Thursday night and sitting at home

I hope everyone has been having a good week.  It has been a fairly long week but it is almost over.

We have been having water pressure issues in the house.  The water has suddenly gotten much higher in pressure.  Beth got a gauge from a friend at work that shows it is about 90 psi which is about 10 to high.  It is not real bad but it makes the shower feel like one of those message shower heads instead of just a regular one.  Nothing else seems to be changed but it has taken a couple weeks to get use to the new pressure.  Hopefully it is not a bigger issue.

I also replaced the parts of the toilet in our bath room this week.  It was not the first time I had done this but the first with this toilet.  I had more issues with it that I ever thought about.  I could not remove the valve part by itself.  I had to disconnect the tank from the bowl to get to the gasket holding the valve to the tank.  When I was taking it off I cracked a portion of the sand for the tank.  The valve was attached to the tank not just with the threads but with some sort of adhesive as well.  I am not sure if it was a rubber cement or a silicon base but I could not get it to unscrew.  I tried so hard the plunger part of the valve broke off.  I now had a toilet in 3 more pieces than it should have been in.  I ended up at Home Depot with the tank and the newly bought parts attempting to get the bottom valve off of the tank. Judy from plumbing and a young man from the paint department helped me to get the seal off. They both went above and beyond to help out.  So something that should have been a hour job took about 2 days to finish.  With much fussing and extra work we no have both bathrooms fully functional again.  

Gman made the Honor Roll for the first 9 weeks  and E got all pluses or better on his report card.   I was so proud of both of them.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Bear Trap

Its time to have a little geek update.  I have been playing with my netbook and the home network set up.  We now have 4 computers, the Wii, and the Blue Ray player all hooked into the home network.  I think I have reached the end of my knowledge on how it all should work together.  I can think see how I want it to work together but I am not sure how it will turn out because I have no master plan to make it happen.  I think it has become my bear trap.

So here are a couple of things I am thinking and tinkering with.  Productivity is somewhat of a joke right now.  The 4 computers have 3 different OS on them.  The boys desktop is a rebuild from parts I had leftover from odds and ends.  I took the HD and motherboard from my  Alienware and build it.  It is running XP pro and has a lot of life left in it. It will need more storage when the boys start using it for more school work.  So either an external HD or one of the old internal SATAs I have.  The laptop (Beth's) is a very good for her.  It is running Vista but she says it is fine for what she does with it.  It is the only computer now with Office on it (and so the lack of productivity elsewhere).  I could reload the old version Office 97 on the boys computer but they do not really need it yet.   My desktop is now running W7 (I did keep an old hard drive with XP and Ubuntu on it) and I loved it enough to upgrade the W7 starter on the netbook to W7 Home.  Firmware in the Wii and the Sony Blue Ray have them hooked to the router very well. 

My 2 current problems are  1: Sharing the printer and the 2 external HDs I have on the network  2: File and application sharing without buying new programs.   On the first problem, I put the printer and Hds on the network  through a Belken Hub when we got Beth's laptop.  They work fine for her but I have not taken the time to get them to work with the boys computer or the netbook.  I need more knowledge about how W7 workgroups are suppose to work to make it all work better.   The second problem is going to be a larger one.  Everything I read tells me what I want is a home server set up.  I know that Beth will not want another computer taking up space we do not have.  I also do not know how Windows Home Server will work across the 3 OS.  I do not believe that everyone is going to want a home server for their electronics.  So what are people going to do instead? 

My answer leads to another question -  Do I want to does this because I think it will be useful  or because it seems like fun to try to do?  The useful side includes looking into the future of the boys home work.  The wireless key they use now to get to the network (and internet) should be enough  for connectivity but it does drag when any other device is connected.  The wifi in the netbook, blue ray and laptop all have better bandwith so they show less drag.   At some point the boys will need better internet and access to the printer and HDs.   They will also want to play more games like PvsZ etc online and be able to stream music into their own room (can anyone say head phones?).   I know they are still young but it is coming.  I know the answer to the fun part is that I do enjoy it.  

So for those who know- its my bear trap.

Spring in October?

The weather today is closer to March than October.  Mid 70s for temperature.  80 percent humidity.  Winds gusting over 20 mph.   Thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches.  The day is just a very blustery day to steal a phrase from a bear.  I hope everyone in the path of this storm is Ok and is being careful.  I can't believe it is the last week in October and we are getting this weather.

I know by now most people have seen the 5 full weekends this month.  It only happens every 800 plus years we are told.  Knowing it is just simple math to figure it out, is it really that big of a deal?  Does it work for months with say 5 Monday Tuesday, and Wednesdays?  If it did, would we be more depressed because of the "extra" Monday?  Not sure of the answer but it does not change the fact that we get 52 weeks a year no matter what month they fall into.

We have started trying to plan end of the year trips.  Thanksgiving and Christmas always seemed so rushed.  I am happy to see people and enjoy time with friends and family.  I just wish everything was less hectic.  We are hoping to see Marc and Megan and Brian and Angie (and the kids) while they are in the area.  Beth is looking at the weekend before Christmas to go West.  If you read this Mom, we will talk about what everyone else plans looks like.

Beth just texted me that they have moved everyone to the basement at the library.  Everyone be safe.

