Working in a Gold Mine...

So, not really, but that's what a lot of the public in Oroville thinks we're doing.  Lots of people keep asking if they can pan our excavation spoils pile for gold.

It's difficult getting across to people that the whole reason we're working there is to take out dangerous levels of chemicals.  These chemicals are carcinogenic.  Others a simple elemental poisons.  And when I say elemental poisons, I mean two of the most basic: lead and arsenic.

I'll leave you with two quotes.  The first is in relation to pollution, and the second kind of sums up most of the way work has been going for the past two months.  I have actually said the second onsite multiple times.

First:

"Plutonium may give you grief for thousands of years, but arsenic is forever."

-- Pollution, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Second:

"There are four rules you need to remember: Make the plan.  Execute the plan.  Expect the plan to go off the rails.  Throw away the plan."

-- Leonard Snart/Captain Cold, The Flash, "Infantino Street"

But it's just not the same without hearing him say it:

Journal Start

So I recently came across these journaling prompts, and then today I re-discovered them in my Pictures folder.  So, here goes:

If you had an empty room, what are the ten things you would add to it?

1. A comfortable chair
2. A Bluetooth stereo speaker to play music from my phone
3. A good light to go behind my chair
4. A bookshelf with my favorite books
5. A table to go beside the chair that can hold my water or lemonade

It's at this point that I re-read the question and think about the assumptions I've already made.  This room is empty, but not a vacuum so it already has breathable air in it.  My first world assumption also makes the temperature comfortable, wires the room for electricity, and within range of a strong WiFi signal...  So let's make a final assumption, like a mathematician or physicist, to make things easy this room is suddenly simply available as a new attachment to my home.

6. A rolling, tilting desk that I can bring to float over my lap
7. A ream of paper
8. A collection of colored pencils with sharpener
9. A plate of cheese, crackers, and cookies
10. A pair of comfortable cushions to keep my cats happy and calm

Additional Posting

So I'm spending the next several months in Oroville for work.

I had a nice routine built up for work, and working out, and cycling.  Now I have to build a new one.

So I thought I had some more Top Ten Lists, but unfortunately all of the rest of them are too full of inside jokes.

I've still got a big collection of others that I didn't write, but then that's the problem: I didn't write them.

Generic Content

So, I keep wanting to try to get back into this.  I wanted to start up again on my birthday, and that's more than a week in the past.  So finally today I had an idea, and thought I'd post something.

Then I got to Blogger, and found that Russia appears to no longer be surveiling me.  However, I am suddenly huge in France.  By a factor of 2:1.

Am I suddenly the Jerry Lewis of blogging?

Or are the Russians using a VPN that puts them in France?

So anyway, here is the content I was wanting to putout there.  These are Top Ten Lists that I created back when I was in school.  Here is the first that is worthy of sharing:

The Top Ten Safety Tips

10. Never eat or drink anything offered to you by a villain.

9. If it looks like a vampire, cringes from a cross like a vampire, and sucks blood like a vampire; then it sure as hell ain’t a duck.

8. Dragons and gun powder do not mix.

7. If someone asks if you are a god, say, “Yes.”

6. If you are not immortal, then you are not immortal.

5. Entropy and chaos work for the universe, not you.

4. Don’t cross the streams.

3. Death is not an adventure, it is the end of the adventure.

2. When you need your reputation the most, henchmen will recognize you only as an enemy of their master.

1. The black arts are named that for a reason.

Four Movies

So this morning, I read an article on the A.V. Club that asked what four films define you.

Now, this isn't supposed to be your favorite movies, but those that helped make you who you are.

So let's see...

Star Wars (1977)

Superman (1978)

The Princess Bride (1987)

... and, hmmm.  Let me think.

So, let's start with Star Wars.  It shaped so many of my generation, but it became the center of so much growing up.  The toys were a collection to be completed, but I was forced to stop collecting midway through The Empire Strikes Back sets.  The music was everything to me.  It was what I listened to always.  John Williams became the standard against which all other composers were measured.  And then there was the beginning of the concept of what a Jedi is and what they can do.  Star Wars also began the slow trickle of science fiction into my life.  Surte, it's actually space fantasy, but it still piqued my interest.

