Another Word for Nerd

Houston recently opened a Goodwill Computerworks location. I was very happy to see this because I missed my weekly Saturday browsing sessions at the Austin location.

Last week, I picked up a great load of books:

- Murphy’s Law
- The Elements of Programming Style (both editions)
- COBOL With Style
- FORTRAN With Style
- Programming Proverbs for FORTRAN
- Programming in VAX-11 C
- Software Tools
- The C Programming Language (first edition, two copies)
- UNIX System Administration Handbook (first edition, yellow cover)

Today, i went back to pick up a book about BCPL for $2, and while walking towards the cash register, looked down at the tub of PS/2 mice.

Sitting there on top of the pile like the king of the hill, was a Logitech Trackman Marble FX trackball!

I grabbed it, hurried to the register, paid the $8, and brought it home. “Hey honey! I have a surprise for you!” Amy turned around, and I handed it to her. “OOH! It’s so.. shiny…. I told you flowers were overrated!”

Only in a nerd household could a ten-year-old trackball be worth more in karma points than a dozen roses.

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’m having a heck of a time finding a jeweler or watch repair place to do a simple bezel insert replacement on a pair of Invicta 8926 watches (Rolex Submariner clones). I’ve got the replacement parts, I just need someone with steadier hands to do the actual work of popping off the old insert and gluing the new one in.

When the inserts arrived in the mail last weekend, I took everything to my normal jeweler, the Jared location at Gessner and I-10. Their watch repair person said “Sorry, we’re not an Invicta dealer, I won’t work on them.” I’ve done thousands of dollars of business with them at that location, but their refusal to do a 5-minute job on a $100 watch (when they know I’ve been considering the eventual purchase of a $6K watch from them) made me REALLY frustrated.

I then headed home, and realized that Houston Jewelry was in a strip mall a couple of blocks from the house. I stopped in, explained the situation, and that I just needed a simple part replacement done. The lady I spoke to said “Sure, we’ll work on anything - leave it with us and we’ll call you on Monday with an estimate, this shouldnt take them long at all.” I just got off the phone after they called (note that it’s now Tuesday) and they said “Sorry, we don’t work on Invicta watches.”

Why is it so hard to find someone in west Houston that’s willing to take my money and do this simple 5-minutes-per-watch part replacement?

Heck, I’ll even provide illustrated instructions!

August 2008 Update: Although I ended up fixing one of the watches myself, Rex Solomon (owner of Houston Jewelry) has contacted me and offered to have his watchmaker do a bezel swap if I still need it.

Just finished a data migration project at work that took up a lot of weekend and evening hours, and this is the first weekend I’ve really had “to myself” in the past two and a half weeks.

I’ve been reading a lot, and even picked up MORE Mack Bolan books at my new favorite used book store here in Houston, Quarter Price Books. Check them out if you’re tired of Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Half Price Books and just want the fun of browsing through stacks and stacks of stuff that isn’t remainders and unsuccessful titles.

A recent discussion brought back to mind one of my favorite hobbies through the years - reading trashy “male testosterone action/adventure” novels like the Mack Bolan “The Executioner” book series.

I had a good collection of the first 25 books in the series back in the late 80s and early 90s, and would pick them up whenever I found them at flea markets and used book stores. When I lived in Austin from 1996 to 2004, I got my “fix” from a neat little used-paperbacks-only book store on Burnet Road called Book Exchange. I think I still have a lot of trade-in credit left on file there from when I cleaned out my garage one weekend…

Now that I’m in Houston I’ve been unable to find any neat little “hole in the wall” used book stores that carry tons of paperbacks and the “male adventure novels” I look for. Half Price Books is good for sci-fi and everything else. They carry plenty of romance novels (the Mack Bolan series is published by a division of Harlequin) but none of the actual Bolan series or spinoffs.

So far it looks like my only option is to rebuild my collection via eBay, but if anybody that sees this knows of good hole-in-the-wall used book stores in Houston, please let me know via email or comments - and if you’ve got a box of Mack Bolan books in the back of a closet, get in touch.

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 always say “Three things you shouldn’t discuss at work are religion, politics, and firearms”, and I don’t normally like to discuss religion or politics with friends (I have a few fellow firearm enthusiasts as associates).

However, I early-voted today.

I’m in the market for a used solid-state HF (shortwave) receiver, a proper “tabletop” model, but unfortunately Houston doesn’t seem to have much of a local amateur radio “scene” that I can find.

The last time I hooked up my 2-meter transceiver, I heard ONE active repeater in the area, and that was after about half an hour of searching. As for any kind of local “swap meet” or forsale/wanted list, none seem to exist. There are some clubs down around NASA, but that’s a way from here. There’s Houston Amateur Radio Supply, but they’re a half-hour drive away and don’t have anything used for under $300.

I’ve tried eBay, but keep getting outbid by a dollar or two at the last minute for the last three auctions that I have bid on. One for an Icom 720A, one for an Icom R-70, and one for a Radio Shack DX-300.

Anybody reading this have (or know of) a solid-state HF/shortwave receiver sitting in someone’s closet that needs a new home? I have a budget of $150.

(I’m trying to rebuild my “ham shack” in the process of upgrading to a General-class amateur radio license from my current Technician-class)

One of the houses down the street (the same folks responsible for the driveway big-screen football game about a month ago) has put up their annual display of Christmas lights.

Amy and I tend to refer to this house as “Vegas”, because the first year we lived here I said “Wow, their light display reminds me of a Las Vegas casino.”

Anyway, here’s the 2007 Extravaganza. I’m sure our neighbors are great people, and their display may not be much compared to some I’ve seen, but it’s excessive for our neighborhood. Click the thumbnails for full-size photos.

First, the overall view:

Driveway lights:

Blue snowflakes and a giant inflatable “JOY”:

Wrapped columns and trees:

Finally, the giant inflatable Santa Claus and “JOY”:

They seem to have retired the giant inflatable Frosty the Snowman they had out last year.

Avoid the “Sky Scrambler” micro remote-control helicopter sold for $19.95 (or $14.95 on Friday) at CVS/Pharmacy stores.

Not only is the wire used to charge the helicopter from the remote control way too short to plug in easily, but the unit that I bought tonight was broken out of the box and would not turn the rotor even after I charged it for the recommended half hour.