Life In General

Why I Love the Antelope Valley…

 Life In General
May 082011
 

I still remember as though it was yesterday the moment I drove past these two Blackbirds almost 20 years ago at this very spot. I was 19 years old and had just arrived in this arid desert called the Antelope Valley. I was fresh out of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with my Airframe and Powerplant license from the FAA and was on my way to work on the B-2 Stealth Bomber. I was still in high school back in Chicago when I read about the cancellation of the SR-71 Blackbird program. I figured back then that I would just never get the chance to actually see one for real. Well, just a few years later I was now working at the airfield where these two birds retired. A short time after that I actually got the chance to see one take off from the runway just a few hundred feet from where I worked… A few years after that I got a private tour of one of the last operational birds –and even got to site in the cockpit and look around! For airplane nerds like me, this is my Graceland!

To the right you can see a U-2 on display. Every morning one of these amazing birds takes off from the runway just a few short miles from where I live very early in the morning. I can hear it in the distance when I head out to work. When we used to live in Rosamond, sonic booms were a constant reminder of the fact that Edwards AFB was just a short drive away. Military aviation history is everywhere in this town!

Another Day On The Job…

 Life In General
May 062011
 

We drove about a half hour to another remote cell site this morning for some inventory work up on a mountain top. Some windy dirt roads and beautiful country side and we were there! Not a bad way to start the day!! We spent the next hour or so tracking down hardware while chasing lizards from getting into the equipment room. What can I say… I LOVE MY JOB!!

A typical day at the office…

 Life In General
May 022011
 

This morning we drove out to a remote site about 20 miles to the east to install some fiber optic equipment at a microwave / cellular antenna site. I could see the dry lake of Edwards AFB in the distance… Not a bad way to start the week!

My New Life Begins!!

 Life In General, Networking
Apr 192011
 

Well it’s been over a month now at my new job and I’m still loving it!! I can’t thank Gerry Hernandez enough for the opportunity this is to me –this is by far one of the greatest things anyone has ever done for me. I have blown so many great career opportunities in the past –and now I’m actually glad because it brought me here to the phone company! I get to play around with some of the coolest pieces of equipment, run cables, test equipment, and generally NOT sit at a desk all day. Here’s a shot of me in the Lancaster central office with the “mainframe” behind me. That’s pretty much all of central Lancaster phone lines winding up where I work. How cool is that?! Anyways, I think this is the perfect blend of mental and physical work for me. Maybe I’ll finally lose that weight I first gained 15 years back when I first got a desk job…

The shot on the right I took at a local cell site. Behind me are the transmitters.

California State Fire Marshal imposes burden on us all

 Automotive, Life In General, Soap Box
Feb 282011
 

My car is full of trash now. I just don’t have the opportunity to empty it out anymore. I used to take the minutes I used to spend standing at the gas pump and take out the trash as it was the only time my car was actually parked next to a trash can. But now I can’t unless I keep the other cars behind mine waiting. This is due to the fact that there are no longer pump nozzle latches installed anywhere I go to pump gas thanks to the California Fire Marshall.

Gas stations fuming about order to remove nozzle latches

So, if you haven’t noticed, there are no more hold-down latches on your gas pumps in California. At first, I thought it was just a problem with one station but I eventually experienced the same thing no matter where I drove. I eventually saw this label on the ATM station at my local AM/PM…

You see, there were a couple of incidents (13 to be precise) “to date” where out-of-warranty pump nozzles latches malfunctioned after being used in the field well beyond their designed lifespan and locked open. On top of that, the boot that normally ensures that there is a positive connection between the nozzle and your gas tank ALSO malfunctioned and managed to spray gasoline on the customer. Frankly, out of the massive amount of gas pumpers in the state, this has got to be nothing more than bad luck if you ask me.

With 34 million people in state, and most of them (let’s say 50%) own cars… Let’s say the average car owner pumps gas every week and a half…. That’s 589 million gas pumping operations a year. To say that “to date” there have been just over a dozen of these incidents (approx. 0.0000002% if my math is right). I hardly think this is a reasonable action to warrant such a burden on the people of California –especially since the gas stations were employing what the nozzle manufacturers would deem “faulty” equipment.

