This past weekend our air conditioner decided it no longer wanted to blow cold air. The temperature outside was in the high 90s so we had all our doors and windows open with several portable fans spread around the room. It wasn't the most pleasant of experiences, but at least it wasn't over 100.
This morning Mr. Stillman from Service 1 Heating & Air Conditioning came by to have a look, and he was able to get it going with a quick start device which looks like a cylinder with two wires sticking out the top. He also replaced the capacitor while he was in there.
Today was only in the low 80s, so even though Mr. Stillman got it working for us again we didn't have much need for it today.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
New Sprinkler Manifold
Got a new sprinkler manifold put in this morning. The old one was leaking in a couple of places, though a tiny pinhole in one of the corners of the PVC pipe and through the left most valve. I had previously replaced every part of the leaking valve except for the bottom portion that was actually connected to the pipes, and it didn't help at all. Since these valves had been installed without union connectors, the only way to replace the valve bottom was to cut it.
The three valves were packed extremely close together, leaving no room to just cut out and replace one valve, so removing one valve meant rebuilding the entire manifold. The other two valves still worked fine, but they were very old so it was fathomable that they also wouldn't last too much longer. Plus, replacement parts were not only hard to come by but also tended to cost as much as a whole new valve, so I just went with all new valves.
To make things a little easier, I used an Orbit Underground 57183 3 Port Manifold which is a one-piece PVC section that connects three valves using unions. Then I put unions on the other side as well to make valve removal a simple procedure without the need for cutting. This Orbit manifold spaced the valves further apart than they used to be, which was significant because the inlet pipe had previously been connected to a 90-degree joint at a significant angle, so this additional spacing put too great of an angle on the inlet to make the same connection. Thankfully I foresaw this problem ahead of time and picked up two 45-degree angle joints that I could use to move the inlet pipe over.
I also installed a ball valve so I could shut the water off here rather than having to go around to the side of the house. All in all, it didn't take nearly as long as I expected. I teflon taped all the threads and hand tightened all the connections I could the night before to make things go faster this morning. It has been very hot here this past week and I wanted to get this done in the morning before the day reached up to 100 degrees. Once I got out there, it probably took about an hour to an hour and a half from start to finish.
The three valves were packed extremely close together, leaving no room to just cut out and replace one valve, so removing one valve meant rebuilding the entire manifold. The other two valves still worked fine, but they were very old so it was fathomable that they also wouldn't last too much longer. Plus, replacement parts were not only hard to come by but also tended to cost as much as a whole new valve, so I just went with all new valves.
To make things a little easier, I used an Orbit Underground 57183 3 Port Manifold which is a one-piece PVC section that connects three valves using unions. Then I put unions on the other side as well to make valve removal a simple procedure without the need for cutting. This Orbit manifold spaced the valves further apart than they used to be, which was significant because the inlet pipe had previously been connected to a 90-degree joint at a significant angle, so this additional spacing put too great of an angle on the inlet to make the same connection. Thankfully I foresaw this problem ahead of time and picked up two 45-degree angle joints that I could use to move the inlet pipe over.
I also installed a ball valve so I could shut the water off here rather than having to go around to the side of the house. All in all, it didn't take nearly as long as I expected. I teflon taped all the threads and hand tightened all the connections I could the night before to make things go faster this morning. It has been very hot here this past week and I wanted to get this done in the morning before the day reached up to 100 degrees. Once I got out there, it probably took about an hour to an hour and a half from start to finish.
Friday, July 4, 2014
Fourth of July BBQ - July 4, 2014
For the 4th of July this year our friends Ray and Dawn invited us over for a BBQ. We both had a great time hanging out, talking, and feasting on the fantastic food cooked on their new charcoal grill. Ray and I enjoyed watching the first episode of the original Batman series with Adam West, then we all watched a great 80's movie called The Hidden.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
My Trip to L.A. for E3 2014 - Day 3, Wednesday, June 11th
We had to get an early start this morning in order to shuttle Chad to the airport. We left early to make sure we would arrive in time for Chad not to be left behind in L.A., but there was no traffic and we made it there in plenty of time.
