Shed Your Head: Category Living

White Trash

bronson — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 18:27:00 -0800

Cassie is modelling the champagne of beers at Jackie’s white trash party. Beautiful people were dressed up in awful clothes, a bunch of girls preggo, Skynyrd playing… It was that good. Although, there was also Journey, crimped hair and mesh tanks… Some people just can’t recognize the vast cultural difference between Miami Vice and Deliverance.

Speaking of white trash, here’s a trick that might rescue the 7904’s power supply the next time I’m at Detch’s. Of course, it requires another scope to be able to work. Is this guy’s judgement any good? It sounds plausible… Dunno. Try his really-great pizza.

Facilitated Variation

bronson — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 06:33:00 -0800

Last night Cassie, Kristi and I went to see a lecture by Marc W. Kirschner on facilitated variation. Though we’d rather walk, we drove the two miles because the Rover needed to stretch its legs a bit. It hadn’t been used since the cross-coutry trip.

First we learned the hard way that you really, really do not want to drive into Cambridge on JFK at 6:30 pm. Then we heard a pop, steam started shooting everywhere, and the floor was covered in hot coolant. So we parked and went to the lecture. It was packed. We had to perch behind the stairs. It was a good lecture but, maybe because we arrived late, I didn’t understand enough to comment. I did think that Mr. Ten Minute Question should take his acid soil soapbox, worthy as it may be, somewhere else.

And dinner… Yes!!! A truly good Mexican place does exist in Boston. Go to the Border Cafe. Great chips, decent salsa, darn good meal. And they serve New Orleans food too. The remarkably weak ritas are unfortunate but that’s secondary in my book. Thank you Cheridy. (The other suggestions: El Pelon is a pretty good taqueria though their carne asada was somewhat stringy. We still need to try Picante.)

So, the heater core blew. Ouch. Well at least it didn’t do this in the middle of Nebraska. We drove back with the windows down, constantly stopping to fill the radiator, hot boxin like rock stars. This is, of course, how the less fortunate warp a cylinder head. Beware.

The heater box is the kind of repair that is straightforward enough when you’ve got space and at least a day to do it. But try to attempt it from my narrow parking spot? Pay someone the $500 labor to rip out the dash and put it all back wrong? Ugh. Not sure what I’m going to do… Bypass it for now and pray that the part arrives before the ice storms?

Early Thanksgiving

bronson — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 10:34:00 -0800

Some pics from the feast. This was definitely worth hurrying back for.

Niagara Exposed!

bronson — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 10:04:00 -0800

Niagara falls really is beautiful.

Except that when you turn around, this is what you see:

It’s definitely worth stopping for an hour or two. The “Behind the Falls” exhibit should be called “Beside the Falls.” This picture shows how close you can get: a small opening at the end of a long hallway. How disappointing. However, they do have a deck that offers a stunning view of the base of the falls. Too bad they try to sell you a fake photo with you green-screened directly in front of the falls. Was the deck worth the $10 Canadian? Maybe. Just barely.

Unfortunately Maid of the Mist was closed for the season.

Cross-Country

bronson — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 09:13:00 -0800

The cross-country trip went off without a hitch. It wasn’t as hard as I’d thought it would be. It didn’t have many photo ops though. I’ll take the Southern route next time.

Best state to drive through: Utah
Worst state to drive through: Nebraska

It was really windy and really icy heading off the summit in Nebraska so I stopped for a few hours in the middle of the night. When I got started again I saw around 25 crashed trucks and 8 autos all the way into Des Moines. Not a single one looked like an injury crash. They all just spun off the road. It was a a tow truck driver’s dream.

I ended up in Illinois a day early so I got to visit Chris Love and meet his girlfriend for the first time. Is the Bible good literature? What do taxidermists want done with their bodies when the die? I need to figure out a way of seeing them more often.

