Lower 48?

I'm not sure why it has my attention tonight, but How does Alaska (or anyone) get away with calling the continental US below Alaska the "lower 48?" For those who may have been sleeping through Geography and/or American History, there are 49 states "below" Alaska. Yup, that's right people. Hawaii is actually part of America.

I've searched all over for where this crappy phrase started, and can't find a solid answer. My hunch is that it somehow began and managed to stick in the 1 year between Alaska and Hawaii becoming states. Friggin Eskimos cant count right when they start shivering.....

One more reason I cringe when Sarah Palin talks.....

I told you so

Anyone who works with computers long enough knows that you have to make backups. Backups of everything. Backups of backups. I was up until about 3AM the other night trying to get my gallery running right again. My control panel, like most computers or programs I come into contact with, was having issues and although I tried, it would not properly back up my albums. So, when I lost my patience and said, "To hell with it!" and reinstalled my gallery, I knew I was going to have to re-upload all of my pictures (Yes, I have learned a little. I have all of the originals on my machine, with redundant backups on hard drive and DVD).

What spoiled any hopes of joy was that my brand-new installation of Gallery had the exact same issues with resizing images that the old installation did. This means the issue was related to my web host provider (who I am now convinced I need to change after 7 faithful years and continually degrading service - screw you Aplus.net!!) and that I am back to square -30. I now have to recustomize my gallery and upload all the photos and organize them again, assuming they can find and fix the problem (ImageMagick?) with the graphics toolkits and/or PHP. Maybe they could finally fix it so it doesn't take 60 seconds to load (it used to only take 4)! As long as I'm starting over, I might as well jump to a new host provider. I just hate the idea of spending several hours reading reviews on hosting providers and trying to figure out which ones (reviews) aren't fake. It's easier to just lick my wounds and whine about it. Waaah.

I'm back, and I feel the same

Our trip to San Diego was fun overall. I spent two days doing tenant improvements on our rental there, and Sunday we celebrated my wife's 30th birthday with a big surprise party, so I didn't get to get out and do, well, anything. That's not so much of a gripe though. We all got to spend time with the in-laws including my daughter's cousin. Contrary to pop culture, I actually really like all of my in-laws. But then, I'm the black sheep so I'm sure it was better for me than it was for them...

Within 30 minutes of arriving in Cali I realized what a great choice we had made and how hard it would ever be to move back. We flew in on a redeye Wednesday night and came in early Thursday morning. We got the rental car and stopped in a bagel shop for breakfast. Sitting in Einstein Brother's in Point Loma, I saw almost every yuppie stereotype I could think of. It could only have been worse in a Starbucks. On the way out a woman tried to pull out of the parking spot next to me. She was in a chromed-out GMC Yukon with oversize rims and low profile tires that would surely pinch the sidewalls at the mere sight of a pothole. She was trying to pull out, talk with her trendy little phone against her ear, and apply makeup all at the same time. After 4 failed attempts in one direction, she made a 5 point turn the other way. I'm sure she was telling her friend that she didn't realize why all these people in the parking lot were staring at her while they waited for her to unblock the driveway.

An otherwise common occurrence was suddenly set in a completely new perspective. People here will completely block a lane of traffic to let people in out of "Aloha." As we flew out of LAX for home Monday morning, I saw the inversion layer of smog that blanketed Southern California at least to 5000 feet.
The smog, the traffic, the ultra-trendy culture; it's just not the same place as when I grew up. I might be able to handle Northern California, but I can't take So Cal anymore. I do miss the progressive and conservationist culture, but that's fodder for another post. This solidifies a view I've had since childhood. I love the mountains and the ocean. I can live without the ocean, but I really love mountains. I could easily live in Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and parts of Northern California. I don't have to compromise here though. The culture is great, and I can hike in the mountains and snorkel in the same afternoon. And my lungs will never suffer like those in California.

Archives?

What? Not only have I had a blog for several months without losing interest, but I've actually been posting. I actually have archives! I'm amazed at my own tenacity, or lack of outdoor hobbies. Not only am I amazed at myself, I'm amazed with you. You're obviously just as bored as me!! Some people have actually linked to me.

I haven't felt this special since I helped organize our 10 year reunion and never got any credit for it (not that I'm bitter at all....f ing cheerleaders.). Seriously, I ran an alumni website for several years, tracked people down, and set up an online registration and payment form for the ASB class prez, and when she stood to make a speech at the reunion, thanked about 8 other people (Okay, maybe a little bitter).