Still the California State Fire Marshal has decided to impose the burden of rectifying this questionable “problem” on us all. So now, weather its raining, bone-chillingly cold, you have arthritis, or simply want to wash your windows while at the pump, you’ll have to do it with the pump off and people waiting for your spot. Nice going Fire Marshal Tonya Hoover. You are officially an idiot and a burden on us all in my book. Yesterday night the outside temperature was well below freezing and I had to stand there in the 20 mph wind and hold the latch on the pump so you can feel like you did something good while at your post. Needless to say, I had some malicious thoughts going your way. You are a typical example of government worker being in a position of authority without consequences. I have little to no recourse against your actions, and even if I did, it still has no affect on you personally. I could sue the state and win and it would probably have no affect on your career or position. Not cool Fire Marshal Hoover.

The fact is that this “problem” is actually a result of mechanical failures and not that there was a hold-open latch on the nozzle. Nothing mechanical lasts forever (or at least we aren’t willing to pay for something that is). The incidents where these failures occurred involved pump nozzles that should have been replaced as they were simply worn out. The fact that TWO different safety features failed on the nozzle is indication enough for me. Both the hold-down latch failed to release after pumping was completed (probably a worn out spring), AND the “insertion interlock mechanism” failed to pop the hold-down latch when there is no contact and positive pressure between the gas tank face plate and the boot of the nozzle. Two mechanical failures that are both due to normal wear and tear. These nozzles simply should have been replaced on a regular schedule to prevent this sort of thing –the manufacturer has already attested to the fact that these incidents were all involving nozzles that were outside of their warranty period! So, instead of imposing the burden on the pump stations to ensure their equipment is in proper working order, the burden is on the millions of customers that must now stand in front of the nozzle, breathe the fumes, and hold the pump themselves. Shame on you Fire Marshal Hoover.

Halloween 2010

 Life In General
Nov 042010
 

This year’s Halloween celebration was a rather special one for me. I actually wasn’t DJ-ing the event for the first time in many years! I was truly able to enjoy this year’s Trunk-or-Treat party at the Antelope Valley Church. Candi and I decided on a whim to be a “flower and bee” couple this year. The inspiration was Mom’s flower pillow gift from last year’s Christmas –thanks Mom!! Enjoy the pics…

New Intake Manifold / Air Filter!!

 Automotive, Life In General
Nov 042010
 

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I managed to install a new intake manifold / air filter for my 2003 Mitsubishi Galant today. Not too shabby for $30 on eBay. I’ll never pay for another disposable air filter again! Although it mentions that there is no need for “extra parts”, I found myself in need of a few miscellaneous nuts and bolts –as well as the need for a custom bracket and tubing adapter. Although it included a standard aluminum strap that I’m guessing was intended to be some sort of bracket-like solution but it’s just not going to fly. I’ve placed the white towel (as you can see) just to hold things in place until I get a custom bracket fabricated up. To the right you can see that there is still a few inches of the black plastic original manifold in place. That’s because the diameter of the air sensor was too big to accommodate the smaller red rubber adapter that came in the kit. Lucky I’m still pretty handy with a saw!!

I have to admit I’ve wanted to do this for a very long time. I’ve wanted to get rid of disposable air filters, take back all the space that the original air box used up for no good reason, –and I also managed to solve the rough idle problem I’ve been having for some time now!

How to Catch Fruit Flies…

 Life In General, Nature
Oct 132010
 

So I recently managed to acquire a family of fruit flies in the house (thanks to a rotting watermelon I left in the trash can too long). As it turns out, they are immune to ant and roach pesticides (among other things). I was afraid they would never leave! But after a bit of web searching, I ran across a little discussion thread talking about this very subject. Sure, the first thing anyone should do with a fruit fly problem is clean up. But once they’re in the house, that’s that. I didn’t really want to use any sort of pesticide since I have 5 cats in the house (which usually takes care of the larger “pest problems”). So I read a suggestion to take a jar, put in some rotting fruit and some water, and add a paper cone to the top (pointing inward) with a tiny pin hole just large enough for the fruit flies to enter. They will be able to enter but not leave. Well, this seemed just too simple but I thought I’d give it a try at least…

24 hrs later, not a single fruit fly in the house that wasn’t in that jar!! Simply amazing little trick that cost me nothing that I didn’t have laying around the house already. Thank you interwebs!!

