filed under:family, WTF? and life
I've written and trashed a couple of entries about this a couple of times.
Am I treating the subject the way it should be treated? Am I putting in too much personal information? Am I over-emo-ing the whole thing?
After telling myself to just shut the hell up with the questions I've just decided to write a much simpler account and be done with it.
About 3 weeks ago I found out from my mother that I had an older sister that had been adopted. My mother was in no position to support a child and instead of running to Mexico to get an abortion she gave her daughter to a family that could take care of the child.
Pay attention to the following paragraph. In fact get a pencil and paper and draw a flow chart to keep track.
My sister started hunting for her birth parents for the purpose of getting medical records about 4 weeks ago only to find out she knew our mother and me. My mother was never sure about my sister's identity and never even told me about her. My sister's adopted sister has known for years and had become a friend of my mother's was the one who let my sister know who her birth mother was. I was totally unaware and convinced after years of evidence that I was an only child.
We had a meet and greet a couple of weeks ago and we get along pretty well.
She has regrets that we didn't meet sooner and I guess I do as well, but for her this has been a quest. She's known since she was 5 that she was adopted. She's dreamt of finding her "real" family.
I on the other hand am still a little numb. I've never had reason to entertain the idea of siblings, so when someone comes into my life to be my sister I just can't accept it. THE EARTH IS FLAT!
Part of this is because of the fact that I don't know how to be a brother. I've played a number of roles but nothing has prepared me this.
How do I be a brother? Do I try to make up for lost time? Exactly how much brothering am expected to do in a week?
I know that this is something that I'll grow into but at the moment I'm pretty much just winging it.
The whole thing though is terribly exciting!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
carpel thumbal syndrome
I got this at Best Buy the other day and I'm way hooked.It's pretty campy in a "Plan 9 from Outer Space" kind of way with a gore factor of 8.7.
Good stuff.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
i fixeded it!
This is my iBook. Well, it's a picture of the same model.
Our iBook has served us pretty well over the years. It's always booted up, took the OS X leap pretty well and been quite the little road warrior. It's had 2 problems in it's life. Apple replaced the video board for free after it crapped out, and I had to replace the keyboard after years of heavy, heavy use.
The DC in board though has been slowly breaking for years and I never got it fixed because of money probs. I just KNEW that it would be a costly adventure.
So I just let it go and figured out how to wedge things between the plug and the socket to maintain the power connection. I started with small things like a toothpick but at the end I was using a Dremelled chopstick wedge. At least I did until 2 weeks ago when it finally said "Fuck it" and broke.
Looking around on the INTERNETS I found that the DC In Board when in stock range in cost from $35 to almost $100. That's just for the part, no installation included. The local Mac fixxxxxer said he could turn it around in a day after getting the part overnighted but he wouldn't give me a guestimate on price. That sounded like bad news to me.
The main reason I was being cheap is that we were going to Atlanta later that week so my wife could attend an RWA convention (see if you guys can figure out what RWA is) and I didn't want to . She would need the laptop to stay in touch with her agent and others. We even entertained getting a new Macbook with a free iPod and printer/scanner until the salesguy at the local Apple Store said he didn't have any in stock.
With some advice from Zapski at teh AAF, I decided to try and fix it myself.
I found some instruction online a proceeded to rip the thing apart. The instructions were 14 pages long but chock full of idiot proof pictures and in no time I had parts all over our dining room table. After getting the DC board out I found the 3 solder pads that had come loose and soldered them back on and 15 minutes later the clamshell was together and running again. There is a little gap in the case on the left side but it feels solid, plus it looks kinda cool in a junky way.I really. really, really wanted a new Macbook and free stuff, but getting new stuff isn't a good way to save moneys. :waah:
So yeah, I can repair computers now.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
I would have settled on finding out what I am right now. Or in a future life. That would be cool.
| pi22seven's Past Lives | ||||||
| ||||||
| 245 BC: Roman Gladiator | ||||||
| 1370 AD: A shipping merchant | ||||||
| 1684 AD: A composer | ||||||
| 'What were you in your past lives?' at QuizGalaxy.com | ||||||
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
ancient tech
filed under:life
It doesn't look good for our oven.
