May 29, 2008
I Swear, I WILL Blog Regularly Again
It has been a long time since I have been blogging regularly, but I fully intend to make this a regular thing again. I've been doing lots of other things, but I need to take a little time to write.
Right now, I'm blogging from the Triangle Tweetup 2.0, a meeting of the Raleigh/Durham area users of Twitter. You can follow me, for what it is worth, as @LockjawTheOgre on Twitter.
Posted by Lockjaw at 7:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 22, 2007
It's a whole different work environment
Well, now that I'm in a different job, I'm finding lots of things are different. For instance, I'm doing more, stressing less, and have better surroundings. I finally have a place to display my Star Wars Action Fleet collection. I'm keeping an AC cord at the desk for my personal laptop. I also was able to buy a $5 chunk of Silly Putty from the big bulk order that some of the development guys made last week.
Silly Putty makes working on the phones much more interesting.
Posted by Lockjaw at 3:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 9, 2007
Job Change
It's a brand new day in Lockjaw's Life. I've changed jobs. Hopefully, this will mean the chance to spend a little more time thinking on what I want to write. It does mean a little more morning time for me, and a little less evening time, but it also means more benefits in the ways that really matter. I still have a commute to worry about, so the podcast will continue. I should have a new podcast up in the next week, so be on the lookout. For now, I'm in a celebratory mood.
Posted by Lockjaw at 10:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 23, 2006
Coming out of Busy-ness
It's been a busy week and a half around the lair. It has seemed like every day has been stuffed full of something important to do, or recovery from it. I love the busy weeks, when they come, but I'm sure glad when they come to an end, and I can go back to normality.
Last weekend was the start. At work, a short term contract position opened up for someone interested. I got the spot. As a result, I was able to take part in a major software migration project for a television station located approximately an hour and a half from home. This meant working all weekend, with long days, and three hours of commute per day. The job involved removing Novell clients from the computers, installing Outlook, setting up accounts, and testing. Saturday was spent walking from computer to computer, which was a nice change of pace from my daily work. We were expected to complete 60% of that particular migration that day, and we completed 100% of them. That was nice. Sunday, we spend the first part of our day setting up Outlook web clients. Since each test process required sending 3 test emails, which had to be typed in separately (only one small opportunity for non-unique pasting of text) we had to hand-type almost everything for the tests. Over the course of four hours, I estimate that I sent between 250 and 350 emails.
Monday, the wife and I spent the day shopping and cooking. We visited three different stores, one of which was a half-hour drive. We picked up a lot of food, ranging from bulk-bin rices to fresh fruits and vegetables to pasta and sauce-makings. This was an hours-long process. Immediately following, we began what turned out to be just over 5 hours of cooking. The result? We have 18 family-size pasta dishes prepared and frozen, for use as quick-cooking, no-prep-time dinners. We have enough bag salad for two weeks, and enough makings for more than a week and a half of chicken and something meals. For the next month, we've handled virtually all of our dinner needs and many of our lunches and breakfasts. This cuts the evening food-prep time from 30 minutes or an hour of prep and cooking to, usually, a quick pop in the microwave and a wait. This results in more productive time for ourselves in the evening. That's good.
Tuesday had me back at the TV station, doing desk-to-desk checks on the users and their new configurations. Any problems had to be dealt with, and many users needed training on their new applications. This was the easiest, and most fun part of the project.
Wednesday started out nice and relaxing, as it was my "day off." In the afternoon, however, projects took over, followed by church and the youth group's worship service.
Thursday, it was back to my regular work at the job. Since the contract at the TV station had been handled through my employer, I wasn't worried about the time off. I didn't really have any. Getting back in the regular groove was easy enough, and I was glad to be back to normality. After work, though, I had enough time for a quick dinner (luckily, we have those now) and then it was off to a training session. I took part in the first class of a series to qualify in the National Incident Management System (NIMS). This lasted until after 9pm, and then I was home in bed soon after.
Friday, another normal day at work. Anyone who knows me, though, knows that Fridays are an important night at the Ogre's Lair. Friday is when Stargate SG-1, it's lesser cousin Stargate Atlantis, and the best show on TV: Battlestar Galactica come on. The wife prepared dinner, consisting of marinated, baked chicken with brown rice, steamed vegetables, and roasted, marinated brussels sprouts. We then settled in to watch our block of Sci-Fi. Unfortunately, before SG-1 had finished, we had both fallen asleep, missing the entire evening of TV.
