Category Anything and Everything

Ever since I moved into the new house this corner has bothered me. I had an old wooden half bookshelf thrown in there that I had pictures haphazardly displayed on. It was too small to use them all and just looked bad.

When I was at Ikea over the weekend I saw these cool wall mounted shelf units. I didn’t have room in the Tesla so I just ordered it online instead through the Ikea app. I was pleased/surprised it arrived in a couple days.

Assembly of the unit was straightforward and easy. The most difficult part is making sure I got it centered on the wall and straight. Once mounted I placed a bunch of pictures on it as well as additional pictures on the wall. I think the end result is much more pleasing visually. It only took me three years to get to it…..

I finally got out to see the new Mandalorian movie which has been out for a couple weeks. I lacked urgency to see it because I read a number of lukewarm reviews on the movie. The only time slot that worked to see it last night was at the local IMAX theater which I had never stepped into before. It is small compared to some IMAX theaters I have been in but the biggest issue was it was like an ice box. Thank goodness we brought a blanket.

The movie met my expectations based on prior word of mouth. It’s basically a supersized Mandalorian episode from the series except it is missing any significant connection to the series story. It was clearly made to be a stand alone film that didn’t require you to watch the three prior seasons of the show. The plot which would have been more enjoyable in a long format tv season was condensed to fit the two hours it was allocated. Was the movie bad? No, not at all, I found it entertaining. The problem was when you are coming off a series that gave you near movie like effects every episode, simply shifting that to a big screen makes things feel a bit underwhelming. I’d give it a B.

I started off my Saturday with another pickleball session. It was my third day in a row so I was a little hesitant to push it. I seemed to get through play without a major issue however. I was undefeated in the six games I played with different sets of people including one “let’s play it back” scenario which I enjoyed. I was hoping to play in another mini-tournament this upcoming weekend but the three people I asked to play were unavailable for various reasons so I might just take a pass on it.

Saturday afternoon I went over to the east coast to do some shopping with my girlfriend, taking the Tesla to minimize fuel costs. Both malls we visited during the trip were absolutely slammed with people. I thought malls were supposed to be dying? I went and charged the Tesla during one of the sessions. The supercharger I went to had terrible speed of only 50kw because most if not all of the chargers were occupied. I sat there for over an hour. I am used to a big charge taking 20-30 minutes, this was like watching paint dry. By the time we got home it was after 9PM, a very long day of driving and walking. My knees and hips were not happy with me but I held up better than expected. I figured it was good training for our potential upcoming road trip.

Sunday was a very low energy day, perhaps because Saturday was a long grind. I got the necessary tasks handled as well as modifying my bench I originally built for my Bambu Lab A1. It was built to reside under one of my other workbenches however now I wanted it to be at near normal bench height to make it easier to work with my incoming Flashforge Creator 5 Pro printer.

Modifying the stand involved simply adding some 4×4″ legs to it. While I was at it I added a shelf to store filament as well as a front brace to increase overall rigidity. The bench weighs a ton as I used 2×6″ for most of it. I think it will work out well. All I need is the printer to verify it.

I had a chill night. I spent some of it continuing my quest to level all of my characters in WoW to max level. I almost have my second set of four to that mark. Once I do I will have eight at level 90 with another five or six to go. I really do enjoy just unplugging from reality for an hour or two to jump into the game.

I had to have blood drawn this morning as part of our health plan. Every two years we are required to have blood work done as well as a physical. At my age I really should get these things done annually but my dislike of anything and everything medical related keeps me on a must do only mind set.

My replacement credit card arrived yesterday evening which was nice. Getting it next day instead of a week later minimizes the disruption although the hassle of changing card information in all of the locations it is used as the default payment method never becomes less of a PIA.

I might get out to see the new Mandalorian movie this weekend as well as get some pickleball games in. Otherwise it’s a free flowing weekend.

Yesterday I got a text notification of $4.99 charge to the Microsoft store. Before I could even finish my thought of “I didn’t buy anything on the Microsoft store…” three more charges appeared in rapid succession, two more for $4.99 and one for $9.99 as the scammer was testing what he could get away with. Luckily Chase denied further attempts at that point. I could not believe it, my card had been compromised, again.

Those of you paying attention will recall I just had the same scenario go down roughly a month and a half ago. I immediately tried to see if I could establish any pattern. I had just gone to Cinebistro on Tuesday night, I recalled I also went to Cinebistro around the time of my last hack. However when I checked dates I actually went there fours days after my card was compromised the first time.

So now I get to go through the same annoying song and dance where I have to update the card in a ton of spots. The only good news is Chase is expediting the replacement this time so I may have a new card as soon as today. I am baffled as to where my information is getting compromised at. I am very careful with my card and go touch free wherever possible. It is rare I am actually inserting a card into a reader where it could be potentially skimmed. I will be making mental notes of anytime my card is inserted in a machine. Sure it could be compromised via an online breach but the odds of having it happen twice in this amount of time from that would be pretty remote.

I have a new wheel coming for me to review. No it isn’t from the company that I had the back and forth discussion regarding how they wanted me to do things their way or else.

