it be to build something like this !'
Man .. what a horrible thing to say.
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First Day of School Blues |
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By Rembrandt on
2/8/2007 10:30 AM
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Today was Vincent's first day of school, and .. of course .. he was late.
My wife, who is a consumate list maker, had everything outlined. Checkboxes. All in order. Things to bring, things to do.
Vincent had other ideas. He didn't want to get dressed. He didn't want to eat. He didn't want to go to school. He wanted to stay home. While loading the car he took off his jacket, when I put it back on and zipped it up .. he screamed and started throwing toys off his train table onto the floor. Ahh .. Two-Year-Olds.
Thats not why he was late though.
We left the house somewhere between 8:00 and 8:10 ... Dad forgot his lunch, so we turned around and left the house AGAIN by 8:15.
Thats not why he was late though.
I had a hard time starting the car this morning, I figured it was becuase it was about 16 degrees out. We left the house and drove about 2-3 miles up the road to route 40, and my gas pedal went to mush. Like how it feels when your car is running out of gas. My fuel gauge was near E, but the little 'Your-low-on-gas-light' wasn't lit. 10 feet later, it happened again. This time the car stalled out. Great.
What the hell am I gonna do ? I left my wallet at home. Its freezing out. Cellphone ? not here of course.
I take V out of the car, zip his coat all the way up, put his mittons on. Then I decide that he needs it more than I do, and take *MY* coat off .. and put it on him as well.
We start walking. And Walking. And Walking. Cars are driving by us, slowing down to stare at the 34 year old man in a t-shirt carrying a baby wearing a Ton of clothes. No .. One .. Stops.
If I were a woman they would have stopped in a heart beat. But a man, walking with a baby ?! He is probably a serial killer. Maybe a cold serial killer from the looks of him, but far too dangerous to help, besides, that baby is probably a midget and they might steal my cigarette lighter and cellphone.
I walked 90% of the way home before a Harford county truck pulled over, one of the guys asked where i needed to go .. I stutterd out where, and he got out of the truck and said 'Jerry, take this guy home then come pick me up.' Which was Very .. Very nice of them.
One I got home I called the school to tell them I had car problems, and that I might be a little late.
Then I called Mr. Ron from across the street, who was nice enough to drive me back to my car [WITH his lawn mower gas can, instead of mine] we filled the tank up with a gallon or so of gas, but the car wouldn't start. Mr. Ron thought that maybe my gas line froze, or had ice in it .. so I kept trying to start the car for about 5 mins, and eventually it did.
Mr. Ron followed me to the gas station, I put in some dry-gas and filled the car up, then took Vincent to school.
Sheesh. He, at least, thought it was all really cool. I mean, he got to ride in a TOW TRUCK ! :)
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After the first 36 hours or so .. you really don't notice it as much. |
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By Rembrandt on
12/22/2006 10:37 PM
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I'm talking about sleep deprevation, if you couldn't guess.
Over the past two to three nights, I have been burning the midnight candle on all three ends. Up at 7:00 something, work until 6:00 pm ish, spend time with my wonderful and understanding wife, until she drops from exhaustion - then go back to work until 2:00, 3:00, or last night .. 6:00 - and repeat the process.
Why do you ask ? I don't remember, the lack of sleep seems to have purged that information from my skull.
In all honesty, myself and Christosch the Greek, are trying to get www.patentmonkey.com launched .. launched, standing on its own, and making monkey. Fame! Fortune! Vestial Virgins! Although, sometimes I would be perfectly happy to settle for 'working'.
Over the past week, we have really been dusting off the bottles, so to speak. There have been a bunch of code revisions to increase speed, the main databases were put through their paces to include all the USPTO data current to .. well .. yesterday. Lots of hours, hopefully to good effect. You see .. Google - *MYSTERIOUSLY* launched Google Patents five days after googlebot first cached our site. I'm sure its a just one of those wierd things - even if google patents is very 'thrown together'.
Regardless - Google entering the space just adds validity to what we are doing, and makes us seem less crackpot-ish. Besides, our tool looks cooler :)
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Back into the Trenches - and out of them |
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By Rembrandt on
12/21/2006 12:23 PM
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First off, let me just mention that apparantly wearing your father's police academy ring might get you out of a ticket if :
- You were going 45mph in a 30mph zone
- Your front licence plate (which is a funny word) is missing from the car
- Your registration is old [but I *DID* find the new one a min later]
The officer was nice enough to give me a warning. The fine wouldn't have been that bad, it was just nice to not have one .. I wasn't paying attention .. on the phone and lack of sleep. Still, I would prefer even an expensive ticket to an accident .. and I told the officer as such. [He looked puzzled but smiled anyways.]
