Goodbye, Au Revoir, Adios, Sayonara, Auf Wiedersehen, Bis Dann, Arrivederci, Hejdo, Ciao, Le’hitraot, Sampai Jumpa, Paalam, Zai Jian, Zoi Geen, Farvel, Namaste, Fir Melenge, Feri bhetaula and Do zobaczenia.
To the friends I have made over the past five years, I will miss you. I really will.
Anyway, until we meet again.
As you may be aware, we are starting to remodel the kitchen. Yesterday, I removed most of the floor and moulding around the doorways. As I was removing one piece of moulding, I noticed some 60s looking wallpaper underneath. I immediately put my hand up to my forehead and slid it down my face. I am not sure why it’s 60s looking wallpaper, since the house was built in 2000.
This is what pisses me off. Let me get this out in the open. If you are going to do something to your house, please do it the right way. There is no reason in the world why you can’t remove wallpaper from the walls before you paint them. I just removed the top piece of wallpaper (not painted over) that went around the entire room. It took about an hour. All I did was to pull the shiny coating off and then squirt the paper part with some water. I waited for it to soak in and then pulled that part off. Again, it took about an hour. We removed an entire bedroom worth of wallpaper in less than a day. That included the ceiling…yes, the ceiling.
I have always wondered why the kitchen walls were so lumpy. Now, I have to spend about a week scratching and removing, scratching and removing and scratching and removing. It doesn’t help that the paint these people decided to put on is as thick as plastic. It’s like pulling taffy.
So thank you. Yes, thank you to the people who owned this house before us. Thank you for taking the ten minutes out of your lives to paint the kitchen a beautiful gray. You could’ve saved me a lot of time if you had just left the kitchen the way it was…with the wallpaper.
I really hated the kitchen ceiling fan/light that came with the house. Not that it is a bad unit, it’s that it hung about an inch too low and was a nice target for the top of my head. Oh, how many times can a man that is six foot, two and three quarter inches tall hit his head on a light before he wants to throw it through the window?
I also wanted to get rid of it because it is gold and brown. I am sure they still sell the same unit at Lowe’s or Home Depot. It’s probably over a hundred bucks. I asked Paul if he wanted it. I am awaiting his reply.
To brighten up the room, during and after its new makeover, I decided to pick up a new ceiling fan/light unit. I chose the Harbor Breeze
52″ Chesire White 4 Light Kit Fan. The reason I got this is because it hugs the ceiling, as opposed to hanging from a rod. This gives it more height. The unit is white (which I wanted), has four bulbs (which I thought were the regular kind, not the little ones) and has five blades. The only thing I didn’t like about the one in the box were the four frosted globes. I picked up four globes that are clear and aged looking, like our dining room light.
I wired the whole thing up and put it together. Then, I tried it out…ooooh, nice and smooth. Quiet too. Not bad for being one of the cheaper models.
I had to run down to the tile place today to pick up the extra tile that wasn’t used on the bathroom floor. It was a whole box. I got it and put it in the basement for safe keeping. While I was there, I struck up a conversation with the fine lady about remodeling kitchens (we have to do ours). She gave me a business card for a local kitchen place, right up the road. I noticed a website address on the card, so I gave it a visit. I looked at all the pictures on the website and at the information. I got all motivated and accidentally started ripping up the kitchen floor.
This is the before shot…well, I started a little of the floor.
This is a picture of most of the floor ripped up, before I moved anything around, like the refrigerator or stove.
This is what I got done today. Do you know what this means? Commitment. I really wasn’t planning on starting the kitchen so soon. But then again, I am not sure I planned any project I started here.
As I look at the guts of the whole thing, I am noticing that there really isn’t too much to it. We were planning on keeping things the same way and just updating everything, but now I am thinking that we make an “L” out of it instead of the hallway thing that was going on. The main reason we wanted to keep the same layout was because I didn’t really feel like moving the power source for the stove and we were going to keep the tile on the wall above the counter tops. When I moved the stove, I found the power source actually closer to where the stove would be if we changed the layout. Also, the tile is crap, so it’s coming down.
I can take my time with this project because, unlike the bathroom, we can function in the kitchen while it’s a construction zone. Remember, we are moving in an estimated two years, so we will try to make some less-expensive decisions.
So I watched the Republican debate last night, live on CNN.com. I am not sure why I watched it…I guess I was interested in what they had to offer.
I have to say, some of it was interesting. They touched on some good issues, such as the war and fiscal policy. I was slightly pleased at that. They also touched on some really annoying things. The problem was that the candidates seemed to be trying to “out conservative” each other.
In the beginning, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney got in a little (way overblown) tussle about illegal immigration. While the topic is legitimate, I am not sure how having a few unknown illegals doing some landscaping for you affects your judgement as president. Well, I suppose it all matters in Republican debates. There were a few ridiculously idiotic questions, such as, “Do you believe in every single word of the Bible?” and “What does the Confederate Flag mean to you?” I have to admit that I am disappointed that I will never get those few minutes of my life back. I guess I have to blame CNN for letting those questions through.
