Author: Dave

Posted on

finance my backyard with CDs

National still-bustin' day.
Short entry today, I spent last night working on a new project. Without writing much about it, you can read it all at the project’s very own webpage here. If things go well, and I can keep up any kind of pace – I might be able to finance my backyard with CDs. Who knows.

We’re going down to Chowchilla this weekend for Easter. To hang out with Anthony’s family and do an Italian Easter dinner. His folks own and operate a farm down there, and there should be plenty of fun stuff to do. My list includes shooting some guns, driving a tractor, and doing some four-wheeling. Should be a redneck good time. I’m just happy to be doing something for the holiday. Maybe we can visit where all the kids got buried.

It also looks like we may be doing some pre-summer hiking and camping the weekend after this one. My folks are going to Yosemite for their wedding anniversary, and asked Sharaun and I to come down and see the one day while they’re there. I asked the guys if they’d be interested in some freezing cold camping and maybe a short day hike or something. I was surprised when everyone was game, so it seems like we’ll be going down early Saturday and staying over through Sunday. We should have a little time to spend with the parents and then maybe do a hike to the top of vernal or something. Should be fun. I’m really looking forward to some camping, even if it will be 30 degrees out.

That’s really it guys, I burned myself out working on the MP3 page and now I’m spent. Dave out.

Posted on

pray or die

He parted a sea?
Seems like things have slowed down a bit at work since I cancelled my trip. The urgency that was driving me last week has lessened a bit, and now I’m a little more relaxed about the deadlines that are coming up. It’s also coming up on that nice time of year where I start getting itchy for a vacation. Luckily, there is already some stuff on the horizon that I’ve got to look forward to.

Since I was writing about the backyard project yesterday, I got to thinking about how we can get going again and start making some progress. I took some time to update my backyard drawings with a detailed irrigation plan. I’ve been delaying the relatively cheap task of installing sprinklers, mainly because I just hadn’t planned enough to jump in. So, with the help of some online resources, I mapped out pipe layout, sprinkler head location, spray radiuses, hydro-zones and associated flow rates and pressure requirements. It was kinda fun actually, appealing to the engineer in me I suppose. Now all that’s left is to rent the trencher and see if it can hack my rocksoil. Supplies should only run about $200 and the labor is light, so this could potentially be a one-weekend project.

Easter is this next weekend and that gets me thinking about church. We haven’t been to church with any regularity in years. Back in Florida, we went twice a week. I miss it. Without getting into my views on religion, and how they’ve changed in the past few years – suffice it to say that I do enjoy going to church. I enjoy the people at church, I enjoy the setting, I enjoy the history, and I hold the majority of values taught there to be important human qualities. My alliance with some major points of doctrine may not be where the church would ideally have them, and I have adopted a very liberal stance on a few of the absolutist-positioned items that most good Christians stand behind – but I do still have some sort of “faith.”

A few years ago I realized my view of religion was changing when I asked myself: “If someone all-knowing challenged you to put your life at stake by stating your unequivocal belief that certain biblical events happened as they are written, would you?” When it came down to it I guess I just didn’t have enough faith to risk my life on whether or not a man really did get swallowed by, and lived inside, a fish. Sure it’s a hypothetical, but it serves to show what I mean by saying my beliefs have changed. While I’m a far cry from a cynical atheist, my views on certain aspects of religion have changed. Having said that, I still miss church.

Well, I guess I did end up “getting into it” after all. Summed up, I think I’ve adopted a more common-sense approach to religion. Sorry to get all God on you guys, that kind of writing typically stays in the not-on-the-internet journal. Back to my normal hedonistic rambling in 3, 2, 1…

The lead story on CNN this morning had a sentence that I found hilarious: “U.S. Marines engaged in intense fighting in Fallujah today in an attempt to pacify the city…” Fighting to pacify? Am I the only one that finds that to be an odd concept? Kind of like a “peace-keeping missile,” I can understand the intent of the wording – but in reality it just makes you sound pretty dumb. They also had a sidebar item noting the news that Senator Kennedy is calling Iraq “Bush’s Vietnam.” While I don’t fully agree with the comparison in terms of the reason for fighting – I do see the parallel he’s trying to get it with the whole “spirit” of the situation. Without outing myself as a dove, I do wish we wouldn’t have gone to Iraq without UN blessing. WMD or not, Al Qaeda or not, I just think it wasn’t the wisest decision to go all commando and defy the UN.

Why didn’t someone tell me that yesterday’s entry was rife with spelling errors? I re-read it last night and was embarrassed at how dumb it sounded. OK, I’ve reached the “been staring at the page waiting for the next subject to pop into my head” time-limit and must therefore bid you all adieu.