Can YouTube Fix My Car?

 Automotive, Illustration, Life In General
Sep 252010
 

…The answer is YES!! I have been plagued with a noisy car for about a year now. It’s been slowly getting worse. At first, I thought it was the cheap used tires I had just purchased. Up till now, I would only buy used tires but this episode managed to change my mind. So I tried having them re-balanced. It seemed to help but hardly got rid of the noise I was starting to hear from my car at various speeds. It surely seemed to be bad tires –I’ve heard similar noises in the past and that was exactly what the problem was. So I just kept driving with the noise, I’d turn the music up or just talk louder on my bluetooth headset and wait for the tire to finally blow… Well that moment never came! After nearly a year of a progressively louder problem, I finally had enough money to break down and buy brand new tires from Affordable Tire in Palmdale. First of all, these guys managed to replace my tires AND two broken lug nuts in less than 20 min –and all for a fairly reasonable price. Well you can imagine my dismay when I drove off their lot with the EXACT same noise as when I arrived!! I could just about cry. So now I started looking into what the source of the noise could possibly be now: bearings, ball joints, drive axles, etc…

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I figured it was time to call a professional. I called a friend of mine that works on International Harvesters named Isa (check out his website for more info). A quick check of the car revealed that there was a noise coming from the right wheel when it was the only one turning. That surely meant bearings. A quick check around town told me that a new assembly would cost me about $80 to order. I happen to own the factory manual in PDF for my car so I was able to quickly determine the part I needed… I also started checking around eBay for sources to see if I could save any money buying directly from Detroit (apparently all the vendors for these sort of things come from Detroit exclusively). As t turns out, it’s possible to purchase either the entire front hub assembly or just the bearings alone. I figured that if that was possible, the bearings should slide off of the hub without any problem…

Boy was I wrong! After pulling the front hub assembly, I spent the next 4 hours pounding and pounding to try and get the bearings off the hub! I was desperate because I now had my car parked diagonally in my driveway, jacked up, with a wheel and various parts removed and I just wasn’t willing to now order new parts! I guess it would have been smarter to spend the extra $10 to get the entire bearing assembly as opposed to the $30 bearings. Well, I was committed now and had to find a solution… I slept on it and started making calls in the morning and managed to find a machine shop in Lancaster called “AV Bumper-to-Bumper” that was more than willing to pull the old bearings and press in the new ones for a measly $40. If I had just done my homework before taking the car apart, I would have learned that no one does just the bearings! Oh well, chalk it up to a $40 learning experience! Also I think you should take a look at these old models of Mustangs if you’re planning to buy a classic car. You could also check the interior, and to maintain the classic look, contact Wet Okole car seat covers. Here’s a few other lessons learned in this process…

1) YouTube is a fantastic resource for learning just about anything you want regarding working on your car.  But If you need brake repair, it’s still best to trust a mechanic do the job. Here are the videos that got me through the process:


This little tip video showed me how to remove the hub nut without any straining at all! I happened to have all the necessary tools to pull this job off without a single hitch. Very ingenious trick but sure made my life much easier! I’ve pulled hub nuts in the past and they are a real pain without some very expensive air tools (or this tip).


Although this is a video meant for a domestic car,the principles are the same and some of their tips for loosening bolts around the bearing assembly really helped me not work so hard or improperly… Great video!


This guy is actually working a Mitsubishi so that was nice. In his example, he shows tapping the axle shaft back so you have access to the bolts behind the bearing assembly. That was invaluable to me! I was absolutely at a loss as to how to do this otherwise.