Which reminds me, I need to set that website back up. I used to host several sites, and they all got wiped by my web hosting provider about a year and a half ago, but that's a much longer story. The point is, I really need to set that site back up because it was fun seeing all of the students reconnect and hear their stories. But I won't leave you. I could never turn my back on all 3 faithful readers....

Burned on eBay

Okay, its no secret that I love tools. I'm an electrician, which means I have to have tools for electrical, electronics, carpentry, plumbing, drywall, metalworking and general mechanics. Add a love of cars, trucks, and motorcycles, and, well the friendly folks at Sears and Home Depot send me Christmas cards. So it was no big surprise even to my wife when I decided it was time to upgrade some of my power tools. I have nearly the complete line of 18 volt DeWalt (the professional arm of Black and Decker) tools, and some of the batteries were starting to fade after years of hard work. DeWalt has a new line of Lithium Ion tools and batteries out that are also backwards compatible. The choice was easy, I could replace and upgrade at the same time!!

My drill takes the largest beating at work, and the new batteries fit a little different, so I went ahead and bought a new drill with a battery and charger, as well as a double charger and three additional batteries (Yes, the batteries are expensive, but by having several of them, they get rotated slower and have time to cool off between charging and draining, which makes them last much longer. I typically work with 4-6 batteries between 2-5 tools during a day.). So this drill looked like a winner, and The seller had a decent rating, so I snagged it....

In large print it states, "This is a brand new item and is not a refurbished or used." Cool. Poor English, but at least it's new and not a pawn item.

Clue #1 So that was May 11. Today (the 27th) it finally arrived - Priority Mail. WTF?! The auction didn't mention the shipping type, just that it was via USPS. I had assumed that it was sent "slow boat," which is common here in Hawaii. We don't exactly have a "ground" route to the islands, so anything cheaper than 2nd day shipping takes about 2 weeks to arrive. Priority mail always makes it in 2 days from the time it is shipped.

Clue #2 I examine the box. The drill, charger, and battery are crammed into a flat rate Priority Mail box. This can't be a good start.

Clue #3 Individually bagged within the box. Not exactly what you'd classically call "padding."

Clue #4 Everything looking good so far....what the?










Okay, maybe they just had dirty hands when they were packing. I mean, the auction said it was absolutely new after all.










Clue #5 Funny, that trigger looks a little worn.



Clue #5 Cracked case and broken seal




All of this I could still take in stride, until I pulled the trigger; nothing. All right, I'll try another battery; nothing. Not only had this thing been worked on, it had been done poorly. the case halves don't even close at the trigger, and the forward/reverse switch is so loose it rattles. It appears as if this drill were scavenged for parts, because everything is immaculate except for the trigger, which is well worn and doesn't work.

Clue #6 Hey, what is that paper? Spam? Great. As if I don't get enough of th....WTF?! Why in the hell is it dated the 19th if I purchased on the 11th and got a ship notice from USPS on the 14th!?













[**** This is a post-only message. Please do not respond. ****
Dear RANDALL BENNETT,

This ship notification is being sent to you by the U.S. Postal Service at the request of XXX XXXXX. If the "Shipped To" address information is not correct, please contact the Shipper.

A package with a Click-N-Ship label created on usps.com containing the following information is scheduled to be shipped on 05/14/2008.

From:	Shipped to:
XXX XXXXX xxx Xxxxxxxxxxxxx XXXXXX XXXX xxxxx-xxxx	RANDALL BENNETT xxxxxxxxxxxxxx KAILUA HI 96734-xxxx

Type of Service: Delivery Confirmation™
Label Number: 0103 8555 7494 xxxx xxxx
To check on the delivery status of your package, please go to Track and Confirm at www.usps.com.

Thank you,
United States Postal Service

**Please do not respond to this email. Any reply will not be received by the USPS or the shipper. This email was sent to you at the shipper's request to notify you that the information above has been electronically sent to the USPS.]

This seemed beyond carelessness. It was bad enough being strung along for a couple weeks, but to get a broken tool that's been tampered with in insufficient packaging is too far. Now I understand all the defiant statements on their auction about how to (and not to) contact them, the time limits on returns based on when the shipping labels are printed, etc.

