lost focus...
I mean... in the WORST way, and in EVERY sense. Work, house, fitness... it's all fucking falling apart, and my only response is to find more ways to waste time and disconnect. I swear to god, I might as well ask for World of Warcraft for Xmas if I'm going to neglect reality this completely.
Saturday, November 22
a band of daves...
So, since I dropped $250 on a Boss LoopStation, this is essentially what I've been doing with every spare minute of my time.
(new: now embedded)
Exceedingly too much fun.
So, since I dropped $250 on a Boss LoopStation, this is essentially what I've been doing with every spare minute of my time.
(new: now embedded)
Exceedingly too much fun.
Wednesday, November 19
alpha geeks...
I consider myself somewhat of a geek, but the guy across the aisle on the train has a 17" MacbookPro on which he is simultaneously watching anime and coding a flight-simulator.
Dude... I can't compete with that.
Speaking of geekery, one of our reluctant-favorite shows around the house has become "Big Bang Theory". I didn't really want to like it, but it's pretty damned funny. My wife, being married to a physicist, takes a little too much joy in the show... often in a sort of meta-way, as part of the enjoyment for her comes from ruthlessly mocking me every time I pre-laugh in anticipation of the punch line of a joke about calculus or Star Trek. One memorable occasion involved me muttering the words "Pon Faar" a full second before one of the characters on the show. The dialogue that pleased us the most this week went something like...
Meanwhile on the sofa...
I consider myself somewhat of a geek, but the guy across the aisle on the train has a 17" MacbookPro on which he is simultaneously watching anime and coding a flight-simulator.
Dude... I can't compete with that.
Speaking of geekery, one of our reluctant-favorite shows around the house has become "Big Bang Theory". I didn't really want to like it, but it's pretty damned funny. My wife, being married to a physicist, takes a little too much joy in the show... often in a sort of meta-way, as part of the enjoyment for her comes from ruthlessly mocking me every time I pre-laugh in anticipation of the punch line of a joke about calculus or Star Trek. One memorable occasion involved me muttering the words "Pon Faar" a full second before one of the characters on the show. The dialogue that pleased us the most this week went something like...
GIRL: So, how was YOUR day at work?
LEONARD: Me? Well... I'm a physicist, so... I thought about some stuff...?
GIRL: That's it?
LEONARD: I wrote some of it down.
Meanwhile on the sofa...
DAVE: (stifles a giggle, wipes away tear)
WIFE: Hitting a little close to home over there?
DAVE: I didn't even write any of it down!
WIFE: I'm going to ask you that question every day now, and THAT'S THE ANSWER I EXPECT.
Monday, November 17
suck it, Bawb...
So, this was to be the final weekend of the bathroom renovation. All the tiling and painting has been done for quite some time. I finally got the molding and chair rail up. Now it's time for the vanity and sink.
First problem, the supply lines come out of the floor, and the vanity has a solid bottom, so the jigsaw is involved. Cutting big holes in brand new pieces of furniture is the kind of thing that usually makes me uncomfortable, but... no problems were encountered.
Slide the vanity over the pipes, drop sink on top, open box with the faucet in it. The drain assembly has a tailpiece that extends below the sink train. Instructions say, simply... "Connect tailpiece to drain." I drop the piece in place and stare at it. The end of the tailpiece is about 5" above the existing drain pipe. WTF? Am I missing a piece? I go online and look up a bunch of sink-installing-tutorials and every fucking one of them says "connect tailpiece to drain" as if by magic everything is supposed to line up. I look at the tailpiece from the old sink and it looks just like this one. IS THIS SINK REALLY 6" TALLER THAN OUR OLD SINK??
Also just for kicks I try to attach the supply lines I bought. My father in law initially bought ones that were WAY too short (12"). I bought some 20" ones, only to now find that they should be 3/8" on the inlet and the ones I bought were 1/2". Seriously... how hard could it be to fucking standardize this shit?
I hop in the car and drive down the local hardware store. Pick up the right supply lines and a 6" extension piece that looks like it will do the trick between the sink drain and the existing plumbing. Feeling pretty good, I take the stuff home and put it in place.
New problem. The existing drain plumbing comes out of the wall about 1/2" FARTHER than the new sink drain. Meaning that now that I have enough bits of plastic pipe to actually REACH one another, they don't actually LINE UP. I yank on the pipe to see if there is enough play to get things to mate, and while I could probably force it, I don't want the sink to be in constant tension AWAY from the wall. And I do NOT want to re-do all the PVC S-trap bullshit myself.