Approximately 10.5 hours later, we woke up to start our Saturday. Though much more relaxed, Saturday was also spent doing a bit of food shopping. This time, it was staples and snacks. The bulk-bins at Whole Foods provided the daily snack-bag of nuts and dried fruit I like as a mid-morning protein break. Food Lion was the source for Breyers Fruit-on-the-Bottom yogurts (on sale). World Market has the flatbread/crackers we have discovered for our hummus, cheese, or spread snacks. They also have their own brand of chocolate/hazelnut spread similar to Nutella (yum) and we discovered a delicious dark chocolate bar flavored with strawberries and pepper that is out of this world.
While at Whole Foods, I asked the cheesemonger what he thought would be "the best snack-on-crackers cheese I've never tried." He suggested a Pirrano cheese, which is from the Gouda family. This is a great strategy for you to use in discovering new cheeses, and since I'm trying to discover new cheeses, I'm glad I tried it.
Saturday evening, we finally watched the new Battlestar Galactica. This show just keeps getting better and better. If you haven't watched it, you're really missing out. Grab the Season 1 DVD set and start watching.
Sunday, it was Church, followed by lunch with my parents (as usual.) After, the wife and I went home and watched a mini-marathon of the first 5 episodes of Lost, which we'd never seen. We look forward to the next mini-marathon, coming soon (perhaps this coming weekend.)
Now, the rush is over. Work is normality. No more rush for a while. Of course, there's always the conversational Spanish class which starts tonight...
Posted by Lockjaw at 1:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 7, 2005
Car Troubles
Well, the Saturn finally bit the dust. When my wife and I married, she had a 1991 Saturn SL. Over the years, minor issues have cropped up with the car. The first big issue was back in the mid 1990s, when a valve roller went bad, resulting in replacement of a couple valves, rollers, rocker arms, and the camshaft. Since then, the car hasn't quite been the same. Over the years, the car has been hit while parked in the rear, rear-ended at a stoplight, hit by two deer (in one night), collided with a bad driver, and driven many, MANY miles. All of the accidents were caused by outside factors (ie. other drivers and deer), and bad driving on my own part would have resulted in much worse damage. On top of this, the car was burning oil, revving too high, leaking the occasional fluid, and making me worry each day that I wouldn't make it home from work.
Yesterday, the Saturn gave up its ghost. I am 90% sure that the engine has seized. It has had a long and glorious life, but now it's no more. All that remains is to empty it of all its contents, unmount the radio equipment, and have it hauled away. I can't wait.
So, after the mile and a half walk back home from the dead car, I had to take some sort of action. A visit to the bank verified that I could qualify for a small loan. A short shopping trip was then underway. I am now the proud owner of a 1997 Ford Mustang. For the first time in my life, I'm driving a car of my own with cruise control. I've got the CD changer in the trunk. I've got the alarm system. It's an automatic, freeing my right hand for ham radio. I don't even know what to think about the fact that my car has alloy wheels. The most important thing of all, though, is that I will be able to drive to and from work every day without worry that I won't make it, getting better gas mileage, without clouds of smoke behind me, and with an engine running under 4000 rpm at the stoplight.
Now, all I have to do is take steps to pay it off early, and we can get a car for the wife, too.
Posted by Lockjaw at 8:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 25, 2005
An Ogre's Life - Latest Happenings
A week ago, I had the opportunity to do some more training. Being a non-college edumakated ogre, I can't get a job at the local Community College teaching students. I did a short stint there as a continuing education instructor, but all the students who signed up as interested didn't show up for the actual class, so the class never "made." No big deal to me, in the end, as more regular work took over the time I gave to that job. As a mere high-school grajeeate, I am considered good enough to instruct the instructors. Go figure. With that in mind, I took a day off work and taught a class to a room full of college instructors on how to improve their results with the Google search engine. That's right, a whole class on how to use Google. I taught for an hour, and had hardly enough time to cover the high points. The class had fun, learned a lot, and gave me high reviews, so I'd call it a success. I even gained a client for my consulting business out of it.
Should anyone wish to hire me to teach such a class for your institution or business, I am available. I'm also quite good at it. Teaching people about computers is a major part of what I do. In helping people with PC problems, one must teach the customer how to avoid such problems in the future. I should note, based on the experiences from the classes I have taught in the past, that a few details make for a better class. First, I require at least an Internet connected PC with a digital projection system. The Internet connection should be high-speed. For this last class, I was on a dial-up connection, and it made for a much slower progression. Secondly, the ideal class time should be around two hours. One hour allows me to cram a lot of information in, but without as much interaction as I would like to cover the topic in enough detail. As for whether the students have access to PCs to be able to practice what I teach, I can take it or leave it. Either way works fine. For more information, look for the email link in the left column on the main page.
