Text Substitution

I just noticed a feature that I don't recall seeing in the 10.6 feature list; text substitution, in System Prefs->Language & Text->Text. If you can't remember that option–; produces an ellipsis or option–2 produces a trademark symbol, then you can turn on text substitution (if the app supports it) and then just type 3 periods or "tm" respectively. There've been apps that would do this for you ever since, jeez, System 7 maybe? TypeIt4Me is one. But they didn't always work. Hopefully this will, it being an actual OS feature now. I'll have to think of some things I'd like it to substitute for me, since I already know most of the option key chars.

Still waiting for iStat Menus to get updated for 10.6 so I can install it on the rest of the Macs.

Apple Sucks

OK, fuck it. I'm switching to these computers. Why? That'll be obvious once you see their slightly NSFW ads (no naughty bits are showing). Hubba fucking hubba.

Groovy JD Images

Here's a gallery of HDR images of John Deeres. Dirt and grime look really good in HDR. I just wish Jalopnik would use a better gallery. This new one sucks so fucking hard. You have to click more than needed, and you really have to junk through rings of fire if you want to snatch their fullsize images.

Of Cake and Cats

Here's Kim's weird cake.



The cats gets to play in the garage on Saturdays. I looked out and saw that Squiggy wanted to go for a ride.

Really? Fall Already?

Man, it's chilly today. First day of the season that the weather made me wear pants. Goddamnit.

We dropped off the receiver today, then headed to the Ridgedale Apple store. Had a nice old guy helping us. Musta been 75 or so. Nice to see somebody like that in there. I also picked up 10.6 while I was there—I almost forgot about it being out today. I've installed it on the MacBook Pro so far, but think I will hold off until some 3rd party shit gets updated, like iStat Menus. It doesn't load in 10.6. It's also goofy the way Apple made the System Preferences quit and relaunch if you try to use a 32–bit panel. Maybe it will prompt tons of users to bug the fuck out of developers that haven't released a 64–bit version of the pref pane.

I also got her Guitar Hero: Smash Hits. She wanted Barracuda. I like that it has a bunch of really good songs, like Caught in a Mosh, Them Bones, Godzilla, Mother, The Trooper, Cult of Personality, Cowboys from Hell (although I wish it was Walk instead), No One Knows, Psychobilly Freakout, Woman, and… wait for it… YYZ. I don't play it much, but the other night we were trading back and forth and I thought I'd try some song on the hardest level. Fuck! Lots of right hand slides and stuff on the special slidy area of the neck. But I didn't do too bad. I kept getting my left fingers out of position when I'd go up to the 5th "fret". Sorta fun. Looking forward to Forza Motorsport 3 this fall.

Baked her a birthday cake this afternoon. French vanilla with cherry frosting. I even decorated it. Drew a goofy little cartoon cat for the helluvit, and shook on some red sprinkles. I'm so Julia Child.

More Metal Cello

Here's one of the guys from Apocalyptica dueling with a guitarist from Cry for Silence. Cellos and distortion were made for each other.

Apocolyptica

Cooked Amps and Tiny WiFi Hotspots

Kim's in NY for a couple days. She called and bitched about the internet connectivity of the supposedly high class hotel she's in. There's nothing in the rooms. In the lobby is a certain chair that can get a wireless connection, but not reliably. There's also something where you pay like $10 for 5 minutes to use. What a bunch of shit. Even the AmericInn in podunk Peoria had free wireless throughout the hotel.

Our Marantz receiver has been acting up ever since the MartinLogans got hooked up. Not right away, but after a couple days of running the radio through them during the afternoon at a reasonable volume to help them get broken in. Now it shuts down when the volume knob gets past a certain level. I tried switching out the MLs for the old Definitives, but it still happens. Also tried unhooking the other channels one by one to see if one was shorted out or something. So I called Stereoland and he surmised that, since the MLs' high section goes down to around 2Ω that perhaps the Marantz is not handling that heavy of a load so well, and might've cooked something during the extended sessions. The manual lists 8Ω and 6Ω power ratings. At least it has a 3–year warranty and I've had it for exactly 1 year minus 3 days, so I'll take 'er in for fixin'. I'll drop it off tomorrow while we're on Kim's iPhone birthday present shopping trip. But, I have a hunch it will happen again after a short time. Fuck. My only option would be to get another 2–channel amp to use for the MLs. I'm guessing something that can deliver good, clean power to 2Ω ain't gonna be cheap. I know; I'll build a Heathkit amp! Then I'll build these speakers and sell the electrostats!

Rug U Want

Mark Mothersbaugh (ya know, the Devo guy) has some rugs. They're really cool. I love his weird sense of style. Loom it. Loom it good.

