Good as any, Better than most

Saturday, January 06, 2007

That’s not a bus, its an SUV!

I’ve spent the day putting up drywall in the garage.  I am once again sure that the money we spent paying someone to do it when we built the house is 150% worth it.

It’s messy, heavy and precision work.  My shaky hands, arms and legs don’t like that combination.  At least we’ve got it all up.  A little bit of gap fixing with drywall compound and it’ll look great.  The last of our visible insulation is covered!

I’m currently having a dilemma about the actual move.  We’ve gotten a couple quotes from movers that hover right around the $3000-3500 range.  My younger brother has a desire to own his own transit company.  He wants to rent a trailer for a weekend, buy a $600 22’ cube truck box, mount the box, and move me.  With me providing all of the cash, and paying him for his time, to the tune of $3000 total.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’d really like to help my brother out.  But, I don’t want this kind of decision right now.  He’s asking me to front him money, so he can get the trailer setup and ready to haul, and then moving me in 4 days, only I have to provide all the labor.  I’m about ready to give him the $600, tell him “OK, there’s my part of your hauling company, good luck, call me when you need a cosigner”, and just hire the professional movers.  Would that make me a bad brother?

Anyway, enough about moving.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

This is not a resolution

I didn’t resolve to post more this year.

I just find myself with something to say, for 3 days in a row.

The more I do to prepare for the move, the less I want to move.  This is part of the reason I haven’t actively looked for a new job.  I’m quite simply too comfortable living where I do, working where I do, and acting how I am.

Mortgages, movers and documentation, that was my day.  I’ve never moved as a home owner, so I have no idea what the best way to go about it is.  I know that I want to find a house and move into it.  Of course, that means I’ll be paying a double mortgage between when I find a new place, and when my place sells.  Conventional wisdom tells me to find an apartment in the new area, and try to get a short lease term.  This of course means never really unpacking, and having to move again in a (hopefully short) future time.

My next youngest brother is expressing interest in being my mover.  Meaning I’d pay him to haul my stuff.  Of course, because he’s my brother, I’m not just going to get a bill from him, I’m going to have to pay for each item as it arises.  Tolls, fuel, the trailer.  He doesn’t have the money to actually start his dream of a transit company.  I want to help him out, but do I want to risk all of my worldly possessions in the process?

As far as possessions, I’m working on paring it down.  We’ve found homes for one of our couches, our queen size bed, my table-saw, our table/chairs, our entertainment center, a dresser, and possibly the other entertainment center.  I’m still riding the fence on taking a desk of any kind and the futon.  After this weekend, there should be about 20% less stuff in our house.  We should be nearing the point where we can just start stacking everything up in one room and being able to tell how much room we’ll really need to move it all.

Of course, we haven’t even touch the minor home repairs that need to be done to put the house on the market.  I’ve got a few areas of siding to put up outside, the bathrooms and hallways to put trim up, and some painting to do.  We also have continued to debate on whether to take out our wrought iron rail and put in wood, or change it into a half-wall.  Unfortunately, it’s the first thing a buyer will see when they enter the house, so it has to look great.  And any homeowner will tell you looking great = expensive.  In this case, an oak railing for the whole thing would run about $1800.  I’m guessing we could have the half-wall put in for around $600.  Of course, that means we need to find a drywaller that can blend it in, and we need to have him out sometime in the next 3 weeks.

This might be something that gets pushed back until after we leave, and I really don’t want to do that.

There’s naught to do, but keep my chin up, and keep on plowing through items!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

For Sale or For Rent

We own a home in Madison.  We’re moving to Albany.

We built the house.  And by that, I mean we physically built it, with our hands, and the hands of our friends and family.

I’m having a little trouble letting go, wanting to put it on the market.  When I spoke to my boss (and I work for a Property Management company right now), he suggested renting it.

I’ve done some calculations, and I could probably clear around 6% as a cap rate.  But, do we really want to have random renters living in our house?  I was a renter at one point, and my opinion of them is that they don’t care at all about the place they live.  Wear and tear is excessive.  Things get broken or go bad that wouldn’t normally.

It’s a tough choice.  Coupled with the complete uncertainty I feel every time I think about buying a new house, and even temporarily having to pay for 2 mortgages, I’m not sure renting is the best idea either.

Regardless of which direction we go, packing continues.  We keep looking at properties online.  I’ve spent hours scouring job listings for that perfect entry level architecture job for DW.  Hopefully we can find both before the end of the month.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Clogger

That’s me!