In Amateur Radio news, I've gained a couple new labels to add to my name. The first is that I am now a certified Volunteer Examiner. This means I am qualified to take part in examination teams. Examination teams run the exam sessions in which new hams take the test for their first license, and existing hams test for upgrades. This is going to be important in my locality, as we are trying to build our own exam team for our own regular testing sessions. Our local team will be affliliated with the Lee County ARES organization. I have been named as an Assistant Emergency Coordinator for Lee County ARES. This means I am now tasked with certain administrative tasks within the group. It sounds more important than it is, but that's fine as one of my tasks is to be the public speaker for the group to outside organizations.
In addition to my regular job, I'm also seeing some pickup in my personal consulting business. It's still a very part-time effort, but growth is good.
Yes indeed, growth is very good.
Posted by Lockjaw at 10:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 24, 2005
New Journal, Pen, and habit.
Contrary to what may appear to be the case, I have been writing lately. The wife and I shopped for journals, the other day, at Barnes and Noble. I picked up a nice one for my purposes. It has a plain black cover, and fine grid paper pages. I prefer grid paper for writing, because it helps me organize my thoughts better. Visually, it feels similar to blank, unlined paper, even though it is clearly lined. Slowly, but surely, I'm filling pages with research I'm doing for a future writing project.
With such a perfect journal in hand, I decided it was time to look for the perfect pen. I'm partial to fountain pens for writing, but a really good fountain pen can cost more that what I paid for my last car (seriously). I shopped around for a good option, such as a disposable fountain pen, but found nothing. Disposables used to be available for a few bucks, and inexpensive refillables would cost a few bucks more. When I looked, though, I found nothing. As I exited the Office-Max store, I noticed a display with a Waterman pen set in it. It included several cartridges, a refillable adapter, ink, and other accessories. I bought it. It's fantastic. What's better, it cost a very small fraction of what a high-end Waterman pen would cost.
Now, I've taken an unused Bible cover and used it to house my journal. It stays with me. Between calls, at work, I'm doing research. The pen-to-paper process keeps my mind working. The light touch required from my pen makes my hand tire much slower. My handwriting is improving. I'm even practicing my cursive again, though I'm still horrible at it. This is going to be a very good thing.
Posted by Lockjaw at 6:02 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 9, 2005
Winning the Ribbons
For the first time in my life, I entered something in the local County Fair competitions. My entry was a photo I took last year at the North Carolina State Fair. I won third place in the photos of buildings category. Having looked at the other entries when I put mine in, I said I'd be happy to place. I'm happy.
The wife entered some of her jewelry. She pulled down a blue ribbon. I'm proud of her. Next year, we'll be armed with a good list of the categories, and we'll enter more items.
Posted by Lockjaw at 7:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 25, 2005
Back From the Festival
I'm back from an extended weekend event. The wife, cub, and I spent the last few days in Buena Vista Virginia, at the "Nothin' Fancy Bluegrass Festival." This is an annual event at which the wife has sold her jewelry for the last few years, and this was my first year being able to attend since the first year, before it had its current name.
The Bluegrass Brothers are one act that I'd love to see again. They put on a fantastic show, with lots of energy and drive. They know how to work the crowd like some of the best in the music business. In their final show of the weekend, they brought out Johnathan Dillon. Johnathan is a young musician (11 or 12) who made his first CD at age 10, performing all vocals and instrumentation. I met Johnathan after hearing some of the most amazing bass-thumping from nearby the jewelry stand. I walked around the corner to see a kid, smaller than the bass, thumping and slapping on some fantastic fast grass. I stood in awe (as a former standup bass player myself) and bought a copy of his CD on the spot. He played banjo for the Bluegrass Brothers, and brought down the house.
Michelle Nixon was another act I thoroughly enjoyed, and I picked up a copy of her latest CD at the benefit auction Saturday morning. Meeting many of the performers was another treat. Talking to people who are among the best at the things they do is always a joy. Nothin' Fancy's fiddle player, Chris Sexton, is destined for greatness in the industry. The bassist for Bluegrass Brothers showed his stuff on many occasions. Johnathan Dillon is a name to watch.
So, after a trip spanning hundreds of miles, untold songs (from many genres, mind you), five days, almost an entire SF novel, and two tanks of gas, I'm home. I'm tired. I'm sore. I'm happy.
Be happy.
Posted by Lockjaw at 6:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 3, 2005
"Officially" No Longer Libertarian
Well, it's official. For the first time in years, the Libertarian Party of North Carolina is no longer an "official" political party in the state of North Carolina. Since failing to receive enough signatures within a certain number of days after the 2004 elections, the NC Board of Elections has decertified the party. Yes, I signed the petition. Unfortunately, however, the decertification of the party has resulted in the thousands of voters registered as Libertarian being converted into "unaffliliated" voters. This includes me. For the first time in my life, I'm an "unaffliliated" voter, and I don't like it. I'm no fan of choosing "unaffliliated" on your voter registration form. I consider it a form of cowardice, though definitely a lesser one.