When in Doubt, Make Shit Up

Some of these movie posters from Ghana are weird beyond comprehension. Cujo looks more like he got into some meatloaf while napping on the porch than a killing beast.

Peoria—Still Sounds Like a Gum Disease

The road trip was pretty good. This is the first time I've had someone else with me. It didn't make the trip go any faster, but it was less boring. Those last couple hours once you get into Illinois always suck.

When I get back home, I need to debug the receiver. Damn thing is shutting off after a few seconds while watching Blu–ray. Listening to radio is fine. Watching satellite is fine, except some channels. It almost sounds like a problem with some audio or video throughput. Dunno, but it pisses me off. Perhaps I cooked some chip by having it in the cabinet. It does get pretty hot, but I assumed it was OK because the cabinet has all sorts of slots for cooling in the bottom and shelves. At first I thought it was the electrostats causing the problem and feared the receiver was too weak to handle them. But then I plugged in the old speakers instead and the problem persisted.

If you're reading this on Tuesday, think of me and how boring some of the meetings are. And if you think hard enough, maybe you can transport me back home. I'd appreciate it!

Sister Visit

We had a nice time with my sister visiting over the weekend. Took her to Excelsior and Hopkins, ate at Smashburger and Maynard's. It's OK there. Valets, pretty good menu (I had a Cuban, which was pretty fucking good), huge patio if you want to eat out there and look at the lake. The people watching is really interesting. Lots and lots of snooty rich people; bitchy women and asshole men. When we were snaking our way through the people to go outside, I apparently missed some woman who was showing about 6" of underwear above the back of her pants. Deb and Kim saw it. Bright pink I think. Not a thong, but regular panties or even granny panties, judging by how high up they went.

Not for an absolutely sucky week as I head to Peoria for a complete waste of time, then Kim goes to NY after I get back.

More Rain

OK, so we haven't had much rain this Summer. But one solid day of it is enough. More sun, please.

My sister's coming up to visit for the weekend. Should get here tonight, hopefully after rush hour. I doubt she's driven in heavy traffic since she left Tulsa many years ago, but I'm sure she and her little truck can handle it.

I was hoping this week would've been more busy at work, after a week–long vacation. I'm waiting for the guys in the home office to finish their part of the work, which has to be done before I can do the rest of it. But it's been taking them months. I'm not used to having to wait for others to finish projects like this. I'm usually the one that designs and codes new features and such, and I do it very quickly, so I'm going nuts waiting and wondering why this is taking so long. And I get waaay too few progress updates. Arg.

Gigantic Hair

The most recent exhibition at Square America is a collection of hairdos at one salon around the turn of the '60s/'70s decade. Not just any hairdos, but big, enormous hairdos with lots of plantlife and other props in them. They defy gravity. The cans of hairspray for just one of them probably did more to deplete the ozone layer than all the cars in the state. The woman with the large playing cards doesn't look too thrilled with what she must now be seen with.

I dig the chrome dryers, orange chairs, the floor, and the sunburst clock. They must've done a booming business with all those dryers. But then back in those days, tons of women of all ages would get a weekly shampoo and set, and those chairs were full and the gossip in the air was thick as pea soup.

Microhoover

The new microwave was delivered yesterday and, with the help of Geoff, lifted it into place that evening. The one on display in the store didn't have a timer button. I thought that was really odd. All microwaves since the beginning of time have a timer. But we figured we could get by using the one on the stove and a manual dingy one, although neither allows you to do seconds. Turns out, everybody bitched and LG ended up putting a timer button on this model at some point. They simply moved the Start button to the left and added the Timer button there. Easy as cake.

Man, it's only 200 watts more powerful than the old one (1100 vs. 900), but the old one must've been worn out or something. To test it today, I cooked a hot dog with the Hot Dog button. Man, was that fast. Now we'll have to get used to cooking things for less time or on a lower power.

Whoever installed the previous microwave was a complete Gomer. I'm guessing it was the previous owner. He seemed like he'd have a hard time figuring out how to work a hammer. There were 2 holes drilled through the bottom of the upper cabinet where 2 large bolts go through to secure the oven in place. It looks like he held a beaver up there and had it chomp through the cabinet. The holes are about 5 times too big and are nowhere near circular. So I had to add some big ass washers to make sure the bolt head never pulls through.

Gold–plated Pig Guts

In the "Electrostatic History" section of the MartinLogan owner's manual:

Bell Laboratory's electrostat was something to behold. This enormous bipolar speaker was as big as a door. The diaphragm, which was beginning to rot, was made of a pig intestine that was covered with fine gold leaf to conduct the audio signal.

This was around 1923. I didn't know electrostatic speakers had been around for so long.

