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November 27, 2007
6 Degrees
That was the temperature outside when I woke up this morning. I decided it was time to break out my new coat. It worked like a charm. It really feels like a thick hooded sweatshirt sewn into a big coat with another hood. So I was nice and warm from my mid thigh through my head. I had unfortunately forgotten my gloves, so my hands were not so lucky. They were very cold as a drove a cold and grumpy car home. The mazda made it clear to me it was not happy being left outside in the cold by giving me a rather pitiful turn over before catching when I started it this evening. The battery is supposed to be fine, at least that is what the guys who "winterized" it told me. If the battery dies during routine operation this winter, I'm going to take it back to them...
Next up, snow...
Posted by kfeigh at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2007
Ama*zon wackiness
I order a fair amount of stuff through Ama*zon and I either have a wonderful experience or a horrible one. There seems to be no in between and mostly it is based on their ability to ship my stuff via the free shipping program. Sometimes, like today, it ships quickly. Tonight I think they broke a record. I placed an order around 5pm, and by 10 the items had shipped. Other times I wait for almost a week for items to ship. I've tried to take into account things that I think would influence the time to ship. All of the items claim to be in stock. I tend to order on a weekend (today being no exception) so that is also fairly consistent. What appears to be inconsistent is their staffing.
Ah the foibles of a super large corporation. Ir, why don't you do something about this... I'd like a time to ship estimate to go with my arrival time estimate.
Posted by kfeigh at 10:55 PM | Comments (4)
November 17, 2007
Packaging
Sometimes when I read packaging or instructions I laugh out loud. I cannot help myself. I am ashamed to think that some of these things actually need to be said. Tonight was a good example. I bought a new set of arch support inserts. These are the cheap, foam, 3/4 insole kind you can get at a drugstore. I opened up the package and when I was taking them out, I noticed in large capital letters the word RIGHT in the foam. I laughed out loud.
Posted by kfeigh at 10:05 PM | Comments (0)
Snow
This morning I awoke to a light dusting of snow outside. It is still coming down. I don't think it will turn in to any kind of accumulation. Flurries are always so hypnotic. The snow is so light that it doesn't seem as if it will ever make it to the ground, it floats so slowly by the window.
Posted by kfeigh at 09:07 AM | Comments (0)
November 12, 2007
What if most of what we know about nutrition was wrong?
Right now I'm reading a book that I came across randomly during my reading of the NYTimes Magazine. In it was an article by a man by the name of Gary Taubes. He was taking on the medical establishment and making a lot of sense in the process. I've become rather disappointed in the medical community lately as it is seems more and more like an empirical science with few real theories behind what causes disease. This is especially true, or so I thought of nutrition. I mean how else can you explain the "new" findings every other day of what to eat and then what not to eat. Don't we fund research to actually answer these questions. Well the answer is yes we do, but "we" don't like the answers.
I was so compelled by his article that I decided to get his book.I'm reading Gary's book, Good Calories, Bad Calories and am blown away by it. It is quite simply an extended literature review of the history of nutritional science for the past century. Most of what I know, or thought I understood, now seems wrong.
I'm torn. On one hand he lays out a really convincing set of arguments backed up by facts. But it must be what it was like for European's to learn that the Earth was not the center of the universe. All the data makes so much more sense, with the sun at the middle, yet it is hard to let go of the "truth" you grew up with.
I feel like an evangelical convert. I have a hard time not telling everyone I meet about this book. If you are curious I recommend going to Amazon and looking it up. If you have ever been curious about nutrition, esp. heart disease, diabetes, and high cholesterol you need to read it. I caution though, although extremely well written it is not light reading.
I originally bought the book for my mom's Christmas present, but now will have to come up with something else because (she now knows about it). Maybe I'll still give her a copy, if she doesn't buy one for herself first. My poor dad is going to have the hardest time with it though as he's been the one suffering the most to keep his cholesterol down. Dad have you ever had your apo B measured? If not, you should.
Posted by kfeigh at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2007
Remote wars
My apartment complex is OK, but they suffer from an inability to keep the equipment that they have in good working order, or open. The whirl pool is a good example, it has probably been working and open for about 3 days since I moved in.
The other issue (and the topic of this post) is the good working order or existence of remote controls. This is especially troubling for me down in the workout room. Not that I really want to change channels very often, but the volume really does need to be adjusted depending on how many machines are being used. So for a while the remote was available but had dead batteries. To solve this problem I bought batteries. (they did actually replace them before I got a chance to put them in) The batteries come in handy though for the common room TV, whose remote batteries are also dead. So every time I go down there I bring my own batteries to use while I watch the TV. If they were polite enough to leave the room open at night, I would ante up the batteries on a permanent basis. But since I have to break in to use it, I'm keeping my batteries.
So back to the workout room remote. It disappeared a while a go has now been gone for about a month. I have no idea where it has gone. So I have decided to buy my own remote. 5 bucks at big lots and I'm set.
Now back to fighting for the whirl-pool.
Posted by kfeigh at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)
Hardware store
I love hardware stores. I'm not sure what it is exactly about hardware stores that are just more fun than clothes stores. Perhaps it is just my nature. I really like projects, and the idea that all of the things in a hardware store are usually part of a project. So last night I was wandering around the local home de*pot enjoying myself far longer than necessary to simply get a key duplicated. I love looking at all the new and old gadgets, trying to figure out if I actually have a problem that any of them could solve. I actually did find a few. I walked away with the key, some weather stripping for my patio door and two door stops. All told I spent less than $6.
Posted by kfeigh at 02:53 PM | Comments (1)
November 04, 2007
Where to begin
I haven't fallen off the planet, just been away for a while. Well to start with I've been sick for the past two weeks. It started abruptly Tuesday morning before last, and lasted through this past Friday. I think I've got it mostly licked now, which is good because I get my flu shot on Thursday.
Lots of stuff has happened in the past two weeks. Yesterday I finally got my natural gas bill for the gas (or lack of) that I've used since moving in. I now know that I get to pay $6.50 every month for the convenience of having the ability to use gas when I need it. Yes, I got a bill for $13.18 for the past two months where I used no gas. I was rather amused or annoyed, I cannot decide which.
Brian came up to visit last weekend (yes during the cold). We had a pretty good time considering. We played tourist and I got to show him around the small area of the city that I know. As the temperatures continue to drop around here, by the next time he comes there will be snow on the ground.
Work is picking up. I've been having more fun. Some of my jobs are good and intellectually challenging, others are not. I've spent way too much time this week converting experimental videos from one format to another. Between not having the software I needed to not having the processing power, it was always one thing or another holding me back.
Posted by kfeigh at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)