For now, though, I'll stay "unaffliliated" in an official sense. Once the LPNC gets enough signatures and is again considered an "official" party in this state, I'll re-register as a Libertarian. The Republicans don't deserve me, and I've long since smartened up enough to escape the Democrats.
Posted by Lockjaw at 12:40 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 11, 2005
Fun Weekend Recap
This past weekend was a blast. It was exhausting, but well worth it. The wife and I spent the weekend on a jewelry sales trip to Virginia, coupled with some visit time with my Father-in-Law.
On Friday, I left work and made the 40 minute drive home. Once there, we loaded the car. I gave the car a once-over, including an oil change and a topping off of the radiator. That done, we started North. We made the drive to her Dad's house in a little over five hours, and went straight to bed.
On Saturday, we were up at 5am. After a quick shower, we hit the road to Waynesboro, 45 minutes away. Waynesboro has a fantastic park on the river, on the side of a hill. There's a lot of greenspace, where we setup, as well as a performance stage, baseball field, playground and pool. We found our spot and started setting up the jewelry, which took a little over an hour from scratch.
The festival started at ten oclock, but we had customers long before that. There were several other jewelry makers, but everyone made different items and had vastly different displays. Since the wife's jewelry is completely different than everyone else's, we never have any trouble with competition. No offense to anyone, but stringing glass or stones is an easy skill to learn compared to what my wife does, and few are willing to put in the years of effort to get to her level of quality.
Saturday was a productive day, paying for all our expenses for the trip as well as for everything we bought at the show. That was a great feeling, especially knowing that we had a second day to show. According to the other folks showing at the festival, Sunday was an even bigger day than Saturday.
On Saturday evening, we were able to spend some time visiting with the family, talking about politics, bluegrass music, and other stuff. We fell into bed and were asleep almost immediately.
Sunday morning, I took some time to take photos of the flowers in the backyard, as well as the view from the mountaintop. I haven't had the chance to review the shots, but I believe I have some fine work waiting for me, including several beautiful flowers, bees, and a beautiful doe we caught having a snack. After a breakfast of steak and eggs, french toast, canteloupe, and strawberries, we set back out for the show.
Sunday's setup took around 30 minutes, because we had put the wares away the day before, to allow for an easy reset. For the initial setup, everything is packed for storage, but on the second day of a two-day show, we can pack differently. That makes life much easier. Sunday was also quite productive. We sold out of one very popular item completely. One item sold moments before another lady came back to buy it. We had custom orders, and two inquiries about wholesale purchases for shops. We didn't make a fortune, by any means, but we paid for our trip, all expenses, all of our food, all of our purchases from other vendors, and a trip to Wal-Mart. On top of that, we still came back with more money than we left with. We were able to enjoy a wonderful weekend, visit with family, have a lot of fun, and make a profit. That's success.
I picked up a couple mass-produced hematite necklaces at a very low price. The wife will use the pendants from these necklaces as shape templates for her own work. She bought some hair scrunchies that are really nice. I picked up a bat-house, to provide a new home for the bats I'll be excluding from our attic very soon, and I bought two jars of molasses.
Another five+ hours of driving, and I was home at midnight.
There's nothing like having a job you enjoy, and spending your weekends working and having even more fun. Life is good.
Posted by Lockjaw at 8:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 28, 2005
I Read the News Today - Oh Boy!
The She-Ogre and I are on the front page of the local newspaper today. This past weekend was Amateur Radio Field Day. We setup across the parking lot from Wal-Mart in Sanford and operated with temporary antennas and generator power through most of the 24 hour event, making contacts with other hams across the world. I was interviewed by the paper at the event, and the result is an above the fold photo and short article on the front page. If you have access to the Sanford Herald, grab a copy. You probably won't see it on the website. As local papers go, we've got a pretty good one (trust me, I've read local papers from across the state) but their website is horrible. They should have hired me when they had the chance.
Posted by Lockjaw at 8:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 17, 2005
DSL Outage
We've got a DSL outage at the lair. It started yeserday morning, and hasn't cleared up over 24 hours later. It's a problem with the ISP, and they say they're working on it. They say it should be fixed within 24 hours, which means one of two things. Either they know what the problem is, and they've got a truck bringing in the replacement equipment, or they have no clue what it is and they're blowing smoke.
Either way, fine with me. Last night, the PC got a long-overdue run of speeddisk, and I got to spend a little time playing radio. Now, if I can just do some climbing up onto the house to relocate that antenna, I should be able to transmit a bit further. Then I can start working on the HF dipole I want to install. I need to bring my Morse Code recognition back into shape, too.