Last night .. at about 1:30 am .. while I was waiting for a server-job-that-would-never-end to finish, I fired up the Xbox 360. I few days ago I finished ALL the gaps on Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, and was so frustrated when the 100% achievement didn't fire off - that I just saved my game and powered down.
I mustered up the courage to go back in and try to find whatever stupid little thing i missed to get it over and done with, when much to my surprise, as soon as I loaded the game - *ding* achievement unlocked. Cool.
So I dug Call of Duty 2 out of the box instead, and played through one of the missions I needed to do on Vet. Latley, with 3 new games (one even bought at RETAIL) in the wrappers, I have been on a 'finish-all-the-old-games' kick .. who KNOWS how my brain works. But after countless weeks of skateboarding, shooting Nazis was a nice break. Ask me again in 3 weeks, after I try to do Hill 400 on Vet :(
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Nightmares about Dogs |
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By Rembrandt on
12/18/2006 1:07 PM
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Last night Vincent woke up at about 2:15 .. he had a nightmare about the dogs I think. He said something like 'Mercy got out of fence .. hit by school bus .. Maddy tried to go after her .. not right.' Then he woke up and called for me.
I brought him downstairs, got him a bottle, changed him, and took him back upstairs by 2:30 .. but for the next 1/2 hour every time I tried to put him down, he just stood up and hugged me again. No whining, no crying, just wanted to fall asleep on me.
He eventually zonked out at 3:00 .. I didn't have the heart to put him down again until then.
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A few day's summation : |
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By Rembrandt on
12/18/2006 1:01 PM
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Well .. 'Dig the Ditch Day 2' happened on friday, and we now are the new proud owners of a five foot wide, one and a half foot deep, swale that run s from 3 lots over through our property. The Landscapers also built up the area between the swale and our house, and filled in a depression in our back yard that also flooded.
Hopefully that takes care of the water.
Over the past few days I have been trying to finish Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, in case my brother-in-law (Who is getting an x-box 360 for Christmas) might want to borrow it. [Having no games, and a brand new system .. sucks.]
Let me tell you .. this last achievement is a bear. In order to hit 100% in the game, you not only have to beat it multiple times (once each level) but then you have to find EVERY single gap [a place where you get bonus points for doing a trick] in the game. Even with cheating and downloading a guide to where they are off the internet, you still have to *DO* the tricks. Its been almost a week of this .. not a week steady, but all my video game time (as much of it as there is) over a week.
Sheesh.
Anyways, I only have to do the Skate Ranch Gaps (43 !!) and 10 more on Oil rig, but the descriptions for the Oil rig gaps are horrible, which is why i skipped ahead.
Maybe I can get em done in the next day or so ?? Hope So.
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This shouldn't make me so happy ... |
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By Rembrandt on
12/14/2006 11:28 AM
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Currently, yet again, a crew is digging up my back yard, to make a deeper swale through it, in an attempt to control the raging river of doom that happens every time it rains. The crew has been out before, and now I know the owner by name. Jim, is a nice guy - just doing what he is hired to do. The builder .. well .. that is a different story. This guy is like a slippery eel, EVERY time the county tells a crew how they want them to fix this problem, he tells them to do something else.
Lets think about this for a second. The county, the people who *PUT* the stop work permit on all his properties, the people who decide when to lift that permit, the people who are in *CHARGE* of zoning, planning, and water control, tell you how they want something fixed.
Do you :
- a) Fix it their way, exactly to their specifications
- b) Ignore it completely, hoping the problem will go away
- c) Tell you crew to do it a cheaper way, which basically assures that the county will not pass it, and that you will have to spend MORE money later to do it all over again.
I can give you three guesses which one of these this builder *HAS NOT* tried.
Regardless, what should NOT make me so happy, is the fact that he is out there right now cursing up a storm, it sounded like he tried to tell the contractor what to do, and the contractor told him that the county inspector already told him exactly what to do. I heard phrases like 'This shit will never fucking get fixed no matter how many times they have me come out here." and "I don't know what their problem is" as he kicked at pieces of dirt.
I laughed gleefully to myself, because the tone in his voice said that he was pissed *BECAUSE* he has to fix it right, not that he wasn't going to.
Sheesh, had he just done it right the first time, [I even pointed out to him that there was going to be a problem as he was *building* the house next to us.] then he wouldn't be out here for the *FIFTH* time on this same problem.
Go figure, anything to save a buck I suppose.
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