Superman was a given that I would watch with my love of comics, but again there was more to it.  It was truly giving in to the hype that "You will believe a man can fly."  It was the amazing score again by John Williams with the main theme that I would use to test any new sound system.  Or for celebration.  And seeing my favorite comic book hero looking so real just kept me waiting to be a better person.

And speaking of being a better person, we come to The Princess Bride.  Released the autumn of my freshman year of college, it had everything Peter Falk's character promised: Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles...  Fencing became very interesting to me, and I even took a weekend class on it.  The more I learned about it, the more amazed I was at the choreography in the movie.

My fourth is difficult because there are two that helped bring me into my groups of friends in Maryland for high school and California in high school and college.  The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension has to become a close fifth movie, but the true fourth is Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).

Monty Python had been something that I watched with my parents and their introduction to me of the movies was vital to those who became my friends.  In my high schools in Maryland and California, I bonded with other members of the marching bands.  It was where I first learned about the entertaining call and response aspect of reciting lines.  In college, that was only reinforced.  And then there's just the whole structuring of my sense of humor.

Shoes

Growing up, I had weird feet, apparently.

Most shoes didn't fit well.  And so,  I wore a lot of Stride Rite.  (And as I'm writing this, I'm discovering that they still exist.)

Stride Rite had great customer service.  When we would go to get me shoes, we would usually go there first, and then walk around the mall afterwards.  This would let me partially break in the shoes and see if they were truly a good fit.  I can remember a couple times when we walked back to return shoes that were painful or causing blisters.

It was a big thing to finally be able to wear different shoes.  Sure, I had dress shoes, and my favorite cowboy boots, but finally wearing Nikes was great.

Nikes work well for me.  They tend to have a more narrow heel, and most styles have a sloped sole at the back.  This work for me because I have a narrow heel and walk heel to toe.

This walking style was reinforced by marching band.  Years of marching band.

When I wear other brands of shoes, the square back of the shoe makes a weird shock on my foot.  I tend to get blisters and/or weird calluses.

And yet, as an adult, I've experimented with other brands, most recently trying Skechers.  They've got some nice memory foam insoles, but the soles don't last, and the extra-soft insole makes for strange bike riding sometimes.

This weekend, we went to Nordstrom Rack to try to decide my shoe size for various shoe brands.  I had learned over the past few years that for 20 to 30 years, I had been buying shoes with growing room in them.  And I've had the same size foot since I graduated high school.

So, shoe shopping is still an adventure sometimes.

But when we got to the Rack, I beheld a lovely site: a giant pile of orange Nike shoe boxes.  There was an event going on.  And I got to slip into my favorite shoe brand again.  There's still the getting used to wearing a shoe that my big toe goes to the end of, but I'm working on that.

Cooking

So a couple weeks ago, Jennifer got some pork shoulder.  The butcher suggested she make it into carnitas.  She found a citrus recipe to slow cook it, and we had some amazing tacos.  But then we still had half of the pork shoulder leftover.  So I went looking for a new recipe for carnitas chili.

I found this one, and made some modifications:

Carnitas Chili

Ingredients

---

·         2 tablespoons chili powder (heaping)

·         1 tablespoon ground cumin

·         1 teaspoon paprika

·         1 tablespoon celery seed (ground)

·         2 tablespoons ground cilantro

·         1 tablespoon garlic powder

·         1 tablespoon onion powder

·         2 teaspoons kosher salt

·         3 tablespoons vegetable oil

·         1 cup beef broth

·         2 carrots, cut into 1/4-inch discs

·         1 28-ounce can tomato

·         1 bay leaf

How to make it

·         In a small bowl combine the cumin, paprika, salt, chili powder, cilantro and garlic.

·         In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium high heat.  Add seasonings to bring out oils.

·         Add the beef broth and the bay leaf and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low, add tomato sauce and cover.

·         Chop carrots and add to sauce.  Cook sauce for 1 hour.

·         Warm pork after an hour.  Separate meat from grease.  Save grease for noodles.

·         Remove and discard the bay leaf.

·         Boil noodles

·         Plate noodles, then pork, then sauce, then grated cheese.