Posted by Lockjaw at 12:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 1, 2005
Slow Posting, but Life Returns to Normality
Now that the boy is out of the hospital, and things are returning to normal, I'm planning to get back into the blogging groove. Once the hospital stuff was out of the way, there was a period of rest needed. This meant a lot of naps. I also caught up on my playtime with some Anarchy Online. In addition, I readied myself for my return to the working world. I've been out of work for the last five months, but that's over now.
The first few weeks of the year meant a lot of work closing out the bookstore. There was (and still is) a LOT of stuff in the building that needed to be removed, moved to one side, or somehow handled. This was a huge task which left me exhausted and short of breath. There's a lot of hidden dust in old used bookstores, you know. Some job hunting took place during this time, but not a lot.
Later, job hunting started in earnest. Unfortunately, with my latest job being a six year stint as a used bookstore owner, it was hard to find a good IT job. Since my real skills lie in problem-solving, customer handling and computers, my best placement is in the IT field. I sent my resume in response to many listings, but never got any solid hits.
While the boy was in the emergency room, I got a phone call from one of my amateur radio friends. His company had some positions opening up that he thought I would be a good fit for. I applied that night, on a trip home for hospital-stay supplies. I interviewed two days later, and had a job offer before I could make it back to the hospital.
Last night the wife and I celebrated my new job while spending her gift certificate at Outback. She's a teacher, and the parents of one of her students gave the certificate to her. Having never eaten at Outback before, I was loving it. I had BBQ ribs and chicken, and they were delicious. We got in late, and I never once sat at the PC before I went to sleep.
Things are starting to settle down and go according to schedule now. I'm going to have some PC time once again, and I'll be writing down a lot of these things that have been floating through my skull.
I love blogging, but if it has to take a back seat to more important things, that's okay.
Posted by Lockjaw at 6:38 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 28, 2005
Home from the Hospital
This morning, the boy had his last vial of blood drawn. Everything looked good, so they let him come home. He's not going to be playing any football for a while. He's restricted from many vigorous activities. No bike riding, climbing, swimming, or pretty much anything too strenuous or mildly risky. Methinks there will be quite a bit of gameboy playing in his future. His Mom and I are resting, as we haven't had a good night's sleep for a few days.
In other news, I'm starting a new job on Tuesday. I can't wait.
Posted by Lockjaw at 3:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 27, 2005
Hospital Update (Friday)
Things are progressing nicely, but slowly. Even a minor rupture of the spleen can take a while to stop bleeding. There's still abdominal pain, but all of the blood tests and other monitoring shows that things are going well, and that surgery will continue to be unnecessary. I have no doubts of the hand of God in protecting and healing my son, as this whole process could have been MUCH worse.
Now, the worst part of the process is boredom. The boy is spending a lot of time playing MegaMan games on his GameBoy. He's coloring his felt-art picture, reading his "Foxtrot" and "Calvin and Hobbes" books. He's already built his Lego kit (Brickmaster exclusive Jedi Starfighter) and is surrounded by a number of his stuffed animals. In the late morning, most of the kids TV channels go to the shows for the really young kids, so there's no "Ed, Edd, and Eddy" for him to watch then. Today is also the day of his school's promotion ceremony, and he's bummed about missing that.
Today is probably the day that he'll move to a regular room, also. That will mean a bit more visitors will show up. It should also mean that his Mom and I will be able to sleep better at night. Last night, I slept on the cold hard floor. Trust me, it was a vast improvement over pulling two chairs together. Shannon gets the recliner, but even that had to be pulled in especially for us, since ICU isn't normally a place where people are allowed to sleep in.
My wife just called me while I typed this, and informed me that the surgeon checked him over and things look good. This means that he will be moving to a regular room sometime today, and most likely will be able to come home tomorrow. You can't believe how happy this makes me.
Keep praying.
Dave
Posted by Lockjaw at 8:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 26, 2005
Hospital Update
I'm home for a short time. The boy is doing well. They're still following the "Watch and Wait" strategy, which is apparently the standard in minor pediatric splenic injury cases, according to other doctors we've consulted with. We're still looking at another day or two of the hospital stay, and the word came through today that the school's insurance is taking care of everything.
As "bad stuff" goes, this is turning out well. We still request prayer, as everything is in the hands of God.
Posted by Lockjaw at 2:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 25, 2005
Family News - Slow Blogging to Come
I expect that the next few days will see little or no activity from me on the blog. I will be busy with far more important things.
Early this afternoon, my 10 year old son fell off the playground equipment at school. He apparently did a classic bellyflop onto the ground. Afterward, he complained of sharp abdominal pain. My wife contacted me, and we decided to watch him closely until she got home so I could take a look at him. Soon after, he vomited. I did a little research on the net, contacted a local doctor, and decided to take him to the Emergency Room. My wife took him directly there, as they were still on the way home from school.
In the Emergency Room, they took blood and urine samples. The urine sample showed some blood, so they did a CT scan. The result? My son has a ruptured spleen.