The last few months have been a crazy mix of business, and no thoughts of posting here.  That’s no a good reason for a lack of anything, just a good excuse.

We’re moving to Albany, New York.  The thought of picking up all of our stuff (or maybe about half of what we own) and moving it 1000 miles to a new area scares me.

I’m afraid of not knowing anything.  Where’s the post office?  Where are the shipping company offices to pick up missed packages?  Where is the grocery store?  What are my high speed internet options?  Where’s the closest good movie theater?  Which neighborhoods are good?

Throw on top of that starting a new job.  I’m going from being the big fish, to being a minnow in a high speed deep river.

I’m excited, regardless of the fear.  Some of the things that scare me, are things that make going worthwhile.  We’ve been in Madison for just over 9 years now.  Pretty much my whole adult life has been spent here.  I’m not nearly as familiar with the city as some people I know, because I’m a homebody.  I go out to eat occasionally, to the movies, but spend most of my time either at work, or at home.  It’s exciting to move somewhere that’s new.  Career-wise, moving is the best choice I could make.  I could probably remain where I am forever, getting my 4% pay increase every year, fighting for budgetary changes, fixing printers.  Or, I could move to a large company, and have actual technology challenges and growth.

I’m going to miss my coworkers.
I like my coworkers.

This is all about me though.  For me, it’s the right choice, and the right time to make it.

I will try to make more posts, if only to get things written down in front of me to see them.  I’ve got houses to look at, and a job to find for DW.  It’s going to be a busy month!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Excus--ursian.

I could come up with some good reason why I haven’t written anything in 2 weeks.  I’m sure if I put my mind to it, I could probably even give the real reasons.

But I’m not going to.  I’m going to distract you with the slight of hand, a wink, a wave…

I’m in a hotel room, in Asheville, North Carolina.  DW and I went to The Biltmore Estate today.  If you want a friendly review, I suggest you don’t read my information, and instead click Here.

I didn’t pay any attention at all when I first passed the link on to DW about this place.  I thought it looked kind of neat, and that she would really like it.  I was right, it does look kind of neat, and she did like it.  I, however, would rather set poop on fire than go to the Biltmore.  As I entered the grounds, I was struck with just how much I didn’t really want to go to this place.  You drive through a newer brick archway that would look at home in an upscale home development.  You follow the signs to the ticket building.  It’s a large brick building with terra cotta type clay roofing.  It’s grade A classy.  I hate grade A classy.

You can’t actually see any of the grounds (I mean, technically, you’re on the grounds, which at this point consist of a hayfield, and some trees.  Oh, and the brick monstrosity of a ticket house) until you’ve paid your $42 a person for a ticket.  That’s $42 for the self guided tour.  After waging a battle through the value added services that the ticket seller assails you with, you get back into your vehicle and follow the curvy driveway (asphalt, mostly maintained) to the parking lot.  If you weren’t shocked at the amount of cars in the ticket booth parking lot, the sheer number in the 12 numbered and lettered lots for the grounds should give a nice jolt.  I’ve been to airports with less parking spots.  And for 2pm on a Tuesday, there are remarkably few open spots.

Now you have a choice.  Walk the half a mile to the actual building, or wait for a bus (I’m guessing they have a 15 minute schedule, since the same people waiting when we were looking for parking, were still there when we walked past it) to drive you the same half mile.  We opted to walk.  You walk down an uneven rock/dirt/tree branch path (what exactly is the $42 going toward?) and through a brick (sensing a pattern yet?) gate.  There it blows, in all it’s concrete and stone wonder.  It is an impressive building, with an impressively long U-shaped driveway, going around a (I’m guessing it would be impressive if it were on) fountain.  This massive building, and manicured lawn claims the horizon.  It says “this view was breathtaking before anyone built, and now I OWN it”.

Dodging the shuttle bus traffic (OH, they’re all here at the building, that’s why those elderly folk are freezing at the parking lot stop), the cars exiting (because for some reason, you get to drive past the building after you’ve seen it, not before), and the horde of school children (oh gods, I count at least 6 busloads of them), you can make your way to the front enterance.

Or to the gift shop, because you know you need to spend a little more here.

Ticket in hand, you enter the building.  DW called it pretty.  I called it austere, and could feel myself being exploited by a decades dead blueblood.  Although the man behind the building of the house wasn’t business savvy, apparently whoever runs it now is.  The house is filled with people.  You can’t stop, or turn around without being in someone else’s way.  All of these people, paying $42 a head, it blows my mind.  You get to walk around and look at an art collection from a distance.  No touching.  A sea of humanity flows between the velvet ropes, pushing you along, clipping out anything you’d like to take a few minutes to look at, stopping you in a hallway while some school marm herds her unruly flock into a line.