Long weekend for one where we stayed home.  Beth had a headache.  The boys were driving us all crazy.    I was on edge and could not calm down.  The only good part of the weekend was that Mom got the come up. Always glad to see her.

E had a soccer game that he really did not want to be at but he did play.  Mike and Bonnie got to come watch.  I will not rail against soccer or hockey but really I do not get them as sports.  I know many friends do and I am glad for you but please I can not stand either one.  I still want a vuvuzela. Don't ask because I can't explain it I just do.

I watch today as woman was driving beside me on Nicholasville Rd.  She had a cigarette in one hand.  She was talking on her cell phone with her other hand.  A cup of coffee  was resting in her lap.  She was steering with her knees.  She was then hit by a guy pulling out of a side street.  It was an accident waiting to happen but not how I thought it was going to.  I had slowed down to get away from her.  The other car just whipped out at the light that was red to them.  Right hand turn into her rear side panel.  It was very ironic.

I hope everyone has a great week.

BlackBerry post

Hey I just remembered I have not posted from my phone lately. I am hoping that I remember how.

We went to homecoming at MSU over the weekend. It was fun. The boys got a lot of candy and gum at the parade. MSU won the football game. I got to see a few old professors. Dinner at June and Tims was nice. Lynn and Tim had done a very nice job on the new deck.

I got to set up Mom's new laptop and wireless network for the house. Her printer was a little bit of a pain. It is a HP photosmart with build in wireless. It connected to the router on the 2nd try. I forgot to reset the router the first time so the printer saw it but could not connect. The problem was with adding it to Mom's laptop device manager. The disk that came with the printer did not include drivers for W7. The HP drivers on the HP web site did not want to use the printer as a wireless device. In the end I had to use the generic drivers for HP in W7 to get it to print. Mom will lose some of the photo settings this way but will be able to print out most everything.

She IM me on FB at night saying the Office trail on the laptop was not taking the Key she was given for it. I wonder if it has already lapsed and she will need to get a full version of it loaded. It was very neat she sent me the IM.

The boys are loving P vs Z on there computer. I am glad I loaded it for them. E has 2 more weeks of socer and Gman is done with baseball until the Spring. I need to get him with a hitting coach this winter. Basketball will be starting next month so just a little slow down for us.

Hope everyone has a great week
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

So has anyone gone to see The Social Network?  I am not sure if I want to see it or not.  Everyone who cares about it knows that Mark Zuckerberg screwed over his friends to make more money for himself.  Is there really a movie here?  The real question for sites  like Twitter and FB will be what do they become as the more and more people use them.  How will the sites change and how will they change us?  I remember back in the 80s with the huge run up of membership in AOL.  It was to be new place for people to talk, play games, reconnect with people.  It want people to use its dial up network to get to the internet and its software to be a homepage for their trips into the World Wide Web.  AOL is still out there but it has changed and floundered.  Will it be the road map for these new outlets?  Or will it be the road map on what not to do?  


I was talking last night to a dad of one of my baseball players.  He has left his job to start a marketing business.  His clients all know they need and want to be on the ground floor of social marketing.  The companies need information on what and how their customers are using online media.  He has been sitting up focus groups for them and even doing observations about how households are setting up wireless networks in their homes.  I did not ask him about the clients but I can guess that they are not worried about hard ware and equipment but selling  goods and services to people who are using the new hardware and media.  I could net help but think about the information we all share online at places like FB, Twitter, and even AOL.  This is the information companies are willing to pay for that we are giving away for free.  


Do not get me wrong.  I am addicted to twitter. I like FB.  I have great friends with whom I play online poker with on AOL.  I just wish I was smart enough to figure out which way the new media will move and how we will move with it.

Hello October

What a beautiful fall day for the First of October.  I am glad it has cooled off and fall has arrived.  I am looking forward to the drive down to West KY next weekend. First trip in the new vehicle. Beth is happy with the new Freestyle.  The boys seem to be getting use to it.  We will see how it travels on Friday. On the trip I hope the trees will be in full fall color mode.  The lack of rain this end of summer may not help them much or it might.  I can't remember enough biology to know.  The boys can't wait to see Mom and Lynn but also want to go to the homecoming parade again.  Not sure if I want to get up early enough to get Murray for the parade.  We have got our BSU invitations this week.  Mark, if you see this, you can just send one not one to each.  I hope to see lots of people at the Zoo.  It has been a few years since I have gotten to go.  Beth and the boys have went a couple of times without me because of work.

I have really grown to like my little netbook.  The keyboard is much better than I first thought.  The touch pad is not bad but I am very glad I got my mouse.  I am now looking at how to set up my BB to it as a modem so I can connect to the net when I am not near a Wi-Fi connection.  Beth also told me that Mom bought a laptop.  So I plan to see it and her set up in the house for internet.  Before now she just had the cable modem on her desk top. I can see getting to set up a Wi-Fi network at her house this weekend.  It will be fun if I do it.

I am still looking into new jobs.  I had a phone interview last week and a lunch meeting planned for this Monday.  I hope it goes well.  The new office has help with my stress level but the sale of the company by 1st quarter 2011 has kept me looking.  It is still a tough time to look for work and I am thankful for my job.  I just know I need to be looking.

Well everyone have a great weekend.