Author Archives: htodd

Sometimes technology is a pain in my ass. I have a program I like to post my blogs with, MarsEdit, and it’s no longer agreeing with my blogging program, WordPress. So if you see weird characters in my postings, it’s because I had to go and fix things and feed aggregators sometimes grab the broken copy of the posting. Yeah, broken geekery. So tomorrow I have another business trip to the Bay Area. The airlines have cut down on flights from here to there, so I have to get up extra-early. And since I don’t know when I’ll be done, I’ll be getting back into town after 10PM. I’d much … Continue reading →

Tomorrow (and the next day) I have the days off of works because I’ll be moving things around the house for the furnace replacement. Usually I stay up until close to midnight on school nights, but I may have to go to bed early tonight. Is it the weather? Is it the workouts at the gym? I dunno. I did win another race at the gym. It was me against a trainer two decades younger than me, pulling tires down the driveway and back. I suppose it was kind of an uneven race: I was at the end of my workout and tired. But a fourth of the way into … Continue reading →

I wish I were slacking at a much higher pace because I had a bunch more work show up in my inbox. However I didn’t do any packing today. My back kind of hurts and I’m fairly sure it’s because I have to drag boxes out of a crowded room and that requires me to pick up heavy things while standing in strange positions. I’m still scheduled to take off Thursday and Friday so I can pack up more crap, and I hope I can still do that. The email I just got makes it sound unlikely, but I suppose I could work every day of the week if I … Continue reading →

After I go to the gym I’d rather just sit around. But, because of the impending demolition, I had to do some more moving around of boxes. Tired at night is not the way to get me to do the sort of sorting and heavy lifting that moving requires. And now I’ve breathed in enough dust that I can’t think of whatever else it was I was supposed to be doing. That is besides sneezing.

I didn’t get all that far on packing up my bedroom because there’s A LOT OF SHIT packed in there. I can’t believe some of the crap my dad was saving in there. Old sleeping pads, three Boy Scout Handbooks, old copies of a magazine called, California Bonsai, congressional transcripts of the Japanese internment, books on Asian religions, books on gardening, and books on prejudice. I’m recycling a lot of paper, including old paintings my dad did for a correspondence art course. I’m not halfway done at this point. My sister was here but is very little help. She was going through stuff to take, but she didn’t take much … Continue reading →

I went and bought some boxes for packing up my crap, moving it out of the way for the chimney demolition. I really need to get a move on, because not only do I have to empty out a bedroom that was used as a storage space but most of my basement as well. I should have gotten started earlier. Today I walked a mile-and-a-half to buy some cardboard boxes under the mistaken theory that I’d be helping to save the environment, etc, etc, when really it was all about not trying to find a parking space in the Pearl District. After I walked the 15 boxes all the way … Continue reading →

Because of the birds, I’ve had to leave work on the early side to get a parking spot in front of the house. It’s the weekend now, so I got home around 4:30 and I almost was too late. I just have to hope it all ends soon. I think I have my tickets for Japan now. I have to figure out what to do about being in cell phone range again. Last year we rented a cell phone because what kind of Neanderthal doesn’t have a cell phone? We even had a US number you could call that would ring through to Japan. As I recall, the only real … Continue reading →

I seem to be on my work laptop a lot at night. I’ll remember I have to do something or I’ll just check my email. There’s the old “work smarter, not harder” adage that would only work for me if I dealt with people in a particular time zone. The sad part is that it’s not that big a stretch for me because I don’t really have that much going on. I suppose I could pick another hobby or get back to reading some of the books I have stacked up, but work will be there tomorrow and it won’t be any less. It’s almost like I got a job … Continue reading →

I bought a wireless mouse back in May, I think, and it’s great. No cable to get in the way and so it’s much nicer to use than the one I had before. My buddy bought one and his co-worker hasn’t had to replace his batteries in the year he had his. Unfortunately for me, I guess I’m a much bigger geek. My batteries are dead already. I’ve been tired at the gym all week, and everything just looks hard to me. I’m guessing it’s mental fatigue after the hard weekend. Usually I’m way too distracted by thinking about work and the remodel and the huge crowds that are attracted … Continue reading →

The people who owned this house before us were incredibly cheap, or so we think. They were a Catholic family with a bunch of kids and made some odd choices when they added the second story to the house. The bathroom is a narrow dormer that looks quite funny outside. Tearing out the sheetrock and the floors shows some fairly shoddy workmanship. Today my contractor called me because the drain line for the toilet was going uphill instead of downhill. Seriously. Getting rid of the poo in the toilet is probably one of the more important things my bathroom can do for me, so downhill is the way to go … Continue reading →

I was tired at work today and it didn’t help that my laptop was dead. They fixed it first thing in the morning, but they found “oddities” in the IT backdoors. They kept trying to fix it and they told me it would take half-an-hour at 10:30AM but I didn’t get it back until about 4PM. They never thought it would take that long so I didn’t get a loaner laptop until just before I got my real laptop back. What a mess. I had a mixtape (which is no longer on a tape) from a friend with mystery songs on it. I finally figured out I could use Shazam … Continue reading →

OK, so it’s not all Qwest’s fault, but they’re adding charges from other companies to the bill now. My phone bill has a new monthly $14.95 charge from a voicemail company, “Voicemail Direct USA”, my mom’s has a $8.43 monthly charge from some random telecom company, “Info Billing”. I was only able to get in touch with the voicemail company and they told me the charge had be approved by a Mr. Bai-tem-ee. My conversation with the company was odd: The charge was approved on August XX by Mr. James Bai-tem-ee. Do you know Mr. Bai-tem-ee? I’ve never heard of a James Bai-tem-ee. How do you spell that? I may … Continue reading →