The next steps aren't as bad as they could be. They want to watch him closely, and probably NOT do a splenectomy. If things go downhill, that may change, but at this point, he's looking at some time in the ICU. We'll be spending a lot of our time with him.
I ask for your prayers. My son is in pain, and doesn't like needles, but is otherwise well enough to lie in bed and play his Gameboy. Please pray for his well being and healing.
Posted by Lockjaw at 7:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 1, 2005
Busy Weekend - Concerts - Street Fair - Rain
This weekend has flown by. I've hardly had a moment to breathe between all the fun. Friday night, my family and I went to an unofficial event for the church's youth group. A local church has an annual "RockFest" which brings in several local christian rock bands, and this year our church provided two of them. The headliner was Working On Commission, which has three of our church members on guitar, bass, and drums. They do a great show. If you've got a church event anywhere near central North Carolina, think about bringing them in to play.
The opening act, which I refer to in this show as the "untested, unknown, kid's act that isn't expected to be anything but a new act," was our church's youth band, "Stain of Peace." By the time their sound check was over, many of the event planners had been blown away by the 13 year old drummer and the 11 year old lead guitarist. When they took the stage to do their set, they did a great job. There's little doubt that they'll be moved up to a more important location in next year's show.
Saturday Morning was the Southern Pines Springfest. The She-Ogre had loaned her canopy to her school for the event, and offerred to assist. I went along, but armed myself with a map and listings of several Geodetic Survey markers that I wanted to find. While she worked the booth, I walked a few miles down the roads and railroad tracks, seeking out little 4 inch brass plates. At 1:30, I got word through my ham radio that a storm was due to roll in. We had 30 minutes to do a 40 minute takedown job. We ended up folding the canopy in the heavy rain, and then carrying it approximately 5 blocks to the car. We got soaked to the bone.
After a very short rest, we were up again for the Steven Curtis Chapman, Chris Tomlin, Casting Crowns concert at Alltel Pavilion in Raleigh. Our group of 21 kids and adults took up station on the lawn, and watched a great show. Getting home at midnight, though, has me a little worn out this morning. It's time to go to Church, so I've barely got time to type up this entry.
Somehow, in all of this, I've managed to work on brokering a deal to sell a 1946 Dodge Fire Truck. If anybody is interested in a great restoration project, drop me a line.
Posted by Lockjaw at 8:13 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 22, 2005
Fun Day - Geodetic Survey Benchmark Hunting
Yesterday was an enjoyable day. A new friend, Paul, and I spent the day going around town finding Geodetic Survey markers. Some were easy. Some were hard. Some were missing. One was there, but the brass plate had been broken lose, leaving only the peg in cement behind. One mark had been lost, with multiple people unable to find it. We walked to the general area, following a topographical map, and took a best guess at its location. From that spot, we looked 20 feet away to not one but TWO signs testifying to its presence, and located the spot easily. A couple marks were easy to find because I knew the area very well, and one mark led us through an old cemetary that I never knew existed. One was on the front porch of a local church, another in the front yard of a fire station, and one was high atop a concrete column at one end of what was once a railway bridge.
For a little more info on Geodetic Survey markers, or benchmarks, look here.
I can't wait to go out again. I had a blast.
Posted by Lockjaw at 2:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May A Moody Baby Doom a Yam
I'm home.
The family and I just returned from a fun and relaxing weekend in Virginia. We visited my father-in-law and his wife, who live in Lexington Virginia, just behind and slightly above Virginia Military Institute. Lexington is a fine small town, growing by leaps and bounds.
As I said before I left, we did visit the Natural Bridge. It had been over a decade since I had been there, and I wanted to take my son to see it, as well as the wife. They both loved it. Natural Bridge is one of the natural wonders of the modern world. It spans a space between two cliffs, nearly 100 feet above the valley floor. Route 11, a two-lane road, runs across the bridge, with regular automobile traffic. After we visited, in fact, I drove the car across the bridge, just to say I had.
While at the bridge, we went into a shallow cave which was once a saltpeter mine, visited the falls, and saw the rest of the sights. One special sight is the "lost river," a rapidly flowing waterway that runs through the mountain. When it was heard, years ago, dynamite was used to blow an opening and expose the flow. During the wet season, which it was, the water flows out of the opening at a rapid pace. In the dry season, the water flows from right to left, not rising to the level of the opening.
After visiting the bridge, we went on a tour of the Natural Bridge Caverns. This is a nice, short tour that takes you as much as 350 feet underground. There are some really nice formations, underground pools, and the like. It isn't as spectacular as Luray Caverns or Carlsbad Caverns, by any means, but it is a nice short tour to complement a visit to the bridge.
