Category: News

Yesterday was a surprise, hopefully people don’t go balistic and start riots again. Have to see how this progresses. 😅

Took a week off after I got some big projects off my back. Had people breathing down my neck to get things done early… Had to play let’s make a deal between different projects because hardware is in such short supply. Lead time for Arista hardware is something like 18 months if you order today! Crazy!

My car is leaking coolant because the body shop that did the work after my deer strike didn’t fix the clips on the lower radiator. Been rolling the dice nothing will happen because nobody can get me in… Have an appointment for next Monday so hopefully they can get the parts!

Not much else new around here. Been cutting services and cooking at home now. With the wonderful job Biden has been doing and my crazy commute I wanted to cut back before we have $10 gas. I would go electric but I don’t think that will work really well for my commute. Plus why should I have to go electric to support Brandon’s tree hugging adgenda. He’s going to cause rolling black outs and make this country feel like the 3rd world. People… Wind and solar do not make good baseload power… 😅

Anyway, keep cool… It’s a hot one today!

Took the Ferry to Dumbo last weekend.  Didn’t get a ton of sun but the weather was nice. Did some walking around, got some chocolate and a few Janet Jackson records. The record store was more hip-hop so not really my thing. I try to always get something to support local records stores hence Janet.

The ferry ride from Queens was a nice little day trip. With Covid spinning down and the weather getting nicer we need to expand our horizons and explore more. I can definitely say I like LIC more then Dumbo… Dumbo has a cool vibe but it’s noisy and might be a bit sketchy after dark.  With that said I think we will be back during warmer weather… Seems like it’s the place to go for ice-cream…. Saw at least 4 shops and 3 trucks selling ice-cream… People really like it I guess.

This year’s 2 tons of pellets have been extremely dusty and have caused feeding issues with my stove. I found some plans for a device used to clean corn for burning.

If you have a pellet stove and get feed issues this is a simple way to clean the dust off before it get into the feed auger.

If your thinking about a stove I highly recommend something that burns pellets. The fuel is cleaner then regular wood and takes up alot less space. The stoves feeds like a coal unit but can start and stop itself unlike coal. With a little bit of electronics experience you can interface them to something like a Nest and control it from anywhere. They don’t need a chimney, you can direct vent them like a dryer so basically you can put them anywhere. I pulled a permit for my install but you can probably get away without doing that if you install yourself. Since it uses fire I didn’t trust myself to install. 😅 Having seen it now I would do it myself next time…. It’s simple just need a thimble for going thru the wall. You save quite a bit on heating and I keep the place pretty warm most of the time now.

Been listening to the Orbital remix of “Namaste” by Morcheeba. The bass in the intro is insane, overall an great remix.

Also listening to “Nextra” by deadmau5. It’s got a really cool bass line as well. It’s well done like most stuff by deadmau5.

And lastly “Solar Power” by Lorde… The album cover is a bit naughty but it’s kinda funky sounding and recorded well.

Looks like we might have another cold war with Russia.l brewing. Not sure why we can’t be more friendly with them. When the USSR fell it seemed like a perfect time to right all the wrongs between our people. To bad… I have no issues with Russia or Russian… Both governments f’ed it all up. Let’s hope shit doesn’t get out of hand! Hey Xi, it’s a really good time to make some moves!

Anyway, I run Russian tubes in my amp and just got an extra set just in case they become impossible to get in the near future. I also use Russian razors so I need to see if I can order a bunch. Other then that I was wanting to order a Radiascan scintillation counter/ geiger counter but I may hold off on that as they are out of stock and if I order I might not get it before whatever punishment is put in place.

Not much else going on here. I will be going to the gym again soon once it gets a bit warmer and covid calms down more.

I tried to trade in my car for a Toyota Highlander but the markup is crazy now. I will pay 10k+ for a special car like a Dodge Demon. But for a ordinary Toyota…. I wanted to get it because I need something bigger. I’m driving my parents around more and a small VW is not the best choice. Going to wait it out tho… Not paying the dealers for basically nothing.