Unlike yesterday, today we were able to grab breakfast at the Farmer's Market. I had a delicious strawberry crepe, which I believe was the second crepe I ever had, the first being when I had visited my sister in Colorado. They threw in some free bacon, which was... extra crispy. It was quickly clear why it was free.
When we got to E3 we looked around a bit, but there wasn't a whole lot of new-looking stuff. The Nintendo and Microsoft booths were not very impressive, but surprisingly Konami had to be the least impressive booth there. The booth was mostly closed off with only one entrance, and they only seemed to be showing a soccer game and a Metal Gear Solid title.
We stopped by the Nintendo area to say hi to a friend of Victor's from Japan, but nobody knew where he was. We waited for a while, but eventually they just said he was unavailable at the moment, so we took off. Since there wasn't much else to look at we just decided to leave early.
We were going to meet Stephanie, an old friend from Working Design days, for lunch but since we were leaving early we called to see if she wanted to go with us to our next stop, Pinball Land. She did, so we all headed there. We had no idea where she was as we were driving there, but it turned out she was right in front of us as we pulled into the parking lot.
There were a ton of machines in there, all of which seemed to be in really good condition. There were many that we used to have at Working Designs. Victor went straight to the new Wizard of Oz game, which was such a beautiful machine. I started out with The Avengers and Star Trek before moving on to a 3-way game of Wizard of Oz with Victor and Stephanie. It was quite a tough game, very easy to lose balls, especially with the Wicked Witch randomly shaking the ball around with a magnet under the board. I also got to play Spider-man and White Water, which were fun.
Following Pinball Land was lunch at the delicious Yoshinoya where we chatted with Stephanie, getting all caught up on what she's been up to and filling her in on what we've been doing. It was really nice to see her again and hear about how her life has been going.
Unlike yesterday, today we were able to grab breakfast at the Farmer's Market. I had a delicious strawberry crepe, which I believe was the second crepe I ever had, the first being when I had visited my sister in Colorado. They threw in some free bacon, which was... extra crispy. It was quickly clear why it was free.
When we got to E3 we looked around a bit, but there wasn't a whole lot of new-looking stuff. The Nintendo and Microsoft booths were not very impressive, but surprisingly Konami had to be the least impressive booth there. The booth was mostly closed off with only one entrance, and they only seemed to be showing a soccer game and a Metal Gear Solid title.
We stopped by the Nintendo area to say hi to a friend of Victor's from Japan, but nobody knew where he was. We waited for a while, but eventually they just said he was unavailable at the moment, so we took off. Since there wasn't much else to look at we just decided to leave early.
We were going to meet Stephanie, an old friend from Working Design days, for lunch but since we were leaving early we called to see if she wanted to go with us to our next stop, Pinball Land. She did, so we all headed there. We had no idea where she was as we were driving there, but it turned out she was right in front of us as we pulled into the parking lot.
There were a ton of machines in there, all of which seemed to be in really good condition. There were many that we used to have at Working Designs. Victor went straight to the new Wizard of Oz game, which was such a beautiful machine. I started out with The Avengers and Star Trek before moving on to a 3-way game of Wizard of Oz with Victor and Stephanie. It was quite a tough game, very easy to lose balls, especially with the Wicked Witch randomly shaking the ball around with a magnet under the board. I also got to play Spider-man and White Water, which were fun.
Following Pinball Land was lunch at the delicious Yoshinoya where we chatted with Stephanie, getting all caught up on what she's been up to and filling her in on what we've been doing. It was really nice to see her again and hear about how her life has been going.