At this point, I'm really, really frustrated and give up for the day.
So, Sunday. While the wife and kids are at riding lessons, I drive to Lowes and find the solution that I hoped existed... a 6" extension with a Silly-Straw section that allows for some bending. Now why can't all those tutorials about how to install a sink have a footnote that says - "Connect tailpiece to drain. Oh, and if it doesn't reach, Lowes sells these bendy Silly Straw extension things that you can use to line shit up."...? So. After a brief detour at B&N for tea/scone (It's still early!) I head home, victorious, with my Silly Straw drain extension doodad.
Sink off, Silly Straw in place, drain extension in, sink back on... it takes some fucking-with but eventually it drops into place. Sigh. Ok.
Mind you, this has all been dry-run... nothing is being REALLY connected. I stand back and look at the vanity. Let me also remind you that this is a tiny "powder-room". I can't remember how wide it is... less than 3' I know, because I couldn't use my 3' level to hang the light fixture... it doesn't fit in the room. Let's say the room is 32" wide and the vanity is 26" wide. That leaves 3" on each side. Of course it's not EXACTLY 3", because the vanity has to be put where the PIPES are, and the pipes aren't centered. Which means that, until I had the sink connected (not REALLY connected, just test-connected) I didn't know how much space would be on either side, so I couldn't install the little 3" (but not EXACTLY 3") pieces of moulding and chair rail on either side. The original plan was to install the vanity, then put the little pieces of trim in AFTERWARDS, but looking at the thing now... there is no WAY I'm gonna squeeze a hand in there to do that. So. Take off the sink, mark the vanity, measure the trim, cut the trim, nail the trim, break one piece of trim trying to hammer it in because it's fucking 2.5" long and made of of weird re-constituted not-quite-wood material... re-cut broken piece of trim...
NOW. I have to wood-putty and touch-up paint these new pieces of trim, since I won't be able to reach back there later, so... there is an hour and a half wait now to wait for the wood putty to dry in the nail-holes and corner-joints. Wait... sand... paint...
Ok. Vanity back in place between moulding. Sink on. Put one of the threaded couplings on the drain extension on upside down. Now I can't get it off, because I've caulked the sink in place and the pipes are all connected. Disconnect S-trap so I can get those pieces apart from underneath and put the coupling on right. Dump water from S-trap into a bowl. (The dog will later drink this water.) Connect drain. Ok. Now it's time to connect the supply lines. This involves lying on my back, wishing I had bought a "basin wrench" to reach up to the faucet. While on back, kick over Starbuck's cup, quite possibly tea-staining the brand new grout. Fuss with complicated drain-plug mechanism. Open supply lines. Cross fingers. Turn on water.
Success. Cold water comes out of the C, hot water out of the H... pull drain plug thing, stopper stops, sink fills, look underneath...
Drip, drip, drip...
Gah! Note: Don't run hot water into a sink when the silicone caulk around the drain hasn't dried. Actually, the nut that tightens the rubber gasket to the bottom side of the drain just needed to be tightened, but in the meantime I got semi-dissolved white silicone caulk all over my hands, some of which is still there this morning.
Tighten gasket. Fill sink. No more leaks. Hang mirror. It is now 7:00 PM, Sunday.
So, that was my weekend folks. If I recall, the Time/Life Bob Vila Home Improvement Book said that installing a sink should take 1-2 hours. If Bob Vila were here right now, I'd kick him right in the fucking nuts.
So, this was to be the final weekend of the bathroom renovation. All the tiling and painting has been done for quite some time. I finally got the molding and chair rail up. Now it's time for the vanity and sink.
First problem, the supply lines come out of the floor, and the vanity has a solid bottom, so the jigsaw is involved. Cutting big holes in brand new pieces of furniture is the kind of thing that usually makes me uncomfortable, but... no problems were encountered.
Slide the vanity over the pipes, drop sink on top, open box with the faucet in it. The drain assembly has a tailpiece that extends below the sink train. Instructions say, simply... "Connect tailpiece to drain." I drop the piece in place and stare at it. The end of the tailpiece is about 5" above the existing drain pipe. WTF? Am I missing a piece? I go online and look up a bunch of sink-installing-tutorials and every fucking one of them says "connect tailpiece to drain" as if by magic everything is supposed to line up. I look at the tailpiece from the old sink and it looks just like this one. IS THIS SINK REALLY 6" TALLER THAN OUR OLD SINK??
