Category: Home Base

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Cooking With Code Home Base

Thank you for not blogging

This blog has become a bit of a no-blogging zone here lately. The whole site has. I’m working on that a bit, but it’s been slow going. My hours aren’t conducive to me getting… well… much of anything done. (I just mowed my yard this week after getting a long-distance call from the guys aboard the International Space Station, asking me to do something about the fact that my grass was tall enough to brush up against their windows when their orbit carried them over Arkansas.) Daddy duty is taking more of my time as little E reaches the age where he wants to explore things, learn more stuff, and have conversations. I love the little conversations we have. It’s the whole reason one’s in the dad business. He cracks me up sometimes, especially when he comes up with some humorous response that’s like something I would say in the same situation. He really is turning into a little me. (I want him to turn out better than that!)

I’m trying to figure out what to do with theLogBook.com. Daily updates, frankly, ain’t gonna happen anymore. It was a valiant try, but at this point I think it’s all about finding clever ways to leverage what’s already on the site. You’ll be seeing quite a few instances of “It aired today X years ago!” stuff soon, as we’re going into the time of year that American TV shows generally premiere – it’s kind of a no-brainer. I wish the forums were generating more activity that I could point to without having to go in and constantly goose it, but I guess this is to be expected when I pretty much fell off the grid for about a week or so (without really planning or preparing to do so, it has to be said). Responsibility for the site going comatose lies solely at my feet.

At the core of the issue is: I have less time to do all the watching / listening / reading that I used to do, to say nothing ofr writing about all the watching / listening / reading that makes up the site. My schedule has really become more about drive-by forum postings (and an awful lot of them are links to other places) when I have the time – perhaps a little too much influence from Facebook, but really much more of a function of my schedule.

I’m open to ideas on how to make it work. I’m not ready to give up yet, even though by any measure that includes common sense, I probably should be.… Read more

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Critters Funny Stuff Home Base

The dashboard oven is ON

Dinner is cooking in the dashboard oven. Seriously.

Dashboard oven

Why build up excess heat in the house and run up the electric bill? It’ll take a bit more time than the oven would, but it’ll get the job done by the time I need to go get the little guy from daycare.

Or maybe you’d like a hot dog instead?

Xena

(Don’t worry, Xena’s doing just fine. Also note nice new window on the front of the house, replacing the one I accidentally blasted a hole through with a projectile thrown by the lawn mower…)… Read more

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Critters Funny Stuff Home Base

The amazing true (cotton)tail of Rabbit Stu (and family)

So, Xena has given up on her career of chasing bunnies out of our yard. She used to keep us awake all hours with her quest of vengeance to keep dastardly bunnies away from the house, but evidently our guard-dog has moved into semi-retirement. Or she’s got union-guaranteed bark breaks or something. Whatever. The point is: we suddenly have a healthy population of big brown bunnies roaming our yard.

It started with one particular big (and I mean big) brown bunny, who I named Stu after I noticed he wasn’t going anywhere. That way, he was Rabbit Stu, or at least he would be when Xena got back to the business of chasing and, occasionally, catching and dismantling big-eared yard intruders.

Obviously, it didn’t happen. Soon Rabbit Stu was joined by his friend, Flufferella and Little Johnny (sort of a miniature version of Rabbit Stu – I’m sure you can work out what’s going on here). I wouldn’t be surprised if Flufferella is expecting little Buffy sometime soon. The point is: there are now as many bunnies, and I mean regular recurring cast members, as there are cats. And mom and dad are as big or bigger than any of the cats. There are many copies. And they have a plan.

Xena, what gives? Do we need to find you a trainee dog? Did these little cotton-tailed bastards chase off Todd the Possum and Mystery Cat? Do we need to make like Aussies and build a rabbit-proof fence? Please let us know. Soon. Before Buffy is followed by little Ignacio.… Read more

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Funny Stuff Home Base Serious Stuff

A blog post in which I go on at great length about not having much to say

Sorry about the complete and utter silence here lately – I haven’t had a lot to say. For those who weren’t aware, my dad passed away on March 29th and the wind has been let out of my sails a bit. I’m not going to claim any kind of great emotional trauma here – this is something that had been on the horizon for something like the last six months or so. And honestly, on a great many levels… I’m glad for him. Relieved. He’s free of a body that was increasingly trying to betray him, he’s free of pain, and he’s free of a situation that he was only going to escape feet-first. (Those who know what I’m referring to there will know what I’m referring to there; those who don’t… well, just understand it’s not something I’m going to blab or blog about out in the open.) … Read more

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Gadgetology Home Base

Enjoy this photograph of my dongle

Remember all the fun I had in 2006 with the mystery of the missing Avid dongle? And what Avid said to me about replacing said dongle? (and how I was able to give ’em the finger anyway? $10,000 my ass!) Well, I’m not losing the Avid dongle again; seen at right is my simple solution for that problem. (To be fair, Kent reminded me not to lose the dongle again; it’s just possible that I was a little bit less than… erm… diplomatic when I panic-called him in 2006 looking for it…)

I’ve had a few leads on a replacement power supply; thanks to everyone who’s responded. I’ll be following up extra-soonishly.

Arkansas Valley Electric Co-op is sending someone out to look at the wiring tomorrow; the thought occurred to me that, only a couple of weeks ago, someone from Cox was out here and had to restring our entire cable run from the tap to the pole to the house to my room. It’s just possible that he might have bumped or jarred something along the way (don’t cross the streams, man!). Given that there have been three electrical incidents in the past 9 days (so far…), a wiring check would seem to be called for. Almost everyone looked at the power supply photos in yesterday’s post and said “massive power surge,” but I’m not sure if that theory sticks. The fuse on the surge protector (and yes, for a multi-thousand-buck editing workstation and its multitudes of outboard gear, I have a really robust pair of surge protectors, not just a power strip) was not fried, and nothing else on that surge protector (which also powers about half of the outboard SCSI drives) fried. While I think a wiring check is probably warranted from last week’s frying-of-the-central-heat-and-air-system alone, I have a feeling this may not necessarily be related. I’m no expert in pushing electrons through copper wiring, but that’s what my electrical physics gut-check is telling me: a power surge big enough to do that would’ve done that to more than just one component. Then again, my gut-checks have bounced before due to insufficient funds, worm attacks and whatnot.

Still, I’m hoping to have a fix in place soon – not being able to power my Avid up and edit something, even if it’s just something goofy using someone else’s footage for a laugh, is like having an arm cut off. I’m so used to firing the thing up about once a day and just… doing… something, you know? It may be that it bugs me more now because I don’t have access to an Avid at work. To me, not being able to edit video is like not being able to walk. It’s just something I do.

My electrical wiring will be checked out tomorrow. In a moment, the results of that trial.… Read more