·         [Jennifer suggested that next time we try ¼ teaspoon cinnamon or cinnamon stick, and 1 clove]

Movie Time

So lately, I've had a bit of a backlog of movies to watch.  We're not going to the movies as much, and we're enjoying television more than the movies.

And yet there are still ones that I want to see.

So this weekend, I had the opportunity, and I've caught up on some.

Pirate of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - Not really a great movie.  Enjoyable to watch on the background while playing a game, but otherwise unexemplary except for the effects and the story of the cursed crew.

Attack the Block - I got this as a recommendation because of the soundtrack, but the movie was actually cool too.  Three surprise actors in it that I wasn't prepared for.  John Boyega (Finn the the Star Wars postquels), Jodie Whitacker (the new female Doctor on "Doctor Who"), and Franz Drameh (half of Firestom on "DC's Legends of Tomorrow").

Kingsman: The Golden Circle - A fun sequel, but not something I couldn't look away from.

Arrival - A really cool movie that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Passengers - Both good and disturbing.  A good excuse to watch pretty people in peril.

Logan - As violent as expected, and wonderful.  Getting to hear Professor Xavier cursing was so awesome.

Predestination - The work on this was really great.  To take a short story like "All You Zombies" and make a full length movie out of it was quite a task, but so well done.  This is one could watch again. Not that I missed anything since I knew the story, but just for the pool pleasure of seeing it again.

TCM Backlot

So whenever I'm not home, there is a 97% chance that the television is on Turner Classic Movies.  Jennifer has it on for background noise, as well as for her love of classic movies.

A few months ago she joined the TCM Backlot which gives its members some fan club perks.

Then she looked into creating a local chapter.  There needed to be 10 members to get one formed.  She did a search, made a webpage (yes, it's one of the many things she does) for the TCM Backlot San Francisco Chapter, and also made a Twitter account.

She even got me to join, because it's no fun to go alone, and you have to be a member to get the free tickets.

And then, we got offered a block of tickets from TCM for the Noir City 16 at the Castro Theatre.  The tickets were for two movies ("This Gun for Hire" and "Quiet Please, Murder!") as well as an opportunity to meet Eddie Muller, the host of Noir Alley on TCM.

When we got there, we had a reserved section for our group, and then upstairs were a few tables with things for sale.  TCM had one as well, where they were giving away the Noir Alley - Batman comic they had partnered with DC to make with Eddie Muller as a character who teams up to help Batman.

Now, I've got a copy signed by Eddie Muller.

Let's Share

So, it's been a while; let's catch up.

A few weeks before Christmas, I ended up with 2 broken spokes on my rear wheel.  I finally got off my btt and went to REI to get a replacement wheel.  They confirmed that the wheel was out of round.  Their assessment was the it had been damaged and fixed to look okay, but the damage was more than just adjusting tension on the spokes could fix.  I ended up getting a medium tune-up with a new rear wheel, installation of my new Tannus tire, and new brake pads.

Now that everything was running smoothly, I found a well reviewed rack, and got matching panniers.  Now, I'm no longer dealing with a backpack or Chrome bag.  It transfers the weight to the bike and takes it off my back.  It also keeps the back of my shirt from smelling worse than my shoes when I worked at KFC in high school.  The bags even have water resistant covers that store on their underside.

The holidays were filled with a major reorganization project where we cleaned our every OSH in the Bay Area out of 64-liter Really Useful Boxes.  We hit OSH over Office Max because they were on sale.  Now all of my comics are in these amazing boxes and stacked safely.  And storage is just amazing to maneuver in.

For Christmas Eve, we went to see the Brian Setzer Orchestra.  The show was incredible, and we just had a wonderful time.  He did a great mix of his Christmas arrangements, BSO songs, and a couple old Stray Cats' songs.

For New Year's Eve, we saw Paula Poundstone.  She was a bunch of fun.  We decided not to linger after the show, and got out of the City and back home in time to watch the fireworks from the comfort of our bed.

So, then January has been a busy time of getting back to work, and still doing things.

All Right, Let's Play

So once again this year, I'm taking up the Little Drummer Boy Challenge.

Now, I'm terrible at this game during pre-season (prior to the day after Thanksgiving).  I heard it twice on Thanksgiving.

I've only made it into the Bonus Round (Christmas Eve through New Year's Eve at Midnight) once.