RC Rocket Launcher

Here's a really fun video. Not only does the guy have a seriously cool camera and head–mounted monitor and controller (yup, he pans the camera by turning his head), but he also mounted some rockets to the little plane and recorded the flight. Great fucking song too. Rammstein are so good.

Françoise Hardy

My speakers are here! Got them hooked up and will be blasting music through them during the day to get them broken in. (Also need to get the atoms all lined up in the cables, ya know. Now where'd I put my $1200 power cable burn–in–er?)

Saw a different video by this beautiful, sexy French chick. I've heard the name, but this is the first time I've seen or heard her sing. I'm not sure what she's singing about, but I don't really care. She's gorgeous. This was probably late '60s or early '70s. Hot even by today's standards.

Logos and Microwaves

Here's an interesting look at how logos have been overhauled for better and for worse. I hate the new crooked Pepsi logo; the old wave was Pepsi, and new one looks like some stupid Pokémon logo. I don't really mind the new BP look, but the old staid and simple shield was always a favorite of mine. The Kraft makeover is horrendous. Lower case letters and a binky little splat at the end still doesn't make Walmart a brand I'll trust or go to for any reason other than to puke on them.

Yesterday we went to the big park by the lake in Excelsior and just laid in the sun. The place was almost deserted, which seemed weird, but then it was the middle of the week. After that we got delicious ice cream; a peppermint shake for me and something called Superman sherbet in a sugar cone for Kim. Cooked pork chops for supper and played with the mini. I found some more apps for the iPod to use as a controller. Air Mouse Pro is by far the coolest and offers the most features, and it's on sale for $2 instead of $6. Whee. Also got the free Mocha VNC Lite to do screen sharing. It takes a lot of zooming and scrolling to navigate around a 1920x1080 screen via the iPod touch screen. We've been using Boxee, which sort of gathers many video sites (Hulu, Joost, MTV, etc…) into an easy–to–navigate FrontRow type UI. It also has a free iPod app for getting around in it. Boxee is still in alpha, so many of the sites don't work. But nicely, many of the commercials also don't work at this point. Score!

We walked around downtown Hopkins today, looking at all the little stores on Main St. Really not much that interested Kim, but I dig junky old antique stores. We went into a couple. I got a genuine Dog 'n' Suds heavy glass mug at one. I know I've been to a Dog 'n' Suds when I was a kid, but I can't remember where it was? Was the drive–in in Washington always an A&W? Hmm.

After that we went back to the place where I got my glasses and had my regular lenses put back in. I just wasn't digging the Progressive lenses that I wanted to try recently. The number of times that they pissed me off far outnumbered the times that they helped: Watching TV sucked, forcing me to sit upright (not gonna happen) or perch my glasses down on my nose. Could no longer glance at driver side rear view mirror without turning head. Couldn't look at something straight down on the floor without having to bend my neck way down so I looked like Charlie Brown when he was depressed.

Since we were over there, we went to Warner's Stellian and picked out a new microwave to replace the underpowered cheap black one that was in the house. We decided on an LG—this'll be my first experience with one of their products. The one we liked has a great looking front face that mimics our oven door, 2 lights near the front for much more useful stovetop lighting, and a 5–speed fan whose slower speeds are actually not annoying like so many vent fans are (not that we use it much because of the downdraft exhaust in the stove, but it is useful once in a while). It also has a unique turntable that also rolls from side to side as it turns, helping to eliminate any cold or hot spots that the magnetron misses or focuses on.

Plants and Ice Cream

Today's outing was to the Arboretum out west on 5. I didn't know it was a U of M thing. It's a pretty neat place, and big. Lots to see, if you're into looking at plants. Take a compass though. We got a bit lost trying to get from one area to another because the paths don't really look like they do on the map, and they wind around like crazy. But I'm happy to report that we never circled around and went over the same path twice. We spent maybe 2.5 hours looking around, then headed to the main building for a Nestlé Crunch ice cream bar from the cafeteria upstairs.

Man, my Grandpa on my Mom's side would've loved that place. He was such a plant guy, and took care of a good size garden at the jr. high school in Washington, IA, featuring banana trees and huge philodendrons with delicious fruit. In 6th grade we had to make a leaf book. You know, go around and collect a bunch of leaves from different trees and write about them. I had pretty much the same leaves as everyone else, but I was the only kid with a 3' banana leaf and a giant leaf and fruit from a South American philodendron. Everybody got a bite. I got an A.

His large yard was also full of all kinds of plants. I'd help him water things when I was a kid, or carry the snippers and things if he needed to prune something. We'd always finish the job with a nice cool drink of water from their well, pumped into an aluminum cup he kept hanging on it. That was good water.