The 6 Month Rule

Unlike my packrat father, I have a rule that I've self imposed on myself. If I haven't used it in 6 months I can throw it out. Last night I backed up the trailer to the backdoor and loaded it up. The rule got stretched by a good 2 years so it was definately time. Some of it I threw away I have no clue about. If I didn't have a sentimental attachment to it, or legal need of it, Or wouldn't help me make any money it went!

One of those jobs that seems to rise to the put off until another day list. I need to do the same with the storage shed also. The goal eventually is to not use the backroom for storage at all. I plan on knocking out a wall and making a larger bedroom.

It was 94 degrees when I came home from work yesterday so I waited for a few hours to start my project. My motivation actually was to make enough room to move the "overflow"stuff out of the other bedroom to make way for my favorite teenager.

The chief cook and bottle washer's daughter lives in Tennessee and we fly her out every year for the summer. This will be her third trip. Last year she picked up some work at the local market when she was out so we didn't see her as often but was still a great visit.

So I've got to go to Sacramento tonight to pick her up at 8pm.

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What the Word BOAT means:

Saturday morning I got out early and started working on the boat like I'd planned. While I was figuring out my material list to get the fishfinder mounted, I noticed my seat was busted. Well I could have likely fixed it but I decided I needed new seats. Then there was the problem of needing a new winch and strap. Didn't finish on Saturday.

Sunday I felt ill all day. this could be from too much sun the day before and reactions to the meds I'm on. So I just camped on the couch all day Sunday.

Finished up all the odds and ends on Memorial day...yesterday and looks like its ready for the lake.

When you buy a boat of any size they fail to tell you what it means...Bust Out Another Thousand!

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Nothing to Blog about!

For the last few weeks I've been fighting a sinus infection. Also fighting going to the doctor to get antibiotics. Lately when I come home from work, I don't even look at the computer except maybe for a few minutes to close everything I opened in the morning.

The fence project is slowly taking shape though. Last weekend I put in another post and panel and assembled the frame for the gate. I picked up a kit that makes it easy actually. Guaranteed never to sag. Not sure at this point though where the top of the new walkway is so I can't actually put boards on the gate but you can see where it will be. I made it a little wider than most people would so it would be easy to get in couches and appliances etc.

This weekend I'll probably mount the fishfinder in the boat and go try it out. I've never used a fishfinder before so that will be a new experience. I have a new reel I want to try out also.

Anyway I still feel crumby and Don't have anything to Blog about!

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TechZilla News

 TechZilla News

TechZilla News is a free service of BluePlanetPC.com


TechZilla Says: 

Windows XP and Vista both use a little feature in Windows Update to try to lessen the blow of downloading and installing updates. It's called "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" or codename B.I.T.S. What it does is limit the amount of bandwidth Windows Update uses when downloading updates so you can still surf and read emails and generally not be bothered by the process.

But Guess what? BITS is trusted by both Windows and Firewalls. Now some new trojans are supposedly able to compromise and use BITS to download additional malware to your system undetected. I suppose Microsoft probably will have to re-invent the wheel again because of it.

The key to protect against this is of course like I've said many times before...keep your security software updated and don't do stupid things. By security software I refering to Firewall, Anti-Virus, and Anti-spyware software...you need at least one of each right?

Switching over from running automatic updates to manually doing Windows Updates from the Windows Update Website might not be such a bad idea. Of course you would need to turn off automatic updating in the control panel in the system properties. New updates typically don't come out untill the second tuesday of the month or so anyway.

With automatic updating turned off, you should not see the little downloading shield icon in the system tray by the clock any more. If you do then something funny is going on with your system and it may have been compromised.

Copyright © TechZilla News 2007

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The Maiden Voyage - FISH ON!

Well the boat made it to the lake today. First off, the captain forgot to double check the drain plug. It was in but not good enough. We got it off the trailer ok and I took the car and trailer to the parking area. The first mate didn't notice the water filling up.

Some kindly boaters assisted draining the boat for us so it all turned out well even though the boat winch line broke when I was trying to pull the boat out before it sunk. They had one of those super squirt cannons that actually did a fairly good job. Besides the winch line, I also broke one of the wooden rails the boat loads up on. Someone made them out of redwood. I think I'll go with oak when I replace it. I may get a new winch that uses a strap instead of a rope also,

Besides all the preliminary mishaps the rest of the day was fantastic. The first mate almost fell overboard trying to land a 14" chinook salmon. She holds the biggest fish of the day award for that one but gets the smallest fish of the day for a bass she caught in a favorite cove of mine. As for me, I landed a couple respectable chinooks and a pretty nice bass. Our secret is Night Crawlers (shhh). Chinooks here are a "land locked" salmon. They never get to go to the ocean because of the dam.

They actually put up one heck of a fight though for a fish that size. I need to replace the reel I was using because  the last fish stripped the gears, Even though I have heavier gear, I like fishing with the light stuff. lot's more of a challenge. Even more a challenge is to try to manuvre a boat and reel in a fish at the same time without getting tangled on the other person's line.

