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November 18th, 2009
12:13 pm - House Inspection
I just finished the most recent city house inspection. I think this was six for the year - I'm not sure how many drive by/walk around the back inspections they did.
This one was limited. The inspector just went for the basic smoke detector tests and I suppose looked for obvious problems while he was there. My impression is that I passed, which is a relief, although it does not get me out of the general hot water I'm in with the housing department.
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November 17th, 2009
09:37 am - Small Bits Of News
Despite a few naps and a full night's sleep, I'm still tired after the 24+ hour lab session.
My contractor disappeared. The rear gutter is off and the rear upper deck needs to be rebuilt, and yet he hasn't returned calls to his cell or home numbers in over a week. The city comes by for yet another inspection tomorrow. I hope having a signed contract is enough to satisfy them for now. One hitch - the upper deck is also the fire escape for the second floor.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/angry.gif) annoyed
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November 3rd, 2009
12:21 pm - The World Series
Being a Mets fan means I can be happy when either of my backup teams - the Yankees for New York or the Phillies as the nearest National League team - wins the World Series.
I'll be happier if the Phillies win, because I live in Maryland and the Yankees beat the Orioles again and again.
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October 27th, 2009
12:00 pm - This week in space
NASA is preparing to launch the Ares 1-X tomorrow, billed as the tallest rocket to launch from Kennedy Space Center since the Apollo era Saturn V.
Ares will be the Shuttle replacement and will lead to the Moon/Mars launch vehicle, the Ares V.
Tomorrow's launch won't be a "real" system. The first stage is adapted from a Shuttle solid rocket booster with four parts instead of the planned Ares 1 five parts and the Service and Command modules will be dummies.
Despite being a mockup it is promising. The people pushing for manned space flight seem to have a decent foot in the door, and someone is doing serious preparation for a post-Shuttle era when we'd otherwise rely on Russian and possibly European vehicles to reach the International Space Station.
More on the Ares 1-X and the Ares program:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/science/space/26rocket.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=ares%201%20x&st=cse
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/flighttests/aresIx/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/index.html
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September 24th, 2009
03:01 pm - Dear Linksys
Dear Linksys,
Your Customer Service phone tree is recursive. Please stop.
Sincerely,
F.E.
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August 30th, 2009
03:15 pm - Car Returned
I got my car back on Friday. Jason kindly gave me a ride the 80 miles to pick it up.
In addition to the engine block they found a bad wheel bearing that Subaru had extended the warranty on (free replacement) and replaced the timing belt.
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August 21st, 2009
08:47 am - Car, Part 3 - Insurance
Geico is covering my repair. This is not a small thing - this part of the engine costs many thousands of dollars. While inconvenient, the week long delay caused by waiting for the adjuster is now worth it.
My so far limited information about the claim is that they wanted to make sure I had kept up with maintenance. Some of that came in the form of the receipt from my last oil change and the rest came from the adjuster seeing no gunk when he looked in the engine and the oil pan.
With as much as I know about computers it's frustrating that I don't understand more about how engines fail and therefore can't explain any better.
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August 19th, 2009
02:09 pm - Phone Working
My cell phone works again... for now.
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01:47 pm - Cell Phone Outage
My cell phone is malfunctioning. Please call my work number, if you have it, during the day (till roughly 5pm but I sometimes stay till 5:30) or home number after 6pm.
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August 18th, 2009
09:34 am - Car, Part 2
It wasn't the timing chain. Firstly I have a timing belt instead of a chain, and I saw it in one piece with the cover off.
Leaving out the goriest of details, my car started having trouble on the NJ Turnpike returning to Baltimore from parts north. The check engine light came on and went off, so I thought I could get home and have it checked. The route I took involves leaving the Turnpike at Exit 4, switching to another highway, and crossing into Pennsylvania south of Philadelphia. The car stalled at the bridge toll booth (but not the Turnpike one) and was shifting hesitantly. Guessing it was the transmission I took an exit and stopped at a gas station to check fluids[1]. The fluids were fine, but I stalled twice or three times in the 50 feet from the stop sign at the ramp to the station.
Auto club, tow truck, and insurance time. I could get towed the 10 miles to the nearest dealer for free or back home for $250, so I spent most of Monday at a dealer in Concordville, Pa. They had free wifi and donuts.
After ruling out the timing belt the service manager told me that it's the engine short block (the part that the pistons ride up and down in) and that it would cost many thousands of dollars. The insurance company is checking that conclusion out and deciding if they will cover the repair.
[1] "Precious automotive fluids."
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August 14th, 2009
12:22 am - Hal Haag
As many of you who know Hal have heard, he passed away this Wednesday, August 12, 2009.
His family has created a LiveJournal community called halhaagmemorial http://community.livejournal.com/halhaagmemorial/ .They encourages friends to post pictures and anecdotes. Please pass this on to anyone who knew him.
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August 11th, 2009
August 7th, 2009
09:05 am - Freddy Quijano on the radio
My friend Fernando Quijano will be reading one of his short stories on the local NPR station today.
http://www.wypr.org
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August 6th, 2009
July 27th, 2009
09:12 am - Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) forexample!
(Yeah, yeah. It's odd to do a birthday wish to oneself. I like seeing it.)
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May 26th, 2009
12:19 pm - Balticon
I am not motivated to write a con report.
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May 8th, 2009
01:01 pm - Language (Programming) Humor
A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages by James Iry
http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-mostly-wrong.html
(My favorite comment: "Jacquard's loom wasn't concurrent? It was pretty thoroughly multithreaded, I'd have thought!")
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May 7th, 2009
10:19 am - RIP Carol Butler
A coworker died yesterday. The clinic director Carol Butler succumbed to breast cancer a day or so after her first chemo treatment. Most of us didn't know she was ill.
As a film note, she has an IMDB entry from participating in the documentary Divine Trash about her friend and Baltimore raconteur John Waters.
Edit: Her title was Program Director for the clinic and in addition to knowing Waters she has some fame in her own right as a proponent of mobile drug treatment services. One example The Mobile Health Experience—A Blueprint for Expanding Access to Substance Abuse Treatment.
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April 17th, 2009
08:28 am - Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice
We're having a press conference at work today. My boss is involved in a project called eGetgoing that enhances the counseling portion of drug treatment. Attendees include Congressman Elijah Cummings and Reg. General Barry McCafferey, Clinton's head of ONDCP1. The last two weeks involved cleaning and organizing. Yesterday was tech set up (gaffers tape is my friend).
It's showtime.
1. Office of National Drug Control Policy
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April 14th, 2009
12:33 pm - Names and Ethnicity
Quoting the Houston Chronicle:
Lawmaker defends comment on Asians
'A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.”'
and
'“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.'
Commentators have pointed out the "you and your people" portion and the similarity to Eastern European Jews shortening their (in my case our) names last century on immigrating to the US.
I first found this story in The Onion's false Person In The Street comments.
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