Dave out.

Posted on

spending the day with mom

No whammies...
You guys remember what it used to be like to stay home sick from school? Maybe my experiences are atypical, but I have some really fond memories of sick days. Not the middle through high school sick days where it was nothing more than playing hooky – but those gradeschool days where your mom actually judged you too ill to go to class. For me, those days were awesome – in spite of whatever was ailing me.

Those were the days where I didn’t have to get up on time, get dressed, etc. The best part was spending the day with mom. I can remember doing puzzles with her, watching TV, and her bringing me blankets and juice while I laid on the couch. You could play Nintendo, read a book, whatever you wanted. And let us not forget the jewel in the sick-day crown, getting to watch the Price is Right at 11am. Oh man, maybe they’ll show Plinko? no other game is cooler. Being sick as a kid was awesome, unless it was debilitating sick that is.

If you couldn’t tell, I cancelled my Taiwan trip and am still here in the good ol’ USA. Upon further consideration, the timing of the visit just wasn’t right – so I decided to let the company take the $100 cancellation fee and postpone. It’s fine with me really, since there is a lot to get done around here. I’ll have plenty of chances to head over there this year, so what’s a few weeks anyway. Now I can be home for all the closing of affairs with our refi, and be there when our free shade trees get delivered from SMUD.

I think we’ve decided to do pavers in the backyard instead of pouring a concrete porch. Part of the reason is because I think we may be able to save some money on materials by buying the pavers as “seconds” from the same place we bought the retaining wall stone. Also, Sharaun prefers the look of pavers to plain concrete, and to top it off – we can do the labor ourselves and at any pace we want. I’ll just price and choose what kind of stones we want, have the pallets delivered, and go at a comfortable pace the same way we did the retaining wall. Should come out looking nice I think? now I just need to come up with the scratch for the stones. My math says it’ll be about $700 for a project our size. Sprinklers, pavers, sod, landscaping – that’s the order we’ll go.

Sharaun’s folks are coming to visit for the 4th of July, it should be really fun. The more time I end up spending with my in-laws, the more I tend to look at them as family. I really like them, whereas I used to be a little afraid of them. Now I look forward to their visits and going back to Florida to spend time with them. We got a tentative rafting trip planned, one that we’ve done before up north on the Feather River. It includes an overnight stay where the rafting company takes awesome care of you and cooks dinner, has free margaritas, etc. It was so much fin last time – so I’m pretty excited about doing it again this year.

I have nothing more to say guys, lest I get even more boring. Out.

Posted on

april fools, fools

It's a joke on your face!
For the first month in the history of pharaohweb.com, I have a new top page. Up until now, my lame old Question Mark & the Mysterians page has been #1 in the server stats. As of March though, my Pac Man pages took the long-held crown. Winning by just under 1000 hits, Pac Man chomped up the competition. I wondered why I was getting so many e-mails about it, seems its made its move. Wonder how long it can stay on top? Jeez, who cares right? Sorry guys? I get proud of nerdy things like web stats? it’s just in my blood. I blame my dad for buying me that electronics kit from Radio Shack back in the 5th grade. When you’re 11 and spending weekends inside learning about current through coiled wire from a talking cartoon capacitor? you’re pretty much destined for geekdom.

In the spirit of April Fool’s Day, Kristi and I spent some time crafting up a joke to play on Sharaun and her man Erik.

The background: Kristi’s job, and mine, find us frequently away from home on business travel. Lately, it seems like we’re both away on business around the same time – sometimes day for day. Last time I came home from Washington, she was also getting in within the hour – so we were both picked up together from the airport. This unplanned travel coordination has led Sharaun and Erik to give Kristi and I a hard time about really not being away on business, but having a secret affair. So we have this running joke between the four of us about Kristi and I going away for “business” to continue our affair.

The setup: Accidentally “out” the affair to Sharaun and Erik. We concocted a joke where we would use photos taken on our respective business trips, and manipulate them to seemingly show us together on the trips. For added reality, we setup a meeting at Kristi’s apartment to take some pictures of us together which I would then Photoshop into the shots from our actually business trips. So, Tuesday night Anthony I and dropped by Kristi’s place with camera in hand. Kristi and I had each combed through our respective trip photos and chosen the best candidates to be Photoshopped into. In going through my pictures, I found a (really crappy looking) picture that I took in my hotel room one morning on my last trip to Taipei. Noticing that there was an unmade bed in the image, I got the idea of adding a still-sleeping Kristi to it. We took some standard “tourists in love” shots, and one of Kristi in bed (fully clothed y’allz… no need to get that authentic) for the hotel shot.