Friday, June 20, 2014
My Trip to L.A. for E3 2014 - Day 2, Tuesday, June 10th
Day 2 started out well as we got to sleep in since E3 didn't start until like noon. Once we left, we headed to the Farmer's Market where we were going to have breakfast, but traffic slowed us down enough that we made the decision to just grab some fast food at a drive through and head straight to the Staples Center. Once there, we found a long line in which he had to wait in order to get our ID badges. Although the line was long, it moved pretty quick so the wait was relatively short.
No matter how many times I've been to E3 I am never prepared for just how many people there are when first entering. Victor had a meeting to get to, but suggested Chad and I check out a new game being shown called The Order, so we got in line to check it out. The line appeared to be relatively short but was moving extremely slow. When we finally rounded the second corner after about a half hour we saw how long it actually was.
Now we had a decision to make, give up and go look around or wait it out until the bitter end. We didn't want our current wait time to be wasted so we decided to stick around. While waiting in line there was a mannequin figure of someone in the game, like a general or something, and one of people who helped make it was a girl in line right behind us. She took a mold of the real guy's head, and she said the eyes they used were her boss's eyes. Later on down the line there were a couple model guns from the game that were locked in a cage. The designers of the guns were there and they wanted to get a picture (they designed the guns in the game, not made the real-life models of them).
It took over an hour before we got in to see the game, and it wasn't a demo video like we expected but an actual sit down and play type of situation. Chad went first and I followed shortly behind. Playing a new game is normally exciting, but it's also a bit weird having a stranger looking over your shoulder as you're trying to figure it out. And I felt like a total doofus. There was one part where a teammate gets injured and I was supposed drag him inside a room, but I didn't know that and just kept trying to kill people while he continually died, restarting the checkpoint.
Chad got was finished with his demo first and I didn't see him when I got out, so I walked around a little. He eventually found me at the Galaxy Lounge where we would be meeting Victor. Victor was running late, though, so we went to look around a bit more and I got to play a couple games. The best was an indie game called Nidhogg, which was like a fencing game with really old style block graphics. The animation was very smooth, similar to the Prince of Persia I used to play on the PC.
We briefly met up with Victor but he had another meeting with someone so Chad and I went to look around in the other hall. They had a new Alien game but it was only inside a booth that had a line, and there was no way we were doing that again, so we didn't get to see it. This hall always seems to have more props set up in booths; in one there was a tank suspended in the air coming out of a wall, and in another there was a giant monster posed out front. There was also a nostalgia area with all the really old videgames and systems which we enjoyed checking out.
We met up with Victor at around 3pm and headed to the car. Our next stop would be the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show, so I changed into my nice clothes there at the car and we were off. We were some of the first to arrive in the green room, and it was pretty big. It was one main room and then another attached room which had a pool table and some old arcade games like Pac-Man.
The wasn't to start for another couple hours so we just hung out and talked. There was an open bar but they just had beer or wine, which is not exactly my style so I just had an orange juice. Food was brought out eventually, some fruit and other finger foods. There was even soup which was in tiny little cups, like the kind you find as the caps on medicine bottles.
By the time the show started, there were like 30-40 people in the green room. We saw Kevin Weisman, the tech guy from Alias. It took me a moment to place him as he had a beard. Gerard Butler was in another side room off the green room, so we didn't see him until he headed out to his interview with Jimmy Kimmel. When she show was almost over we all went out to the music stage and watched Matisyahu perform a couple songs. Chad was a huge fan of Matisyah, and actually talked to him and shook his hand while we were in the green room.
Following that, we traveled back to the apartment for a brief pit stop before heading over to our appointment at the Float Clinic. Victor and I had went there the previous night but we went back because Chad missed out on the experience due to a cancelled flight. We arrived a bit early so we got a bite to eat at some "Hawaiian" place.
Since it was my second time at the Float Clinic, I volunteered to take some supplements that were supposed to enhance the floating experience. Chad joined in as well. It didn't seem to help me at all, but Chad apparently had a wonderful visual experience. I had basically the same experience as the previous night, which was nice and relaxing.