Mostly, though, the visit involved spending time with family. Virtually no time was spent at a computer screen. In fact, I spent some time catching up in my Bible in One Year reading. I was a week behind going into the weekend, and now I'm caught up completely for the first time in over a month. For those wondering, I'm currently reading in Deuteronomy and Luke, along with the Psalm and Proverb each day.
Did you see Friday's Battlestar Galactica? WOW! I can't wait until the new seasons starts. I've had the finale downloaded for weeks, but had held back from actually watching it, since we had the weekly episodes showing. There's something much more satisfying about watching the show on the actual broadcast, rather than in a recorded form. The wife and I did spend some time last week catching up on episodes we had missed, so we'd have all the details we needed for the finale.
The Pope is dead. We watched quite a bit of the coverage. We've been awaiting this for some time, as he has been becoming more frail over the last years. The next couple weeks will be interesting to watch.
That's it for now. I'm off to catch up on my news and blog reading.
Posted by Lockjaw at 2:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sometimes Things Just Click
This morning at 8am, I met with my class at the local Civic Center. It was a class full of teachers' assistants, getting credits under the "No Child Left Behind Act" programs. By 9am, we were sitting in front of computers, while I taught them things they didn't know about computers. Oddly enough, I started the class with no idea of what I was going to teach. I could only hope that the class wasn't high enough on the knowledge scale that my possible lessons wouldn't be usable. Luckily, they were at pretty much the perfect skill level.
To start the day, I spent nearly two hours teaching them how to use Google. This might seem like overkill, but most of these ladies had never done more than enter a couple words into a search engine and end up with WAY too many returns to handle. I taught them methods to refine their searches, and get closer to what they were looking for. I also taught them how Google could be their calculator, dictionary, memory helper, and other useful tools. Often, during my class, I found students looking up with wide eyes, having learned something truly useful about searching that they didn't know. My goal, as I told them, was to help them find something they needed in five minutes, instead of an hour.
Moving on in the class, I taught them how to create, nest, rename, move, and delete folders. I taught them how to create a document within a folder, and how to save a document into the folder that they created from scratch. This was a quick, 20 minute segment of the day.
In the afternoon, I taught them how to create a Powerpoint presentation. Having only created my first Powerpoint presentation yesterday, as a prelude to teaching the class, I felt I was exceptionally prepared to teach them this necessary skill. Many of them learned new things with this part of the class, as well.
All in all, I think the class went extremely well. The students were energized, and having fun. They all said that their previous instructors had been much harder to understand, and less exciting. I had a blast, and most of them did as well. One lady, whose skill level was nearly non-existent, kept complaining that she didn't understand, because she was scared of computers. I kept watch over her and made sure that she A) had fun and B) learned something. I think she did both. I didn't look at the evaluations, but I think they'll look good for me.
Next class is Monday, if enough students sign up. I'll find out tomorrow.
Posted by Lockjaw at 1:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Multiple Personalities as Social Tools
Lately, I've thought a lot about multiple personalities. I'm not talking about Multiple Personality Disorder, but the type of multiples that we use in everyday life, as a way of functioning in society. For instance, I know that I have two distinct personalities. One is the public persona in which I am confident, friendly and charismatic. This is the personality I use at work, and out in the world. The other is the quiet, introverted and antisocial person I am when I'm at home or alone.
My outgoing personality can handle any situation, solves any problem, and is seen as the go-to guy for any question or problem that others around me might have. This is the personality I use in politics, church functions, computer consulting and at the local Wal-Mart.
My introvert personality doesn't want to talk on the phone. He stares at a computer monitor for hours, reading, writing, playing games and strategizing. When interrupted, my inner introvert is momentarily very upset, mostly because it must be put aside and replaced with the extrovert for a while. This is the personality that doesn't want visitors, conversation or instant messages.
I know I'm not the only person who does this. I've recognized no less than three personalities in my wife. She has two that she switches between, depending on how smart the person she's talking to thinks she is. Both of these are bubbly and outgoing, and have made her very popular at church and in other circles we walk in. Her antisocial personality is far more antisocial than mine, though. I'm the only one who is aware of its existence.
I believe that these multiple personalities are an essential method of existence in this world. Many people have a personality that is designed for the specific task of overcoming a lack of confidence. Others turn on a personality to sell.
I can understand how, given an instance of major emotional truama, a person could take their own multiple personalities to an extreme, turning them into a disorder. For most people, however, they can be a useful tool. I know they are for me.
Posted by Lockjaw at 12:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Hurricane Preparedness the Lockjaw Way
It's hurricane season again. For those of us in the Southeastern United States, that means necessary preparation for some bad conditions. Bad conditions can mean a variety of things, from simple rain to massive destruction and power outages that may last for days. Being ready for such occurrences means different things to different people.