And the difficulty of this challenge is that it covers every version of the song.

Every version.

However, as I side-quest, I like this one called Whamageddon.  It however, only applies to the Wham version, and not any covers.

As of this writing, I'm still in on both.

Blind Man with a Stick! My Only Weakness!

This is a fun little video.  Great LEGO animation, and really fun to watch.



Stick around for a bit more after the the credits.

Kickstarter: Littlest Lovecraft

So with this post and the previous one, you might think that I'm addicted to Kickstarter.  the truth is that yesterday was a big day for one of the Kickstarter teams that I've been following and supporting since their start.

Tro Rex and Eyo Bella (no idea if that's their real names or not), have been creating a series called Littlest Lovecraft which puts a cool spin on H.P. Lovecraft's stories by formatting them like a children's story.

I got the first one, Call of Cthulhu of course, and have been hooked ever since.  One of the things that keep my interest are the gifts of gratitude.  Their stretch goals are always fun, and the thank you postcard they send out about halfway between the end of the campaign and shipping is just too cool.  They're really the best communicators of any team I've backed.

Yesterday, they started their fifth and final Kickstarter for Littlest Lovecraft with the Dreamlands Collection.

My hope and goal is that they make their $27,500 stretch goal, because I would love to have the slipcase for all five books.

Go check them out.  All of the books are available if you're interested for just $105.

Kickstarter: Snapdice

So I like Kickstarter.

John Kovalic summed it up pretty well in a Dork Tower a few years ago:



Every now and then I search the site with the keyword "dice".  Yesterday, I found this project: Snapdice.

It looks so cool to use, plus I got the option of an additional die to have my GURPS trio, as well as the polyhedral set option as well.  The 4-sider is a cool new take on the obnoxious shape.

Do Not Buy From UNBEATABLESALE

The title of this post could also be called "How I Was Offered a Bribe to Withdraw My Review"

So, I recently had an shitty experience with a seller called Unbeatablesale, Inc. on Amazon.

I had been looking for an affordable 4-Bay, hard drive docking station.  I found one for a pretty good price, and placed my order.  My delivery arrived pretty promptly, but when I opened it, I found I had received the wrong product: a SATA to IDE adapter.

Now, I like Amazon, especially for this sort of thing.  So through the order section, I contacted the company letting them know of the mistake carefully listing the product order and the product received.

I soon received and email which asked me what I had received instead of the adapter.  I corrected them in the email and received another email asking the same question.  I corrected them a third time and then received an email asking the same question, but directed to a woman named Monica.  I pointed out there error once again.  And heard nothing for two days.

Then I wrote them an email asking what the progress was asking for the item or failing that a refund with a request for how to return the item I had wrongly received.  I was told someone would contact me shortly.  The next morning, I sent a similar email and was told the same thing.

So, I was frustrated.  I went through the old emails and found a phone number.  I called, gave them my reference number, and was told they needed to check their notes.  I said, you men the notes where I am ignored.  He said, I have an email here of us responding.  I asked him to read all of the notes and see how confused they were and how slow they had been to respond.

He started by saying that perhaps it had been listed incorrectly.  He checked the numbers, and said, no apparently i's correct.  He told me that he would have to call his warehouse, and that I would be contacted in 1 to 2 days.

This morning I received this email:

Please be advised this item was listed incorrectly. We will remove this listing from our site and process a refund for your item. We apologize that we are unable to provide you the item you expected to receive. Please expect a follow up email regarding your refund.

Now, I had chosen this product because it was USB 2.0, I didn't need extremely fast speeds.  This was just for using hard drives from our old laptops.  They had it listed for about $40.  Looking elsewhere online today it is listed for about $120.  The USB 3.0 is around $160.

Now, because I was frustrated and angry, I wrote a review of the company (not the item).  I have to say that I hate being limited to 300 words as it limits my language.  But anyway, here it is.  You can click on it to expand it.

Not long after posting the review, I received this email:

I am very sorry for this inconvenience.
I have received approval to issue an additional refund off of your order.  This will be issued after receiving your confirmation.  Please see the below instructions and confirm to proceed when complete.
Thank you and please accept my sincere apologies.

All followed by instructions on how to delete my review of them.

Now, I'm not one to let free money go away, but I'm not going to sell out my principals either.