We ended up spending about 10 hours on the lake today. It was hot but we had a nice breeze so you didn't really notice the heat at all. So were both tired now and time to eat leftovers.

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How to Reduce Gas Prices

Every time I turn around I'm getting some email forwarded to me with a plan to reduce gas prices. I can't believe the number of people who buy into this total crap! Not buying gas for a day or boycotting certain brands will not have any effect on the anybody but the poor retailer who sells the stuff to consumers for pennies of profit on the gallon.

Gas prices, like other things in the marketplace are controlled in part by supply and demand. When supplies of a commodity exceed consumption, prices are reduced to promote sales. As consumers, we can't control the commodity trading and OPEC greed but we can effect supply and demand. I think this is one reason all the boycott and gas-out schemes seem to gain acceptance. Most people understand this concept.

Our legislators have made it so no new refineries can be built. 20-30 refineries have been closed because the equipment was so old, it was no longer economically feasible to keep them running. Upgrading the facilities to match federal air quality standards is a very expensive operation. The refineries can also use this as an artificial way to control the supply. Another thing that effects supply is storage capacity.

My idea to reduce fuel prices wouldn't cost the refineries or anybody along the line a penny to implement. I'm sure there are also reasons why it may not work due to the different fuel mixes etc, but I think it's worth considering. As I stated earlier, storage capacity can effect supply.

If consumers would flat out stop buying mid-grade fuel (something few people need and actually buy), every tank devoted to the storage of mid-grade fuel could be converted for storage of the low-grade fuel that most of us buy. I'm talking about every tank from the refiners to the pumps. This would double the storage capacity of regular fuel. Mid grade fuel consumers would now become either low-grade or premium buyers. So in doing this, there would be no change in the rate of consumption.

Mid-grade fuel is low-grade fuel that has undergone more refinement. Think of all the energy that could be saved by not producing higher-grade fuels altogether. Energy costs also effect the cost the consumer sees. My guess is these costs  are distributed evenly across a three grades regardless of the type of fuel being produced. Bottom line though is that it takes longer and costs more money to produce mid-grade than low grade. The cost of energy is a production cost...a reduction of that cost can reduce prices.

With more storage capacity available for regular fuel, the refineries could be producing more low grade keeping supplys high enough that they could easily shut down and re-tool for seasonal blends with no interuption in supply at the pumps. All they do is keep making low-grade for a longer period of time  This should also reduce the justification for artificial price hikes during these periods. And the demand would never (well maybe someday in the distant future) be greater than the actual supply.

You want to drop prices even more write your Congressman. Don't complain about the gas companies and demand they investigate...Demand lower taxes. The government, both state and local, make more money per gallon than the refineries or the station operators combined. Demand legislation that requires development of "year-round, environmentally friendly" fuel instead of seasonal blends. Demand reductions in dependancy of the purchace of foreign oil.

On a more personal level, try alternate transportaion methods ...leave the car at home once in a while. It all adds up eventually even though you may never live long enough to see if you destroyed the planet or actually made a difference.

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Geekend Report

Been an interesting week. Lot's of printer repairs theis week. Yesterday was really rough though. I had to recover data off a cd and plug in a network cable to get a security system going...then call Dell and inform them that they misdiagnosed a laptop problem and ordered the correct parts.

Today is a get ready for tommorrow day....

Sunday will be "Maiden Voyage Day for the new toy! I need to go get some fishing licences, get fuel and oil, and pick up a battery charger so I can tryout the trolling motor. Don't know if I'll get much fishing in though. Might just enjoy the boat ride.

I also may work on the fences today too. Since we got a bit of rain, this rock hard soil is easier to dig fence post holes. I need one more for the other side of the gate I'm putting in and another one to put the last panel up in the front.

Doubt if I'm gonna sit at the computer all weekend...places to go and people to see!

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Yet another New Toy!

Time to sell the old boat that I'm never gonna find time to finish. Was out and about today and ran across an old Gregor 12' Aluminum, on a trailer with 3 new tires, seats, oars, cover, dolly and oh by the way a 6HP Johnson and a 42# thrust MinnKota Electric trolling motor. This 80 year old guy bought the thing to fish small lakes with his son and never used it. His son had died and now all it was doing was blocking his travel trailer. Normally, I would try to haggle a better deal but it was already a good deal and didn't want to let it get away from me.

 

A few minor things to fix and I'm ready for the lake. I've got a 15hp Evinrude I need to throw in the shop before I try fishing the river. But basically all I need to do is pickup an anchor and some rope and fix a turn signal on the trailer. I'm gonna pull off the trailer jack and spare tire hardware off the other trailer and mount it on also maybe. Behind the boat is the new cyclone fence we had put in and you can see some of the privacy webing I started inbstalling.

 

So anyway about the only thing left is getting a fishfinder. I've got a redneck in the house so I got that covered also!

 

 

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