**Update** To their credit, they were very easy to deal with once I contacted them. They immediately shipped me a replacement drill along with prepaid return postage for the damaged one. I was also sent numerous apologies. I don't know whether the drill was drop-shipped, or they just do too much volume to individually inspect all of their items, and I guess I can't really blame them in either case. I did feel that it was poorly packaged and that something, be it USPS or not, severely delayed the shipment. Out of good faith I have removed all references to them in the post and comments though since their follow-up service was outstanding. I'd rather give an ambiguous review than name names since I cannot guarantee any facts in the matter. I'm sure all four of my readers were not heavily swayed in their shopping preferences.

Home redemption

We just signed the sale contract yesterday to buy the home we've been renting for the last year. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!! More important than no longer throwing money down the drain as rent, I'm no longer throwing money down the drain as improvements. I like to fix things, and tinker. That's no great secret. My wife, my credit card, and Home Depot know that all too well. I've invested quite a bit into this house over the last year in improvements that I never claimed to the owners. Mainly, because they weren't required. They were gracious enough to allow me to tinker as much as I liked on this old house as long as it was an improvement. I added and replaced several lights, added GFCI protected receptacles in the garage, front and back yards, and in the eves for Christmas lighting. I networked the home with RG6 and CAT5e for TV and internet, and set up a network center in the utility room. My wife and I have both done quite a bit of yard work, too.

Suddenly all of that time and money is no longer wasted, and that felt good. We celebrated by ripping up a bunch of the old concrete burms that made up the property lines 50 years ago and hauling them away. Imagine concrete about the size and shape of those parking lot tire stops. These things were poured-in-place and ran the entire length from the street to the back fence - about 120 feet. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but my poor little truck scraped the mud flaps as I drove off to the dump with about 1500 pounds of old concrete in the bed. I had to air up all four tires before I left, and then let air back out before I left the dump. Although the rear springs strained, my happy V6 thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and pulled it all with no complaints.

One more happy Danger Ranger memory, and one more reason to be sad if we have another kid. Unfortunately, you can't (properly) fit 2 car seats into a Ranger, and while everyone else sees fit to make midsize crew cab 4 door pickups, Ford makes that bastard bobbed-tail Explorer called the Sport Trac. Other countries like Australia, South Africa, and South America get one, though. I don't want a modified sport utility, I want a truck!

But I regress. Now that all of our work will pay off in some fashon or another, there is suddenly a metric buttload more work to be done.....

Instant weight loss

Good child care is wonderful. My mom stayed home with me until I entered Kindergarten because she and dad believed that the benefits were worth the loss in potential income of two working parents. I tend to agree. Unfortunately, Wife and I already have well-established good-paying careers and it's just not very appealing to think of both of us renting a house and driving today's equivalent of the lime green and lemon yellow Ford Pintos that my parents did as they struggled *shudder*. The alternative is high quality and very expensive child care. Not a live in nanny or anything. We call it "school," because for all intents and purposes this is as close as a 1 year old can come to school. They play indoors and out, sing, read books, paint and do arts and crafts, and eat off of plates and drink out of cups (pacifiers and bottles are strictly prohibited!). Younger daughter gets great socialization skills and probably more mental stimulation that if I were to stay home with her. And then here comes the big, glaring, flaming negative: Colds.

I don't know what it is about herds of little kids, but they just seem to be sick magnets. Constantly acquiring and sharing new breeds of viruses until it blends into one giant snotfest. The latest gift my daughter has brought home (just in time for Mother's Day!) was a wonderful stomach flu. I've lost 6 pounds, or roughly 3/4 of a gallon, of fluids in the last two days from a netherregion where only solids should emerge.

The good news is I'm down to 170 lbs, which is where I'd prefer to be. The bad news is that I'll regain that weight as soon as I fix my leaking sieve. Perhaps I should try less than 6 sodas a day (I have been drinking only water and Gatorade while sick, but the Coke in the fridge still calls to me...) and a little more exercise, but that would be both tortuous and, well, work. I get enough work at work. Truth be told, I'd probably weigh closer to 190 if I didn't spend all day sweating, climbing ladders, crawling around houses and buildings, and making 50 trips to the utility truck with 20 lbs of tools strapped around my waist. I haven't liked voluntary exercise since High School. But I do love my job and the fact that it keeps me up and moving every day. Somehow, It's a lot easier when you're getting paid and there's tools involved. Uh!Uh!Uh! I'm suddenly feeling very Tim Allen. I think I'll grab my Sears Tool catalog and head to the bathroom. I'd better grab some extra paper, too...