So I'm writing this post, posting it everywhere, and then I'll delete my review.

Classic Binge

So, a few weeks ago, Stephen Furst passed away.

We immediately brought out our Babylon 5 DVDs, and made a little shrine with my Earth Alliance and Psi Corps pins.  This weekend we started watching the series again.

Watching it always makes me think of this strip:

Weekend Activity

So, this weekend Jennifer and I attacked our "office".  It's mainly her craft room, but I do stuff in there as well.

I spent some time and reorganized the acrylic paint drawer putting them in ROYGBIV-ish order.  Now we have a drawer of regular colors, and a half-drawer of glitter- and metallic-colors.  We also used boxes to organize the other kinds of paint.

And then I whittled away at my immortality by painting some miniatures.  I only finished one, but several are further along in process.

---

So, this is Korved Pahmilor.  He's human with skill as an archer and saber fencing.  He's also good at tracking and some other survival-type skills.  He prefers to wear shades of blue and black, and although he is not a member of this world's version of Asian, he has straight, deep black hair.  He is also what is known in GURPS as a Weirdness Magnet.

He's a character created as a tangent to a previous campaign.  For that group, I created what came to be called Fountain Court in the city of Paean Umbara, casually called the City of Shadows.  The court has a couple boarding houses, a whorehouse, a seer, a blacksmith, a plant shop, and a gambling house/inn.  All this surrounding a working fountain.

The plant shop is run by my wood Elf from the other campaign.

Korved's parents run the gambling house/inn.  He had to move out soon after his magnetism started affecting probabilities around him.  So he became a mercenary.  That's what brought him into the present campaign.

And Now, Some Sad News...

I had a bit of an accident last week.  My phone mount for my bike snapped off when I was going home.  I hit the transition from the parking lot to the street and it just snapped.

And what's worse, as I was realizing what happened, I wasn't able to stop in time and rode right over the phone and mount.

I walked my bike back dreading to see what had happened to the screen.

Below is what I saw.

However, it turned out that I got lucky.  The arms of the mount ended up taking most of the weight of my bike and me.  And the case mostly got damaged from the fall and tumble.  The only damage to the phone is a small dent on the mute button and the dent on the back.

I chatted with Apple and they recommended taking it in to a store to have it checked out.  The diagnostic was free, so not a bad idea.  I went in and everything checked out okay, so it's all cosmetic.

And it's not even visible when you have a case on it.  I'm planning on switching to a Google Pixel and Project Fi soon, so I got a case that only has to last 3 months.  And the one I got is so cool.  It's denim.

Let's Talk Revolights

So for Christmas I was given Revolights.  I picked them up in March because they were still in production, and now I'm enjoying them on a daily basis.

last week I started having an issue with my front light.  When I hit a bump it would light up all around, and would really freak out on a bumpy or alligatored road.  I contacted them, and they said come in and let us check it out.

That's the advantage of being less than a mile from their headquarters.

I went in, described my problem, showed how the lights would go off and on when I pushed the button.  They looked at the battery out and compared it to another one in stock, and said that the pins were short and loose.  And right there gave me a new battery.  And everything is working great.

So, I've forgotten to upload a video of them, so here we go:

Pet Peeve

So, here's my first world problem: clothing tags.

T-shirts
Underwear
Pants (specifically Levi's)
Shirts

They are made from some of the most uncomfortable material around.  Or at least parts of them.  The ones that seem to have been cut with a hot blade to melt and seal the edges are some of the worst.

I cut them out every chance I get, but sometimes, I forget.

What has made things worse are that companies are selling worldwide and so the tags are multi-lingual.  And because that would require a single tag to be over a foot long, they make multiple tags.

I thought Levi's were the worst offender with tags, but today I wore a Calvin Klein shirt.  I'm sitting at work, and I become aware of something poking me on my left side.  I felt on the outside and noticed the collection of tags that I hadn't removed.

I mean, seriously, look at this book.

So, I cut them out.  Six tags total.  

One says in many languages where it was made.  One is washing instructions.  One is who it was made by, and the smallest is the contractor identification.  One is like a model number and has a spare button.

But the worst part?  Check the one in the top, middle.  That one is blank.

BLANK!