The power switch stopped working last night. Just stopped. I tried using electronics cleaner on it but no go. It is kaput.
So I tried looking for a replacement on the internets. Nothing, nein, nada. Nobody seems to have a replacement switch.
I kind of expected that would be the case since our house is over 50 years old with a lot of the original fixtures, appliances and plumbing.
But the age of the thing didn't hit me until I did a search on the patent number and found out it's true (approximate) age.
Oh joy, I'm screwed.
It doesn't look good for our oven.
The power switch stopped working last night. Just stopped. I tried using electronics cleaner on it but no go. It is kaput.
So I tried looking for a replacement on the internets. Nothing, nein, nada. Nobody seems to have a replacement switch.
I kind of expected that would be the case since our house is over 50 years old with a lot of the original fixtures, appliances and plumbing.
But the age of the thing didn't hit me until I did a search on the patent number and found out it's true (approximate) age.
Oh joy, I'm screwed.
Monday, July 10, 2006
things break
filed under:life
I usually don't think that things are out to get me, but I have the feeling that my possessions are in league to drain my bank account. Now before you think that I have finally gone over, I have what seems to be no proof what so ever to back up my claims. Wait... that doesn't help.
It kind of started on the 3rd of July when the sewer main for my house decided that 4 weeks before our big vacation would be a good time to become clogged. This came out of the blue with no hint of slow drains or anything, just "Hey, enjoy the fecal water in the shower!" I have my f.i.l.'s snake so after work I hopped on the roof to see if I could stack out the problem. The boy was kind enough to help which made the whole mess easier. The snake cable is to small for our 4" stack so it was just getting kinked up in the pipe instead of tearing the clog up.
Not wanting to call the plumber for a very expensive 4th of July visit we tried to schedule a visit for the 5th. On the night of the 5th our plumber called to let us know that none of their crews were going to make it that night. Yay, another day of schedules flushes and 2 minute showers!
During the whole deal I had visions of vacation fund going toward replacing the sewer main, easily $2,000 US, the death of a 50 year old tree and the repair our sprinkler system would need after having a ditch witch trench our yard. Friday morning came and went with the plumbers fixing the problem in 30 minutes and for only $200.
One problem down.
On July 4th we had a very severe thunderstorm that caused our power to go out and before we could turn off the lines to anything expensive the power came back on and blew out our router. YAY!!! No big deal, just went and bought a new one. I only paid $45 and got wireless B/G too to retire my Airport Base Station.
Second problem down.
Also on July 3rd my '87 Landcruiser wouldn't start after work. I push started it and got it home then waited until last Wednesday to even start because of the whole fecal water thing I was working on. After a few trips to the parts store to have the starter, alternator and battery tested it turned out to be an $8 starter cable. Vroom.
Third problem down.
Tonight the switch on our 50 year old oven stopped working. I'm gonna try using some electronics cleaner on it tomorrow. I would've got some tonight but by the time I found the right breaker to kill the AC to the oven and the get the electronics out it was too late to get get to the store. I'd replace it but my chances of finding a NOS switch are pretty small.
YAY!
So yeah, my stuff is trying drain my moneys away!!!
I usually don't think that things are out to get me, but I have the feeling that my possessions are in league to drain my bank account. Now before you think that I have finally gone over, I have what seems to be no proof what so ever to back up my claims. Wait... that doesn't help.It kind of started on the 3rd of July when the sewer main for my house decided that 4 weeks before our big vacation would be a good time to become clogged. This came out of the blue with no hint of slow drains or anything, just "Hey, enjoy the fecal water in the shower!" I have my f.i.l.'s snake so after work I hopped on the roof to see if I could stack out the problem. The boy was kind enough to help which made the whole mess easier. The snake cable is to small for our 4" stack so it was just getting kinked up in the pipe instead of tearing the clog up.
Not wanting to call the plumber for a very expensive 4th of July visit we tried to schedule a visit for the 5th. On the night of the 5th our plumber called to let us know that none of their crews were going to make it that night. Yay, another day of schedules flushes and 2 minute showers!