So people, there you have it. While the earth’s temperature steadily climbs, glaciers melt and wars rage, American television is asking potential presidential candidates whether or not they believe in every word of the Bible, verbatim.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot a really good one…”How many guns do you own and what kind are they?” Now that one was fabulous, just fabulous. What intellectual and stimulating conversation. I think even the candidates were rolling their eyes at that one.
I went to Staples today to get the latest version of Adobe Dreamweaver, which is Dreamweaver CS3.
Just to let you know, I only bought this software after I searched online for open source alternatives to Dreamweaver. I think I came across the top alternatives, but each one had a fault that I didn’t really like. The top choice had a review. The software’s downfall was that it liked to change your code for you, which really isn’t cool. Dreamweaver actually brags about not doing that.
The reason I was looking for alternatives was because the $399 price tag seemed a little hefty for a web editing application. The upgrades are only about $199, so that’s what I will be doing from now on.
I installed the software and gave it a run. Wow, it seemed just like the 2004 version. I am assuming there are a bunch of new features in there, but I most likely won’t use them. I am not into building websites from scratch anymore. There is one thing though…it seems slower than the older version. That could be the Adobe influence of it. Geeez, I remember trying to open GoLive. For big sites, it took a few minutes. But then again, it could be Vista. Everything seems slower in Vista. I noticed that the minute I turned this computer on the day I got it.
I will let you know how it goes.
There’s No Money In The Long Tail of the Blogosphere
In a recent post here, we examined the reasons that people feel compelled to blog. From the post and the comments it received, it became clear that quite a few people are blogging to make money. The reality is that it is difficult to make money in the long tail. In this post we examine why that is and look at other aspects of long tail economics.
10 Hot Computer Driven Careers
While traditional IT careers will probably stay in-demand for the foreseeable future, don’t forget the alternatives. From climate modeling to revolutionizing the very fabric of life itself, there are plenty of enjoyable computer jobs to keep the computer professional creatively engaged.
Google preps online storage service
Offering would compete with recent products from rivals Microsoft, Amazon.com and Facebook.
The Mobile Web remains far off, and inevitable
“Within 10 years more people will be accessing the Internet from their mobile . . . than in the home from a PC,” said Geraldine Wilson, vice president of connected life at Yahoo! Europe. “In emerging markets most people’s first contact with the Internet will be with a mobile phone.”
Google hopes to undercut coal with cheap, renewable energy
Google’s latest plan to put all that money to good use is to announce an initiative that will develop renewable energy that’s cheaper than coal.
The list: The World’s Biggest Military Buildups
Since the end of the Cold War, most of the world’s militaries have downsized. But in recent years, a few countries have been bulking up. In this week’s List, FP takes a look at the countries that are going large while everyone else is slimming down.
Windows XP outshines Vista in benchmarking test
New tests have revealed that XP with the beta Service Pack 3 has twice the performance of Vista, even with its long-awaited Service Pack 1.
24-hour Apple news video network launches
The Digital Lifestyle today launched a new 24-hour online network dedicated to Apple followers. The site mixes original programs with popular Apple/tech-related podcasts and YouTube material, as well as daily news updates and live coverage of breaking tech news events. Using live video technology from Mogulus, viewers can
The 10 Most Ridiculous Inventions Ever Patented
The world tends to laugh at radical inventions. Sometimes, the world is right.
The Top 20 Ways to Come Up With Amazing Ideas
If you’re trying to find sources of great, wonderful, unique ideas, whether that’s for a blog post or a painting or a poem or a new product … here are my favorite ways.
I was doing some changing around of things last night, when I came to the point of having to delete some files and folders off a few of my servers.
The funny thing is, when I went to delete them off my old server, everything disappeared just fine. When I went to delete them off my new server (different host), there were some directories that wouldn’t delete. This got a little annoying to me.
I called the hosting company to figure out what was going on. I told them that some directories wouldn’t delete and told them which ones. The dude took a look and told me that there were still some files in those directories and that their server configuration required that all directories be empty before they will delete. I told him that they were empty. He responded by telling me that there were some “.htaccess” files still in there, but I probably had my FTP program set to not see hidden files.
I hung up the phone. I then looked at the settings on my FTP program (FileZilla). He was right. The setting was to hide hidden files. I switched the setting, closed the program, reopened the program and deleted the directories.
What’s the moral of the story? If you want to see hidden files on your server, switch the setting.
I have to say, I am quite impressed…quite impressed indeed.
I really didn’t think the programs would be this good. When I was writing my previous post about open source applications, I kind of thought the applications would be clunky or amateur looking. They aren’t at all. So far, I have used OpenOffice.org Calc for some records that I have. I use that because it can be password protected.
I opened my old Excel document in Calc and then saved it in the open source format. Now, Excel can’t open it, but Calc can. If I ever need it to be opened in Excel again, all I have to do is to save it in Excel format. It’s pretty easy.
I opened (but haven’t used) Writer and Impress. They look very much like Word and PowerPoint. I think I am on to something here.