Everyone in possible affected areas should do a minimum amount of preparation. You'll need a battery operated radio and TV, if possible, and plenty of batteries. Canned food is good, as is anything that lasts well for over a week without refrigeration. Oil lamps, flashlights, glow sticks or other light sources can be very useful. These are all fairly standard suggestions.
Now for the fun stuff. I have been working for the last few years to gradually become MORE ready for these situations, while not blowing all my spare cash on things I won't use in non-emergency situations. This has required some enhancement of things I would use regularly anyway, or replacement of them.
I'm an amateur radio operator. I have two radios mounted in my car, and one at home. The car radios are readily available for emergency use with no extra work. The home radio station needed enhancement. Power is the major need. I have created a new power supply setup for my home station by tying together three large deep cycle 12 volt batteries, and feeding them with a trickle charger that has an automatic shutoff. This allows me to transmit at will for days or weeks off battery power alone, while using minimal amperage to handle the charging. The theoretical limits of this battery power would allow me to transmit full time, without ever letting off of the talk button, for approximately three days. That's not bad. In addition, I'm finishing a cable for the power station that will allow me to quickly decouple the 2 meter/440mhz radio from the car and move it to the house, so my home station will be more usable.
I've been finishing up a couple of inexpensive portable directional antennas for 2 meters that will expand the distance my signal can reach. These antennas are great emergency use antennas, since they're lightweight, easily dismantled and setup, very portable, and quite effective. The "secondary" use I have in mind for them (emergency use is ALWAYS the primary use) is to allow me to quickly setup a mobile/remote stationary position on a hilltop to attempt more long distance contacts. The total cost for the two antennas and spare parts is less than $30.
Additional power needs will be met through additional supplies. We've been slowly building a collection of AA and AAA rechargable NiMH batteries for our various devices. Most of our FRS radios are already equipped with rechargable batteries, as is my Grundig AM/FM/Shortwave pocket radio, both 2 meter handhelds, my son's gameboy, digital cameras and a couple other devices. On top of those, I have 15 more batteries charged and ready within sight, and there are at least a half-dozen more that I know of at home. These will ALL be fully charged by storm time. We have an additional deep-cycle battery which can feed an AC inverter that I carry in my car, to provide AC power to a small TV, radio, lights or the like for quite some time. Recharging can be done using the car.
Water is a big necessity. I've been in the habit for quite some time of occasionally cleaning a milk jug and filling it with water, then placing it in the basement. We have several gallons of clean water for washing, and after a boil on the gas stove, other uses. We'll stock up on bottled water today, as well, for drinking. The gallon jug trick is good for other situations, as well. When the city turns the water off for maintenance, and you wake up with no shower, there's water around so you can stay clean. That's always nice.
I mentioned the FRS radios. These are great when the phones die. Several of my neighbors have them as well, and they can help with communications in situations like this.
Now for what i consider extras. There should be grilling capacity. When the power goes out, refrigerators stop working. Freezers full of meat need to be eaten, so it's time for neighborhood cook-outs. He who has a grill hosts the cookouts. Everyone brings something that's thawing, and everybody eats very well. Cots are nice, so you can host friends who might not be setup as comfortably as you. Folding chairs, acoustic instruments, books, lawn games are all good.
Oh yeah. Knives are good. I carry a pocketknife at all times. We have additional knives for utility purposes, a machete, cooking knives, etc. Sharp knives are good, and dull knives are dangerous, so keep them sharp. Using the wrong knive for the job is unsafe, as well, so think before you cut.
Plan ahead, and emergency situations don't have to be all that bad. Plan well enough, and days-long power outages can actually be fun. Instead of sitting inside watching TV, playing on the computer and generally being antisocial misfits, we can be outside having fun with the neighbors. How cool is that?
A side note. Being an amateur radio operator, I have access to some weather tools that the general public may not be aware of. Amateur radio ops, emergency workers and others can become a part of a system called SkyWarn. Skywarn is a system through which individuals can advise the National Weather Service of localized conditions through direct observation. When you watch the news and the weatherguy says that quarter-sized hail has been observed in a particular area, it is usually because a SkyWarn observer has passed this information on. When major weather is in the area, I can listen to an area repeater and get this information as it is being reported by the observer.
On the Internet, I can listen in on weather nets using a special VOIP software for hams known as EchoLink. As Hurricane Charlie bears down on Florida's West Coast, I'm listening to the WX_TALK conference, which includes both Internet-based nodes and on-air radio transmissions concerning this storm. As the storm reaches the local area, I can listen to the 146.88- repeater from near Raleigh either through my radio or over the area on this link. Non-hams in the NC area can listen in on this one for up-to-date info during a major storm.
Lockjaw - Out!
Posted by Lockjaw at 11:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack