Notice the extra amount of wire. There will be no need for an extension cord. I even busted out the level for this project, and GTG wonders why I get excited about tools.
Close up of the hole I made. I got GTG to stick her hand in there to pull up the wire. Talk about hilarious. She lasted for like 3 seconds.
I took the scroll saw to this hole to make it larger. It’s fun cutting plaster.
I should have put down a drop cloth but the Shop Vac works just as great. And we’re eventually going to get rid of this carpet. This outlet does not have the built-in extension cord.
Note: I finished this project last weekend (all outlets work without shocking anyone). This coming weekend I will be working on the stairwell skate ramp.
I stumbled across Brotherhood 2.0 through the YouTubes this evening. The background is two brothers for 365 days will only communicate through online video. I’ve gone through about 8 of them - they’re all hilarious. One brother is a writer, the other an eco-geek web designer. Each video seems as one is trying to out due the other on who is geekier. I heart the geekiness. Yes, I just said (or typed) I heart the geekiness. I’ve selected two non-consecutive videos below.
I have a brother but I don’t think there is anyway that I could get him to do something like Brotherhood 2.0. First of all, he’s super quiet and I communicate more with his girlfriend (Lil G) because she has a cell phone and he doesn’t. David, you’re 22, you’re old enough to take responsibility and own a cancer causing device. But I must say he did give on hell of a best man speech. Spoken by my uncle after the speech, “Wow, I didn’t know David could speak!”
Who knows? Maybe one day. As for now, I’ll keep publishing my mumbling of words.
This post is late in coming, but hey, nothing like some left overs. Dave Heinzelhas an excellent podcast featuring people from the tent city outside of Best Buy this past Thanksgiving. I would expect that most Gotshoo readers frequent Dave’s site often, but by the slight chance you’ve missed it (there was an excellent Skyler Duncan podcast this week also):
The only time I’ve stood in line for Black Friday was almost 10 years ago when I purchased a $40 dollar 56k modem that with rebates only cost me $5 bucks. Back then I think you left the house at 6:30 am, not 12pm Thanksgiving Day as the early birds in the video.
We are in possession of an original piece of art by John Romang based off of one the photos I took on our Colorado trip this summer. It was given as a wedding gift.
What a wonderful Thanksgiving extended weekend. Wow, what a lot of turkey! It’s almost 12 am Sunday night and it’s the first real time that I’ve sat down at my computer and looked at emails. I really should be in bed, but I ate way too much at family dinner tonight with my parents, brother and his gf (Lil g) and my stomach is upset. I just couldn’t help myself after playing a game of Taboo this weekend and coming across the word Bosnia. The thought alone of that country can make anyone starve for days. But again, I should be in bed because the wife and I, still don’t know what to call her in gotshoo land - I guess I could call her by her real name? - honey?), are getting up around 5 am to head over to Fitclub to work off some StoveTop. I am dreading every second to waking up at 5.
In DIY news, I finally ran wire and put two new boxes for outlets and then ran cable and ethernet to the living room this weekend. It was a two day project but ranked pretty high after I rearranged the living room and notified all occupants that entertainment would be on strike in respect to the writer’s union. That and there was no cable or functioning outlets on that side of the room. I’ve got some non-interesting pictures, they’ll probably be posted as filler some time this week.
One final thing, one week after the wedding we were eating a high priced dinner right off the Chicago River. Two weeks after the wedding we were eating chicken nuggets and a salad in the basement. We’re back to being normal again.
This weekend I am planning to build some shelves under the stairs heading to the basement. I could have just busted out an 8 1/2″ x 11 sheet of paper and mocked up a version of the shelves under the stairs, but where would the fun been in that? I instead went the geeky route and downloaded Google’s SketchUp, a 3D CAD program.
I’ve got a little experience with CAD having worked at a truss plant doing house plan designs and truss designs. There are two flavors of SketchUp: free and pro. I used the free version of course which comes with the basic features to build and edit 3D objects. The program has an option to start up with a tutorial, but me being the confident geek I skipped right on by to the program. It took me about 15 minutes to get the gist of the functionality.
The program does take some mastering, but once you get the basic idea everything is a snap.
Marjorie, Betsy, Robbie, David, and Sada all chipped in and got us two dog beds as a wedding gift. I’ll let the picture speak for itself, but it looks like they are enjoying their gift.
There is a flap that goes over the pillow so they can burrow underneath. Bud has been the only one able to figure it out but needs a little help to get under the slip.
What kind of tools do you use for work and/or home (aka Your Digital Life)?
I’ve seen this on a few blogs floating around as a meme.
Home
Gmail - I switched over to Gmail in 05/05 and have been using it as my dedicated email since. I can check it from about any computer and even my phone, and I’ve never been told my inbox is full.
Firefox - My dedicated browser. Getting closer to trying out Opera.
Sage - A Firefox extension that allows me to check up on my RSS feeds.
Picasa - A free photo management tool distributed by Google that allows for quick edits such as red eye removal and cropping. It allows me to easily manage my 30 GB library.
Flickr - A photo sharing site that I joined shortly after Yahoo acquired it in August of 2005. It costs about $20 bucks a year, but I have unlimited bandwidth and storage. As of right now, I have 1,398 photos uploaded with 10,068 views.
Wordpress - The open source software that runs this blog. I blog, therefore I Wordpress.