No, I don’t think I’ll be returning to “the country’s largest home” anytime soon.  Or anytime not soon.  Or anytime ever.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Vote.

If I can spend an hour waiting in line, for 40 seconds of actual activity in the booth, so can you.

Get out there, vote.  Bosses will give you the time, or the job isn’t worth it.

Do a little research, pick a party, whatever, just do it.

What good is a right, if you don’t exercize it?

Friday, November 03, 2006

Yeah, I missed yesteday, sue me

I was *gasp* working!

I only blog from work, and so when I get hit with wireless networks failing, and conference calls and meetings with my boss, I lose track of time, and don’t get a post up.

Hell, I didn’t even get it written.  This is always my problem when it comes to writing any sort of story.  Hopefully I can work through the malaise of being in the middle of chapter one.  I know, I know, woe is me.  The tribulations of an IT guy that wants to write, but lacks the motivation.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

!~!

We manage properties at work.  I deal with our computers.  Servers, workstations, connectivity, all of that falls in my domain.

Over a year ago, one of our VP’s decided to offer free internet at one of our properties.  He set it all up with a company, they provided all of the service and support.

That company went belly up.  Since then, I have been expected to support the residents of that building, and support the hardware involved, and troubleshoot their connections.

I hate it.  I refused to do it when the calls first started coming in.  I’ve demanded that they get a service contract with someone to take care of it.  The original company put in consumer grade access points, running open source software.  They continually just stop working.  They’re all operating on some cobbled PoE system, that you can’t remotely connect to.

And the main connection to the building is a wireless connection that isn’t what I’d call stable in the first place.

It all adds up to a big headache, that I have to deal with constantly.  Pissed off residents (college students), pissed off parents, pissed off coworkers that have to use it in the building office there.  And they all come to me, instead of the person that made the choice to set this up in the first place.  The same person that refuses to switch their access to a different provider because of the cost.

Fuck that shit, I’m not dealing with it anymore.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Connected

Since my arrival on the internet, I’ve become connected.  With a little bit of work, anything I could want to know is at my fingertips.  I can know as little or as much as I want to know about the world around me.

I’m generally not interested in “Current Events”.  Politics, war, death, celebrities, I really could give a shit about.  There’s this deluge of things that don’t really make any difference in my day to day life, that some agency feels I should know about.  I try to stay up during elections about who stands where on issues, but with the current state in that field, how they stand during election usually doesn’t reflect how they’ll act in office.

The fatalist in me says that we’re all going to die anyway some day, so who cares about all the crap we’re inundated with every day.  The responsible adult in me says that I should care, if not for myself, then for the generations of people that will come after me.

I just want to hide under a rock, and know that that will benefit no-one, especially myself.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Hear the drummer get wicked

I’d like to buy a new guitar.

I have 2 already, a beat up acoustic I was given by a co-worker when I was 18, and a cheap electric I bought about 6 years ago.

I’ve wanted a new acoustic since I first tried to tune mine.  One of the tuning pegs is totally shot, and barely keeps it together.  The spider gear is a different size than the normal gear, but it mostly works.  The sound is, well, what you’d expect from a beat up free acoustic guitar.

I don’t have any delusions of being a good player.  I know a few chords, and can muddle through a few songs appropriate to the era I grew up in.  My left hand can’t seem to grasp any transition to a C chord, although it handles A and G just fine.

The problem lies in determining what I want.  Do I want an acoustic electric?  Do I want a 12 string?  Do I want something I won’t be afraid to take camping, or do I want something that requires a shrine at home?

These are world altering matters here.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Mine.  Chapter 1 Part 6

“Dear sister, you should know not to play with Mort’s mind”

“Yes little one, it’s akin to setting your target to low”

Mort turned to see Urwin and Urlete behind him.  Although fraternal twins, and different genders, the two were nearly identical in appearance.  Long dark brown hair curled to their shoulders.  Dark green eyes, dappled with grey staring out from under thin brows.  Both were of a height with Oneida, yet seemed less.  Their rail thin frames and narrow stature made them appear as half the size as the rest of their siblings.

A former weapons tutor had once commented to them “Even added together, you’re still less than a whole person”.

He was neither the first, nor last person to make that mistake.

