Another Word for Nerd

Hurricane season is coming up, so I ordered a few “Super-Bright 9 LED Heavy-Duty Compact Aluminum Flashlight” from Amazon in black, blue, and gunmetal colors. They were only $5.50 each, so I ordered five of them to qualify for free shipping.

The package arrived today, and I proceeded to de-blister-pack all of them.

Click for bigger pictures.

Then I noticed the disclaimer on the back:

I think these may qualify to be the World’s Most Dangerous Flashlight, and an example of overkill on a warning label. I blame California.

Surely I can’t be the only person who noticed the similarity of the App Store icon to the Masonic emblem.

Speaking of Freemasonry, I’m trying to find if anyone I know is a member so that I can inquire about joining. My grandfather was a Master Mason; he wanted me to get involved when I was younger but I never had the time.

One of the things I inherited from him (other than the money that paid for my college education) was this Masonic watch fob. I had been in line to also inherit his Masonic ring, but some unscrupulous “friends” of his talked him into rewriting his will in their favor when he wasn’t of sound mind towards the end.

I just read that George Carlin has passed away at the age of 71 from heart failure. I remember spending hours in front of my mother’s stereo listening to her Bill Cosby and George Carlin 8-tracks, and then buying a lot more of his works when I was in college.

The humor of Carlin and Dennis Leary let me laugh at the world during my formulative years, and the works of Bill Hicks tempered them once I got out into the “real world”.

Rest in peace, George. Give em hell up there.

We took a quick trip to Oklahoma on Friday to visit my mother, brother, and sister-in-law. While we were there, I took a lot of pictures, and some pictures-of-pictures when my mom got out the photo albums.

Pictures of me as a baby, young kid, and early teenager

Panorama photos of the land around Mom’s house

Smokey the Farm Dog

Other Random Vacation Pictures

You never expect to wonder what people you knew eleven years ago were up to, and then all of a sudden find them prominently in the news, in not a good way.

I guess I know now what Stacey’s been up to since I last saw her in 1997. It’s sad, because she was a struggling young single parent (but a good person) back then.

I recently got my $40 digital TV transition coupons, and found that the local H.E.B. grocery chain was selling a digital-to-analog TV “converter” (it’s a tuner with RF and AV output) for $40 + tax.

A few days later, I came home with a pair of the converters for a grand total of $6.60. On my way home, I stopped by Electronic Parts Outlet and picked up a couple pairs of “rabbit ears” antennas and a matching adapter (spade lugs to F-Male).

Tonight I unpacked it all to try things out. I’d first thought about running the AV output into a box I have that takes composite video and gives VGA out, but that would leave me with no audio.

Digging through my junk box, I found a little 3.5″ LCD display that takes AV in and has a speaker. Bingo!

I present the Ten Dollar Digital TV:

Philco TB100HH9 Converter Box: $3.30
Antenna and adapter: $6.70
Junky LCD Display: Free

I ended up just breaking down and doing it myself.

Here’s the 8926A (Omega-style bezel) with the new green bezel insert:

I’ll probably swap out the black bezel insert on the 8926C with a better black one this weekend.

I sit and think about getting older.

I turn 34 later this year. Everything between age 21 now has just been a blur. Too much of being a workaholic. Too much waking up on a Thursday and thinking “The week’s gone by already?” Too much time spent not accomplishing anything that really matters in the long run other than paying bills and getting by.

I’m seven years older than my parents were when they had me.
I never thought that I would own a house - but now I’m in my *second* home.
I’m making four times what I did in my first “real job” at ioNET in 1995.

I never thought that I would find someone to spend my life with who could put up with my quirks, hobbies, and tendency to be a workaholic. I’ve been with Amy for TEN YEARS now - a third of my life - and we’ve been married for seven of those years.

I don’t “feel” like an adult. I still feel like a kid who is “managing to get by”.
Does this ever change? Do you ever grow older and finally feel “grown up” and mature?

Amy and I met in person for the first time on February 14th, 1998. Due to stuff going on, we weren’t able to properly celebrate our 10th anniversary on February 14th this year.

We were married on March 31, 2001. So, we’ve been together for ten years, and married for seven. I think we’re going to spend our seventh wedding anniversary just relaxing at home, considering that we had a new HVAC system installed today (our old AC was mismatched, and turns out it was causing some condensation problems).

For anniversary presents, we each bought the other new computers. I’ll be upgrading from an “early 2006″ 2Ghz CoreDuo iMac (20″) to a “late 2007″ 2Ghz Core2Duo Mac Mini with a 20″ Acer flat panel.

I have NO IDEA what I’m going to do with the iMac after I migrate everything over. It’s still in decent condition (has been my main system 24/7 for the past two years), works fine, and has another year of AppleCare left. I may just end up putting it back in the box and storing it.

I finally got most of my knife collection together for a picture.

I still want a Gerber Mark II, but they’re too expensive now since they’re no longer made.

Update: My ebay purchase of a Commander I Mark I variant finally arrived, and it’s in perfect mint condition - original box, and it still “smells new”, like leather and ozone.

Now I just need to find a Mark II or a Command II (single-edged version of the Mark II, made for cities or states where double-edged blades are illegal).