Windows Media Player - Until I bought a Windows media extender last year, I had been a dedicated Winamp user. But after the release of Winamp 5 and the amount of junk it came with it, I gave up on it. Media Player has improved immensely in the last two years, but it still lacks podcast support and native handling of MP4 files.
iTunes - Because Media Player can’t handle podcasts and MP4 files, I open this baby to get my latest Diggnation and fill up my iPod Nano.
YouTube - It’s slowly eating away the amount of time I spend in front of a tv.
Freelance Web Work
Gmail - When you can search your email in half a second, it’s priceless.
Firefox - My dedicated browser. Very rarely do I use IE 7.
FireFTP - A Firefox plugin extension that allows me to manage multiple ftp accounts from inside the browser.
Dreamweaver MX - I am still pugging away on an older version of Dreamweaver, but it does the job and has color coded text for editing html and php. It occasionally bites the dust and locks up. I get by.
PHP.net - With most of my work being done using PHP, I can plug into the site and search for a function, check out examples, and get user feedback. Very good resource in PHP development.
Bluefish - Essential the open source version of Dreamever, it has many of the same features and is pretty robust. I use it when working from my Ubuntu laptop.
MySQL Admin - MySQL and PHP go together like open source bread and butter. MySQL is the ever improving open source database platform. Still lacks some of the features of Microsoft SQL and Oracle but has vastly improved with stored procedures, table locking, and transactions.
Professional Work
Remote Desktop - I remote into different servers across the country with about two clicks. The newest version stores multiple usernames and passwords. It also allows for copy/paste functionality between a local workstation and a remote server. It does a pretty good job without flaking out.
Microsoft SQL 2K and 2K5 - The essential back end for any Windows program, it does a very good job and costs a pretty penny. There are limited express versions for small application usage, but they’re limited. SQL Server Studio Management replaces 2000’s Enterprise Manager. I’ve had issues with Studio Management, but it does the job and offers more functionality than Enterprise Manager.
Virtual PC - Makes my job way too easy. I can have two open XP environments both logged into different VPNs, remote desktop to my essential servers without cutting off access to local resources .
Outlook and Microsoft Exchange - Can you tell I work at pro Microsoft shop? A robust email system. Not as cool as Gmail.
Visual Studio - A tool for development that does way too much to learn.
Babel Fish tells me it means “With badness towards hats red” which gives me no clue what in the heck it means other than recalling that Dan has a vendetta against the ladies in purple with red hats.
Well his badness has just released a new address (http://blogfreespringfield.com) and design on the Blog Free Springfield blog. Very rojo.
No puppy pictures, but a good way to kill an afternoon.
It’s Tuesday and I still have a wedding high. Or maybe I’m still drunk? Featured above is my beautiful bride in her beautiful dress being photographed by Dave Heinzel.
I was not allowed to look, peek, or even daydream about the dress till the ceremony. And I was warned multiple times that if I even caught a glimpse of it she call the whole thing off. Faithful to the moment she walked down the aisle, I didn’t even peek as I had to haul it from the hotel to the house.
She was so pretty, she was asked by the bridal store owner to model the dress in a bridal show this winter.
Now that I’m Mrs. Shoo, does that make this our blog?
I don’t know that I necessarily want the blog. It’s more fun to occasionally hijack it for a post. Anyway, thanks to all who celebrated us, and all who kept us in your thoughts. We had a lovely time and are adjusting to the Mr./Mrs. thing.
As I said in a comment on an earlier post, Shoo asked me to get a nose-hair trimmer for him. He never asked me to buy things like that before he put that ring on my finger. We’ve discussed money, the house, my spending, but nose-hair?!
By the end of the week, the intertubes is going to be so tired of wedding pictures.
Sterno, Benny, Roommate Steve, Shoo, TheEd
Benny was the life of the party. He feared nothing. He talked to everyone. I think he even made some money off the dollar dance.
Christy, Jen
I had never met Christy before the wedding. At the rehearsal dinner I offered to buy her two beers, she immediately proclaimed that she gave her approval of me and I could marry GTG. She drives a hard bargain.
Just a bunch of fudge packers.
A 130 pieces of individually wrapped fudge did not make it out to the wedding till it was too late. Sterno did not want to pack the fudge.
Dad & Mom
My mom was upset that there wasn’t a Mother-Groom dance. I made it up to her by dancing with her to Soulja Boy’s Superman song. She had no idea what she was doing.
The sound clip above is a voicemail from Roommate Steve. Being the good groomsman, he tried many different ways to break me down, make me cry, get me to run, but the best prank he pulled was getting the tux rental lady to do a little switcheroo.
I was suppose to pick up my tux by Thursday afternoon so that if there was a problem with the tux they could overnight whatever was needed by Saturday. I spent Saturday afternoon cleaning the house and then leaving at 4 for St. Louis so I could pick up a bridesmaid and groomsman from the airport, leaving me no time to get my tux.
Friday I head over to pick up my tux with my dad and brother. Inconspicuously, the lady sends me to the changing room while holding my brother and dad up front so she can tell them about the prank. I come out of the dressing with everything on but the coat. I start to put the coat on when I realize that something wasn’t right. The coat was about 3 sizes to small. It was so small that my arms were almost pulled up horizontally from my body.
The lady comes up to me, “So, how does everything fit.” At this time I am starting to sweat bullets, “Everything is fine, but the coat is a little small.”
“Umm, do you think you can lose some weight? This is why you should have been in on Thursday.”
She let me sweat bullets for another 20 seconds and then proceeded to hand me the correct coat from behind the counter informing me that I just put on a kids coat.
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