It was a good way to end the day, except that wasn't quite the end of day as we played with the Oculus some more when we got back to the apartment. That thing is amazing!
No matter how many times I've been to E3 I am never prepared for just how many people there are when first entering. Victor had a meeting to get to, but suggested Chad and I check out a new game being shown called The Order, so we got in line to check it out. The line appeared to be relatively short but was moving extremely slow. When we finally rounded the second corner after about a half hour we saw how long it actually was.
Now we had a decision to make, give up and go look around or wait it out until the bitter end. We didn't want our current wait time to be wasted so we decided to stick around. While waiting in line there was a mannequin figure of someone in the game, like a general or something, and one of people who helped make it was a girl in line right behind us. She took a mold of the real guy's head, and she said the eyes they used were her boss's eyes. Later on down the line there were a couple model guns from the game that were locked in a cage. The designers of the guns were there and they wanted to get a picture (they designed the guns in the game, not made the real-life models of them).
It took over an hour before we got in to see the game, and it wasn't a demo video like we expected but an actual sit down and play type of situation. Chad went first and I followed shortly behind. Playing a new game is normally exciting, but it's also a bit weird having a stranger looking over your shoulder as you're trying to figure it out. And I felt like a total doofus. There was one part where a teammate gets injured and I was supposed drag him inside a room, but I didn't know that and just kept trying to kill people while he continually died, restarting the checkpoint.
Chad got was finished with his demo first and I didn't see him when I got out, so I walked around a little. He eventually found me at the Galaxy Lounge where we would be meeting Victor. Victor was running late, though, so we went to look around a bit more and I got to play a couple games. The best was an indie game called Nidhogg, which was like a fencing game with really old style block graphics. The animation was very smooth, similar to the Prince of Persia I used to play on the PC.
We briefly met up with Victor but he had another meeting with someone so Chad and I went to look around in the other hall. They had a new Alien game but it was only inside a booth that had a line, and there was no way we were doing that again, so we didn't get to see it. This hall always seems to have more props set up in booths; in one there was a tank suspended in the air coming out of a wall, and in another there was a giant monster posed out front. There was also a nostalgia area with all the really old videgames and systems which we enjoyed checking out.
We met up with Victor at around 3pm and headed to the car. Our next stop would be the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show, so I changed into my nice clothes there at the car and we were off. We were some of the first to arrive in the green room, and it was pretty big. It was one main room and then another attached room which had a pool table and some old arcade games like Pac-Man.
The wasn't to start for another couple hours so we just hung out and talked. There was an open bar but they just had beer or wine, which is not exactly my style so I just had an orange juice. Food was brought out eventually, some fruit and other finger foods. There was even soup which was in tiny little cups, like the kind you find as the caps on medicine bottles.
By the time the show started, there were like 30-40 people in the green room. We saw Kevin Weisman, the tech guy from Alias. It took me a moment to place him as he had a beard. Gerard Butler was in another side room off the green room, so we didn't see him until he headed out to his interview with Jimmy Kimmel. When she show was almost over we all went out to the music stage and watched Matisyahu perform a couple songs. Chad was a huge fan of Matisyah, and actually talked to him and shook his hand while we were in the green room.
Following that, we traveled back to the apartment for a brief pit stop before heading over to our appointment at the Float Clinic. Victor and I had went there the previous night but we went back because Chad missed out on the experience due to a cancelled flight. We arrived a bit early so we got a bite to eat at some "Hawaiian" place.
Since it was my second time at the Float Clinic, I volunteered to take some supplements that were supposed to enhance the floating experience. Chad joined in as well. It didn't seem to help me at all, but Chad apparently had a wonderful visual experience. I had basically the same experience as the previous night, which was nice and relaxing.
It was a good way to end the day, except that wasn't quite the end of day as we played with the Oculus some more when we got back to the apartment. That thing is amazing!
