Monthly Archives: March 2012

I finally started to grow my hair out because having it short made me look too much like a guy who thinks he’s a badass but isn’t. Or a guy who spends too much time at the gym thinking he’s that way. But man was it good for being lazy or wearing any sort of hat. My head itches when I wear a hat and no hair sure cured that. All day with a knit cap was no problem with a buzzcut. As you can see from this next picture, I found out that fluorescent light is truly not flattering, I have gained weight, and I just look tired. Or … Continue reading →

The past two weeks I haven’t been able to keep track of what day it is and I keep thinking it’s later in the week than it really is. I’m not sure why that is, but I think I mentioned that I’m tired but I can’t seem to get to sleep very easily. I shouldn’t complain because other than that I’m sleeping just fine. It’s about six months until my long trip to Japan. I’m looking for short-term apartments because I’m planning to stay in Tokyo for a solid month and then wander around a bit. I’ve never lived in Tokyo and I figure it’s high time to just go … Continue reading →

I’m having a hard time with sleeping properly and I’m blaming the seasons. I hope it’s not just because I’m getting old. I’m tired during the day and when I try to go to sleep I start hearing the voices from earlier in the day and sometimes even Morse code. I need to get off my radio but right now I’m trying to hear a guy on North Cook Island which has been about as uneventful as trying to hear the guy on Macquarie Island. Earlier I heard a guy from BurkinaFaso but there seemed to be a bazillion people trying to call him so I didn’t even try. I … Continue reading →

Most nights lately I’ve been busy playing with my radio. I “talked” to Tonga, Nigeria, and Senegal and it took a lot of my limited free time. I’ve described it to be like fishing with lots of waiting while listening to radio static while you tune around looking for signals. The propagation of radio signals is rather random as well, which makes it more fun. For example, I couldn’t get anyone from the Caribbean to hear me Friday afternoon, but I talked to two guys in Cape Verde off the coast of Africa. Weird. I’m always surprised who hears me and who doesn’t. I’ve also done a lot of driving, … Continue reading →

My commute to and from work takes about 25 minutes without traffic and some bending of the speed limit. And, as you’d expect, I’m not even keeping up with the fastest traffic. My midlife crisis car still doesn’t get the mileage you’d think it should (it’s a frigging Prius, after all) but the sound system has quite a lot of bass punch to it. I was driving 3MPH and trying to stay sane so I had my iPhone playing my usual shuffle, fast-forwarding past the non-dance music. I had a Justin Timberlake remix playing so loud that the rear-view mirror was vibrating and I couldn’t clearly see the guy right … Continue reading →

I seem to have all sorts of acquaintances who are going out with women who are around 30 years younger than they are, and the recently deceased 63YO editor of our local newspaper, The Oregonian, died at his 23YO mistress’ house. This from a paper who is too chickenshit to print the Doonesbury cartoon this week because they’re pointing out the ridiculousness of some of the recent anti-abortion or contraception laws. Well, I’m reading the comics online, and I think I just “talked” to Nigeria on the ham radio using Morse code. They were going really fast and I’m not sure if I sent them enough info or not. Sitting … Continue reading →

I just spent a lot of ridiculous time trying to get my USB microscope working so I could look in my ear. I’ve given myself all sorts of grief in the past doing just this. I even irritated my ear to the point of getting an ear bleed once. But I’m still stupid enough to want to look in there to make sure I can clean things. After hours of updating my VMWare Linux boxes, I’ve gotten nowhere. For now I think I give up. Yesterday was similarly exciting. Since I already did my taxes, I did my mom’s taxes. Woo. Life in the fast lane. At least I’m in … Continue reading →

I drove two-and-a-half hours from Portland to the Puyallup Fairgrounds in Washington to the Puyallup Hamfest. It’s a swap meet focusing on ham radio equipment and is a lot different than the ones down in Oregon. What I’ve found is that the same stuff shows up year-to-year at the same swap meet, just owned by different people. But if you go to a different swap meet there’s different stuff. When I walked in I only wanted to buy one thing, and it is new and available on the intarwebs. So I knew I was driving 5 hours today and paying $8 to do almost nothing. Then I realized it was … Continue reading →

I had to get up early for a 7AM meeting. It’s not all that hard, since I’m usually at work around 7:40AM but just waking up a half hour earlier means my stupid brain worries about what time it is and I wake up during the night. I’m a little tired but I’m still screwing around updating my iPhone to iOS 5.1 and doing other useless things. I think I’m getting tired enough that I’m just googling random crap to answer questions that really aren’t that important. How long does it take to get to Puyallup (and am I going to drive by myself to the ham radio swap meet … Continue reading →

I was fairly crabby tonight because I stupidly checked my work email and because of the half-assedness that goes on at the gym on Monday nights. I was honestly daydreaming about quitting my gym and trying to get a membership in the Multnomah Aryan Club because I hear that the weight room is empty most of the time. I’d never last because I’d never get along and I’d have to dress nicer than I do to go to work just to get in the front door. Fortunately I got a call from my buddy Il with good news. He and his girlfriend just bought a house together. It’s in a … Continue reading →

It was a beautiful day but a ham radio contest was going on. I finally dragged myself away from the radio only to be reminded that I hadn’t finished my taxes yet.So, instead of sitting inside having fun talking on the radio I sat inside typing numbers into boxes and hoping I didn’t have to pay the government more money. Most people would think I’d have a nefarious import from the Ukraine or some poor deluded mail-order bride, but it’s an antenna analyzer. It checks to see if your antenna is properly tuned. Really useless for most people and quite uninteresting to them as well. Updating the firmware took a … Continue reading →

i think I hear a bunch of stations on the radio tonight from all sorts of exotic countries, but I can’t tell for sure because they’re sending Morse code so fast that I can barely understand it. Was someone calling Montserrat or was someone calling from Montserrat? Sheesh. I know I heard Texas, but that’s not THAT interesting. Who knows? OK, I have no love for Andrew Breitbart, but it almost sounds like someone called a hit out on him. But if they did, they must have been just sort of rich. As they say, a millionaire can have you killed, but a billionaire can have you disappeared. I’m guessing … Continue reading →