The delivery: I went home and worked some magic with the pictures. And yes, I used the totally awesome (and completely free) GIMP for Windows to do all the Photoshopping. Yeah, I still call it “Photoshopping,” it’s a verb to me now. Anyway I took the doctored photos and added them to a very simple webpage. Then Kristi and I each pretended to “accidentally” send an e-mail to our significant other – when it was really meant for each other. Kristi’s mail to Erik went like this. She immediately followed it up with this. Yeah, I know – that last image (dubbed “the bed one” by Kristi and I) turned out awesome. If you want to see the magic happen, check here.

The payoff: I’m happy (and still married) to say that both Erik and Sharaun got a kick out of our little joke. Although I am a little nervous about paybacks next year.

Dave out.

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association

It's a formal theory.
Last night, as I was driving around completing various tasks for a planned April Fools Day joke – I hit that magic triple-point of music listening. For a song, or music in general, to reach 100% of its impact potential – there are three external factors that need to be considered. Environment, mood, and activity. These three plus the music itself are the cornerstone for my theory.

When these three planets align and the right soundtrack is in the background, all is right in the world. The air seems cleaner and for a moment and you’re right where you’re supposed to be, without another thought in the world. I’ll sometimes get those brief moments of complete clarity and complacency, and they make such an impression that I can often remember them for all four defining factors.

Driving to Anthony’s as the sun goes down, crossing over the American River on the old Rainbow Bridge. Windows down and Iron & Wine cranked to 24 on the stereo. Confident and happy from a particularly productive day at work. Sam Beam’s hushed minimal folk recalling days when this really was a gold rush town.

1st Halloween in my new house, carving and painting styrofoam tombstones in my garage in the cool twilight. Enjoying myself beyond measure while the Strokes’ “Room on Fire” plays on the jambox in the background and Sharaun cooks dinner inside.

Sitting on a curb in 7th grade. Watching Kyle talk to Robin across the street, he’s asking her if she likes me. It’s the dead of summer in Florida, hot and humid – but I couldn’t be more comfortable sitting sweaty on this concrete. Led Zeppelin’s “Houses of the Holy” is on the walkman, Over the Hills and Far Away to be exact. She likes me, and my brain takes this Polaroid.

June in Yosemite. Driving the windy roads from the valley over to the Mariposa grove. Sharaun’s sister and Melissa are here to visit. Windows are down and clean Sierra air fills the cab while Death Cab for Cutie’s “The Photo Album.” The sun is out and I’m the only car on this wooded road. We all sing along.

OK, that’s really all I’ve got today. In a web-roundup, Wes sent me this link from today’s headlines. Pretty graphic pictures, but makes me wonder where some people get so disassociated with the reality of death. I mean, poking burnt corpses with shovels and hanging them from bridges? Where does that come from? It must be such a different daily reality over there. Oh, and BTK is back.

Dave out.

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guitars and falsetto voices

Throw 'em up! Throw 'em up ya'll! What what. When I say ho you say ho... ugh...
Gonna be a short one, no time to write last night so I’m cobbling something together now. Things are at ludicrous speed in preparation for my Taiwan trip next week, I’ve got to generate a lot of material for the trip, and it ain’t gonna happen unless I keep a pretty tight schedule.

In the throes of our refi, dealing with appraisers and brokers and whatnot. Conversing with neighbors about the seemingly too-good-to-be-true appreciation rates, it’s all so grown-up. Mowing lawns and planting trees and cleaning, I’ve become suburban Joe America. If I end up cooking burgers on the grill in the backyard while the kids and dog play in the sprinklers, my conversion to a 50’s sitcom stereotype will finally be complete.

Man was I wrong about the show last night. For some reason, I thought we were going to see N.E.R.D open for the Roots. Turns out the Roots weren’t even playing – I still have no idea where I got that from. Not only that, N.E.R.D. was the headliner, and the Black Eyed Peas opened for them. My first rap concert. Clipse opened the entire show, playing some of the radio staple “drink alcohol, smoke marijuana, spend and make lots of money, and be sure to have lots of sex all the time” tunes I expect from rap. But the BEP and N.E.R.D. were different, each with a real backing band and the stage presence so sorely absent from the Clipse entourage. The tone of the show changed from “look at me rap I’m so rich and I just had sex with your girlfriend,” to “we’re here to entertain you and have a good time.” Anyway, above all – it was still a rap show, and I am still not that big a fan of rap. N.E.R.D. is more rock than anything, and both they and the BEP were entertaining enough. But for some reason I just can get into them like I can a bunch of nerdy dudes with guitars and falsetto voices. Go figure.