Lastly, this video was a good indicator of just what I was lucky enough to avoid! Had the bearing failed completely, I’m sure I would be replacing a LOT more parts than just the hub assembly!! I really dodged a bullet here…

One final note here worth mentioning is the value of owning good tools. Most of all my tools are brand-name quality like Snap-On or Craftsman. I heard it mentioned in these videos and have experienced for myself the value of good tools and the curse of using cheap tools. In this last exercise, I’d have to say that I put some of my socket tools and breaker bars to the test and had not one issue with them. I can also attest to previous experiences in the past where things didn’t turn out that well using cheaper products!

All in all, this was a good learning experience for me. I will say that next time I will be sure to check out all the YouTube videos I possibly can before even ordering any parts (and check out the discussion forums related to the project for additional tips). $40 isn’t a bad price to pay for my education this weekend!

The Baby Hummingbirds Are Getting Bigger!!

 Life In General, Nature
Jun 072010
 

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Well it’s been somewhere around a week or so since these guys hatched (we can’t be sure). The mother is rarely around anymore. We’re assuming that she’s very busy gathering food for the kids. In fact, we don’t even see her at night anymore (not that she would fit on top of them anymore). It also looks like the kids have worn the nest down at the edges when compared to earlier shots…

The Hummingbird Eggs Have Hatched!!

 Life In General, Nature
Jun 022010
 

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Well it took about twice as long as we had expected but after about 4 weeks the two hummingbird eggs finally hatched. Thanks again to my wonderfully 2″ taller wife, we got this magnificent shot of the nest and the two baby hummingbirds patiently waiting for mommy to return home with some food. We’re going to try and get some video of the feeding but I don’t know if we’ll actually have the time / patience to pull it off…

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Just for an idea of scale, this nest is about the size of a golf ball. Their beaks protruding from the top of the nest is barely noticeable unless you’re looking for it! Otherwise, it just looks like more material from the nest. We’ve noticed that the mother leaves for extended periods of time in the morning and then spends the afternoon and all night sitting on the nest. We’ll keep the pics coming as things progress!!

Finally a shot of the nest!

 Life In General, Nature
May 192010
 

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So I guess it helps being 2 inches taller (as my wife is)… I managed to do a manual focus and exposure shot and had Candi hold the camera right over the nest while mama was out briefly. Looks like two eggs in a rather impressive nest of spider web material and what appears to be cotton! Looks pretty comfortable to me!!

Update to the “Hummingbird Saga”

 Life In General, Nature
May 192010
 

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Well it’s been about a week since mama completed her nest and made a career out of keeping her eggs warm and tended for. I anticipate less than a week until they hatch. The nest has gotten larger and she now spends a great deal of time there holding on as the wind will toss this branch around a bit at times. I haven’t been able to verify if she’s using the feeder Mom and I installed last weekend but I do think that the level of fluid has gone down (and not by evaporation). Unfortunately, I haven’t been home that much this week to keep an eye on her and her activities to see if she’s actually using the feeder though (I sure hope she is). Here are some additional pics:

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Here’s a close-up shot of the nest from the other side. You can see how the choice of location is actually pretty typical of hummingbirds. They like to be out of the sun, high up so the shakes and rodents can’t reach them, and have some shelter from the rain and wind. Nice job mama! You can also see our feeder placed relatively close to her nest.

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This shot wasn’t that easy to take (let alone get in focus). I took the opportunity when mama was out to try and get a shot of the inside of the nest without disturbing the branch. I can see one large egg but the last time I looked (about 10 days ago) we saw what looked like 3 jellybean-sized eggs. I guess we’ll see when they hatch how many there actually were…

We have a new “house guest”!

 Life In General, Nature
May 152010
 

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So about a week ago we started noticing one of the branches of the tree in front of our house (the branch that actually makes it under the eave) was getting a new “addition”. It took about a week for her to build the complete next and lay her eggs. Another week and the nest was completely built. This photo is about the time when she laid her eggs. I think we’re about a week away from them hatching. Thanks Mom for bringing us a hummingbird feeder!! Now mamma’ doesn’t have to travel far to get some nutrients! I’ll be posting more pics soon!!

Fun at Disney…

 Life In General
Oct 272009
 


All I have to say is: my wife loves me!!