Also just for kicks I try to attach the supply lines I bought. My father in law initially bought ones that were WAY too short (12"). I bought some 20" ones, only to now find that they should be 3/8" on the inlet and the ones I bought were 1/2". Seriously... how hard could it be to fucking standardize this shit?
I hop in the car and drive down the local hardware store. Pick up the right supply lines and a 6" extension piece that looks like it will do the trick between the sink drain and the existing plumbing. Feeling pretty good, I take the stuff home and put it in place.
New problem. The existing drain plumbing comes out of the wall about 1/2" FARTHER than the new sink drain. Meaning that now that I have enough bits of plastic pipe to actually REACH one another, they don't actually LINE UP. I yank on the pipe to see if there is enough play to get things to mate, and while I could probably force it, I don't want the sink to be in constant tension AWAY from the wall. And I do NOT want to re-do all the PVC S-trap bullshit myself.
At this point, I'm really, really frustrated and give up for the day.
So, Sunday. While the wife and kids are at riding lessons, I drive to Lowes and find the solution that I hoped existed... a 6" extension with a Silly-Straw section that allows for some bending. Now why can't all those tutorials about how to install a sink have a footnote that says - "Connect tailpiece to drain. Oh, and if it doesn't reach, Lowes sells these bendy Silly Straw extension things that you can use to line shit up."...? So. After a brief detour at B&N for tea/scone (It's still early!) I head home, victorious, with my Silly Straw drain extension doodad.
Sink off, Silly Straw in place, drain extension in, sink back on... it takes some fucking-with but eventually it drops into place. Sigh. Ok.
Mind you, this has all been dry-run... nothing is being REALLY connected. I stand back and look at the vanity. Let me also remind you that this is a tiny "powder-room". I can't remember how wide it is... less than 3' I know, because I couldn't use my 3' level to hang the light fixture... it doesn't fit in the room. Let's say the room is 32" wide and the vanity is 26" wide. That leaves 3" on each side. Of course it's not EXACTLY 3", because the vanity has to be put where the PIPES are, and the pipes aren't centered. Which means that, until I had the sink connected (not REALLY connected, just test-connected) I didn't know how much space would be on either side, so I couldn't install the little 3" (but not EXACTLY 3") pieces of moulding and chair rail on either side. The original plan was to install the vanity, then put the little pieces of trim in AFTERWARDS, but looking at the thing now... there is no WAY I'm gonna squeeze a hand in there to do that. So. Take off the sink, mark the vanity, measure the trim, cut the trim, nail the trim, break one piece of trim trying to hammer it in because it's fucking 2.5" long and made of of weird re-constituted not-quite-wood material... re-cut broken piece of trim...
NOW. I have to wood-putty and touch-up paint these new pieces of trim, since I won't be able to reach back there later, so... there is an hour and a half wait now to wait for the wood putty to dry in the nail-holes and corner-joints. Wait... sand... paint...
Ok. Vanity back in place between moulding. Sink on. Put one of the threaded couplings on the drain extension on upside down. Now I can't get it off, because I've caulked the sink in place and the pipes are all connected. Disconnect S-trap so I can get those pieces apart from underneath and put the coupling on right. Dump water from S-trap into a bowl. (The dog will later drink this water.) Connect drain. Ok. Now it's time to connect the supply lines. This involves lying on my back, wishing I had bought a "basin wrench" to reach up to the faucet. While on back, kick over Starbuck's cup, quite possibly tea-staining the brand new grout. Fuss with complicated drain-plug mechanism. Open supply lines. Cross fingers. Turn on water.
Success. Cold water comes out of the C, hot water out of the H... pull drain plug thing, stopper stops, sink fills, look underneath...
Drip, drip, drip...
Gah! Note: Don't run hot water into a sink when the silicone caulk around the drain hasn't dried. Actually, the nut that tightens the rubber gasket to the bottom side of the drain just needed to be tightened, but in the meantime I got semi-dissolved white silicone caulk all over my hands, some of which is still there this morning.
Tighten gasket. Fill sink. No more leaks. Hang mirror. It is now 7:00 PM, Sunday.