We didn’t end up getting home until around 2:30am, which means Sharaun got only 2hrs sleep before waking up for work. I wonder if we consciously hold our pee while we sleep? Dave out.

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the first green thing

It's OK to be scared.
I found this site to be absolutely amazing. It contains a pictorial play-by-play from a young Ukrainian woman’s motorcycle ride through the irradiated areas surrounding Chernobyl. She has some kind of clearance in order to get to the areas in the photos, and carries a small radiation meter with her. Even though the English isn’t perfect, you can tell this woman writes well. Such a sad story, and even today the details aren’t fully known. The Soviet Union was too proud to let the world know how bad things were. Anyway, check out the site, the last few pages at the kindergarten are almost too much. Poor people. As usual, the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia has an excellent entry on the Chernobyl disaster, and some links near the bottom to more pictures from the 4000sq. mi. “dead zone.”

Every time I drive by large office buildings at night, I always try to glance in the ever-lit windows. Something is fascinating about looking into an empty office building that’s still lit like it’s the working hours. Every time I do catch myself staring through the night into a lit and empty cubicles, I find myself looking for two people doing it on a desk. No really – I look because one day, I will catch two late-night employees getting some office-booty on the boss’ desk. Just like if I always look at closed garage doors with lit garages inside, I’ll eventually witness a stabbing-in-silhouette. If I keep my nighttime office-window and garage door vigil, I know one day I’ll see a clandestine affair or Rear Window murder.

Friday night Sharaun and I decided not to answer the phone, and to have a night to ourselves. It was great. Not that our phone rings off the hook or that we’re ever the social butterflies, but it is nice to just ignore the world and enjoy one and other for a little. We cooked a pizza and headed out to catch the remake of Dawn of the Dead. The movie was cool, good campy horror – albeit a little overly blood-soaked. Even though you could basically take the plot of Maximum Overdrive, replace the machines-gone-wrong with the rabid zombies of 28 Days Later, and you’d have this flick. Not saying it’s bad, just tried and true horror. And I’m serious about the Maximum Overdrive thing too – there’s an unlikely armory, a quest through sewers, and a last-ditch flight to an island.

Our trip to the movies on a Friday night really made me feel really old. If you don’t know, the movie theater on a Friday night is like the sole oasis in the teenybopper desert. The place was simply crawling with 15 year old girls with bare midriffs, doggedly pursued and ogled by pants-saggin’, crooked-ballcapped boys. It becomes instantly evident that none of these kids are here for movies. This is simply a convenient place for the teen masses to come together to talk, flirt, and hold “look at me” contests.

Am I really that old? I mean, I found myself walking by large herds of these giggly, too-cool-for-everything teens and just resenting them for being there. I had to physically restrain myself from wagging my index finger at the young whippersnappers as I passed. Ugh. Has it really come to this? Honestly though, during the movie we sat in the midst of these punks. They talk, answer phone calls, run up and down the aisles, talk back to the movie, and totally make me want to throttle them. Lord, I know I was exactly like these kids; I know it. No wonder old people hate teenagers, they ask for it. Yeah, so I’m exaggerating – but not by much. If there is such a thing as karma though, teenagers will wreak massive amounts of havoc on me, because I’m cosmically owed it.

Moving on, the rest of the weekend was good. Saturday we helped move Melissa into her new place as Anthony’s roommate. It was OK, except for the part where Anthony left my cellphone on the back of the truck, causing it to fall out in transit and be run over by multiple cars. Some kind person driving next to us informed us of the cell phone incident, and we pulled over to pick up the pieces. Surprisingly, the thing still works – so I was able to transfer off all my data. Now all that’s left is to get a new phone and upload my data and SIM card, and I’ll be back running.

Sunday I spent working around the house. I planted this beautiful Japanese maple that Pat gave me. Pat and Cynthia recently joined the new homeowners club, and this potted tree was a holdover from the previous owner. They decided they didn’t want the tree, which due to it’s health and size is likely worth several hundred dollars, and they donated it to my barren backyard. It’s the first green thing in my backyard that’s intentionally growing, and it looks great. I also mowed my lawn with Anthony’s lawnmower. I had to use Anthony’s lawnmower because I snapped the fastening nut on the blade of mine while trying to remove the dull blade. So, off to the repair shop goes the mower. On another note, I’ve decided to just throw money away for a while. Who needs it?

Tonight Sharaun gets paybacks for all the crappy shows I’ve dragged her to by making me accompany her to see N.E.R.D. and the Roots in San Fran. I’m not too terribly excited, but I am interested to see what a “hip hop” concert is like compared to the indie freak fests I’m used to. Hopefully we won’t get shot.

Dave out.