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
My Trip to L.A. for E3 2014 - Day 1, Monday, June 9th
Day 1, Monday
Day 1 started early in the morning and involved a long drive down to Los Angeles for Victor and I. The desire for a box of a half dozen Krispy Kreme donuts prompted a stop along the way, as did some delicious steak sandwiches from Harris Ranch a bit later on. Our initial destination once in the L.A. vicinity was to be the airport to pick up Chad, but his flight was cancelled due to mechanical failure so we rerouted to the apartment that we would be staying in for the next view days. Being the middle of the day, there was zero parking anywhere nearby so I wound up just running our bags in as Victor circled the block.Now we had a bit of time to kill, so we ventured to the Farmer's Market which was filled with many tasty-looking treats. It hadn't been all that long since we each finished the second half of our exquisite steak sandwiches, so our bellies were quite uninterested in food at that moment. Otherwise I'm sure we would have given in to the deliciousness laid out before us.
Our next activity of the night was to take place at The Float Clinic in Torrance, which neither of us had ever been to before. It was still a bit early, as our appointment wasn't for another couple hours, but we headed over there anyway since we didn't know how long it would take. And it's a good thing we did because we only had like a half hour left by the time we got there. We spent our spare time visiting a nearby Target to pick up a few supplies.
At the Float Clinic, we were given the spiel about how it worked and what to expect. We had the 90 minute float package, which sounded like quite a long time to lay in the dark doing nothing, but it was a new experience so I was ready to give it a go. There were three rooms available; I picked room one which was primarily white, and Victor choose room two which had a cool dark gray brick theme going on.
Once sealed in my room, the first step was to put in the earplugs. That was a bit more challenging than I had expected, but eventually I got them both in. Then it was time to strip down and shower off using their special organic, non-scented soap to make sure nothing but my bare-ass body was brought into the float tank.
I had originally envisioned some kind of coffin-sized capsule that we would lay in and close the lid, but in reality the float tank was more like a mini swimming pool in its own room accessed through a square hole in the wall. They are about 5 feet wide, 8 feet long, and maybe 7 feet high with about 10 inches of water, so it was far from being cramped. I closed the square door and was engulfed in blackness, then laid back and surrendered to the water.
Logically, I knew I would float, yet it still took a few minutes for my body to relax and trust in the salt. And there I lay, in complete darkness, alone with my thoughts. What did I think about? I'm really not sure. I don't remember too much about what went on in my head, but it was nothing profound, that's for sure. I think there were some thoughts about TV shows. I remember a couple of jokes from The Simpsons made a brief appearance. I didn't see colors or shapes or anything, which some people experience. There was the occasional ink-blot that seems to float across my eyes, though they were always dark gray and black.
My exceptions had been for experiencing 90 minutes of boredom, which thankfully turned out to be wrong. Although I didn't have any intense reactions like some people apparently do, or even mild reactions of seeing colors and shapes, it was still a pleasant experience. It was very relaxing and really not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.
Afterwards, we headed over to the airport to pick up poor ol' Chad who had been waiting who knows how long. I don't think I'd seen him since the last time we all went to E3 together, so it was nice to catch up a bit. None of us had eaten so we stopped at BJs. Chad had a BJs card for a free cookie dessert thing, but the guy who brought it over wasn't our waiter and for some reason thought it was for a birthday. It had a candle in it and everything, so we played along.
When we got back to the apartment Victor busted out the Oculus Rift for us to try, which is this cool virtual reality headset. You put it on, then add headphones and it feels like you're actually inside the game. The first program we ran was a roller coaster which was amazing. Just trying to stand up while you're taken through the coaster run is quite a challenge. Your body tries to compensate for what it's seeing, so you end up leaning back and forward and side-to-side. It would be a simple thing to just topple over without someone there to steady you. The resolution isn't bad, but apparently the next version is going to have a higher resolution which should make it easier to experience for longer periods of time.
And that was about it for the first day of my trip to L.A. for E3.
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