Getting into long range shooting. Plan to take a class on shooting out to 1000yards. Building a sub moa rifle to get the job done. Looking into what glass I want . I like Vortex so might give them a try. I will be shooting 6.5 Creedmoor and have already been able to stash a few boxes away. Will probably get into hand loading so I can control things more with special loads and reduce costs.

Got hit by a semi truck and just last week a deer!  Been very unlucky lately while driving. 😅 Was going to drop my car off to the body shop last week but wasn’t able to drive during the snow. The hood thinks it’s up so it will not activate the wipers. I moved the appointment to Tuesday so hopefully by then I will have a rental.  Been keeping to town this week.

I decided to make a sheapards pie last night! It turned out super good. I am going to add it to the rotation of food I make around here. Not exactly diet food but good for the winter. I am getting better with cooking slowly. 😬 Have to think of something to make tomorrow so I have some leftovers for next week.

Listening to Vanessa Fernandez album “Use Me” on Vyinal. If you want some cool jazzy music I suggest her. The album came perfectly flat, no warps. It’s on what feels like 180g… runs at 45rpm and is dead silent. It will make digital music people doubt it’s analog because it’s that quiet… Of course I ran it thru my Okki Nokki before playing so it’s impeccably clean. The recording was done really well, the engineer knew what they were doing.  Give it a try! You’ll like it!

Had to swap out my electronic lock today. My alarm system was with AT&T Digital Life. It was a pretty good system but come February they are abandoning the business with the 3g phase out. I had to replace the system. Got the main alarm installed but didn’t do any of the fancy crap… Just a basic monitored system. I wanted to bring all the digital cameras and locks under my own systems. Unfortunately the z-wave module in the lock is somehow hard coded to AT&T. I tried the reset and unpair/re-pair procedure… My home automation controller can’t see the thing. I had a new one sitting around in case it didn’t work so I swapped it in. Everything works perfectly with the new one. I will look online to see if I can get a new module, if I can I will install the old lock in the front door. Anyway, AT&T… You suck… Abandoned me and lock me out of the equipment you refuse to support…. The least you should do is open the system up to people before your abandoned them. Shame.

My Aunt has finally lost her long battle with Parkinson’s. It’s a strange feeling, you know you should be sad but you are relieved. It’s such a horrible disease. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. It makes you thankful for the person’s death towards the end. Death restores the person’s dignity and freedom, all of which were trapped and locked away. Death frees the trapped from the bodies prison. It’s a hard thing to process, I feel a bit strange about it but I think it’s better this way.

This December is moving fast but unfortunately it’s fast in a bad way. Hopefully the new year has better things in store. If we are lucky Omicron will turn out to be nothing and the world can start to return to normal… Or it’s new normal. Keep positive people, I know alot of people are going batty being locked up at home. All things will pass. 😬

Well this is probably the last post of this year. If so have a happy holiday and a great new year.

Just went to listen to music and Roon was complaining about Tidal. Just tried to log in and yes they seem to be having an AWS issue. Thankfully I have a large local library and Qobuz for times like this but still alot of things in my library will not play until Tidal gets sorted.

On another note I got my covid booster and man did it kick the crap out of me. I had chills again, a fever, headache, crazy tired… So much so I had to leave work early… And slept 17 hours straight. I hope this stupid things ends so I don’t have to do that again.

Just got back to playing Halo 5! Need to finish it so I can get the new one! I started playing when it first came out and got stuck and lost interest. Just restarted the game so I can get into the story again. I totally forgot what I had already done so it’s all new feeling for me. 😬

My Aunt and uncle have been very sick lately so been going down to see them and help out my cousin. She is essentially on her own taking care of them so have been trying to do what I can. Apart from that nothing much new here.

Went to Jackson’s Eatery with Ying this weekend for Brunch. Great food and a really cool vibe in this place. Highly recommend if your in LIC and looking for a nice place to eat.