So, for $10, I lost a full 30 years of maturity over a silly plastic light saber!!

Vidia and Boomer

 Cats, Life In General
Jul 132009
 

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Vidia has been with us for a couple of years now (the fluffy one). Some crazy lady walked into my wife’s job last last years and asked if anyone wanted a kitten. Candi asked where the cat was and almost on queue the little bugger popped his head out from the lady’s purse… The rest, as they say, is history…

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These shots are on those rare moments when these two kids aren’t chasing each other around the house driving us mad!!

I met Steve Gibson!!

 Life In General, Networking, PC Tech
Jul 092009
 

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I’m such a dork! I used to laugh at those little school girls that would go all crazy for the Jonas Brothers when they saw them –but I’m just the same way! I’m reminded of a great Intel Commercial when I ran into the opportunity to personally meet Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation, the man who coined the term spyware and created the first anti-spyware program, creator of Spinrite and ShieldsUP while I was in Long Beach a few weeks ago. I knew that he had mentioned on his weekly Security Now podcast that he’s been doing most of his coding work while sitting in a Starbucks at UCIrvine. Well that was just a quick 20 min drive for me! Steve was most gracious to me and we talked for a short while as I tried to keep from jumping up and down shouting “I can’t believe I’m actually talking to THE Steve Gibson!!!” Anyways, thank you Steve for being so accessible and contributing so much of your time to the computer security industry.

Oddly enough, I’m not the only one with this attitude… SecureShirts.com even makes a nice black T-shirt that shares my sentiment…

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He’s also #66 in TechCult’s Top 100 Web Celebrities.

What I looked like 20 years ago…

 Life In General, Personal Health
Jan 042009
 

I managed to dig up this old shot after a friend of mine reminded me of it. The shot was taken by a fellow Tae Kwon Do student who was also a photographer. I wish I had known it would have turned out to be such a good shot or I would have tried not to look like my face was about to explode (and probably would have taken my practice pads off). Oh well, at least I have a visual reminder of what I looked like 90 pounds lighter and wearing a black belt! With all that’s changing in my life recently, maybe I’ll get back into martial arts again…

Dental Surgery Fun…

 Life In General, Personal Health
Sep 102008
 


Well if this image isn’t enough to motivate someone to brush and floss regularly I don’t know what will. Yesterday I had 4 teeth removed in one sitting (including one wisdom tooth). I left so much of a hole in my mouth that they needed an artificial bone graft for my lower jaw. Now I’ve lost 3 days of work and am on a steady diet of vicodin and Ensure. At least I’ll probably lose some weight in the process!

Kujo Mama Kitten Progress…

 Cats, Life In General
May 162008
 

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Well the kittens have been almost 1 week away from “Kujo Mama” and seem to be warming up to humans (which is a relief to us all). They spend a majority of the day in their cage but come out at least twice daily to romp around the living room, harass our other two cats, and play with us and whoever seems to be around. Some are more affectionate that others but that is to be expected. We still haven’t decided which ones (or how many) we’ll keep.

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The two black polydactyl kittens are even more interesting now that we’ve also found out that their back paws also have an unusual amount of toes. One has 4 and the other has 5!! Just amazing.

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One more week and we’ll be getting the mother fixed and released shortly afterward (once she’s healed). Then we’ll be getting our lives back to some sort of normalcy (such as it is)…

Kujo Mama Kittens Videos 5 and 6 – The Amazing 6-toed Kitten!!

 Cats, Life In General
May 122008
 

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Well the process of taking the 4 kittens from “Kujo Mama” went off yesterday without a hitch. She’s been crying off and on through the night but that’s to be expected. Now that we were able to get a good look at the two black kittens, we finally able to confirm that they do indeed have 6 front toes!! Here’s some more pics for your own amazement…
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Yeah Toast!

 Life In General
May 052008
 

So this past weekend I was able to capture my rendition of the musical genius Heywood Banks and his amazing song “Yeah Toast” while performing at a writers conference in my town. I’ve only done it three times now but it seems to make an impression on those that watch it for years to come… enjoy all!

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