{"id":7934,"date":"2014-01-05T22:01:45","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T06:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=7934"},"modified":"2014-01-05T22:01:45","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T06:01:45","slug":"my-odd-obsessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=7934","title":{"rendered":"My odd obsessions."},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019d think this was going to be more exciting than it is, but I\u2019m thinking of two odd things that I\u2019m kind of obsessed with right now. One is trying to find the source of the power line noise that makes my ham radio useless. I bought a $150 direction-finding antenna\/radio for finding radio interference and even build my own homemade antenna, but I keep needing more and more gadgets to try to pinpoint where the noise is coming from. It\u2019s a lot easier when you can tell the power company the number of the pole and the reasons you\u2019ve narrowed it down to that pole. Next on my list is an ultrasonic detector. Ultrasonic detectors are used to listen for gas leaks or bats, but they\u2019re also good at pinpointing the sound of arcing on power lines. I\u2019ve bought parts and pieces to build my own ultrasonic detector but I still don\u2019t have all the parts yet. I think I may just buy one pre-made<\/a>\u00a0and experiment with the bits later.<\/p>\n

I also get tricked into customer loyalty programs. If I drink 100 different beers at the Mellow Mushroom, I get a special glass with my name on it and I\u2019m up to 49 or so. I\u2019ve had most of the \u201cgood\u201d beers on the list and I may have to start on things like Coors Lite. I\u2019m exaggerating, of course, but it may get to that point if I get closer to 100. I\u2019m also trying to buy 30 coffees at Starbucks this month to get to \u201cgold\u201d status there. The coffee has gotten better lately and is not the awful burnt stuff I remember so it isn\u2019t as painful as you\u2019d think. Starbucks also is supposed to give their employees benefits, which I should wholeheartedly support. But I\u2019m not sure what \u201cgold\u201d status will really get me. It\u2019s another one of those things I\u2019m just going to have to experience for myself. I am the sucker with an American Express Platinum Card, after all, and that started with Green in college, Gold sometime afterwards, and Platinum after I decided it might be good for international travel.<\/p>\n

Yes, I am just putting it out there that I\u2019m a sucker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019d think this was going to be more exciting than it is, but I\u2019m thinking of two odd things that I\u2019m kind of obsessed with right now. One is trying to find the source of the power line noise that makes my ham radio useless. I bought a $150 direction-finding antenna\/radio for finding radio interference and even build my own homemade antenna, but I keep needing more and more gadgets to try to pinpoint where the noise is coming from. It\u2019s a lot easier when you can tell the power company the number of the pole and the reasons you\u2019ve narrowed it down to that pole. Next on my list … Continue reading My odd obsessions.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7935,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7934\/revisions\/7935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}