I got out to see Backrooms last night, a rated R “psychological thriller”. The movie evidently is directed by a 20 year old that made a series of well known Shorts on YouTube exploring the Backrooms alternate dimension. The movie is bizarre and definitely unique. I think I liked it but I am not really sure, it was that weird. Make up your own mind. I guess I would give it a B+

We recently had one of my staff retire after nearly 30 years on the job. It’s a bit of a weird feeling when someone that was a day in and day out part of your reality suddenly not be. Since I started here in 2000 there has been some change in our department, we have had two firings and three retirements. Still, over a span of 26 years that’s not too bad. I already have hired his replacement whom will start next week. In the big picture it should be a good thing bringing in somebody young and motivated to learn and grow. It should only make all of our jobs easier in the long run.

I played pickleball Saturday morning after already playing in the tournament Monday and two lunchtime sessions during the week. I realized one of my favorite things in pickleball is after you beat a team and they ask if you want to “run it back”. To me this means the other team feels they should have beaten you but didn’t for some reason. I always welcome running it back, Saturday had one of those situations.

The team we were playing had two middle aged men, both with solid skills and better mechanics than I have. I could tell the one guy in particular was getting frustrated. He could hit hard and did so repeatedly at me however most of the time I blocked the drive cleanly back at him. One rally really pissed him off where he drove at me from near point blank range, I blocked it back to him in the air, he took another full swing sending another rocket which I blocked back at him as well. On his third giant swing he drove the ball into the net. I try to not react much externally when I make a good play like that but believe me inside my mind is yelling “yea get that shit out of here!” So in the run back game we beat them again, 11-7 proving it was not a fluke. I decided to leave on a winning note, happy overall with my play. Winning run back games are always fun for me.

Saturday afternoon I took on the task of replacing the American flag at the entrance of our development. Since I am a board member I saw the email where somebody commented how beat up the old one was which I honestly had not noticed. I offered to handle the replacement.

Whomever did it last used some creative rigging. The rope that the flag was attached to was falling apart and was wedged into the pulley so I was unable to lower the flag to change it. Instead I had to lift the entire 11-12 foot pole out of it’s base and lay it on the grass. When I bought the replacement flag I bought a replacement rope and hardware so the flag can be lowered and raised via the pulley instead of having to heave ho the entire pole out of the ground.

I got out for a short ride on Sunday on my V13 with the primary focus of testing my new DJI Mini mic set up. It’s inexpensive and much more bare bones than my existing OG DJI mic but it seems to work well. I like the small form factor and getting two transmitters for $79 seems like a great deal to me.

Last night I had to stay up until close to midnight to run a process at work. I decided a good way to stay awake was to live stream to fill the time, my 125th live stream episode. In the stream I talked about the recent changes in our community regarding e-bike enforcement which is bound to spill onto the legality of my electric unicycles. I also talked about my interactions with one EUC manufacturer who offered me a collaboration on one of their wheels. The collaboration had all sorts of conditions and instructions on how they wanted content created which I immediately pushed back at. It seemed like they wanted a glorified commercial for the wheel instead of an honest and open review. I ultimately told them no thanks and asked them to not contact me in the future.

By the time I got the process at work done my head did not hit the pillow until a little after midnight. It’s going to be a long day.

So as I have been trying to figure out how to do a road trip to Yellowstone and back in the course of 11-12 days there have been red flags. The biggest flag is the distance/days formula, it sounds pretty brutal. In my prior road trips I have had similar circumstances where I had days with obscenely large amounts of driving and the end result is you return from the trip more or less exhausted. Sure I got to see and experience a ton of things but you have very little time to catch your breath.

So last night I type the following into Google, “is it reasonable to drive from Naples to Yellowstone and back in 11 days” The AI answer was a resounding NO. It recommended a minimum of 16-18 days for such a trip to avoid massive driving burnout as well as give adequate time to explore the park. It offered alternatives based on the 11 day timeline.

One was flying to either the Bozeman or Jackson Hole airport and renting a vehicle. This option would be very expensive potentially but would allow a much more relaxed pace. Another suggestion was simply doing a shorter road trip, it suggested the Smokey Mountains in TN as an alternative. If we picked something that was no more than 1500 miles away it would make a road trip much more reasonable. I also thought about the idea of doing a short cruise but there are complications with that idea too.

Bottom line is now that my original plan has been completely invalidated in my mind I need to see what alternatives sound good to us while being realistic. I don’t have a lot of time to figure it out.

This weekend has no big out of the ordinary plans on the books and that is fine by me.

I started my Memorial Day weekend off with a trip to the office to get some equipment swapped out. I brought Elsa and Mia along for the ride. Elsa loves going to the office, Mia seemed to enjoy it as well. The work took a little while but went without major complications

Saturday night my girlfriend and I headed to the beach to watch a sunset while enjoying a Cayman Jack or two. It was very pleasant at the beach especially since most of the afternoon had been rain filled. It was quite a contrast from the last time we visited the beach for a sunset where we freezing from temps around 70 with strong wind. There were a bunch of people in the water. We waded into it ourselves and were pleasantly surprised just how warm the water has become already.

