Category: Life and How to Live it

This space reserved for doodles. Really?

I saw this in an issue of The Daily Cougar earlier this week.
I saw this in an issue of The Daily Cougar earlier this week.
The issue was full of puzzles and three comics.
The issue was full of puzzles and three comics.
It's The Daily Cougar Finals Edition! Back in the day, we didn't have a Finals Edition - unless I remember wrong - and we would have never filled an issue with only puzzles and comics, even if some say that's the only reason it's read. I guess times change.
It's The Daily Cougar Finals Edition! Back in the day, we didn't have a Finals Edition - unless I remember wrong - and we would have never filled an issue with only puzzles and comics, even if some say that's the only reason it's read. I guess times change.

‘Oh my God do we love patterns’

Kim’s sitting right next to me, and she said I should add a comma to the title of this post, but you know what? The article it comes from didn’t add the punctuation, and I just don’t feel like ruining the flow of it. You see?

Also, on a related copy editing tangent, I’m really glad that the Associated Press changed the style of the word, “website” – previously, it was mandated that it be written as two words with the first one capitalized, as in ‘Web site’ – I found this out today thanks to a colleague who lamented the change. But I love it. It’s about time. Website, website, website, website, website!

Anyway, back to the title of this post, there was this great blog posting I read this week just because the title was “The Care and Feeding of a Developer” which, after reading the article, I take to be the title of a presentation given by someone named Jason Johnson who spoke at some conference or something. Whatever! I was just in it for the part where it suggests bosses buy their (web?) developers bigger monitors and other tech gadgets that “passively” increase their work performance. There was a bunch of videos in the post – none of which I watched – because unless it’s 30 seconds long and involves a cat on a Roomba, I just won’t watch it, people.

Anyway, here’s a quote from the article:

“OK, three of them have some sort of interest in music, and you all listen to music while you hack? Right? Yes, there’s a connection here – patterns. Developers love, love, love patterns. Oh my God do we love patterns. We like relational databases, we like constructs and languages that do really neat things and they happen over and over again. So we’re constantly looking for these patterns to satisfy this need for immediate gratification. We love it.”

Speaking of patterns, I found this great website called Repper Lite that allows you to make a pattern from a photo you upload. I know how to do this in Photoshop, but what’s cool about this website, is it has some built in filters that distort the photo similar to a kaleidoscope, and you can alter the photo quicker than Photoshop.

So I uploaded the following photo of my new Neon Cowboy rose:

(UPDATE! Now, click on the photos for a sample page with the pattern)

Neon Cowboy rose
Neon Cowboy rose
The first pattern I created with Repper Lite.
The first pattern I created with Repper Lite.
Numero dos.
Numero dos.
The last pattern. Which one is your favorite?
The last pattern. Which one is your favorite?

Stranded on a Friday afternoon

Oh, sure. I’ll put a little fixin’ on it. And put the CD wallet on my turn signal. That will hold. That will keep my shorted out fog light from staying on all day while I work, allowing me to meet my beautiful wife in Sugar Land for a Friday night out on the town.

But, uh, no. My genius fix backfired on me today and I found myself stranded in the work parking lot at quitting time on the eve of a nice weekend. Perfect! So Kim saved me … again.

I (reluctantly) got a new battery Friday night, and on Sunday we drove to the parking lot, and 25 minutes later – and a lot of grease on my hands – I fired up the car with my new battery installed.

Here’s what the mileage read:

What the odometer read when my car sprung back to life.
What the odometer read when my car sprung back to life.

So, I drove it home and when I got there I unhooked the battery and fired up the laptop to try to figure out how to disable the fog light that just won’t turn off on its own.

Soon after, I stumbled across this page on PTdoityourself.net that made me curious about my #8 fuse. I removed it, and checked everything – and it worked! No more fog light! No more battery drain! Why didn’t I just do this earlier?

The #8 fuse was the culprit.
The #8 fuse was the culprit.

Always winking

My 2003 PT Cruiser is winking at me. And everyone else. All the time.

Because the fog lights think that they’re on. Even though I turned them off. Well, one of the lights – the other one burned out like a year ago. I just haven’t gotten around to replacing it.

The fog light problem started happening about a month ago. Randomly, usually when I first start the car. But, I’d adjust the lighting control, and, it would stop.

Yesterday, though, it wouldn’t turn off. I was on my way home. I tried everything. When I parked it, I tried turning on the turn signal after the car was off. That worked!

But, today, it did not.

See. It's winking.
See. It's winking.

That’s why I have a CD case sitting on the light control switch. Something must be shorted out. And that fixes it. For now.

The fix.
The fix.

Anyways, that would all be fine and such if it were just one technical abnormality. But, there was the issue of the screwed screws that were included in the packaging of the china cabinet I put together during the cold front weekend. It was part of my to-do list. Here’s a photo: two messed up screws out of 12 is a pretty crappy average.

Though screwed, these screws still basically worked.
Though screwed, these screws still basically worked.

And the refrigerator makes this insane noise all the time, too. The fix: Unplug it and swear at it. That last part is the most important.