Rain, rain

It hasn't rained much lately. That's a comparative statement, of course. It has probably rained more in the last month than it usually did all year in San Diego, but the plants are wilting a little. I hate to sound cheap, but I really don't want to water them too much because water is expensive here. I know I'm a hypocrite. I'll run BOINC on the computer 24/7 to benefit science but I'm stingy with water for the plants - and utilities are included in the rent.

Truth is I like the rain. I miss the seasons, too. Not San Diego's version of hot summer and cold summer ( here we have hot summer and warm summer). I miss the Midwest kind of seasons with a real spring, summer, fall and winter with SNOW. Besides, the rain is mostly unobtrusive here, blowing in for 5 or 10 minutes and then going away. It breaks up the monotony and keeps everything green.

Hectic

My day started by having to rush to Waikiki to attempt to do a service call on Friday's work. We had to re-route some phone lines in a kitchen remodel because in the 70's builders were too stupid to separate everyone's phone instead of running it floor-to-floor through the kitchen walls. So I cut 5 people's phone lines and had to extend and splice them in the new wall & ceiling. Unfortunately cutting the lines apparently blows fuses in the telecom room which kills their service. My biggest mistake was my affinity for courtesy and helpfulness in which I told the building management that I would be doing this and that the occupants should not be alarmed. Had I not said anything, they each would have called the phone company, which would have sent a technician who would have easily found and replaced the fuse. Instead, they are all told that I had cut the lines and everyone assumes that I fucked it up, and they want blood.

In a technical sense, it is my fault. Unfortunately I had never seen a fused phone block before, and had cut at least 100 live phone lines in the past without incident. I wasn't anywhere near the telecom room, and since we were doing rough-in I had no reason to check the phone in that unit for operation yet. I was extremely careful, meticulous, and painfully slow in making sure my splices were accurate and proper. It then is a crappy way to start the day going back to check my work, which was right, when the phone company would have already fixed it if I had kept my mouth shut. Crappy for the phone guy, but he has to fix it either way, because I don't have an array of telecom fuses and nobody is really allowed to touch their equipment anyways.

So then I drove to another jobsite 15 miles away, dropped off 1 roll of wire, ate my lunch on the road, doubled-back and drove another 25 miles into Kailua. Jumped into a job I have very little history on and we ended up working an extra 2 hours of unplanned overtime and still didn't finish it. The very last thing I did was flip a light switch and hear *pop!* Guess where I'm going tomorrow morning. We still have to take down the scaffolding after we troubleshoot, and the flooring goes in tomorrow. Ugh. So not every day is palm trees and ocean breezes....

Ben Stein lost my money

I've been seeing the teasers for the new Ben Stein movie Expelled lately. I couldn't tell exactly what it was about, and perhaps that's because he wants to control the potential damage that could be caused if intelligent people were to see it.

I was drifting aimlessly around the web today, as I usually do when I should be taking care of real life responsibilities, when I came across this site: http://www.expelledexposed.com . Apparently the movie is an attempt to portray the scientific community as a good 'ol boy system which will blacklist and run out anyone who believes in creationism/intelligent design(ID). We're taking creation and religion out of the required teachings in schools, and now some people think it's a massive conspiracy. Enough so that they have deceived people (as to the intent, and even the title of the movie) for their interviews, cherry-picked commentary and quotes, and flat-out lied about the supposed destruction of careers and defamation of character of certain ID scientists. I'm too worked up to paraphrase, so I'll quote some examples.

The Claim

“A few months after this interview Baylor University shut down his research website once they discovered a link between his work and intelligent design.” (Ben Stein, Expelled)

The Facts

Robert Marks’s “Evolutionary Informatics Laboratory” website – touting intelligent design – was originally hosted on a Baylor University server. Concerned that the material on the website misleadingly suggested a connection between the intelligent design material and Baylor, administrators temporarily shut the website down while discussing the issue with Marks and his lawyer. Baylor was willing to continue hosting the website subject to a number of conditions (including the inclusion of a disclaimer and the removal of the misleading term “laboratory”), but Marks and Baylor were unable to come to terms. The site is currently hosted by a third-party provider.

The Claim

Sternberg’s “life was nearly ruined when he strayed from the party line while serving as editor of a scientific journal affiliated with the prestigious Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.” (Expelled)

The Facts

As stated above, Sternberg did not lose his office or his access to collections, he did not lose his job, he was not “fired” from the (unpaid) editorship of the journal (he had resigned six months before the publication of the Meyer article), and from the e-mails in the appendix to the Souder report, it appears that his colleagues were civil in their communications with him. The Smithsonian renewed his Research Collaborator status for another three years in 2006. It seems, then, that the worst that happened to Sternberg is that people said some unkind things about him in private email to one another. Since the same can be said of almost every person, it’s hard to see how this could be construed as “life ruining”. There is no evidence of any material harm done to Sternberg as a result of the publication of the Meyer article. And any damage done to his reputation would seem to have been self-inflicted.

