This is a very strange feeling. I’m turning off my computers for the day.
Month: August 2009
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I must have blinked
What happened to last week?! Is this really Saturday? Okay. Struggling to keep my anxiety in check today. I need to accomplish something tangible today. That means either a) work on the walls in the garage or b) clean my desk. I think the garage is going to be my focus. Home Depot, here I come!
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Don’t use DEET!
Several years ago I committed to keeping DEET away from my children. Every now and then I waiver and allow a DEET based mosquito repellent to touch their skin but it still makes me cringe. Why? DEET hurts them!
We’ve found that deet is not simply a behavior-modifying chemical but also inhibits the activity of a key central nervous system enzyme, acetycholinesterase, in both insects and mammals [Source, Physorg.com, Vincent Corbel from the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement in Montpellier]
I have since tried natural repellents using a concoction which included eucalyptus and lemongrass, and tried others with DEET alternatives such as Picaridin (which years from now may have as bad a rap as DEET). I have had good results with the natural products as well as the DEET alternative products. I am satisfied enough to know that I never need to use DEET again.
DEET is serious bad! You need to stop using DEET on your children!
The active ingredient in many insect repellents, deet, has been found to be toxic to the central nervous system. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology say that more investigations are urgently needed to confirm or dismiss any potential neurotoxicity to humans, especially when deet-based repellents are used in combination with other neurotoxic insecticides. [Source, Physorg.com, Popular insect repellent deet affects nervous system: study]
DEET was discovered in 1953. If it is truly neurotoxic to humans, what of today’s ailments and afflictions will be contributed to DEET?
See also: Evidence for inhibition of cholinesterases in insect and mammalian nervous systems by the insect repellent deet from BMC Biology.
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Oh! So that’s how a differential works!
I’ve spent inordinate amount of time in my life in mechanics’ garages. Being a child of the 70s, I had the pleasure of playing in areas that certainly would decimate and kill today’s children if they so much as glanced in the general direction. I’ve torn a Triumph Spitfire 1500 down to nearly its chassis, replaced clutches, toyed inside transmissions, rebuilt carburetors, replaced water pumps and radiators, rebuilt master and slave cylinders, replaced manifolds and fuel filters and spark plugs and wires and points, turned heads, gasketed this and that, totally rewired two cars (the Triumph and a Ford Escort) from schematics, upholstered, chemically removed rust, bondo’d, primed, polished, replaced brake pads and discs and calipers, changed inner and outer tie rods, and boldly replaced the front axles on a 4 wheel drive vehicle. I left out some things like alternators, belts, lug nuts, and removing rusted parts. In all this, I came to know that a differential is that knotty thing sitting in the center of the back axle where the drive shaft connects.
We live our lives on assumptions and partial knowledge. To have breakfast, we only need to know how to make toast (insert bread, pull lever) not how the actual inside of the toaster works. Web developers may know that a certain DOCTYPE works for their needs without ever understanding what a doctype is. We flick a switch and lights come on but how many people truly understand where how electricity gets to their house? Personally, I have spent my life knowing what a differential was but thanks to a 1930 film I now understand how a differential works. I also know that I haven’t done nearly enough cool things with my motorcycle.
Thanks to Makezine for discovering the video!
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Odd day
Today was a strange day. Felt like I spent most of it adding some functionality to someone else’s code that I’ve helped support since 2004 or 2005. In reality, I spent 5.5 hours on it and a good deal of that was figuring out that the original programmer crippled the code in such a way that it will only ever work on MySQL4 and PHP4 without major revisions. I wanted to spend the day playing with my children but was tethered to the computer. I’m going to meditate about tomorrow and then go to sleep. I’ve got to decide between sales and marketing or framing and drywalling.
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How to be nice to your programmer
If you are going to give your programmer updates to your bylaws with changes from last year’s bylaws, and your bylaws are nine pages long, please red line the changes. Your programmer isn’t interested in reading every word and you don’t want him taking horrid shortcuts like using Microsoft Word’s "Save as webpage…"
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Filed Under: Things I Never Expected To Do
I just rubbed a half a tube of Neosporin onto one of my dogs because the other dog won’t quit licking her wounds. Next step: petroleum jelly and if that fails, the Collar of Shame!
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The best 1 min 44 secs of time spent today
Watch the entire video. Wow!
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Movie Review- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Having some free movie tickets about to expire inspired me to take my 13 year old and his best friend to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (official movie site). Review? All I can say is it had motorcycles*.
*Update: Someone said their were robots in this movie. All I saw was Megan Fox.
Actual review? I enjoyed the movie. The action was great. I didn’t think the CGI was as confusing as the first Transformers movie. Contrary to what I read, I felt it had a decent plot. My biggest problem with the movie was the unnecessary, overly used toilet humor. The number of sexual jokes and use of sexual elements bordered on uncomfortable. At one point I distinctly questioned my judgment in bringing the two 13 year olds and felt badly for the audience members with the much younger children. Recommendation: rent it from Netflix or Redbox.
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Gas man answers
Use 100% gas. Okay to fuel with tanker.Mobile post sent by djuggler using Utterli.
Replies. mp3
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What kind of babysitting is this?
Cathy is touring the high schools, the older boys are out of the state, the 7 year old socialite is at a friend’s house, and I’m downstairs trying to work which leaves the teenage girl babysitting the 4 year old boy. So why is the bathtub running? I dread going upstairs to see what mess they are recovering from but I must know!
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Week 2 – no work
A major project culminated on Saturday July 25. I did something unusual. Instead of jumping into another project or lighting a big fire under my sales and marketing hat, I spent a week tending to long neglected personal things. This was both necessary and cathartic. I feel human again.
Today I did some final testing on some client code and got final approvals and sign-off closing out yet one other project. I now turn my energies to patch a little code as a favor to an old client of mine and this afternoon I have a scheduled conference call to complete some research for a bid for what may be my next project. Hopefully by the end of the week I’m off overhead and back to billables. So far, I think it is a good idea to add a week of "no work" after an extensive project for tidying up loose ends and making up for neglected areas in my personal life. However, if by the end of this week I am not back to billable hours, I will declare it a failed experiment and begin working on a mental breakdown.
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And we’re off…
Cathy is out getting to tour all the area high schools with the respective principals. Today she has appointments to tour Karns High School and Bearden High School. We’ve sent the older two boys to Indiana to paint their uncle’s house. The two little ones are playing while the sleeping teenage girl babysits. I need a day at my computer without distraction. Perhaps it is time to wake the teen. If you don’t see another post on Reality Me, she ate me.
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Last week I caught up!
In the name of prioritization and business, I have spent the past several months neglecting many things in my personal life. Last week I was able to catch up on many of these things. I am a much happier person! The trade-off of taking personal time to get caught up is that this week I have no projects scheduled since I did no marketing last week. I strive to keep my schedule booked out 2 months so it is odd to have nothing. Obviously I need to strike a slightly better balance between business and personal life.