So, that was my weekend folks. If I recall, the Time/Life Bob Vila Home Improvement Book said that installing a sink should take 1-2 hours. If Bob Vila were here right now, I'd kick him right in the fucking nuts.
Saturday, November 15
the stages of life so far...
Age 0-1: Awakened on weekends by child crying
Age 1-3: Awakened on weekends by spouse yelling at child
Age 3-5: Awakened on weekends by children yelling at each other
Age 5-?: Awakened on weekends by children or spouse yelling at DOG
Someday before I die, I would like to be awakened on a Saturday by something other than YELLING.
Age 0-1: Awakened on weekends by child crying
Age 1-3: Awakened on weekends by spouse yelling at child
Age 3-5: Awakened on weekends by children yelling at each other
Age 5-?: Awakened on weekends by children or spouse yelling at DOG
Someday before I die, I would like to be awakened on a Saturday by something other than YELLING.
Wednesday, November 12
sometimes the stereotypes are true...
The philosophy class went really well. It's always a treat to get to talk spontaneously on a crazy physics topic (the notion of the "vacuum" in quantum mechanics) completely out-of-context in an environment where you bear no responsibility for what, if anything, the students learn.
Mostly I think the students were thrilled to have a lesson from someone who spoke above a mumble in sentences which seemed vaguely connected to one another into coherent thoughts. I swear, this guy was a disheveled, stuffy, British, and rambly as you could possibly hope a graduate professor of Philosophy to be. I can't IMAGINE having to sit thru a class like that from 6:00 - 8:00 PM every week!!
The philosophy class went really well. It's always a treat to get to talk spontaneously on a crazy physics topic (the notion of the "vacuum" in quantum mechanics) completely out-of-context in an environment where you bear no responsibility for what, if anything, the students learn.
Mostly I think the students were thrilled to have a lesson from someone who spoke above a mumble in sentences which seemed vaguely connected to one another into coherent thoughts. I swear, this guy was a disheveled, stuffy, British, and rambly as you could possibly hope a graduate professor of Philosophy to be. I can't IMAGINE having to sit thru a class like that from 6:00 - 8:00 PM every week!!
Tuesday, November 11
cutespirational...
Still coming down from the election-driven obsession with fivethirtyeight.com and NPR. And yet I'm still watching a backlog of podcasts and stuff on my computer. Two observations about a "behind the scenes" video from the Democratic convention...
1) Watching a scene of Barack and Michelle scheming to take the girls on "Ellen" and not telling them that the other guests are the Jonas Brothers... these guys are just the most awesomely fucking cute first family EVER.
2) Watching a soundcheck for the convention in Denver - Obama manages to sound inspirational saying "Testing... One... Two... Three...". I'm not even joking.
Still coming down from the election-driven obsession with fivethirtyeight.com and NPR. And yet I'm still watching a backlog of podcasts and stuff on my computer. Two observations about a "behind the scenes" video from the Democratic convention...
1) Watching a scene of Barack and Michelle scheming to take the girls on "Ellen" and not telling them that the other guests are the Jonas Brothers... these guys are just the most awesomely fucking cute first family EVER.
2) Watching a soundcheck for the convention in Denver - Obama manages to sound inspirational saying "Testing... One... Two... Three...". I'm not even joking.
NoBlogNoMo...
Aaah, the poor neglected blog. 3 days away at a conference, sitting in talks that bored me to tears... lounging in the hotel room at night... and STILL no blogging.
Truth is, I spent most of the conference sessions dealing with an email backlog and various must-be-dealt-with problems of the minor-but-time-sensitive variety. There is an almost limitless supply of those this semester, it seems.
The end is in sight, though. I'm giving a guest lecture in a graduate philosophy class tonight, but after that, there are no more big "engagements". It's just me and my classes. Sure, I have a backlog of grading to catch up on, but... when do I NOT? But no conferences, film festivals, plays, planetarium shows, meetings, posters, flyers...
Of course, there is that whole Thanksgiving-Xmas corridor approaching. Let's just not think about that for a while, shall we?
Aaah, the poor neglected blog. 3 days away at a conference, sitting in talks that bored me to tears... lounging in the hotel room at night... and STILL no blogging.
Truth is, I spent most of the conference sessions dealing with an email backlog and various must-be-dealt-with problems of the minor-but-time-sensitive variety. There is an almost limitless supply of those this semester, it seems.