During the whole deal I had visions of vacation fund going toward replacing the sewer main, easily $2,000 US, the death of a 50 year old tree and the repair our sprinkler system would need after having a ditch witch trench our yard. Friday morning came and went with the plumbers fixing the problem in 30 minutes and for only $200.
One problem down.
On July 4th we had a very severe thunderstorm that caused our power to go out and before we could turn off the lines to anything expensive the power came back on and blew out our router. YAY!!! No big deal, just went and bought a new one. I only paid $45 and got wireless B/G too to retire my Airport Base Station.
Second problem down.
Also on July 3rd my '87 Landcruiser wouldn't start after work. I push started it and got it home then waited until last Wednesday to even start because of the whole fecal water thing I was working on. After a few trips to the parts store to have the starter, alternator and battery tested it turned out to be an $8 starter cable. Vroom.
Third problem down.
Tonight the switch on our 50 year old oven stopped working. I'm gonna try using some electronics cleaner on it tomorrow. I would've got some tonight but by the time I found the right breaker to kill the AC to the oven and the get the electronics out it was too late to get get to the store. I'd replace it but my chances of finding a NOS switch are pretty small.
YAY!
So yeah, my stuff is trying drain my moneys away!!!
Friday, July 07, 2006
Revelation
filed under:bored
I've discovered that when you have absolutely nothing to do at work time will stand still.
That and there's only so much internet you can look at before feeling the need to /wrists.
I've discovered that when you have absolutely nothing to do at work time will stand still.
That and there's only so much internet you can look at before feeling the need to /wrists.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Can you dumb it down a little more, please? Pt. II
filed under:stuff
So after trying out iWeb for a couple of days it no longer is on my Mac and no trip is on the agenda.
It's not that it's a bad app... well maybe a little. It puts out huge files that take forever to load. Even when you start with a blank page, your creations still feel like template pages.
But worst of all, one click publishing to a non-.mac website isn't possible. It's not like it'd be hard to include, Apple just chose not to. Yeah, I know that Apple wants me to buy a .mac account but that doesn't mean they should cripple their software to force me into the purchase.
When apple fixes these problems I'll be more than happy to plunk down my cash to buy iWeb. Until then, SMART MOVE APPEL!!!!11!!!!1!1
So after trying out iWeb for a couple of days it no longer is on my Mac and no trip is on the agenda.
It's not that it's a bad app... well maybe a little. It puts out huge files that take forever to load. Even when you start with a blank page, your creations still feel like template pages.
But worst of all, one click publishing to a non-.mac website isn't possible. It's not like it'd be hard to include, Apple just chose not to. Yeah, I know that Apple wants me to buy a .mac account but that doesn't mean they should cripple their software to force me into the purchase.
When apple fixes these problems I'll be more than happy to plunk down my cash to buy iWeb. Until then, SMART MOVE APPEL!!!!11!!!!1!1
new digs
filed under:internets
If you're here then you know that I've moved.
The reason I moved was that I was dangerously close to having to pay for extra bandwidth from my old host. That and my host forgot to pay their own bills and all of their clients' sites went dark for a couple of days. Fuck that. So I moved.
I've been wanting to get the domain pi22seven dot com for a while but I never really had an idea for it. But now... I still don't.
I was thinking about selling some stompboxes here though for the time being that has to wait until I have more time. It also has to wait for some legal trademarks and such to come through. I've started the legal stuff just in case I decide to follow through with that idea.
So what's to come?
I have no idea. I'd like to make the site more dynamic in some way...
If you're here then you know that I've moved.The reason I moved was that I was dangerously close to having to pay for extra bandwidth from my old host. That and my host forgot to pay their own bills and all of their clients' sites went dark for a couple of days. Fuck that. So I moved.
I've been wanting to get the domain pi22seven dot com for a while but I never really had an idea for it. But now... I still don't.
I was thinking about selling some stompboxes here though for the time being that has to wait until I have more time. It also has to wait for some legal trademarks and such to come through. I've started the legal stuff just in case I decide to follow through with that idea.
So what's to come?
I have no idea. I'd like to make the site more dynamic in some way...
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