Each individually was nearly a match for Mort in physical combat.  They were both viper quick, with a steel corded strength.  It was only in weapon choice where the two seemed to disagree.  Urwin favored the broadsword.  In his two-handed grip the formidable weapon looked enormous, yet moved with a deadly grace.  Urwin had created his own style of fighting with the weapon, a series of steps, spins, thrusts and swipes that made the blade never stop, gathering enough momentum to cut armored practice dummies in half without slowing. 

Urlete favored no weapons at all.  Although equal to Urwin’s use in all, except the broadsword, she preferred to fight barehanded.  With slightly less arm strength than her siblings, she made up for the lack with speed and focus.  None of them could hope to equal her weaponless.  In truth, most of them could not best her with a weapon, while she remained empty handed.

Separated, they were arguably as skilled as any in the land could claim.  Together, none could match them.  They communicated in the way of twins, unspoken, gesture-less conversations worth volumes of words could occur with a glance.  The weapons tutor that had commented on them lasted less than 10 seconds when he first sparred with them.  A champion fighter in his homeland, he fell quickly to the 12 year old pair.

The twins were fast and silent.  Their tongues were nearly as cutting as a blade.  Many of the playmates of the siblings had felt the sting of words from the twins.  All of their siblings were used to the caustic sarcasm they exuded.  They were five when their youngest sister was born.  Every morning, they had climbed to sit on the edges of her crib, chattering to each other, in the small quiet voices. Once, their mother had asked of them “Why do you perch above the baby, my dear birds?”

“We’re waiting for her to be fun” was the reply.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Tay inn win

My home theater speakers blew out this weekend.  I’ve had them for about 8 years.  The subwoofer blew about 2 years after purchase, and I’ve just been making due since then

A trip to a retailer, several hours on the internet, and $400 later, I have a new sub and 2 front speakers.  They sound great (Polk r-30’s, and a psw10), now I wish I had a receiver that could truely drive them.  Maybe I’ll have some more money saved up in a few months for that.

I feel so out of my depth when looking at stereo equipment.  Prices start at uncomfortable, and just go up from there.  I like what I was seeing about the Onkyo Tx SR803, but apparently it’s already an outdated model, and doesn’t do HDMI upscaling of any analog signal.  Do I need HDMI?  Am I willing to spend money on it?

Life was just simpler when all I had was a VCR and CD player to worry about.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

On science, and bottles

Bottled 4 750mL bottles of maple mead Sunday night (and drank the rest of the gallon).  The gallon we stopped active fermentation on ended up at about 5% ABV, which is weak for mead.  It’s super sweet, and very tasty.  I put the 4 bottles in our buffet (sideboard, whatever you want to call it).  We also put stabilizer in another gallon of it.  That gallon had 4 weeks of active fermentation, and I’ll probably let it go another week with the stabilizer in it, and then sample it.

The remaining 3 gallons, I’m going to let run the course.  I’ve read that it can take up to 6 months for a heavy mead to finish fermenting.  Perhaps it will be ready to drink about the time I turn 35.

Brewing, it’s the ultimate hobby for someone that forgets that they have a hobby.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Twitchy

Coffee makes me twitch.  I think the sheer amount of uppers in it drive my body crazy.

Usually the twitching is negated if I eat something.

If I really want to have a good time, I double the intake of coffee, and not eat anything for about 5 hours.

If I do that, I can’t even type.  My fingers will seriously be moving more than 2 inches each way.  I look like a cerebral palsy victim with Parkinson’s.  I think the sheer amount of shaking burns off the calories from the sugar in the coffee.

It’s my ultimate new wave fad diet plan.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Slacking at being lazy

DW and I made a trip to the hometown this weekend.  A year ago, we were working on moving back near the area, but things didn’t work out.  Of course, they didn’t work out after we’d taken a couple loads of boxes and bookshelves to my brother’s for storage.  Saturday we drove up, loaded the truck, and drove back.

Since it was 9:30 at night when we got home, we had to unload the boxes so they wouldn’t get soaked/frosted on overnight.  6 hours of driving, and loading and unloading makes for a long day.  I had my first soda in 5 weeks on the drive home, so I couldn’t sleep.

Fast forward to this morning.  We didn’t get a chance to do any laundry this weekend, so I’m low on work clothes.  I think “What the hell” and dig in the drawer full of things that don’t fit.  Lo and Behold, I easily fit into a pair of pants that’s been sitting for 5 or 6 years.  Hooray for me!