On Sunday morning we went to the gym but took our PEV transportation, me on a wheel and her on the e-bike.

On the ride we hit the nearby greenway, a normal riding spot for me since I have moved. I was not happy to see this portable sign along the path warning people that Stage 1 enforcement has begun restricting PEV’s. All over the country there are governments cracking down on PEV’s, most notably E-motos like the Surron. Surron riders have become infamous for riding like maniacs on public streets doing crazy wheelies and other gymnastics in the middle of traffic.

The new laws make e-motos basically illegal to operate on public roadways and pathways such as this. E-bikes as in devices with pedals are allowed but they are speed capped at 28MPH along with other restrictions when riding on sidewalks. I have seen a ton of e-bikes rolling with traffic going damn close to 40MPH. So in an area like this path we were riding I don’t think an e-bike is illegal but you may be required to be pedaling to use it.

So that leaves my EUC in a weird spot. I have often described it as a one wheel E-bike but it obviously can not be pedaled. It is in a weird niche that is not actually defined in the new rules so I am not sure what would happen if law enforcement tried to crack down on my riding. Hopefully I won’t find out. Unfortunately this push to limit PEVs is caused by a few people doing stupid things and in many cases publishing these stupid things to social media to get clicks and likes, a common template nowadays.

My Memorial Day included my second ever pickleball tournament. This had a much bigger field than the mini-tournament I played before and much higher competitionlevel as well. We went 5-1 in our pool play, won our semifinal match but then lost in the finals to the same team that beat us in pool play. However the highlight of our day was winning that semifinal match.

The team we played consisted of two 14 year old girls wearing matching outfits. They were both obviously highly skilled, coached, and trained. They were undefeated in their pool play and had a large cheering section. They very quickly got up on us 4-0 as both my partner and I were surprised by just how good they were. They were aggressive, fast and loud.

However as the match went on we slowed down their scoring while scoring some points of our own. As we brought the score back to 6-6 the girls started to get frustrated and made more unforced errors. We continued to grind away and wound up winning the game 11-7. Although the girls were highly skilled in pickleball they were not highly trained by their parents to be good at losing. It was clear they expected to win it all.

They followed up by losing the bronze medal match as well which I heard had some more bad behavior by the girls including some clear miscalls on out balls. Of course nobody is ever happy to lose but good sportsmanship is an important trait that seems to be harder to come by nowadays.

I was pretty wiped out after playing 8 games in the hot and humid conditions. After enjoying a Memorial Day style lunch of hot dogs I wound up taking a nap for a couple hours in the afternoon. Today I have some soreness and aches in my lower body but not all that terrible based on 4 hours of playing. I enjoyed getting out there and competing on a semi-serious level. It was throwback to all of those volleyball tournaments I played in for a decade.

My girlfriend and I have started planning to do something I have not done for a very long time, a significant western road trip. I have done a number of these type of trips dating back to my marriage with Alison when we used to do them in my shitty conversion vans with Nicki and Sadie along for the ride. I did several of these with Cindy as well however once I got chickens I never felt like I was able to be away from home long enough to do another western journey.

My girlfriend and I have done some road trips, the longest being the drive to Texas for my niece’s high school graduation but this is an entirely different level of trip. Last night I did some preliminary mapping and if things go as planned it would be damn close to a 6000 mile trip overall. I have done a similar route in the past but I believe I did it in two weeks before. I only have 11 or possibly 12 days allocated this time so it’s going to be challenging. The farthest most point in the journey would be Yellowstone Park with us seeing a number of cool things along the way.

Doing this in the Tesla is going to have positives and negatives. The biggest negative is doing long trips in an EV definitely takes longer because charging is not as fast as filling a tank with gas. However not filling a tank with gas is also a big positive especially now with gas prices sky high thanks to big D’s blunders in Iran. The other positive is my full self driving subscription is going to be a huge help in making hundreds of miles of driving each day much more tolerable. I expect the car to likely do at least 90% of the trip in FSD mode. The seats in the Tesla are also amongst the most comfortable I have ever sat in so that’s a plus as well. Road trips like this can be a grind for sure but they are countered by the diversity and experiences you have along the way. We still have details to finalize but hopefully it all comes together.

The seat that I designed for the Commander GT Pro Plus finally completed printing last night. It was a two day plus print that took closer to a week in real time due to me running out of a filament. The seat looks pretty good although it isn’t as soft as I imagined due to the print settings I used. I will have to try affixing it to the wheel this weekend and see how well it works out.

The new to me dishwasher I installed Tuesday evening has been working well even without me installing the correct counter hardware or replacement door switch. I plan to leave it as is unless I have some sort of issue. I have always been an if it’s not broke don’t fix it type of person normally.

I plan on celebrating Memorial Day this weekend by playing in my second pickleball tournament. It looks like it will have a slightly bigger field than my first tourney I played in October which should be fun. I am competing with one of the guys I play with regularly at lunch during the week so we both are very familiar with how each other plays. Of course I am hoping for a winning outcome but I hope to just play well and come out of it without a limp.