There is an excellent blog article by one of the scientists interviewed in the movie here: http://richarddawkins.net... where he eloquently vents his frustration at being used and misrepresented in the movie, as well as some of the more glaringly obvious errors that it portrays.

You know, I don't mind people believing in creationism, etc. but to portray the scientific community as close-minded and largely organized against any theory is ridiculous. Post a theory with supporting evidence for peer review, and it will be checked and eventually confirmed or found to be inaccurate. There is resistance to change from "standard" theory, but once proven the scientific community evolves and accepts new ones. They are more than happy to rewrite the textbooks if the new theory is capable of advancing or replacing an older one with repeatable results. It's both dirty and telling when you have to manufacture a story in order to advance your cause.

The sad thing is I will never be able to laugh at Ben Stein again. Wait a minute, did I say again?

Religion bashing

I've found recently that I have a strong affinity for bashing religion. I'm not sure where the innate pleasure of trying to tell people that everything they believe is a momentous tower of lies and over embellished fables comes from. Nonetheless, it exists. The inner turmoil is, if you take away someone's faith, what do you replace it with? In general, churches are great for bringing people together, instilling good values, creating excellent charities, and building great communities. How can people replace all of that in their lives once you disprove their beliefs? The debater in me wants to win the arguments, but the compassionate person in me wants to let them have that crutch. Aaaaagh!

references:
http://www.evilbible.com/
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/

Short long weekend

You know, after kids, down time is never down anymore. I took last Friday and this Monday off from work, giving me a 4 day weekend. I did it partially because we're trying to get my daughter cleared up from the colds that get passed around at day care before she goes to San Diego Wednesday to spend some time with her cousin. My poor Wife is in Tax hell until the 15th. I took today (Moday) off because I had a migraine this morning, possible from three days and nights with my daughter, but I'm watching her again today, too. Might as well. I mean, a migraine can only get better, right?

The problem is, although it sounds like a nice break, it's not. I love my daughter and all, but the supervision is never-ending. For instance, this is what she's been occupying herself with while I've been typing.

She's not a bad kid. On the contrary, she's a great kid. But kids need to be entertained and supervised. It's exhausting. We like to watch a show called "Jon and Kate Plus Eight," where a couple had twins, and then had sextuplets a couple years later. The poor woman is a stay at home mom, and is amazing. I don't know how she still has her sanity. The dad is great, too. Every once in a while they lose it just a little, and you want to criticize them, and then I think of how I can lose it with just 1 kid.

Anyways, regardless of my nice long weekend, I've gotten amazingly little accomplished. I did become very domestic and managed to do some laundry, clean the house, and pick up in the back yard. I haven't been able to do stuff like mow the yard, work on my truck, or clean and service all of my tools, which are all very high on my to-do list. As a guy, that's frustrating. As a dad, I'm okay with it now. Younger Daughter is a whole lotta fun to play with now, and they're only little once.

Gotta go, she's chasing the dog with a crayon!

Drifting

The other day Wife and I took a friend's brother who was new to the island out to dinner. He's a young Navy guy, and we have a lot in common. It immediately brought back a lot of feelings for me. In many ways I miss the Army. More than anything else I suppose I miss all the close friends I made there. I also miss all of my friends in San Diego and other parts of the mainland. It's been so long since I've gone out to dinner or just hung out with anyone aside from my wife or in-laws.

I love it here, but I'm in a rut. Every day I get off of work, pick up my daughter, feed her dinner, and wait for Wife to come home. Sometimes I can squeeze in a trip to the park with the dogs, but really only because they need it. I spend my time there hoping that they won't disturb anyone since its a schoolyard/soccer/baseball fields. Aside from the couple of guys at work, I don't have any friends here. I keep saying I need a hobby, and wishing Younger Daugter was older so I could do more fun stuff with her. Somehow I'm always either tied down to the dogs, the baby, or am just plain lazy/tired. Every hobby I have is either computer based or keeps me in the house. I'm in paradise, and I get to enjoy the beauty & comfort of it every day, but I still feel like I'm drifting through life. I need to find a way to make some local friends to break up the monotony.