How to make a banzai road trip more tolerable:

Eat well. This is the most important. Fill the car with bottled water, fruit, crackers, anything to help avoid fast food. Two McDonald’s meals is enough to put me right to sleep.
Sleep whenever. If your eyelids feel heavy at all you’re probably not safe to drive. Pull over and snooze for a bit. When you wake up an hour or two later, you’ll be back to 80%.
Change up the entertainment. Get a gigantic MP3 player and load it up with everything from the Foo Fighters to books on tape. Too much of one thing is not good for mental awareness.
Avoid overusing caffeine. Sure it’ll get you the next 100 miles in comfort but the 300 after that will be hell.

Gas station stops: 13
Total spent on gas: $453.44
Mileage: 16.8 MPG. Ouch. Sorry, environment.
Gas price (min avg max): $2.08 $2.31 $2.70

I miss my home.

bronson — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 11:40:00 -0800

And my baby. Taken 3 weeks ago, the day before I left.

This shed looks new.

bronson — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 14:00:00 -0800

THAT’S BECAUSE IT IS!! Arg.

What century are we in?

bronson — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 13:52:00 -0700

Right after I found out that my identity had been stolen (early Oct) I went to the PA police department to report it. They were very kind but said they can’t do anything about it because it’s not in their jurisdiction and that I need to open a case where the crime was committed. Um, it’s a computer crime. It wasn’t committed anywhere (well, technically it was, but only the crook knows where).

I did manage to figure out that the fraudulent checking account was opened near Los Angeles. I’ve been in Boston for the last 3 weeks so I tried to contacting the LAPD by phone. I left 8 messages over the last 3 weeks. They called me back once. They said that they can’t do anything and that I need to contact my local police. Which is strange because just about every message I left mentioned that I had.

Luckily, I’m in Socal now. I can straighten things out in person. Except the LAPD told me that I’m not a resident of LA, and that I need to have the Palo Alto police forward them the case information. By mail. And that’s it. They won’t even talk to me. It’s really strange. To protect and serve. Hello?

So…. Palo Alto won’t open a case because the crime wasn’t committed there, and LA won’t open a case because I’m not an LA resident. I’m wedged. I’ve left messages for both police departments and now, surprise surprise, I’m waiting for calls back.

I really envy that crook.

What century are we in?

bronson — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 13:52:00 -0700

I really envy that crook.

Is there no Mexican food here??

bronson — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 08:00:00 -0700

When they brought us unsalted tortilla chips from a bag and salsa more like marinara than pico de gallo I suppose we should have left… Weak ritas and uninspired food, though they did accurately capture the post-mex bloat. Boston is 0 for 3 for Mexican. Still looking. I’m leaving for the Bay Area in a few hours. First I’ll drive to LA to open a case on the lowlife who stole my ID and bounced a ton of checks in my name (dealing with the LAPD by phone is near impossible). I’ll visit some estranged friends, then banzai back across the country with the car. Given America’s lack of control over gas prices, I’ll probably spend 2/3 as much on gas as my car is worth. To somebody else.

ADSL

bronson — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 11:00:00 -0700

Verizon just hooked up our ADSL. It tests at 2.58 Mbit down, 690 Kbit up. Great, except that it's PPPoE and I can't keep a TCP connection up more than about an hour. If you're wondering why every 45 minutes my IRC nick changes bronson -> bronson_ -> bronson__ -> bronson___, it's thanks to grandfathered dialup technologies and lazy telcos. I am constantly SSHing back into remote hosts and recovering edit sessions. Arg!! Hurry up FIOS!.

On the other hand, maybe this will finally get me to set up proper VPNs.

The Cave

bronson — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 10:28:00 -0700

Apparently I just moved into The Cave. I discovered my new apartment had history when I found Nat’s LinuxWorld Expo 2001 badge and some keys in a closet. Good omen or random coincidence? Time will tell. (Links from google.)

Notice how white paint is carelessly slathered over everything? Beautiful mouldings, glass, latches, doors frozen shut, everything is carelessly obliterated with thick generic latex. At one time (the 80s?) this apartment was really nice. It’s tragic.