The end is in sight, though. I'm giving a guest lecture in a graduate philosophy class tonight, but after that, there are no more big "engagements". It's just me and my classes. Sure, I have a backlog of grading to catch up on, but... when do I NOT? But no conferences, film festivals, plays, planetarium shows, meetings, posters, flyers...
Of course, there is that whole Thanksgiving-Xmas corridor approaching. Let's just not think about that for a while, shall we?
Wednesday, November 5
need more hours... need more days...
More hours in the night. Five, then five, then five hours of sleep means that by Wednesday I'm too fucking tired to stand.
Meanwhile I have a pile of documents I should be scraping into a single document for this conference. For a handout. Plus a powerpoint. I wouldn't be stressing over it much except for the fact that I'm co-presenting with 2 other profs from my department, so I fell an obligation to not appear like I'm fucking things up for them.
It all needs to be done by tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow night I have to drive 3.5 hours to Providence. Given that I'm usually falling asleep on the train at that time, I'm not sure how I'm going to manage that without winding up up dead in a ditch in Connecticut.
More hours in the night. Five, then five, then five hours of sleep means that by Wednesday I'm too fucking tired to stand.
Meanwhile I have a pile of documents I should be scraping into a single document for this conference. For a handout. Plus a powerpoint. I wouldn't be stressing over it much except for the fact that I'm co-presenting with 2 other profs from my department, so I fell an obligation to not appear like I'm fucking things up for them.
It all needs to be done by tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow night I have to drive 3.5 hours to Providence. Given that I'm usually falling asleep on the train at that time, I'm not sure how I'm going to manage that without winding up up dead in a ditch in Connecticut.
Monday, November 3
late weekend wrapup...
Those of you who keep track of the twitteriffic twitterings know that the weekend was pretty full. The Great Bathroom Renovation Project, which had stalled for a week or so got back under way. The wife finished painting, and I put up the new light fixture, the baseboard molding, and re-installed the toilet. That's right, BITCH... I installed a fucking toilet. How badass and manly is that? Just call me "Dave the Plumber".
That evening I took the dog out for a run. It wasn't a very long run, but it was something, which is more than I've been able to manage for a couple of months. Maybe a little less than a mile, with lots of breaks to stop and sniff things. (The dog stopped a lot too.) It didn't feel GREAT, but it didn't feel awful either... it was better than I expected given how long it's been. Mostly it felt good to get moving again.
Then that night we all piled into the van to go to Barnes and Noble so the kids could spend the couple of bucks they got from Grandma. (How awesome is it that they get so excited about buying BOOKS?) For the 3rd or 4th time, I picked up "The Audacity of Hope" (now available in paperback) and actually held it in my hand before putting it back on the shelf. See, the thing is... I can't have that book sitting around the house on the off chance that Obama, through some sort of freak of statistics, DOESN'T win tomorrow. Every time I looked at it... ugh. The DESPAIR!
"Hope" has it's place, but... you all know me. I'll be keeping DREAD alive over here until Wednesday morning. Wake me when it's over.
Those of you who keep track of the twitteriffic twitterings know that the weekend was pretty full. The Great Bathroom Renovation Project, which had stalled for a week or so got back under way. The wife finished painting, and I put up the new light fixture, the baseboard molding, and re-installed the toilet. That's right, BITCH... I installed a fucking toilet. How badass and manly is that? Just call me "Dave the Plumber".
That evening I took the dog out for a run. It wasn't a very long run, but it was something, which is more than I've been able to manage for a couple of months. Maybe a little less than a mile, with lots of breaks to stop and sniff things. (The dog stopped a lot too.) It didn't feel GREAT, but it didn't feel awful either... it was better than I expected given how long it's been. Mostly it felt good to get moving again.
Then that night we all piled into the van to go to Barnes and Noble so the kids could spend the couple of bucks they got from Grandma. (How awesome is it that they get so excited about buying BOOKS?) For the 3rd or 4th time, I picked up "The Audacity of Hope" (now available in paperback) and actually held it in my hand before putting it back on the shelf. See, the thing is... I can't have that book sitting around the house on the off chance that Obama, through some sort of freak of statistics, DOESN'T win tomorrow. Every time I looked at it... ugh. The DESPAIR!
"Hope" has it's place, but... you all know me. I'll be keeping DREAD alive over here until Wednesday morning. Wake me when it's over.
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